So why do you think someone would leave Christianity?

[ephraimanesti]

Hello everyone;

I know I'm new, but I am curious about something. On another forum I am a part of, there has been what I would consider a common misconception about why people leave the Christian faith. I am curious to hear from Christians who are still active in their faith as to why you believe/think/have heard that people would leave Christianity.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

The only people who "leave" Christianity are those who were never Christians in the first place.

Being a Christian is not a case of subscribing to a set of doctrines or beliefs, but is a case of having a face-to-face encounter with our Lord/God/Savior Jesus Christ, and no one who has had such an encounter would ever even think of turning away from He Whom they have found at last. NO ONE!

A BOND-SLAVE/FRIEND/BROTHER OF OUR LORD/GOD/SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST,
ephraim

 

[Apollo Celestio]

All of the above is still not enough to be honest. In X-Xian testimonies you see it all and I can provide examples of them all really. Some are honest questioners, others are rebelling against authoritarian parents..

 

[Bible2]

So why do you think someone would leave Christianity?

One of the reasons the Bible says that some people leave Christianity, in the sense of losing their faith, is because they can no longer endure sound, Biblical doctrine, but would rather follow other (demonic) doctrines which support them in their lusts (2 Timothy 4:2-4, 1 Timothy 4:1-2), whether their lusts be, for example, the illicit pleasures of the flesh (Hebrews 12:16-17, Hebrews 6:4-8), or the pleasure of making more and more money (1 Timothy 6:9-10, Mark 4:19). But most often Christians who want to commit some illicit pleasure of the flesh or who want to get rich don't leave Christianity altogether; they simply find some form of Christianity that actively supports them (or at least does not actively condemn them) in their desires.

Another of the reasons the Bible says that some people leave Christianity is to avoid being persecuted and killed for their faith (Mark 8:35-38, Mark 4:17, Luke 8:13, Matthew 24:9-13).

Another of the reasons some people could leave Christianity is because they cannot bear some particular Biblical doctrine such as the doctrine of eternal torment of the lost in hell (Revelation 14:10-12), or the doctrine of double-predestination, by which God creates both human vessels of his mercy and human vessels of his wrath (Romans 9:21-23). But most often Christians who reject doctrines like these don't leave Christianity altogether; they simply find some form of Christianity that rejects doctrines like these.

 

[acorn_777]

Hello everyone;

I know I'm new, but I am curious about something. On another forum I am a part of, there has been what I would consider a common misconception about why people leave the Christian faith. I am curious to hear from Christians who are still active in their faith as to why you believe/think/have heard that people would leave Christianity.

I'm not here to debate anything, just get some honest responses from Christians. If you choose other, please let me know what you believe. Also, if you wouldn't mind including your denomination that would be great. This is simply for information gathering purposes, I do not intend to attack anyone's thoughts on the matter, just a simple poll!

If there is a more appropriate forum for this question, mods please feel free to move it! I know this doesn't directly apply to a question about Christianity, but I didn't see anywhere else where this would fit.

Thanks in advance to anyone who responds!

I think because they are unsatisfied in church, and begin to be judged when they go outside church for support. I then believe that this outside support gives a variety of information that unless you spent years researching, would probably woe you into believing that the Bible is fake and that Jesus never lived.

Dig a little deeper, and you will find the answers. The kingdom of God is within you, not in a church, or a human, or any other thing that anyone could ever suggest it to be.

I am multiple denominations.

 

[silscr]

I voted "other" because it varies with each individual.

Many left because they do not love God.

And few others left because they took offense at something negative that happened in their life. But those few will NOT BE LOST.

 

[Bible2]

BengalLover:
So why do you think someone would leave Christianity?

Someone could leave Christianity because he thinks that God is giving him the silent treatment even though he is trying to seek God's will, when in fact God is always speaking to believers through every word of the Bible (Matthew 4:4), so that believers can perfectly know God's will by knowing what the Bible says (2 Timothy 3:15-17).

Also, someone could leave Christianity because he thinks that he is not one of God's elect (Romans 9:11-24). But while someone is still alive, no matter how sinful he has become, he must never assume that he is not one of God's elect, for there is always the possibility that he could still repent and believe in Jesus and the Bible in the future. The case of the apostle Paul is the best example for why no one should ever assume that God doesn't want them to get saved: by God's miraculous grace Paul went from being the "chief of sinners", the worst persecutor of the church, to becoming Christ's most fruitful apostle (1 Timothy 1:12-17, 1 Corinthians 15:10).

 

[bsd31]

Other: They were never saved and never knew Christ. They knew of Christ, had heard of Him, but had never known Him in terms of it being a personal relationship.

