2 Shocking Reasons For Fleeing Biblical Truths
Last year, Christian pop-culture was rocked as two-high profile Christian evangelists made headlines about losing their Christian faith. First, former pastor, Joshua Harris, the author of the best-selling purity book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye (1997) announced to the world that he “is not a Christian anymore”.
Weeks later, prolific Hillsong United’s worship songwriter, Marty Sampson came out and said “I’m genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn’t bother me” but clarified that he hasn’t “renounced” his faith, it’s nevertheless on “incredibly shaky ground.”
It’s really sad to see these prolific and once outspoken leaders and influencers of Christianity fall away from their faith. This is something that is is both frustrating and perplexing to witness.
So what is going on in Christianity? Why are Christians falling away from their beliefs?
There are many problems we as a Christian community are failing to talk about including issues of race and culture. However, the biggest elephant in the room we as a Christian community and as a church are not addressing is why are Christian’s falling away from their beliefs? We must address this issue with sober introspection.
Here are two shocking reasons Christians are fleeing biblical truths and leaving their faith behind.
What are Christians Fleeing Biblical Truths?
1. Self-Help over Self-Abandonment
What I’ve witnessed in some megachurches, the pastor preaches the ‘self-help’ gospel. There is nothing wrong with ‘self-help’, but it has nothing to do with Jesus Christ. These type of pastors present themselves as self-help gurus while sprinkling in the Word of God. On the surface, the ‘self-help’ gospel sounds great and it’s very appealing.
Watering down the Gospel may make it sound more appealing to the broader masses, but it destroys the intent of Jesus’ message. The intent of the Gospel is it challenges us to “repent, and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15).
The key in Mark 1:14-15 is to “repent”, meaning to abandon our old life for a new life in Christ. We are to crucify the flesh.
Read: 2 Ways Men Are Failing Their Families
The main problem with the ‘self-help’ gospel is it does not demand anything from us. It doesn’t call us to sell all our possessions and leave our family and follow Jesus. Rather, it focuses on our own personal worldly needs. The self-help gospel is about enjoying our worldly life while carrying the label as “Christian”. Following Jesus is about radical ‘self-abandonment’ (Luke 9; Mark 10) not self-improvement within the flesh.
Here are a few questions we all need to ask ourselves: Would we sell everything we had to follow Jesus? Would we be willing to leave our jobs, our friends, and family to radically follow Christ?
2. Soft Doctrine
The Christian churches in the western world have grown soft on studying and preaching sound doctrine. Mainstream Christianity has bent to secular norms to avoid upsetting their congregation and the city they are home to. Some fear preaching biblical truths would cause many to flee the church. Instead, church leaders have toned down and softened the Word of God to make it more palatable, hip, and ‘trendy’.
Sadly, churches focus more on being culturally relevant than the health of their congregations’ souls. Their mission isn’t focused on ‘soul-care’ rather than ‘self-care’ and making faith attractive to the younger generation.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said this about making the Bible relevant:
“Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic…Do not defend God’s Word, but testify to it…Trust to the Word.”
The fact is, when Jesus preached the Good News, many of his followers did walk away and no longer followed him (John 6:59-71). However, not once did Jesus think about watering down the Word of God to avoid another exodus from his ministry. But rather, Jesus continued to preach the truth, despite the consequences. As Christians, we should never compromise on the Word of God in order to make it more digestible or to avoid controversy. How many churches are willing to lose followers by testifying the “biblical truths”?
The fact is, Christianity in the western world has watered down, commercialized, and secularized the Word of God. For many Sunday Christians, they live dual and often contradictory lives: Churchgoer on Sunday and secular citizen the remaining days of the week. This is why many Christians are falling away from their faith: there is no good soil for the seed of the Gospel to blossom (see Mark 4). Those who fall away from their faith haven’t radically abandoned their “old life’.
We must not flee from biblical truths. As followers of Jesus Christ, we are all called to abandon our old life for a renewed holy life in Christ. The question is, are we ready to radically abandon your old life?
Christian, Husband, Political junkie, Braves fan, Marvel Nerd, craft beer aficionado, and a sinner saved by grace. He has a passion for helping Christian men grow in their faith. He is the founder and editor of Joshua’s Outpost.
