BACKSLIDING TO HELL by Mike Peralta (best books to read in your 20s txt) 📕

It is wise counsel for anyone, who is currently living in a sinful lifestyle, to fear God intensely now - before risking one more day - and let that fear of God guide you to utterly reject sin totally from your life. In fact, pray earnestly for God to impart the fear of God into your heart so that you can turn away from sin and into the Father’s loving hands. There is no one who loves you more than God the Father - your loving Creator. The sacrifice of His One and Only begotten Son proves how much He loves you. He never intended for Hell to be your fate. But God is also perfectly just and perfectly holy and He cannot allow any unrepentant, sinful, unclean person into His Kingdom - even those who previously repented but then went back to a life of sin. 

Let us now read 2 Peter 2:20-21 with a true intent to believe and with the fear of God in our heart:

2 Peter 2:20-21 “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.” NIV.

Here the Apostle Peter is talking about those who at one time repented, “escaped the corruption of the world”, and came to “know our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” However, later these same people were again “entangled” in “the corruption of the world” by sinning and disobeying Jesus. Notice that at one time they had “known the way of righteousness”, verse 21, just like everyone who has given their lives to Jesus. But now they were back into doing the corrupt things of the world - sinning and disregarding the commandments of the Lord.

And what was the sacred command? The sacred command was truly receiving and remaining in Jesus as Lord of their lives - by obeying Jesus and always staying away from sin in their lives. At one time, they truly repented, renounced and rejected all pursuit of sin and committed to follow and obey Jesus. But now they willfully chose to go back to pursuing sin. They, of course, remember the previous commitment that they had made to Jesus. But now, in order to pursue the pleasures of sin, they broke the covenant of obedience that they previously had with Jesus. Because of this 2 Peter 2:20 states that they are now “worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.”

Again, I wish there was some softer way to submit the words on these pages to you, but the danger you are in and the seriousness of this matter requires that I be as direct and truthful as I can be. Please believe God and His Word.

At the beginning, before you knew Jesus as Lord, you were on the path to Hell - as are all lost and non-believing sinners. But now, . now, according to 2 Peter 2:20-21, you are even worse off than you were as a lost sinner before you knew Christ. After having known Christ, the guilt of your sinful life is now much worse than before knowing Christ. For now you know the penalty that a sinful life deserves but because of your love of your sin you are back to pursuing sin instead of pursuing Jesus Christ. In other words Jesus is not Lord of your life anymore. Jesus even warned us in Matthew 7:21 that, “Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven.”

Some of you readers are thinking. “But my sin is not that bad. God will not send me to Hell.” The question you need to ask yourself is: “Am I entangled again in deliberately sinning?” Please answer the question honestly. Call a spade a spade. Kidding yourself is not going to change the facts. In fact, kidding yourself is deadly.

If you find yourself resisting even answering this question, shouldn’t that be a sign to you that you are trying to avoid being honest with yourself and with God? If this is your case, I would be extremely fearful of what God’s judgment is going to be at the minute of my death. Many say that we should avoid fear. This is correct when the fear is with respect to anything or anyone other than God, but the Word of God actually commands that we fear God. “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come.”,Revelations 14:7a. For “the fear of the Lord makes men turn from evil.” Proverbs 16:6, and “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and they who live by it grow in understanding.” Psalm 111:10.

So with the fear of the Lord in your heart please answer this question honestly and humbly: Are you entangled again in deliberate sinning?

If the answer is yes, then 2 Peter 2:20-21 and Hebrews 10:26-31 applies to you. Again not to the atheist, not to the lost sinner who has never known Christ, but to you - you who “once have known the way of righteousness” in Christ. Don’t you know how deadly and deceptive sin is? It destroys your sight on how ugly and wicked your sin really is. That is why it is absolutely essential that you believe God’s Word about your condition.

The Lord does not give you idle words in Hebrews 10:26-31 and 2 Peter 2:20-21, He KNOWS and tells you precisely your condition and where it is leading you. God desires - even yearns to forgive and cleanse you, and cover you again with the precious Blood of Jesus. But if you persist in your unrepentant state, He cannot. He has given His Word and Holy Standard in Hebrews 10:26-31 and 2 Peter 2:20-21 as well as many other Scriptures.

