Can A True Believer Really Walk Away From God?
Did They Really Walk Away?
A couple weeks ago Joshua Harris decided to walk away from God and no longer considers himself a Christian. The man who wrote “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” and influenced my generation in purity and relationships has now kissed his marriage goodbye and renounced his belief in God. How is this possible? Joshua Harris’ was not without fault, but I believe he was faithful to God and his Word for the majority of his ministry. So what went wrong?
Some people jump to the conclusion that Harris was never a Christian to begin with… is that really true? Could a man teach the gospel all those years and never really believe it for himself? Maybe… Others say he just decided he no longer wanted to believe; his desire to leave his wife and the depression that resulted from hearing from those who had been harmed by his books in the documentary “I Survived ‘I Kissed Dating Goodbye‘” was just too much for him… so he walked away. But can someone who has truly tasted and seen the goodness of God really just walk away like that?
Harris isn’t the only one in the media who has done this recently. Just the other day, Hillsong song writer Marty Sampson admitted to struggling similarly in his own life, and many more have done so before them. At least three of my close friends have walked away from God. I even credit one of these friends greatly for leading me to the church where I started my walk with the Lord. Were these guys never believers to begin with? Or did they just walk away? To be honest, I don’t know… How could I know? How could you know? Scripture is clear that God will never leave or forsake us, but could a person willfully walk away from God? I don’t know…
How Should We Respond?
Too often, I hear people talk about this issue like they know exactly what went wrong. To say someone was never really a believer to begin with is a pretty bold and cold claim. How can you know? What if they were a believer and are going through a crisis of faith, only to eventually come back after a time of wrestling with God? Maybe God isn’t done with Joshua Harris or my three friends…
Recently I heard another ex-Christian talk about his crisis of faith. Spencer Chamberlain is the frontman for Underoath, a mega popular formerly Christian metal band. Spencer started struggling with drug addiction during his travels with Underoath. Instead of his Christian brothers and sisters coming around him to encourage him during that struggle, he said he just felt condemned and let down when he needed them the most. As a result, he drifted away from his Christian beliefs.
We do not know a person’s heart, and we do not know the future. As believers, we need to encourage these people to seek truth and help them find it. We may not be able to answer all of the questions they have, but we have more than enough information to have confidence in God as our creator, the Bible as his Word, and Jesus’ work on the Cross (See Is There Any Historical Evidence That Jesus Rose From The Dead?). We just need to be willing to patiently walk alongside those who are struggling with their faith, love them, and help them get to the root of their doubt.
If you were looking for a theologically deep and scholarly answer, this post probably didn’t help. The point of this post was to deal with the pastoral side of the issue. We need to love people who are going through a crisis of faith and point them back to Jesus. We need to be willing to answer their tough questions, have and help them find answers even when we don’t know the answers. It is not necessarily bad to ask the question “Can A True Believer Really Walk Away From God?” but we need to be careful not to make assumptions based on our intellectual conclusions. These people need love and truth, not our assumptions.
