It’s been heartbreaking to watch—especially in recent years—so many Christians fall away from the faith. I don’t mean just fall into sin but fall away from the foundational truths of the Christian faith. It’s become so bad that now there seems to be a steady flow of “deconversion stories.” How is this happening?
I was talking to my friend, Tim, the other day about all this, and he said, “There’s something in the water.” He didn’t mean that literally, of course, but just that there is a widespread phenomenon of people gradually falling away from the core tenants of the faith. The Bible predicts this very clearly.
Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, — 1 Timothy 4:1
Again, I’m not talking about just getting caught up in sin as a Christian. That’s a terrible thing too. But I’m talking about people who seemed very strong in their belief in Christ but somehow find themselves in a place where they don’t even believe anymore. Many no longer identify themselves as Christians, and some even identify as atheists!
This has happened with people in my own church who were deeply involved and even served as leaders. I’ve seen the children of very godly parents completely drop out of the faith as young adults. Even prominent Christian pastors have left the faith and now publicly testify to their deconversion. I’ve had close friends who experienced their spouses going off the rails completely and brazenly disassociating with all things Christian.
Flood of false ideas
It may be that part of the reason for this great falling away is the massive amounts of information people take in since the dawn of radio, tv and now the internet and social media. It’s staggering to think about. A couple hundred years ago in America, the average person attended a church on Sunday and heard the preaching of the Word. Throughout the week they mused on what was preached. Maybe they’d chat with some people at the market. They read books or conversed with their family around the fire. Monday to Saturday they weren’t exposed to very much that challenged their faith.
But now the average Christian is inundated!
TV shows, movies, social media, internet content, teachers and professors, politicians, magazines and newspapers, and many other things, are laced with a sort of new way of looking at the world that is starting to spread throughout the globe. The idea that no one really knows the truth and there is no religion that is the one true religion, is prevalent (especially amongst first world countries). There seems to be a universal conviction developing that all religions are essentially the same, and anyone who says otherwise is a threat to the future of our planet.
So the typical Christian growing up in the faith hears these false ideas all day every day through a plethora of mediums. It’s in the constant stream of content that they consume. It’s often very subtle. It’s like the bad water people were drinking in Flint, Michigan. It looked and tasted like water; they thought nothing of it. Until people started getting sick.
Meager diet
Not only is the average Christian consuming inordinate amounts of content laced with the poison of unbiblical ideas, but, he or she lives on a meager spiritual diet. In other words, they only attend church 1-2 times a month. They neglect Bible reading and prayer. And they don’t have people they are deeply fellowshipping with. I’ve seen devotion erode even in my short life as a Christian. In the 90’s most devoted Christians went to church Sunday morning, Sunday evening and mid-week. That was the norm. Everyone carried Bibles that you could tell were read.
My point is that today Christians are consuming maybe a hundred times more content that subtly (or not so subtly) undermines the faith than they are consuming the truth of God. It’s no wonder they are falling away! They are being swept away by the ideas of the present age.
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. — Colossians 2:8
The real problem
What I believe is a much greater problem than the flood of unbiblical ideas is the problem of a faith without any real experience of the Living Christ. It’s simply not enough to learn all about the Christian faith and be persuaded that it’s true.
This is often what happens when children grow up in the faith and learn from parents and Sunday school teachers. By the time they are teens they have a pretty solid understanding of Christianity and—at that point—don’t have any reason to believe it isn’t true.
But as they hit the “thinking age” (16-22) they are introduced to multiplied thousands of reasons why the Christian faith doesn’t make sense. They are exposed to reason after reason why it is not in their best interest to be Christian. As soon as they feel bold enough to disappoint their Christian parents—they announce their “enlightenment.” What I’m describing isn’t something that happens occasionally to Christian kids but happens to most of them.
What I believe is grossly lacking in this generation is a genuine experience of God. Many of the people I know who fell away from the faith attended good Bible preaching churches. They had parents and youth pastors and godly uncles and praying grandmothers. They went to VBS and Awana. They went to youth retreats and heard some of the best youth preaching in the country. They were lavished with Bible information but never had an experience with God.
Handing the torch
Now, I don’t want to sound like I’m picking on young people. They are responsible for their lives, of course, but it is the responsibility of the older generation to give the younger generation, not just information about the Bible—but an encounter with God! Yes, we must teach the Bible to our children, absolutely. But we also must hand them a torch of fire. We must exemplify the power of the Spirit. We must pray and fast for a fresh outpouring of the Spirit on them. Part of the reason the younger generation doesn’t experience God is because—c’mon, let’s get honest—very few in the older generation are experiencing God.
As a pastor, it is my primary job to feed the congregation a steady diet of solid biblical truth. I labor in this every week and strive to present the Word of God undiluted to strengthen the people. But if all I have to give is biblical information—it’s NOT enough! This is exactly what Paul the Apostle expressed—
My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, — 1 Corinthians 2:4
Obviously, Paul was filled with wisdom and dispensed that wisdom everywhere he went. But he also sparked an experience with God. Not just by talking about the idea of it but by experiencing it himself and then testifying about it. I think we’d find just being around Paul was an experience of God. Not that Paul was God but Paul was so filled with God that you’d experience God in Paul!
Paul’s experience
I’m convinced that the great missing element in modern Christianity in America and other countries like her is the experiential. There’s something about an experience with God that alters you forever. It becomes like a sort of stamp on your heart that can’t be erased. If all we have is Bible information, and some reasons to believe, we can be shaken when other kinds of information, and reasons not to believe the Bible, come our way.
This deep experience with God is exactly what happened to Paul, right? You know he was a pretty terrible man before becoming a Christ follower. He dragged Christians into prison and even had some killed. He was there at Stephen’s stoning, for example, giving approval. But one day Paul was knocked off his horse by the power of God and a light shone upon him. He heard the voice of God saying, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And Paul was blind for three days until Ananias, a servant of Christ, laid hands on him to heal him and give him the filling of the Spirit. This deep experience transformed Paul.
One sweep
I can relate to Paul’s experience but perhaps in a less dramatic way. I had been listening to a couple of friends for months tell me about Christ. I started to read the Bible a little. I stopped using drugs and alcohol. I was seeking and open. The Lord was drawing me to Himself. But I was still in the dark and not yet born of the Spirit. As I was walking down the street late at night after being kicked out of the apartment I was staying at in Springfield, Mass, the Spirit of God fell upon me and I broke down weeping. Suddenly, the presence of God was so real and so near that I felt like He was hearing my every thought. He filled me with supernatural love and wiped away my guilt in a single sweep. I was never the same.
Experience and conviction
There are three things about that experience that made me know that it was God.
First, the weight of my guilt was completely and utterly eradicated. I mean, it just flew away. It was sucked right out of my heart and mind in such a way that I felt profound peace with God afterward. My sins were like a great burden of guilt for years but now I felt so light and happy!
Second, the darkness and sinfulness of my heart were replaced with an infilling of divine love that was nothing I had ever experienced. I knew myself well. I was 21 at the time and for about a decade had really done a lot of bad things. My heart had become utterly sinful and hard and bitter. I knew what my best self could be at times. And this love I was experiencing was nothing I was capable of in myself.
Third, for 21 years of my life I really never prayed except maybe a one liner here or there. The whole idea of prayer seemed utterly weird and unnatural. But once the Spirit came upon me I could not stop praying. I didn’t really know how to pray but the urge to pray was intense. I went from having zero desire to pray to being consumed with a desire to pray. Remember, I wasn’t doing anything. I was walking down the street! In one single breath, God transformed from the inside out. I'm coming up on 32 years since that night and still quake inside thinking of what happened. The entire trajectory of my life was set in a single moment.
I’m sharing these things today because I want you to hunger and thirst for genuine experiences with the Living God. Also, I want you to pray for the younger generation to experience God deeply. I believe the greatest need of the hour is for men and women who have had an experience with God. Yes, we must be sound theologically and know our Bibles. Yes, yes, yes. But we also must experience God in such a way that demonstrates to the world that God is indeed real. Oh, that we’d live lives that cannot be explained. Selah.