backsliding

63:2.1Af­ter An­don and Fonta had de­cided to flee north­ward, they suc­cumbed to their fears for a time, es­pe­cially the fear of dis­pleas­ing their fa­ther and im­me­di­ate fam­ily. They en­vis­aged be­ing set upon by hos­tile rel­a­tives and thus rec­og­nized the pos­si­bil­ity of meet­ing death at the hands of their al­ready jeal­ous tribes­men. As young­sters, the twins had spent most of their time in each other’s com­pany and for this rea­son had never been overly pop­u­lar with their an­i­mal cousins of the Pri­mates tribe. Nor had they im­proved their stand­ing in the tribe by build­ing a sep­a­rate, and a very su­pe­rior, tree home.

5:1.11Mor­tal man may draw near God and may re­peat­edly for­sake the di­vine will so long as the power of choice re­mains. Man’s fi­nal doom is not sealed un­til he has lost the power to choose the Fa­ther’s will. There is never a clo­sure of the Fa­ther’s heart to the need and the pe­ti­tion of his chil­dren. Only do his off­spring close their hearts for­ever to the Fa­ther’s draw­ing power when they fi­nally and for­ever lose the de­sire to do his di­vine will—to know him and to be like him. Like­wise is man’s eter­nal des­tiny as­sured when Ad­juster fu­sion pro­claims to the uni­verse that such an as­cender has made the fi­nal and ir­re­vo­ca­ble choice to live the Fa­ther’s will.

163:2.3An­other dis­ci­ple came to the Mas­ter and said: “I would be­come an or­dained mes­sen­ger, but I would like to go to my home for a short while to com­fort my fam­ily.” And Je­sus replied: “If you would be or­dained, you must be will­ing to for­sake all. The gospel mes­sen­gers can­not have di­vided af­fec­tions. No man, hav­ing put his hand to the plough, if he turns back, is wor­thy to be­come a mes­sen­ger of the king­dom.”