Keswick Currency of “Unbelief,”“Lukewarm,” “Backsliding,” and “Carnal,” Describe False Professing “Christians,” Not True Born Again Believers

March 9, 2025

Updated March 10, 2025

People that misuse these terms and underlying Scriptural passages to describe Christian’s that aren’t living up to their alleged vocation, are in deep trouble. They are using labels and titles that are reserved by God for a specific person and that person is unsaved albeit professing to be Christian. This is not some "gray" area, difficult to discern or understand. The Bible is very clear on the matter. The use of Bible language reserved solely for the lost, towards people that are allegedly saved, most often reveals very serious salvation and sanctification issues, almost without exception. Corrupted sanctification typically stems from a corrupted soteriology.

Out of convenience for a system that corrupts salvation and sanctification, labels are applied and used towards professing believers that are in fact Scripturally describing unsaved people falsely pretending to belong to God. The four most common are “backslidden,” lukewarm,” “carnal,” and “unbelief.” The Bible describes all four as lost, yet they are extremely frequently utilized to describe supposed Christians just not living right, just not "spiritual" enough. This is so very common today, flooded throughout sermons and literature, among “evangelicals” and reformed Calvinists and Baptists alike, very, very few even bat an eye when they hear the terminology, taking it in as good Christian fodder. It is however not derived from the exegesis of Scripture but from twisting and misusing Gods Word to support a system of theology.

Why call these things “Keswick currency”? There is a system of sanctification that pursues after supposed missing elements in the Christian life. It goes by various names, such as "Higher Life," "Deeper Life," "Crucified Life," "Victorious Life," but most commonly it is known as "Second Blessing Theology" or "Keswick Theology," since the movement started in Keswick, England during the mid 19th century. We write about this heretical theology here: A Warning on Keswick Theology and Why It‘s So Dangerous, in a Nutshell. This system advances the theory that there is a key or practical steps to living a victorious Christian life, since most Christians apparently don't live a spiritual Christian life. Instead, these people are living carnally, or Laodicean-like at best, referred to as backslidden Christians and often in unbelief. These people pursue after some key to being an overcoming, spiritual Christian, becoming a true disciple of Christ. This is second blessing or Keswick theology. Of course the movement and theological system is heretical, completely contrary to Scripture. Every true born again Christian lives a victorious Christian life from the very moment of their new birth, and none are missing anything in their life. Many places in the NT teach that, including 1 Jn 2:13-14; 5:1-5; 2 Pet 1:3-4, etc. Jesus Christ our Lord gives all things that pertain unto life and godliness to the repentant sinner at the very moment of the new birth (2 Pet 1:3-4). Whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world. It’s an absolute guarantee, for it characterizes the true Christian. Rom 8:28-30 promises it. Everyone God justifies He has predestined to conform to the image of His Son. This is the message of Jesus at the end of every one of His messages to the seven churches in Rev 2 and 3. People who are saved have the victory because the victory is obtained and secured through the new birth, even as Scripture tells us so clearly (e.g. 1 Jn 2:13-14; 5:1-5; Rom 6:1-23; etc).

There’s ONLY two categories in the Bible, not three, and all people fit into one of the two. “Carnal,” “backslider,” “lukewarm,” “unbelief” are put into a third category that doesn’t exist. These are just lost people. That’s it. There are no in-betweeners in the Bible, no have-nots, and these terms represent have-nots. There isn't carnal and spiritual, unless you are referring to carnal as lost. Consider some examples amongst many of the two-only categories, further detailed in this article. You are either saved or lost, believer or unbeliever, saint or sinner, righteous or unrighteous, dead to sin or dead in sin, free or in bondage, born of the Spirit or born of the flesh, under grace or under law, just or unjust, on the narrow path or on broad path, in path of life or path of death, spiritual or natural, seeing or blind, wise or fool, blessed or cursed, uncondemned or condemned, in light or in darkness, fruitful or unfruitful, obedient or disobedient, serving God or serving self/mammon, wheat or tare, good tree or corrupt tree, abiding in Christ/God's Word or not abiding in Christ/God's Word, life built on rock or life built on sand, etc.

