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Thursday, August 29, 2013

Why Do People Leave the Faith?

This question has plagued Christians through the centuries. The concept is even present in the pages of Scripture, where Hymenaeus and Alexander made "shipwreck of their faith" by failing to hold faith and good conscience (1 Tim 1:19-20). Today the perception is that they're leaving in droves. Kids -- high school and college age mostly -- in particular are jumping ship, tossing out their faith, and leaving for more skeptical shores. Why? For God's sake, why?

There is no end of answers out there for this phenomenon. It is a failure of apologetics. It's because of exclusivity claims or a feeling that God is unfair or a shallow system of beliefs. It's due to too many temptations or peer pressure or hypocrisy in other believers. The culprit is college (or not), the "war on religion" (or not), and liberal professors (or not). (I included "or not" in those because the CNN article I linked says it's not those things, but hypocrisy in the church. I should point out that this article from the Gospel Coalition agrees with the "or nots".) Sometimes it's just because God fails to measure up to their expectations. Lots of reasons. And while some contradict others, the question continues.

It is likely that several of these answers are real. That is, if you ask (as many have) those who leave the faith why they left the faith, you'll get answers like these. And it is likely that if you ask those who have not left the faith why others leave the faith, you'll get similar answers. But I'd like to ask another source: the Bible. What does the Bible say is the reason that people leave the faith? That answer should be substantive and accurate, should it not?
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge (1 John 2:19-20).
Well, now, that one didn't seem to make the list, did it? Odd. Apparently John (you know, the disciple that Jesus loved) was of the (misguided?) opinion that those who leave the faith do so because they were never in the faith. Indeed, John appears to believe that if you are actually in the faith, you will necessarily continue in the faith. John claims that those who are actually in the faith "have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge." A different category of people.

Now, that's a little different than all the other answers offered in all the other studies from all the various vantage points. But, then, John is a little bit "out there" in his viewpoint in general, isn't he? I mean, he's the one who claims "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God" (1 John 3:9). And that's obviously more extreme than most of us are willing to go with. Now, if it was true, then it would coincide with his previous answer. That is, if it is true that those who are born of God lack the ability ("cannot") to make a practice of sin because "God's seed abides in him", then it would be quite obvious that those who are in that category ("born of God") would lack the ability to "go out from us". It wouldn't be in their nature.

Look, I'm quite sure that churches can be sadly lacking in many areas. The church does indeed offer a shallow faith far too often. Liberal churches offer very little in most cases because they are so open-minded that the distinction between "what we believe" and "what everyone else believes" is gone. That's a problem. "Why should we remain in the church if everything is acceptable to believe?" I can see that. The church is often geared toward dumbing down Christianity rather than aiming higher. Too often churches allow rampant sin without discipline or response and that's clearly creates an atmosphere of hypocrisy. Far too often churches don't pursue defending the faith and that's a problem (a problem first of a failure to obey God's Word). So much of the complaints and answers we've seen for why people leave the faith are valid problems. I'm not suggesting otherwise. But let's be clear here. The Bible suggests that those who "leave the faith" were never "of us" because those who are "born of God" have the Holy Spirit and lack the power to continue in sin. That's a different answer entirely. Do people "leave the faith"? Actually, no. They might exit temporarily, but either the Bible is right and they lack the ability to remain in that condition or the Bible is wrong and all bets are off. It's as simple as that. So, can we get on with addressing some of these other problems now?

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