When Your Christian Friends Fall Away From Jesus

[Garland-Green]

BY MATT MOORE , CP GUEST COLUMNIST
August 18, 2016|7:35 am

Sadness and terror simultaneously fill my heart when I think about all the departures from the Christian faith I've witnessed in my short six years of following Jesus. I have seen so many friends experience what seemed to be a legitimate conversion only to then prove its illegitimacy by despising the gospel they once supposedly cherished. One moment they appeared to be joyfully walking with God, and then out of nowhere — to my shock and horror — they began trampling all over his Son (Hebrews 10:29). I'm not talking about just a little backsliding or a bit of stumbling. These guys and gals flat out rejected Jesus. Today, they proudly admit that they couldn't care less about the biblical realities of sin, judgment, or God's gracious offer of redemption. They are utterly finished with Christianity.

Watching people you love turn from Jesus and strut toward eternal destruction is obviously a somber experience. But it doesn't just grieve me — it also scares the mess out of me. My friends so convincingly appeared to be born again! I was involved in many of their journeys toward a decision to follow Christ, and you could not have persuaded me that they had become anything less than bona fide believers. Their transformations looked just like mine. They walked, talked, prayed, and praised just like me. If they could so easily fall away, how can I assume I won't eventually do the same?

Matthew's gospel offers us some scary yet potentially life-saving insight. If you aren't familiar with Jesus' parable about The Sower, please check out the entire passage here. For length's sake, I'm only going to paste the section I want to focus on in this post:

"Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away . . . As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away."­ – Matthew 13:5-6, 20-21


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In-guild discussions;
Eternal Security of the Believer?
"Eternal Security"  

[Lady Vizsla]

It's sad that sometimes people who become Christians don't realize it is not a 'comfortable' religion. The world will hate you and there will be hard times, but only those committed to Christ will endure.  

[Garland-Green]

Lady Kariel

It's sad that sometimes people who become Christians don't realize it is not a 'comfortable' religion. The world will hate you and there will be hard times, but only those committed to Christ will endure.

Perhaps it is because there are some who are very influential who sell Christ as a means to get richer or advance in the world?  

[Lady Vizsla]

Garland-Green

Lady Kariel

It's sad that sometimes people who become Christians don't realize it is not a 'comfortable' religion. The world will hate you and there will be hard times, but only those committed to Christ will endure.

Perhaps it is because there are some who are very influential who sell Christ as a means to get richer or advance in the world?

That's true too. Some pastors use Christianity as a 'get rich quick' scheme at the expense of their churchgoers and that kind of thing discourages people.