The Bible is loaded with this continual contrast between saved and unsaved, what we were before salvation and what we are after, our nature as a lost and sin-cursed sinner in contrast to the godly and holy saint that the Thrice Holy God cleanses, purifies, washes, and makes new. There are only two categories. Nothing about the doctrine of salvation or its fruit and evidence lends any support to “backsliders” or “lukewarm” or “carnal Christians” or “unbelief” as being saved.

The problem today is that there are many, many unconverted people in churches, because they have heard a false gospel that either did not present scriptural faith or a biblical Jesus, like the kind being pushed by Independent Baptists such as Michael Sullivant and Pembina Valley Baptist Church, Sword of the Lord IFB gurus such as Jack Hyles, Steven Anderson, Neo-Evangelical Denominations such as EBMC and EMC, and many, many more, some of which we expose here at 20/20. They can’t achieve and live a true and non-hypocritical victorious life because they are not born of God. That person has no victory because he actually does not have the love of God in his heart, even though he or she might vehemently protest otherwise. This is a test of faith.

Though every single neo-evangelical is guilty of this, especially the influential big eva heretics and false teachers who dominate the bookstores and air waves, another name comes to mind that should know better and that is David Cloud of Way of Life Ministries, who is guilty quite regularly of this. Numerous articles and his one year discipleship course, specifically the four parts on Christian Growth and Victory, contain a fair amount of this Keswick currency. The error of this unscriptural theology, not only by fact of misusing Bible language and twisting scripture, is the creation of two-tiered Christianity that gives a false assurance to multitudes of false professing Christians, essentially making many two-fold children of hell. With that said, David Cloud is leaps and bounds above practically any single neo-evangelical by a million miles because he is actually a true born again believer and bold witness and defender of God's truth. He is however wrong on this matter, which in large part has entered his theology through the writings of men, especially commentaries.

“Carnal Christian,” “backsliding,” “lukewarm” and “unbelief,” are Keswick/higher life/revivalism currency to describe people that are actually unsaved and feigning faith, yet treated as saved. They are a convenient label given to people that profess to be Christian but live after their flesh and the world or after error, qualifying them as “members” of a church and as “brothers” when they’re actually unsaved. To call this elusive category as saved is a dangerous lie invented by false teachers, and is eternally destructive to these deceived souls who should be shown from scripture their lost condition. Furthermore, it gives credence to unogodliness, unholiness, unrighteousness, false doctrine, and misuse of Scripture.

We can thank the free grace movement for this dangerous heresy, with their Keswick theology and revivalism heresy and fraudulent faith. The free grace side is heretical, producing false professing “believers” the world over with their anemic, and perverted gospel.

Here is a brief look at these four misused words, which stem from false doctrine and produce even further false doctrine.

“Lukewarm Christian”

The term “lukewarm” is given a lot of attention considering its lack of mention in the Bible, only once (though of course everything has importance in Scripture, in its proper balance) in Rev 3, describing the pastor and majority of the Laodicean church as ones professing Christ but very plainly lost. Not possibly unsaved, but very, very clearly unsaved. Here is the text and the context:

"And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; [15) I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. [16] So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. [17] Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: [18] I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." (Rev 3:14-18)

Lukewarm is very obviously lost. Verses 17 and 18 are full of adjectives describing the "lukewarm" professing "believer." Is "I will spue thee out of my mouth" chastening language? God does NOT vomit His children out of His mouth (Rev 3:16) but chastises them in love (Rev 3:19; Heb 12:7-11; Pr 3:11-12), for they are eternally inseparable from His love (Rom. 5:5; 8:31-39). The very context even tell us this, in v. 19 the Lord declares: “as many as I love, I chasten,” which is a contrast to those described in vv. 14-18, referring to those that are actually converted among the unregenerate apostates. He does however spew out the false "lukewarm" believer and false teacher because they are pretending to be "hot" while actually "cold," an admixture that creates a lukewarm and very dangerous unregernate estate. This is what we see in > 95% of “evangelical,” Protestant and Baptist Christianity today. The text of Rev 3:14-18 clearly tells us lost is the estate of its beholder, and spiritually blind and deceived at that. Lets break it down:

