Christianity is a dying religion.
That’s what most experts are thinking as they look at the trends in religion.
It is no secret that millions of people have already abandoned their faith.
You simply need to look at Europe’s big churches and cathedral that are now being converted to commercial buildings.
With no Christians using them, owners are forced to sell them.
The United States seems to be treading the same path as well.
Recent surveys show that young Christians and millennials are leaving their affiliated church group – and never coming back.
The rise of the “NONEs” or the religiously unaffiliated has seen rapid growth in the past decades.
More than 20% of the US population is known to be Nones and they are one of the fastest-growing groups.
Sad but true.
Today, organized religion, more than ever, is being ridiculed and seen to be irrelevant in the lives of many people.
Christians are seen as intolerant, old-fashioned, and hypocrites.
No wonder a lot of people are turned off to organized religion and members are leaving their church groups.
With the exodus of Christians leaving their churches and abandoning their faith, you might wonder, what led to their decisions.
What could have caused their faith to fizzle out and die down?
I believe this is an important question for us to answer if we are going to stay faithful.
Sometimes, the best way to know how to strengthen our faith is to know how not to strengthen it.
In this post, let me share with you 5 of the most powerful ways Christians are losing their faith and eventually leaving their church group.
1. Not having a strong Christian foundation
Yahshua (Jesus Christ) explained the importance of having a strong foundation.
He said in Luke 6:48-49:
He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great.
A lot of self-profess Christians today are only Christians by name.
A lot can’t even recite the Ten Commandments, let alone explain the basic doctrines of their affiliated church group.
Bibles in the homes simply gather dust.
Only a few open their bible and when they do, they only open it during church services.
What they know are just shallow and no deep understanding of the Scripture.
Therefore, it is no wonder that when the “storms” of life come pounding on their faith, they easily give in.
2. Forsake attending church services
You might have seen on TV how alone buffalo can easily fall prey to the lions.
However, those who stay close to the herd are safer.
The same is true with our faith.
If you stay close to your spiritual family, you get the blessing of God’s protection.
The more you attend church services and participate in church activities, the more you become spiritually strong.
However, the more you stop attending church, the more your heart will be away from your faith.
That’s the main reason the Apostle Paul wrote in Hebrews 10:24-25:
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Sabbath services are not just the perfect opportunity to get together with the brethren, but it is also the time for us to hear God’s messages through His servants.
So, if you find yourself only attending church services every once in a while, you will soon see yourself compromising more and more until you completely stop attending.
Don’t go down to this slippery road.
Stop before it’s too late.
3. Believe it is better to live a life without God
One of the reasons people leave Christianity is that they think that God restricts their freedom.
They think that if they can only do whatever they want, they would be happier!
Nothing could be farther than the truth.
Yes, there’s no doubt that the life of a true Christian isn’t a bed of roses.
There are a lot of challenges that would test your faith.
However, you need to realize that it is more difficult to live a life without God.
No matter how successful you might have become, material possessions will never fill the spiritual hole in your heart.
There’s a deep yearning in your being that God can only satisfy.
You can’t find it anywhere else!
Life without God is like a broken pencil – it’s pointless.
A lot of people live their lives apart from God – thinking that they are better off without any higher authority telling them what to do.
Most often than not, they get a rude awakening one day that they have been living their lives in futility.
During the time of Yahshua (Jesus Christ), a lot of people were not able to accept His teaching.
As a result, a lot of His disciples left Him.
We read in John 6:66:
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Jesus then asked the twelve in verse 67, “You do not want to leave too, do you?”
Our response should be like the response of the Apostle Peter (verse 68-69):
“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”
As you can read, the Apostle Peter knew very well that they have found the words of eternal life.
The same is true with us – we, too, have found eternal life.
Are we going to forsake this truth in exchange for what this world has to offer?
Don’t be fooled that being a non-believer means you won’t encounter hardships in life.
Life is more difficult without God.
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This post originally appeared on BecomingChristians.com and was republished with permission. The article was written by Joshua Infantado.
Joshua’s Outpost is a source for men to find encouragement to be bold in their faith and walk with Jesus Christ.
