1. The horrible, disgusting, nasty way that Christians treat one
another in-person and online.
I wrote about this in Warning: The World is Watching
How We Christians Treat One Another and The Art of Being a
Jerk Online. But it’s also one of the reasons why some Christians want
nothing to do with following Jesus anymore. It’s because of the sub-human way
that so many of His professing followers treat each other. Ways in which they
themselves would never want to be treated, breaking the cardinal commandment of
Jesus Himself — which fulfills the Law and the Prophets — in Matthew 7:12.
2. The canned superficial answers they had been given to complicated
questions.
Example: An 18 year old is brought up in a Christian home. She is taught that
God created the earth in seven literal days and that the earth is young. The
18-year old enters college and she hears this idea ripped to shreds. She is
confused and finally concludes, “If that’s wrong, then I have to throw out
everything I’ve been taught in the Bible. Maybe it’s all myth.”
The fact is, this 18-year old has never been exposed to some of the best
thinking on the subject. She’s never been exposed to the sophisticated answers
to modernity, to empiricism, to the problem of evil in the world. Nor has she
ever been taught that one can interpret Genesis a number of ways and none of
them means doubting the authority, reliability, or inspiration of Scripture.
The canned answers she received is all she knows and they are proving
inadequate.
Greg Boyd’s excellent book, Benefit of the Doubt, goes
into some of this very well.
(Incidentally, to the fundamentalists who might read this post, I’ve not
given my view on Genesis 1 and 2 here, so don’t assume it. I give my views on
those passages in Jesus: A
Theography. I find too many holes in macro-evolutionary theory (although
there is clearly evolution within species, etc.) and I believe that Adam was a
living, breathing mortal. However, I have many friends who take all of this
figuratively and they are more faithful to Jesus Christ than some of my
fundamentalist friends. So if N.T. Wright or C.S. Lewis reads Genesis 1 and 2
completely figuratively, that doesn’t make them apostates. The real test of
whether or not you really know Jesus Christ is if you love the brethren — 1 John
— and walk in Matthew 7:12. Many so-called “Bible-believing Christians” do not;
they are hateful and dishonest people who will be shocked when they face God one
day.)
3. They met a God who didn’t meet their expectations.
It could be a tragedy they experienced. It could be a painful event. It could
be something dark and horrible that they’ve prayed to be saved from for years
and God doesn’t seem to care. It could be a “promise” in Scripture that they
stood on in faith, but never saw materialize.
I’ve talked at length about this problem and the solution for it in God’s Favorite Place on
Earth. Thankfully, that book has helped scores of people who have read it.
But unfortunately, I can’t make people who would benefit from reading a book to
actually read it. One of the frustrations of being an author. (Countless
contemporary Christians will only read a book if a movie is made for it or if it
appears on Fox News, The Today Show, or is heavily promoted by a mega-church
pastor.) Anyways, this is a BIG reason why many abandon the Jesus ship.
4. The stupidity and ignorance of so many Christians.
Regrettably,
many Christians believe whatever they read or hear. Those who are wiser and
smarter don’t want to be associated with that lot. So they start thinking, “If
Jesus was the Savior of the world, why are so many of His followers so stupid?”
. . . “If Jesus is the head of the church, why is His church so dysfunctional
and so toxic in so many cases?” So they start questioning the claims of the Lord
Himself.
5. Failure to live up to the gospel of legalism.
I’ve watched Christians leave the Lord because they were taught a gospel of
legalism — namely, that God will be upset with them if they don’t live a perfect
life. Despite how hard they tried, they kept failing to keep the standard in
various areas of their lives. They prayed, fasted, and sought victory over the
problem with no results. Eventually, they got so weary that they concluded that
it’s just not worth it to follow the Lord, so they left Him.
6. They loved the world more than Christ.
Jesus wasn’t enough in their eyes to satisfy their heart’s desires — or what
they thought were their real desires. They loved “the pleasures of sin” more
than the pleasures of God. Paul said of Demas, a Christian worker who had
abandoned him, that “he loved this present world.”
7. The cares of this life choked the (spiritual) life out of
them.
In His famous “parable of the sower,” Jesus talked about the seed of God’s
word being choked to death because of the cares of this life. The daily grind of
day-to-day life with all of its twists, turns, and problems can be a perpetual
distraction to the spiritual person. So much so that it can easily choke the
life out of them. The spiritual life, that is.
- Frank Viola
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