1. Those that are "blind" (v. 17) are always unsaved in Scripture (v. 18; cf. Matt 13:15; Eph 4:18; Ac 26:18; 2 Cor 4:3-4; 1 Th. 5:4-10). "But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not..." (2 Cor 4:3-4a). The preaching of the gospel is the means "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light..." (Ac 26:18a). The ones that are unregenerate in the parable of the sower and the seed (Matt 13), namely the wayward, stony and thorny soils, are described in Matt 13:15 as people with ears that are closed, hearts unconverted, and eyes closed: "For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."

2. Those that are "naked" (v. 17) are always unsaved (v 18; cf. Rev 3:4; 4:4; 6:11; 7:9, 13-14; 16:15; 19:14) because they are not clothed with the white raiment of salvation. Only two churches prior, the Church in Sardis, Christ stated: "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels." (Rev 3:4). The overcomer is the sinner thats been saved, for overcoming occurs at salvation: 1 Jn 2:13-14; 5:3-4, and therefore, the white raiment clothing that God dresses the saint with occurs at the very moment of conversion. The Laodicean pastor and most of that church, were "naked" (v. 17) and in need of "white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed," (v. 18). They were unsaved, not "lukewarm Christians."

3. Those that think they are "rich" in this world (v. 18) are in fact lost (v. 19), their affections completely reversed, having never received the greatest gift that this life has to offer—eternal salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, having never bought the greatest invaluable gift of salvation, not with money or gold but with their very lives by repenting and denying themselves and losing their lives for Christ and the gospel sake (read Is 55:1-7; Pr 23:23; Matt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:34-36; Lk 9:23-25; 17:33; Jn 12:25). The call to come and buy is very clear.

"Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding." (Pr 23:23)

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. . . . [3] Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. . . . [6] Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: [7] Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” (Is 55:1, 3, 6-7)

While Is 55:1-3 is the call to salvation, not only for the Jew but also extended to the Gentile (v. 5), vv. 6-7 tells us how that salvation can be obtained. This is distinctly what Jn 6:35, 47-58 and other passages such as Jn 12:24-25; Mk 8:34-38; Matt 16:24-26; Lk 9:23-26, 57-62, speak of. How can ye drink and eat, and buy without money or price? By denying self, seeking and calling upon the Lord while he is near and to be found, by striving after the narrow way (Lk 13:24). and then repenting, that is, losing or denying your life, forsaking all and turning from your wicked ways and thoughts and God will be merciful and abundantly pardon (Is 55:6-7).

This is exactly what Jesus was referring to when He said:

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich,” (Rev 3:18)

And then the rich results of that eternal transaction:

"Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding. For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her. Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her." (Pr 3:13-18)

These at Laodicea were of the mentality that they were "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;" but in reality weren't aware "that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:" (v. 17), for they had never repented and forsaken all, and bought the pearl of great price or the field of hidden treasure (Matt 13). The rich young ruler is another example (Matt 19; Mk 10; Lk 18).

The things listed in vv. 17 and 18 are all received at salvation: eyes that see, white raiment of righteousness, and riches of Christ including eternal life, all of which the lukewarm pastor and majority of his church didn’t have. These weren’t “Christians” living in some kind of carnal state of disobedience (all saved people live in habitual obedience, loving the Lord by keeping His words: Jn 14:23-24; 1 Jn 2:3-5), but lost people who had never been saved, while feigning faith and Christianity, having embraced a fire insurance policy that doesn't save.

