Falling Away

Some months ago I read an article by Ed Stetzer. His article was in response to a report which said that the number of people who described themselves as Christian has fallen dramatically in the United States. More people than ever were now saying they had no religion. In his article, Mr. Stetzer pointed out the most important fact that most Christians do not talk about when wringing their hands at such statistics which they say point to a decline in Christianity in America and the West. The fact that going to church doesn’t really make you a Christian. What makes you a Christian is confessing Christ as your Lord and personal Saviour. Going to a church building, every week for 50 years does not confer honorary Christian status on you. You don’t become a fellow or an associate in Christianity by the number of years you attend church or the number of churches you attend. You must accept Jesus. That is the starting point. Then you have to live as he would have you live as revealed in his Word, not as your conscience dictates.

I must confess that I am mostly amused when a celebrity comes out and tells us how he or she is no longer a Christian and has found a new faith, either Islam or some new faddish new Eastern cult. Some talk about how they rejected Christianity and became atheists. And so they spend their lives fighting and trying to kill a God they say doesn’t exist in the first place. But when you look at their stories, you realise they were never Christians in the first place. They were just going to some church, marking time and thinking that made them Christians. When I was a young Christian, I used to ask myself, how could Jesus say there were only a few who would find and walk the path of salvation? How could he say that when they were billion of “Christians” the world over. As I have grown in the faith, I have realised the answer to that. Not everyone that goes to church knows who Jesus is. Our churches might be full but not everyone knows why they’re there.

Today I saw two Hare Krishna members. They passed me in a bus. I looked at them and it got me thinking. I didn’t know anything about them but there were some assumptions I made. I don’t think they were born into the religion, they were of a certain age which made me doubt their parents were of that religion. Which means that they converted. I made another assumption that they probably thought of themselves as “Christians” before they converted. As so I asked myself, why did they convert? What was promised to them, either about this life or the next? What were they looking for that they couldn’t or didn’t find in church? The book of James said we are drawn away from the faith by our lusts. Were they looking for “power” Or did someone promise them it was a way to escape poverty?

I didn’t speak to them but a thought came to my mind. Maybe they didn’t leave because they were looking for something. Maybe they thought they had found something. Maybe something called to them. They’re not celebrities who didn’t like the truth because it shone a too bright light on their deeds. Maybe they just found something that made them feel like they were something, part of a great plan. One could argue that maybe they if they had truly engaged with Jesus they wouldn’t have converted but I don’t somehow buy that. Unless of course they weren’t going to church.

I understand that for every leader and congregation, there will be a Judas. I also understand that the greater the congregation, the higher the number of Judases to be found. But the interesting thing is that the Judases stay in church and the ones who could be Peter get caught up in the lure presented by some other religion. But the question that I feel we need to ask is, are we doing enough to give people a sense of purpose? Is the church doing enough to help people feel connected to God? Why are people coming to church and not being touched? Are we presenting God accurately? The answers to that might help us show people a more perfect way.  

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal