Introduction
Some Christians believe that to fall away means to lose your salvation. But is that correct?
As we will see there are many verses in the New Testament that use the words ‘fall away’. As we will also see, there are several Greek verbs in the New Testament that are sometimes translated as ‘fall away’. They are as follows:
Aphistemi
It means to depart, draw away, refrain or to withdraw oneself.
It is found in the flowing 14 verses:
Luke 2:37, Luke 4:13, Luke 8:13, Luke 13:27, Acts 5:37, Acts 5:38, Acts 12:10, Acts 15:38, Acts 19:9, Acts 22:29, 2 Cor 12:8, 1 Tim 4:1, 2 Tim 2:19, Heb 3:12.
Only three of these verses could possibly have something to do with salvation. They are:
Luke 8:13, 1 Tim 4:1 & Heb 3:12.
In these three verses aphistemi is usually translated as ‘fall away’.
Skandalizo
It means to entrap, stumble or offend.
It is found in the flowing 27 verses:
Matt 5:29, Matt 5:30, Matt 11:6, Matt 13:21, Matt 13:57, Matt 15:12, Matt 17:27, Matt 18:6, Matt 18:8, Matt 18:9, Matt 24:10, Matt 26:31, Matt 26:33, Mark 4:17, Mark 6:3, Mark 9:42, Mark 9:43, Mark 9:45, Mark 9:47, Mark 14:27, Mark 14:29, Luke 7:23, Luke 17:2, John 6:61, John 16:1, 1 Cor 8:13, 2 Cor 11:29.
Only three of these verses could possibly have something to do with salvation. They are:
Matt 13:21, Matt 24:10 & Mark 4:17.
In these three verses skandalizo is usually translated as ‘fall away’.
Ekpipto
It means to drop away, to fail, fall or be ineffective.
It is found in the flowing 10 verses:
Acts 12:7, Acts 27:17, Acts 27:26, Acts 27:29, Acts 27:32, Rom 9:6, Gal 5:4, James 1:11, 1 Peter 1:24, 2 Peter 3:17.
Only one of these verses could possibly have something to do with salvation. It is:
Gal 5:4.
Only the ESV translation of the bible translates ekpipto in this verse as ‘fall away’.
Parapipto
It means to fall aside, deviate or fall away.
It is only found once in the flowing verse:
Heb 6:6.
This verse could possibly have something to do with salvation.
Only the KJV translation of the bible translates parapipto as ‘fall away’.
The Eight Relevant Verses
Let’s take a closer look at the eight relevant verses.
Matthew 13:21
yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.
This verse is part of the text where Jesus explains the meaning of the parable of the sower.
This is a parable that is often misunderstand by Christians who fail to pay attention to verses 18 and 23. They mistakenly see the seed as the gospel of salvation but that’s not what the seed represents. In verse 19 Jesus tells us that the seed is the word of the kingdom (Luke calls it the word of God). In other words, the seed is the word of God which is the scriptures. Then in verse 23 Jesus talks about the word of God bearing fruit. In other words, the parable is about the scriptures making a difference in the lives those who hear it.
So, this parable is about the word of God in general and is not about the gospel of salvation. Therefore, verse 21 is not about someone losing their salvation; it is about someone hearing a scripture, such as a scripture about assurance, initially receiving it with joy, and then losing the fruits of that word when they go through a difficult experience.
Matthew 24:10
At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.
This verse is part of the Olivet Discourse in which Jesus prophecies about the end times leading up to His Second Coming. Jesus sets out a sequence of events that will lead up to and include to His Second Coming. This includes The Tribulation and The Great Tribulation. At some point in this sequence of events there will be a time when many will ‘fall away’.
But what does fall away mean on this occasion? The Greek word used in this verse is skandalizo. I think the King James version of the bible gets it right when it translates skandalizo as ‘be offended’. This verse is talking about bad behaviour and one of the bad behaviours is being offensive. So, on this occasion the falling away has got nothing to do with salvation.
Mark 4:17
and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.
Please see my notes about Matthew 13:21 above.
Luke 8:13
Those on rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.
Please see my notes about Matthew 13:21 above.
Galatians 5:4
You are severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
The above text is taken from the NASB translation which uses the word ‘fallen’ but some translations use ‘fallen away’. For this reason, we need to examine this verse to see if it is talking about salvation.
This verse is part of a passage where Paul is addressing a problem caused by a Judaizer who has infiltrated the Galatian church and falsely told them that faith is not enough and that the men must be circumcised as well. Paul tells the Galatians that, if they keep the law of circumcision, they must keep all of the Law.
Paul is warning the Galatians that losing their freedom and coming under the Law is bad for their relationship (fellowship) with Christ. He is warning them that trying to justify themselves by coming under the Law instead of being justified by Christ through faith alone, affects their fellowship with Christ. That’s what he means by being severed from Christ and falling from grace. The word ‘severed’ is not a good translation of the original Greek; it is too severe a word. Some translations use alienate or ineffective which is more accurate. And falling from grace simply means that they have lost the graces that Christ gives. So, this text is about fellowship with Christ and not salvation.