Those at Laodicea were unsaved. The church is an apostate church. Lukewarm always refers to actual unsaved people professing to be "Christian," not true born again believers who are not living up to the Biblical standard that they profess. The “lukewarm Christian” is another type or description of “carnal Christian” that is part of the Keswick, second blessing theology. Lukewarm does not refer to a saved person, but someone who is more than likely never to be saved. God spews him out of His mouth. That is language of unregeneracy, something that is toxic to God and at enmity with Him and must be vomited out.

“Backsliding Christian”

Some preachers use this term like a broken record, consistently applying human experience to the Word of God, while overthrowing clear biblical teaching to fit the profile. Though some may do it ignorantly, most do not, guilty of wilfully twisting and wresting the scripture to their own destruction (2 Pet 3:16-17).

The term itself is never even found in the NT, only in the OT. Essentially all 16 occasions the word or its derivates show up in the OT refer to unsaved people and almost entirely to Israel as a lost nation: Pr 14:14; Jer 2:19; 3:6, 8, 11-12, 14, 20-22; 5:6; 8:5; 14:7; 31:22; 49:4; Hos 4:16; 11:7; 14:1-4.

The very definition of “backsliding” itself tells us how far off the mark they are that misuse this term towards true born again believers: backsliding means to apostatize, “An apostate; one who falls from the faith and practice of religion" (Webster’s 1828), and we know absolutely no apostate is saved (e.g. 2 Pet 2:17-22; Heb 3:7-4:11; 10:38-39). Never is backsliding used to describe a true believer in Scripture. Jer 7:23-24; 15:6 and Heb 10:38-39 specifically tell us those who go backwards are unsaved. They go backwards from the knowledge and light they have obtained, even as 2 Pet 2:20-22 warns, it would've been better if they had never received the knowledge concerning the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, then to turn from it and from the grace they are already received and meant to lead them to salvation (Ti 2:11), and to fall away (this is where falling away occurs, not from a truly saved position) and turn back to their vomit and mire like the dog and pig.

Fur further reasoning, read our informative article: Saved People Don't Backslide - They Are Not Apostates.

“Carnal Christian”

There is no such thing as a “carnal Christian” in Scripture. It is pure make belief. It's also a contradiction of terms. “Carnal Christian” is no more accurate than putting the words "Christian" and "Rock" music together.

The word "carnal" actually means of the flesh, unsaved, unregenerate. This is its very definition. When we look at the usage of the Greek word, “sarkikos,” we find a description of a fleshly depraved person like the Gentiles, governed by mere human nature and not by the Spirit of God.

From whence does the terminology derive? Out of the misuse of 1 Cor 3:1-4, quoted with context:

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. [15] But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. . . . And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. [2] I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. [3] For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? [4] For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? [5] Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? [6] I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. [7] So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." (1 Cor 2:14-15, 3:1-7)

"Carnal" is the condition of the natural man. Like the rest of Scripture, Paul divides everyone into two categories, not three: natural or carnal (1 Cor 2:12a, 14; 3:1-3) and then spiritual (1 Cor 3:9-13, 15-16). Ignoring chapter and verse divisions, the context is extremely clear that the natural or carnal person is the exact same person: one that is lost (2 Pet 2:12; Ju 1:10), and this is who Paul contrasts the sinning Corinthians to in 1 Cor 3:1-3 (“as unto carnal . . . are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”) Paul likens the Corinthians to carnal people, questioning whether they were actually lost (carnal), walking as lost Gentiles. He had just divided them into two peoples: spiritual (saved) and natural (lost) (1 Cor 2:9-16). They were professing spiritual but behaving as natural. And many of them were unsaved, alluded to throughout the two epistles.

