"They went out from us...": Intellectual Dissatisfaction Leads to Apostasy

Reclaiming the Mind Ministries is dedicated to equipping the laymen of the Church, namely for apprehending and affirming sound, orthodox theology--something of which modern-day evangelicalism is in great need. In the organization's April newsletter, Michael Patton, RTM Ministries president, addresses the issue of those intellectually unsatisfied leaving Christianity.

In the article, "Leaving Christ(ianity) - A Christian Epidemic," Patton traces the symptoms that inevitably arise when the harder questions concerning the faith are left unanswered in the context of the local church. Focusing on a particular young lady who had formally renounced her faith, Patton writes:

Ignorance. Pity. Shame. These are all good descriptions of what she thought of Christianity. But the primary description that I felt coming from here was “betrayal.” She had been betrayed by the Church because they duped her into a belief not unlike that of the tooth fairy. When she discovered this betrayal, no one had a valid answer or excuse. So she left. She is now an unbeliever—a soon-to-be evangelistic unbeliever.

Patton writes further about "the epidemic of unbelief among our own," noting he has developed a fascination of the subject over the years. Citing data revealing 65 to 94 percent of high school students stop attending church after graduation, Patton ponders the first step of a person's drift into unbelief.

The question that we must ask is a very simple one: Why? Why are people leaving the faith at this epidemic and alarming rate? In my studies, I have found that the two primary reasons people leave the faith are 1) intellectual challenges and 2) bad theology or misplaced beliefs.

He continues by articulating the five steps into adamant, self-aware unbelief that expresses itself in evangelistic skepticism. The five steps are: 1) doubt; 2) discouragement; 3) disillusionment; 4) apathy; and 5) departure.

As one who didn't begin asking the tough questions till after becoming a believer, Patton's examples in his description of discouragement have been the source of the most personal discouragement. For step two, Patton explains:

This is where the person becomes frustrated because they are not finding the answers. They ask questions but the answer (or lack thereof) bring them to discouragement. Their church tells them that such questions are “unchristian.” Their Sunday school teachers say “I don’t know. You just have to believe.” Others simply say, “That’s a good question; I have never thought of it before,” and then go on their way on their own leap-of-faith journey.

During the disillusionment stage, the person then feels betrayed once the leadership of the church--ones who they might have seen as mentors--fails to make an attempt to honestly and adequately answer their inquiries. Pattons states, "In their thinking the intellect has become illegitimized and the church is therefore an illegitimate contender for their mind."

Once the person is comfortable enough in their unbelief to leave stage four (apathy), their sense of betrayal leads them to feel a moral obligation to rescue others from the deception.

Of course, Patton affirms that those who abandon the faith, such as the young lady to whom he'd spoken, were never real Christians to begin with. First John 2:19 says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us" (ESV).

Patton recalls the young lady's word from that conversation: “I don’t really even care what you have to say to me. I just don’t believe anymore and there is nothing anyone can do about it." This is typically the point of no return, according to Patton, who then rightly asks, "How was she a part of the church for so long without the church engaging her on these issues?"

Everyone will go through the doubt phase. Everyone should ask questions about the faith. If you have not asked the “How do you know . . .” questions about the message of the Gospel, this is not a good thing. We should be challenged to think through these questions early in the faith. The Church needs to rethink its education program. Expositional preaching, while important, is not enough. Did you hear that? Expositional preaching is not enough. It does not provide the discipleship venue that is vital for us to prevent and overcome this epidemic. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that it does.

Indeed, did you hear that? "Expositional preaching is not enough." While some of us may not agree with that statement or on a solution to counter the allowance or cultivation of unbelief to persist among those in the church, we would all agree these issues need to be given serious attention. Matters of propositional truth are at the heart of the Christian faith and to leave epistemological issues unsettled is to lay a shaky foundation for the heavy truth claims that make up Christianity.

As Patton puts it, the Church has been on "an intellectual diet for the last century" and we're suffering its effects. With hearts of unbelief, sinners are inevitably going to attempt to "exchange the truth about God for a lie" (Romans 1:25). It's a sad day when the Church due to laziness and misplaced priorities makes unbelievers seem justified in doing so.