1 Timothy 4:1
But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of devils.
In verses 1 to 3 of chapter four we have a prophecy about the latter times and verse 1 is the beginning of it. Paul is talking about a period of time when some Christians will depart from the faith. In its context, it is clear that Paul is talking about Christians abandoning sound doctrine. This is not the same as losing your salvation. It is possible for someone to be a saved Christian and believe a heresy. There are many examples of this in the church today and it usually comes about through biblical ignorance.
Hebrews 3:12
Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God.
In chapter 3, the writer of Hebrews is writing to Jewish believers in the church about the mistake made by the Israelites in the desert after God freed them from slavery in Egypt. The Israelis hardened their hearts through unbelief and sin and in this chapter the writer is warning the Jewish believers in the church not to do the same and that’s what verse 12 is all about.
The Israelites paid a price for what they did: God would not allow them to enter the promised land. Now some people have incorrectly interpreted the promised land as a type of heaven and say that their sin caused them to lose their salvation. However, we know from scripture that the unsaved are said to be in bondage. So, if God had taken away their salvation, he would have sent them back to Egypt. What God actually did to the Israelites was simply to deny them the blessing of living in the promised land.
So, it its context, verse 12 is warning the Jewish believers, and in fact all believers, not to get into sin and lose faith in Jesus. It is not talking about saving faith. It is talking about faith in God’s promises, provision, protection, etc. This is something that we are all capable of doing when we suffer of face difficulties. The falling away in this case is about no longer trusting in God which can lead to us getting out of fellowship with Him or coming out of His blessings. Therefore, verse 12 is not about losing your salvation.
Hebrews 6:6
and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.
I dealt with Hebrews 6:4-6 in my teaching about the doctrine of Eternal Security. What I said then is applicable to this verse in its context. So, I have reproduced below what I said in my Eternal Security teaching:
When looking at a passage like this we must first consider the context and to do this we need to go back to Chapter 5, Verse 11. We see at the end of Chapter 5 that the writer is talking about a lack of maturity which has resulted from backtracking (falling away) from what they have been taught and practiced. This is carried on into Chapter 6 where the writer is making a plea for growth into maturity. In Verse 1 the writer tells us what has been going on with these Christians; they have gone back to practicing ‘dead works’.
Again, using the principle of context, when the writer talks about ‘repentance’ in Verse 6 he is still talking about the kind of repentance he mentioned earlier in Verse 1: ‘repentance from dead works’. So, the writer is urging these Christians to repent of their dead works. Their dead works were putting them out of fellowship with God.
In Verse 6 the writer says that these Christians have ‘fallen away’. What does fallen away mean? It is translated from the Greek verb ‘parapipto’ which means to turn aside or fall into error. It means to fall away from the true faith. So, on this occasion, the words ‘fallen away’ mean that these Christians have not stopped believing in Jesus. Instead, they have gone into error about a particular part of Christian belief or practice. As the writer tells us in Verse 1, they have turned back to dead works. Given that these are Jewish Christians, it is likely that they had turned back to the rituals of Judaism, including animal sacrifices, hence the reference to crucifying Jesus in Verse 6.
Therefore, this passage of scripture is not talking about salvation but about these Christians falling back into error and getting out of fellowship with God.
Apostasy
At this point you may be wondering why I have not mentioned apostasy. This is because the original Greek word for apostasy can be translated as falling away, and indeed some bibles do translate it as falling away. The original Greek word is ‘apostasia’ and is only used twice in the New Testament. Although it’s meaning can seem similar to the words that are more commonly translated as falling away, it is more technical than the others. Apostasia means to forsake, defect or fall away. More specifically, it is about defecting from the truth. It is about abandoning sound doctrine and this is a common problem in the church and will get worse in the last days. It is perfectly possible for a genuine saved Christian to believe in some form of false teaching or doctrine short of blasphemy.
Just like the other words that are often translated as falling away, apostasy has got nothing to do with salvation.
Conclusion
So, what have we learnt from examining the scriptures that use the words ‘fall away’? We have seen that, in the original Greek, there are five words that are sometimes translated as ‘fall away’ or something similar. Each of these words is slightly different in meaning. We have also seen that, of the four most common words, only some of the verses where they occur use the words ‘fall away’. This is because the words ‘fall away’ would not be appropriate in many of the verses.
I have examined the verses where these words occurred in passages which seemed to be about salvation. I identified eight such verses and I was able to show you that none of them were in fact about salvation. These eight verses occur in passages about the word of God, bad behaviour, getting out of fellowship, abandoning sound doctrine, or not trusting in God.
So, my conclusion is that those who believe that falling away is about losing your salvation are mistaken. And I hope I have demonstrated that we need to examine the scriptures very carefully to make sure we understand correctly what they are saying.