The context of 1 Cor 3 presents only two categories of people: the natural man and the spiritual man (1 Cor 2:14-16). The natural man of 1 Cor 2 and the carnal man of 1 Cor 3 are the same person. The natural man in 1 Cor 2:14 is “psuxikos,” a person controlled by himself, by his own soul (the “ikos” ending says "controlled by" or "pertaining to" or "characterized by"). The natural man is in control of his own life and destiny. The spiritual man, 1 Cor 2:15, is “pneumatikos,” so the Spirit controls him. These are the unsaved person and the saved person respectively. The contrast is also made in Eph 2:1-5, the carnal, i.e. fleshly, obviously lost (vv. 1-3) and the saved. In 1 Cor 3, Paul says he could not speak to them "as" unto spiritual, actually referring back to the spiritual man of chapter 2, only plural now, spiritual men. He's saying he couldn't talk to them like they were saved people, that is, people who could understand spiritual things. "But" (“alla,” strong contrast, on the contrary) "as" carnal (“sarkikoi” people controlled by the flesh, the unregenerate). Paul couldn't talk to them like they were saved (“spiritual”), but rather as ones unsaved (“carnal”). Paul is talking to people that profess to be Christian, so he says, "as." If he was actually talking to the so-called carnal Christian, he would’ve just said, 'speaking to carnal,' not “as.” This entire section, like many other areas in the NT, highlights the truth that among true Christians are very often false professing Christians, and the way Scripture reads, the problem only intensifies as the years go on, especially as we enter the nigh completion of apostasy.

There was lost people in that church (1 Cor 5; 2 Cor 12:20-21; 13:5) but some involved in sin repented (2 Cor 2:5-11; 7:9-11) while others did not (2 Cor 12:20-21). The carnal are lost professors made very clear by Rom 8:1-9, a crystal clear contrast of lost and saved. In those passages we find that the lost walk/live after the flesh, are carnally minded, at enmity against God, under law of sin and death, cannot please God and without the indwelling Holy Spirit. The saved on the other hand characteristically walk after the Spirit, are spiritually minded and thus mind the things of the Spirit, are eternally freed from the law of sin and death by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, fulfill the righteousness of the law, are in the way of life and peace, and have the indwelling Spirit. Neither Rom 8:1-9 or 1 Cor 3:1-3 are contrasting two types of Christians, but rather the only two types of people: saved and unsaved.

Read here for more about The Class of Christian known as “Carnal Christian" and the Misinterpretation of 1 Cor 3:1-3 to Produce the Erroneous Teaching of "Carnal Christianity."

“Unbelief Christian”

There is another very common teaching especially in the camp where Keswick theology is adored and promoted — the teaching of "unbelief," something that saved people can allegedly struggle with.

No saved person in Scripture is said to be in unbelief. Unbelief is always an inference to lost people. This is simple common sense prevailing: unbelief = unbeliever. The two words mean the exact same thing. They are synonymous. Unbelief comes from an evil heart (Heb 3:12), which is not a saved heart. It is not a sin that saved people can even commit or live in, for the just live by faith (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:16-17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38) and by the faith of Jesus, lest ones faith could be lost, which it can’t (losing salvation is a damnable heresy). Seven times in Heb 3:7-4:11 we read of the children of Israel in unbelief during their wilderness sojourn (and actually for all their history), that they were unbelievers, which is confirmed by plenty of evidence throughout the Bible (e.g. Ps 78; 106; 2 Cor 3:13-16; Ju 1:5).

All the words in the underlying Greek, the adjective "apeitheis,” the nouns "apeitheia" and “apistia,” and the verb "apeitheo,” translated as unbelief in the KJV (also translated as disobedience) refer to the unregenerate, the lost. No NT text states or implies that believers are in unbelief. The same applies to the OT. The Old Covenant was not one of works but of faith. Salvation has never changed. Abraham is the father of our faith, and if we believe like Abraham, we can also be justified (saved) like him (Gen 15:1-6; Rom 4:1-8, 18-25). Nowhere is the demand of faith treated as a novelty of the new covenant, or is a distinction drawn between the faith of the two covenants; everywhere the sense of continuity is prominent (e.g. Jn 5:24, 46; 12:38, 39, 44; 1 Pet 2:6), and the “hearing of faith” (Gal 3:2, 5; Rom 10:16-21) is conceived as essentially one in both dispensations, under both of which the law reigns that “the just shall live by his faith” (Hab 2:4; Rom 1:17; Ga 3:11; Heb 10:38). Heb 11 speaks of this and Heb 11:6 speaks of the faith required, whether OT or NT, to be saved. Those that come to God and believe that He is, and a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him are rewarded with salvation and eternal life, which is what Heb 11:6 is teaching. All the saved live by faith (Heb 11), which is demonstrated by obedience to God's Word, as love for Him is (Jn 14:15-23; 1 Jn 2:3-5; 2 Jn 1:5-6; etc), and no saved person does not.

Continuing reading here: "Unbelief" is Only a Characteristic of Unsaved People, Not the Saved."

Conclusion

Language like "lukewarm," "backslidden," "carnal," and "unbelief," and these types of terms have become the currency of keswick and second blessing. They explain “Christians” who almost without exception are not Christian. The Bible doesn’t explain these people as saved, but they are labeled so by this new theology. Those guilty of this clearly do not understand how to rightly divide the word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15).

These people under the new theology are continually striving after the victory, which is actually the new birth. What they are unwittingly looking for is the new birth, but the system of false soteriology has innoculated them to seeing their unconverted nature. On the other hand, through the new covenant, a true believer already has victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. He will experience that victory through obedience, by just doing right. Doing right will characterize his life, because that is the nature of the grace of God, that saved him (Ti 2:11) and conforms him to the image of Christ (Ti 2:12-14).

God’s purpose for man is that he love the Lord with all of his being and thus glorify Him. This is repeated 3x in the Mosaic Law and 3x by Christ. God must be first in man’s thinking and passion and deeds. Anything less is idolatry.

“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (De 6:5).

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment” (Mk 12:30).

In contrast to the those who are “Lukewarm,” “Backsliding,” “Carnal,” and in “Unbelief,” every true born again believer does love God (which they, again, demonstrate by obeying His Word, Jn 14:15-23; 1 Jn 2:3-5; 2 Jn 1:5-6) and has the love of God in their heart (cf. 1 Jn 2:15 and Jn 5:38-42), because God brings it to pass through the circumcision of the heart, and shedding of God's love in our hearts by the Holy Ghost:

"And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live." (De 30:6)

"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Rom 5:5)

There are only two categories of man in the Bible, NOT three, and those who do not meet God's test of faith and evidence of salvation, are simply unsaved, which we expose in the following report: Evidence of Salvation in John's Epistle’s. The issue isn't a lack of spirituality in Christians, but a lack of true salvation/the new birth. They haven't left their first love; they never had the first love to begin with.

Gods truth, His Word, is greater than His own name (Ps 138:2). The Bible is plain and perspicuous (Pr 8:8-9) to the saved (Pr 22:20-21), when scripture is interpreted by context, grammatically, historically, compared with scripture and rightly divided. That is what God wants, since He does not, and can not, and will not enlighten, teach or lead contrary to His truth. Interpreting scripture correctly is more important than anything you will ever do, because out of that comes belief, doctrine, and sound doctrine, or if not, then the opposite, false doctrine. Gods Spirit only teaches and leads in truth (1 Jn 2:20-21, 27) and He can only teach truth when scripture is rightly interpreted and taught.

The Holy Spirit never sits at the table of error regardless of good intentions. There is a very great danger in not interpreting scripture rightly, besides dishonouring to God. False doctrine, leaven, is created from even just a little misinterpretation (Gal 5:9). Its so strongly reproved in scripture, those who do it willfully are warned of being false teachers (2 Pet 1:16-21 and 3:16-17; 1 Tim 6:3-5; 2 Jn 1:9). To arrive at the false conclusion that “Carnal Christian,” “backsliding,” “lukewarm” and “unbelief,” apply to true Christians, much Scripture must be misused and abused. Pr 13:13 warns,

“Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.”