 

[UnionJack]

Other: They were never saved and never knew Christ. They knew of Christ, had heard of Him, but had never known Him in terms of it being a personal relationship.

I agree with this. Some people are not truly saved.

I heard a guest speaker once say if you leave here today and two weeks later you give up Christianity you never got anything out of this session. All you got was emotion.

 

[Apollo Celestio]

Ishida,

I am not sure that at the venerable age of 22 you have enough life experience to comment as you do. You are barely out of childhood yourself, yet you pontificate about ex-xians rebelling against authoritarian parents.

You need to do a little living before you can make that sort of statement. It would do you good to "put away childish things..." before you comment like this again.

Reason's greetings,

David

Ha, I'm used to being called old.
That post was not my life experiences, but thoughts gained from reading others.

 

[ebia]

Only Christians and the Opening Poster may post in threads in Exploring Christianity

 

[Sharlee]

Yeah, I just saw that, I'll be leaving now.

 

[Van]

If we accept that on that day, Jesus will say to some who claimed to call Jesus Lord, Lord, "Depart from Me, I NEVER knew you," that those who went out from us were never Christians in the first place, then we must address why when they made a sincere effort to rely on Jesus, Jesus did not count their faith as righteousness? Jesus explains this in Matthew 13. Some folks, when presented with the gospel of Christ are so hardened, it is as if they never were exposed to the gospel, and so these never embraced Jesus and would never actually consider themselves ex Christians. Now they might claim to be ex-Christians in an effort to undermine Christianity, but in their heart of hearts, they know they were never Christians.

The next group Jesus talks about received the gospel with joy. So it sounded good to them. But the idea in their minds was receiving from God, not giving to God. They did not take Jesus into their hearts, but only into their minds. These would say Jesus failed to keep His promise, rather than recognize they did not love Jesus with all their heart. In Matthew 7, these folks claim to have done this or than "in the name of the Lord" but Jesus NEVER knew them. Scripture does not say, Jesus knew them back when they were professing Christians, but then forgot them when they turned from striving after God.

And the next and last Group Jesus talks about are folks that invited Jesus into their hearts, but they did not clean house. So Jesus shared a place in their heart with other competing treasures of the heart, things of this world and relationships of this world. And over time, these other things choked Jesus out of the person's heart and they too fell away.

So why did not God count the "faith" of these two kinds of embracers of the gospel message as righteousness and spiritually place them in Christ? Because He knows who actually "believes from the heart." We can fool others and we can fool ourselves, but we cannot fool God about our "faith." Our commitment to Christ must be complete, nothing held back, not superficial, i.e. head knowledge rather than heart knowledge, and we must believe in the God who sent Jesus as well as believe in Jesus.

 

[Van]

I cannot stand the idea that God sends people to hell to suffer torment for eternity, because seems abusive rather than just. So do professing Christians leave Christianity because they are mislead by false teachings? Would it be accurate to say 100% of the non-Christians who claim to have rejected Christianity always cite unbiblical doctrines as the basis? If so, that would be interesting.

 

[kit]

Clearly there is nothing there. This would be the failing of the Holy Ghost. If God is what Christians claim it would be self evident. It is not.

This notion of "they were never saved". What kind of God are Christians into. By the looks of things a pretty capricious one. Telling some they were saved but they weren't?!?!?! The God portrayed by most of the posts in this thread is not an appealing character. Perhaps this is part of the answer the posing poster was looking for.

 

[Ivy]

Because of rejection, scorn, shunning and bigoted attitudes by Christians which leads to emotional and spiritual Abuse.

Basically all the head-tripping that happens in a group of people.

It's human dynamics.

Look at the group dynamics of High School Kids. The popular kids, the nerds etc. It's all about fitting in with the group, and those that can't or who refuse to change are shunned and mocked.

Same thing happens at the worksplace and church.

I think this is true--this is usually the reason, because of hurtful human dynamics. People expect it to be a safe place, but many times it is not.
I've experienced this (ow) and also observed it happening.

I think the crux of the matter is this: Jesus also was on the receiving end of this kind of hurtful group dynamic in his day. He knows what it is like. And when you are on the receiving end of it yourself, that becomes a a golden opportunity for a closeness with him which is very special. Maybe it's something a lot of people miss, the opportunity in it.

Maybe you choose to move on from that church or maybe you choose to stick it out--it all depends.

 

[hime]

Peace everyone.

I am not Christian but I voted in the poll, I hope thats okay. Good topic though.

Most of the stories I read about those who left Christianity are because of the following:

1. The confusion they find in the Trinity concept and how three can be one.
2. The Contradiction in the bible.
3. The nature of Jesus (Peace Be upon him) as a human and as a God.

My memory don't serve me much now to think of any more reasons