In addition to acceptance and disappointment, why else might people walk away from so great a salvation?

3.  Radical levels of ignorance… often by choice.   Truth, questions, vigorous debate… real discussion and seeking of evidence… rational dialogue are ALWAYS on the side of God. The demon Screwtape, in Screwtape Letters points this out in so many ways… his job is to distract, not debate.

In reading so many of the write-ups, or podcasts in which former self-proclaimed Christians describe their deconstruction, I am struck by how poor their answers are to big questions, how poor their biblical knowledge is, how poor their understanding of what Christian beliefs and doctrine actually are, and how disinterested they have apparently been in seeking these answers.  There is no need or excuse to be ignorant of what the actual views are and how to defend those views. 

I think we note that a common “source” for these de-conversions is the music wing of Christian ministry.  I am not surprised by that, sadly.  Few musicians and even few worship leaders bother to be educated and trained in the more intellectual and theological aspects of the Faith and instead focus merely on the emotional aspects.  These are not in actual conflict with one another, and a saint should be aptly able to worship in spirit and truth, with all of their hearts.  Combine this with the experiential focus of the many of the more charismatic denominations (also a source for many in the music leadership of Christianity) and I think their tendency to be faced with a psychological state or intellectual challenge that they cannot integrate within the gospel is not so surprising.

4.  And finally, I think a common thing is that a Christian Performer is often more performer and less Christian.  When I listened to the heart-breaking podcasts in which Rhett and Link of Good Mythical Morning described their descent from faith, I was struck by how much their entire Christian life seemed wrapped up in their comedy and not seemingly so much in Christ.  The emphasis of their story certainly was their role as comedy creators in Crusade rather than in their walk with and relationship with Christ.  I see that in some of the other reports of people who walk away… what they thought of as “a relationship with Christ” doesn’t really sound like one at all.

These examples (not Rhett and Link, specifically, but this category) would be people who never actually knew or trusted Christ. They may have thought they had, but the indication would be most likely that they never really did trust in Him.

As I mentioned above, I cannot and you cannot know the eternal status of any other believer, but I think often what we are seeing is that someone’s faith was in Christianity and not Christ… or was in their own emotions or success and not Christ… and they had fully placed their trust in their own understanding rather than in His understanding… and finally the pressures of the World or the sin that entangles or disappointment with others finally undermined the false faith they sought to hold onto.

We cannot know which of these… or of the other options, that we are dealing with, but my assumption is that most of them fall into one of these headings.

So, what do we do?

Remember that an important aspect of being a believer is to share with others the hope that we have – and the reasons for it, and to be living differently as His followers (I Peter 3:15, Col 4:5-6, 2 Cor 5:20) so that people can see our good deeds and give glory to God. (Matthew 5).  So, wherever someone is on their faith-walk, our overall job is the same – to exemplify the character of Christ to them – and, with His Word, to confront, comfort, and give the good news.

It is also important to continue to invest in our own faith.  We need to surround ourselves with reasonable and mature believers; we need to read great books that grapple with the hard questions of life; we need to maintain our own spiritual disciplines… one purpose of apologetics is to stabilize and affirm our own beliefs as well as prepare us to answer the questions of others as well.

My final recommendation is that we pray.  If we can reach out to them, and so many do, we do.  If we cannot, we pray and then seek to shore up our own reasons for our faith.  There are tons of resources woven throughout this website and more at www.southspring.org.