It is like a sickness where you might feel ok, no major problems felt, but you go to the doctor and he tells you, you have the beginning of cancer and you need treatment immediately. Because you feel ok, you may choose not to believe the doctor and so you tell Him or yourself. No, I’m ok. I feel fine. Yes, you may feel fine now, but unless you get treatment, in 10 months you will be very dead! The doctor KNOWS what he is talking about. If you want to live you will trust the doctor’s Word and you will get treatment immediately! This is exactly the urgency that you need to have with the Word of God about your sinful condition. In fact you should have a much greater urgency, since we are talking about your eternal life and not about physical life.

What is stated in 2 Peter 2:20-21 is the same as what is stated in Ezekiel 33:12-13 - where it states that prior righteousness, when you truly followed Jesus and obeyed Him, will not be remembered if you go back to doing evil and sinful actions. Listen to and believe what the Lord promises in Ezekiel 33:12-13.

“The righteousness of the righteous man will not save him when he disobeys, and the wickedness of the wicked man will not cause him to fall when he turns from it. The righteous man, if he sins, will not be allowed to live because of his former righteousness.' If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; HE WILL DIE FOR THE EVIL HE HAS DONE.” Ezekiel 33:12-13.

Doing the will of the Father is living a holy, godly life by obeying Him. Even though by your words you may be professing Jesus as Lord, the disobedient sinful actions of your life, and heart, that you are persisting in, are denying that Lordship. You may be able to fool fallible man or even deceive yourself, but there is no fooling God. He knows very well the true motives and intentions of your heart. God has given you every ability to obey Him. Every commandment that God gives you He also gives you the power to fulfill. And He will supply all the power you need to overcome - if you really truly desire to put away sin and follow Him.

But if you still insist on disobeying Him, by continuing in your sin - you do have that freedom of will - but your choice of living a disobedient sinful life carries an eternal price. And according to 2 Peter 2:20-21 that price is a greater suffering in Hell, “they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning”. There are degrees of torment in Hell - and it is in direct proportion to the light you have. And obviously those who remained in a lost state never having known Jesus had far less light than those who did receive Jesus as their Lord, but who later went back to a sinful lifestyle. That is why Peter was inspired to say what he did in 2 Peter 2:20-21.

I know some of you may feel that I am judging you, but this is really a heartfelt warning. Because I love you. I cannot bear to see anyone go to Hell. I urge you sincerely and with much tears, please believe God’s Word as written. Repent from pursuing sin. Pay any price to get out of your sin.

If you are living in sin with another person, or causing them to sin with you, you must realize that you are contributing to their sin and to their damnation also. So not only are you damning yourself, you are also dragging someone else to Hell with you. And please notice that if you continue in deliberate sinning Hebrews 10:26-31, 2 Peter 2:20-21, and Luke 12:45-46 are all promising Hell. Again, this is not something I made up. It is God’s precious and truthful Word. Even though the other person may not understand it, the most loving thing you can do for that other person, that you are living in sin with, is to separate completely from them and hence stop causing them to participate in the sin with you. It is painful and not comfortable - but eternity in Hell, for both of you, is much more painful and is eternal. There is not even any comparison.

True repentance is not merely a sentimental feeling or merely a confession of your sin without any change of action. To repent means to completely turn around from pursuing sin toward now pursuing full and complete obedience to Jesus. Repentance is an act of the will. Don’t wait until you feel like repenting because chances are you won’t feel like repenting until you are in the torments of Hell. Repentance is an act of the will and is a solemn, deliberate decision to obey Jesus completely no matter what the cost - and it is followed up with real actions. Not just words but actions!, Recall what Jesus said in Matthew 21:28-32 about the son who said he would obey but didn’t, or what John the Baptist said: “produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Luke 3:8.

There is absolutely no way that you can both serve Jesus and sin. If you deliberately keep on sinning your lord, the one you follow and belong to, is satan and not Jesus. The devil’s servants