The Pilgrim's Regress: Guarding against Backsliding and Apostasy in the Christian Life

by Mark Jones

Mark Jones addresses the uncomfortable topic of backsliding believers—and, to a lesser extent, apostasy—in a serious, hopeful, and pastoral work informed by wise theologians of the past and present.

Endorsements

“Each chapter is a wake‑up call providing clear spiritual medicine for Christians to progress and not regress in their faith. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It’s a must-read.”
—Rosaria Butterfield, author, Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age

“Warning! Don’t read this book if you don’t want to be confronted with the danger of backsliding to which every Christian is constantly exposed. Warning! Don’t read this book if you don’t want to be encouraged by learning of the resources readily available to every Christian for countering the ever-present tendency to backsliding. Reading this book has been a searching experience for me personally, as Mark Jones carefully delineates the various regressive tendencies that plague the Christian life, explores the difference between them and irremediable apostasy, and unfolds in a deeply probing way the thoroughly sufficient and efficacious remedies that Scripture provides. Don’t heed my warnings. Read this book!”
—Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology, Emeritus, Westminster Theological Seminary

“Few address the subject of this book, yet backsliding and apostasy are genuine realities in the story of the church. This fresh study of the subject not only examines the nature of backsliding but also, in John Owen–like fashion, probes deeply into its sources. . . . Sadly, this is a much-needed tract for our crooked age. Thankfully, though, it provides a robust gospel remedy for this ill that ails so many of our churches.”
—Michael A. G. Azad Haykin, Professor of Church History, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary