#0153 Five Common Reasons People Leave Christianity, The Christian Response - Further. Every. Day.

Five Common Reasons People Leave Christianity

1. The Problem of Evil

The issue of Evil is a serious one that Christianity is uniquely qualified to answer. However, most Christians fail to provide a valuable response to this when confronted on the issue. So what is the problem of evil?

Thesis: If God is good, then how could evil exist? If God is all good, then He is not all powerful, and if He is not all powerful, then He is not good.

This question often comes in response to moments of greatest sorrow and tragedy. Comfort can only be found in relationships with others and a trust in the future God holds. The explanation of Evil will never be of much comfort, just like an explanation of the exothermic reactions of the chemicals in a grenade will never satisfy the heartache of a grieving family mourning the loss of their son, brother, husband, and father in times of war. This explanation CANNOT bring peace in of itself, but it can provide clarity to those who truly wish to understand God, and perhaps attempt to gaze into His metaphorical face and see if the face staring back at them is indeed “good”.

The Explanation: Calling God all powerful can often lead to some failures in logic, if improperly understood. God is all powerful in that He exists outside of space and time and is the uncaused cause of all that happens. In this He can do “anything”. However, if Truth, Logic, Mathematics, and Justice are direct imports from God's essence, as a Painting is a reflection of the mind of the artist on a canvas, then God cannot lie, make a square circle, nor can He commit evil, no more than can a rock be a blade of grass.

God allows man free will. This free will is apparently more important than human comfort or flourishing. Indeed, it separates us from the inanimate. If we did not have free will, we could not love or speak truth but merely react to stimuli as does a venous fly trap, opening and closing in response to stimulus. So in addition to love, hatred, apathy, and nihilism are also possible. If God were to intervene, not only would we not have free will, but we would not know what evil looked like in its complete form. This knowledge gives us the informed consent required for a relationship with a God who is the source of all good. This relationship is one of incredible spiritual intimacy and must be a complete surrender. This, is the reason evil exists. The question should not be why God allows evil, but rather why He allows free will. In this, we can find a complete answer. Does it satisfy you? Again, nothing can satisfy the loss that usually comes with this question, except to fill it with other relationships. In this aspect, God and the family of God can soothe the pain, but not take it away.

2. The Christians In Church

Another common reason given for people leaving the church is the behavior of Christians. One poll by Brandon Flanery published on the site baptistnews.com had politics and other believers as 2 of the 3 highest causes for leaving the church.

3. The God of the Old Testament

Many people do not realize the culture of the day.

Common misconceptions:

• Killing Your Own Children:

53:35-55:09

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_FCdrnP3X8&t=2781s

• Other religious practices

• Women and God (Divorce, Dowry, etc)

4. The Anti-Intellectualism

The conflation of science and scientism has been a real factor in the cultural debate on the inerrancy of Scripture. Many Christians have ceded the linguistic territory of Science to the Secular Humanist and instead embraced a vain,