Renouncing Faith
This is a different Blog than I usually post but my heart is heavy…maybe yours is too. It seems more and more we are seeing prominent Christians renounce or struggle with their faith. It’s a heartbreaking thing to see, and an even more difficult thing to understand. We see in Scripture that there will be a great falling away of believers in the end times. In 2 Thessalonians 2:3 it indicates there will be a great apostasy. The KJV calls it the “falling away” while the ESV calls it “the rebellion”. Apostasy means a rebellion, an abandonment of the truth.
For far too long we have looked to preachers, other believers, and anyone we consider being in authority to tell us what is the truth of Scripture. When did reading, studying and knowing the Bible for ourselves become optional for a believer?? In an article from the lead singer of the band Skillet John Cooper states, "It is time for the church to rediscover the preeminence of the Word. And to value the teaching of the Word. We need to value truth over feeling. Truth over emotion…
I understand questioning what we believe and asking hard questions in search of understanding the Bible better. Marty Sampson from Hillsong Church recently admitted to struggling in his faith. I get it. No one will get judgment from me. I’ve had enough given to me because I struggled to know it serves no other purpose than to make the giver feel superior to the receiver. Maybe we should be loving and praying for those who are struggling and not talking about them over coffee…#ouch
I’ve had that journey, where I began to question everything I thought I knew. I was in so much pain and had so much wounding from Church leaders that I needed to take a step back and see for myself what was truth. I went to the source of truth, God’s word. My journey was long and difficult. In the end I reevaluated my beliefs in light of God’s word instead of what I had heard from many pulpits over many years. I saw that some things that I had believed were not biblical and some were.
I came away with clearer biblical beliefs than I had started with and that is a good thing. I am more grounded in God’s word, which has led to a more solid foundation to build on. The problem I am seeing with most of the people leaving the faith is that they have let society, new cultural norms, popular worldly beliefs and unanswered questions reshape their understanding instead of digging into God’s word and letting it define their beliefs. Just because we believe something for years and find out it’s not biblical does not mean we throw the baby out with the bath water so to speak.
The first article I came across about Marty’s story was frightening. It was by what I would call a Christian whistle-blowing group. They believe their calling is to call out every minister and church for their practices and label them ‘heretics” if they disagree with them…maddening. His entire article blamed Hillsong Church for Marty’s struggle. This approach was not helpful but more damaging to the Church by bringing division instead of offering solutions or caring for Marty Sampson as a person.
Will we all believe exactly the same about everything? No. A couple non-negotiables are:
1. God’s word is infallible and therefore the only source of truth.
2. Jesus is the only way to the Father. Period.
We can disagree on just about everything else and it’s ok. What we believe about the peripherals won’t cause us to miss heaven so why are we fighting about them? Whether you’re pre-trib, mid-trib, post trib doesn’t matter. We all end up in the same place. Whether you believe in tongues or not doesn’t matter. Did Jesus go to hell after the Cross? Doesn’t matter. What we all believe about how to take communion doesn’t matter, how we dress for church doesn’t matter, whether we wear makeup or not doesn’t matter…do we believe in God’s word and His son? That’s what matters.
For far too long churches have split and disagreed on the most ridiculous things to the point we do not walk in unity. We have created hundreds of denominations all because we make minor things a major point of contention. It seems to me we would realize that is exactly the point of the enemies plan, to keep us divided. If we are divided we cannot be the church Jesus created us to be and our power is depleted. Imagine if we could all stand together what we could accomplish. If we could agree to disagree agreeably we could change the world.
Father help us your church. We pray for those struggling in their faith that you would step into their lives in a big way and show them who you are. Dispel the lies the enemy is telling them. Give us the grace to walk together no matter how we disagree on trivial matters. Bring us into unity. Bind our hearts together with yours to see the enemy defeated and your Kingdom come in power! Unite us across this world so that Jesus can return. Holy Spirit convict our hearts of strife and discord and help us to seek truth and not just seek to be right. Make us one…In Jesus name….