In the past few months, the Christian world has been rocked by the news of some high-profile Church leaders publicly declaring they are no longer believers in the Christian faith. One of them in May this year, is quoted as saying, “After 40 years of being a devout follower, 20 of those being an evangelical pastor, I am walking away from faith. Even though this has been a massive bomb drop in my life, it has been decades in the making.” It always saddens me to learn of people walking away from Christ, but it never surprises me. Why not? The Bible tells us to expect it; they walked from Jesus when He was here and will continue to.
How does one lose his or her faith? There’s no one single answer, but questioning, then doubting the Scriptures is a dangerous practice; if it is habitual then the next step is disbelief. The step following these? Disobedience to the Scriptures! Question, doubt, disbelieve, disobey – not mere words written in black ink on white paper – but the word of God Almighty Himself. In that order, is how people lose faith and it would seem this is how these people lost theirs. When I first began doing Bible studies in 1987, I was informed, “Your faith is in proportion of what is truth. The greater God is to you, the greater your faith.” Praise God for anchoring those words deep down into my soul from that time. The opposite is true though, the lesser God is to you, the lesser your faith.
To believe God or not to believe Him, that’s always a choice for everyone to make; God will never force our hand. One can believe in the existence of God by acknowledging Him as Creator and being in awe of His glorious creations all around, above and below, but one can only believe God through reading or hearing, then acting on His one and only written word, the Bible. The entirety of Your word is truth, and every one of Your righteous judgments endures forever Psalm 119:160. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God Romans 10:17. Reject these realities and God has nothing more to say. He will hand you over to the godless desires of your heart, no matter how godly you believe them to be.
Psalm 119 is the longest Psalm in the Bible; 176 glorious verses that speak of the excellencies of the word of God, His law, His testimonies, His faithfulness etc. My advice to someone contemplating leaving the faith is to read, study and meditate on those verses daily for a few weeks asking yourself where you stand with Christ on the matter. Have you fully embraced the Scriptures or have you simply been cherry-picking and choosing verses that suit your doctrinal bias? The latter is commonplace among multitudes of Christians. The problem with that practice though, there’s not enough to spiritually anchor you when the pressure is on. In other words, it is not a faith built on the rock of Reality, it is one built on the sand of human-centered emotions and opinions Matthew 7:24-27.
Additional questions the longest Psalm will have one asking after reading a few verses: “Am I even in the faith? Have I ever been to the cross of Christ? Are all my sins there, especially the root cause of my sins, pride and rebellion? Am I truly submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ? How very important it is to come face to face with this and get it sorted out. Why? Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and cast out demons in Your name, and do many mighty works in Your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you workers of lawlessness.’ Matthew 7:21-23.
Repeating what I’ve said numerous times on this blog, truth is not the primary reason for most people joining churches. They join for friendship and fellowship reasons and to have emotional and even material needs met. Power and performance are common reasons for joining too – hence, the need to elevate quickly into ministry positions to preach, sing and or play music. But if one’s ministry is not first submitted to the Holy Spirit, anointed by Him when taking up that ministry, then sooner or later (or later than sooner, as is the case with 2 of the latest to walk away), it will fall apart one way or another. So it should too, for if Jesus is not given the entire glory for it then they are keeping some back for themselves. He who glories, let him glory in the Lord 1 Corinthians 1:31.
What, in their own mind, will keeping back some of the glory for themselves achieve? Their emotional needs will be met – the need to be needed – to be acknowledged – to be the center of attention – to be thought of as spiritually gifted and talented – perhaps a stepping stone to something more grand and exciting. These are a few reasons. But whatever the reason, self is at the center of it. Whenever Christians walk from Jesus, it is because self rules, not Jesus; they have not allowed self to die. At some point, every person who calls Him Lord is tested as to whether He truly is or not. The key to passing that test is to go to Him and confess the struggle, whatever it is. What will one discover in doing that? Great compassion! Great help! Great peace! Great power to overcome!
Jesus started out with a great crowd of followers. But they didn’t do it for truth reasons, they did it for emotional and material reasons; they were awed by His miracles. The sick were healed, the hungry were fed; they enjoyed every aspect of the show until He told them who He was and what it would cost them to become one of His disciples. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish. Luke 14:27-30. Many starters there are, not so many finishers.
No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God Luke 9:62. That was Jesus’ reply to a man clearly half-hearted in giving his response to the Lord’s calling. The church has always had such people; half-hearted in their approach towards the work and half-hearted in the actual doing of the work itself. Quote: “The image which our Lord used was, as usual, one that went home to the personal experience of His hearers. They were of the peasant class, and they knew that the eye of the ploughman if he is to do his work well, must look straight before him at the line of the furrow which he is making. To look back, while working, is to mar the work entirely. The man who so looks is therefore, ipso facto, disqualified for the work of God’s kingdom.” CJ Ellicott.
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit Romans 14:17. It’s not unreasonable to suggest people walk from Christ because they’ve lost their peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The question is, why? What brought that about? There’s a righteousness problem going on somewhere. Righteousness – ‘uprightness before God.’ They are not upright before God. If they were they wouldn’t walk away. Again, Psalm 119 would help them sort that out, but that’s not what one who intends walking wants to hear. They would never verbalize it, but if they did it would be something like, “Tell me what I want to hear, not what I need to hear.” There’s no way the Holy Spirit will respond to that.
What should be the most liberating word from Jesus for those in ministry, is all too often overlooked and even ignored. It is this: Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in Me, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing John 15: 4-5. (Underline mine). They will say “Amen,” to it when quoted, but for many it is lip service. If that were not true, burnout would not be the problem it is with ministers and neither would they be walking away from Christ. As the old but true saying goes, it’s not our ability the Lord seeks, only our availability. Indeed, self-reliance is a curse; Christ-reliance is a blessing.
High profile (and low-profile) Christian leaders are going to continue walking away from Christ. This post explains the primary reasons why. Those doing so will give different explanations than these because that’s what the “saving face” mentality does. What to do then? Well, if the Lord lays them on our heart for prayer and intercession they’ll get prayed for. If He doesn’t, we leave them with Him. Note: The Lord Himself will see to it that some leave because they have never been in the faith to begin with – hence, the devil-inspired Humanist/Socialist/Marxist/Communist “doctrines” presently deceiving people in churches across the globe. There will be sex perverts, pedophiles and child traffickers among them. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Prove yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Christ is in you? – unless you are disqualified 2 Corinthians 13:5.