Why are Christians leaving their churches?

[EarlyActs]

As many as He calls He draws to Himself.

Is that how you see God's Word? I see it as The WORD of the living God.

I know you do, but to keep repeating 'it is the word of the living God' over and over, without reference to proof, testing, science, history, objective reality, makes it end up without definition. the non-Christian who does not know right from left needs to know certain 'pre-evangelistic' things.

That the events in the Bible happened in normal, recordable history. they were not drug trips that the authors decided to work up, to make money or get power.

that the languages in which the Bible was written were known in their day and time; that in the case of Greek, the Roman government used that as the most widely-read language for all documentation.

that when a prophet got specific enough to say that certain events would happen in 490 years, they did take place and it is testable, verifiable.

Surely you can see the importance of that.

 

[CrowCross]

Is not the sun made by God, who is the source of all fact? Why do we insist on spiritualizing such things as shekinah glory? We don't know what it is. We don't even know what existence is, yet we talk as though the ontology of what we can observe is a separate thing from the work of God.

You're right...all we can do is speculate. We speak of the shekinah glory because of Rev 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

We know it isn't the sun because the sun was created on day 4.

 

[makesends]

You're right...all we can do is speculate. We speak of the shekinah glory because of Rev 21:23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

We know it isn't the sun because the sun was created on day 4.

But we want to think the sun is physical, but shekinah glory is not. My point is that we don't even know what existence is, nevermind what the smallest particle or force is; the sun is entirely existent by the power of God. Be as scientific as you can, you can't get away from that fact. SO, what makes us capable of knowing whether the sun is not of the same 'material' as the glory of God. The best reason is because we don't hear of it that way, and are not used to thinking that way.

 

[CrowCross]

But we want to think the sun is physical, but shekinah glory is not. My point is that we don't even know what existence is, nevermind what the smallest particle or force is; the sun is entirely existent by the power of God. Be as scientific as you can, you can't get away from that fact. SO, what makes us capable of knowing whether the sun is not of the same 'material' as the glory of God. The best reason is because we don't hear of it that way, and are not used to thinking that way.

I simply go by what has been revealed in Genesis 1.
Secondly I have no reason to believe the sun is the same glory as God any more than the light from a lightning bug is the same glory as God.

 

[makesends]

I simply go by what has been revealed in Genesis 1.
Secondly I have no reason to believe the sun is the same glory as God any more than the light from a lightning bug is the same glory as God.

ok

 

[prism]

I know you do, but to keep repeating 'it is the word of the living God' over and over, without reference to proof, testing, science, history, objective reality, makes it end up without definition. the non-Christian who does not know right from left needs to know certain 'pre-evangelistic' things.

Will not the Holy Spirit, as we share His Word, convict the non-Christian of his sinfulness and/or his need for Jesus as Savior?

 

[Hobie]

“Why are Christians attending churches?” would be the more critical question (not unlike “Why did you become a pastor?”). If the reason behind either of these questions is wrong, then the individual has little hope for “finishing the race well” (as Paul put it).

COVID shut the doors of a lot of places that people gathered regularly (including Church and favorite restaurants) and shattered the habit of ‘just because’. When people were forced to rethink why they did things, they discovered that they no longer desired to do many things “just because we always did them”. Take-out and eating at home was quieter than many of the noisy restaurants where servers provided mediocre service at best. So, too, with gathering for church to play at religion. Time is our most precious commodity … why waste it in a gathering that does not sanctify us, offers no real opportunity for anything “one another”, and honors God no more than watching a good movie.

Where the Church is being the Church, Christians will gather and worship and praise and “one another”. Where we and it are just “posing”, people will get tired of the social club and look elsewhere for “the real thing” (even if they look to ‘gold idols’).

Very true, most churches no longer know what they believe or what Gods Word says, they are just social clubs and people are shocked to discover that God desires anything of them, even to share the Gospel..

 

[EarlyActs]

Will not the Holy Spirit, as we share His Word, convict the non-Christian of his sinfulness and/or his need for Jesus as Savior?

So was there no need for the effort by Jesus to provide proof as in the first scene of Mark 2?

Or the opening verses of Hebrews? Repeated in ch 2?

The thing you mentioned is His business. Our work is to have an answer for the hope, 1 Peter 3.

 

[prism]

So was there no need for the effort by Jesus to provide proof as in the first scene of Mark 2?

Are you able to heal a paralytic and then say 'your sins are forgiven'?

The thing you mentioned is His business. Our work is to have an answer for the hope, 1 Peter 3.

The context of 1Pet3:15 is suffering (vss 16,17), not doing apologetics.

Besides, what has all this to do with the OP???

 

[CrowCross]

Very true, most churches no longer know what they believe or what Gods Word says, they are just social clubs and people are shocked to discover that God desires anything of them, even to share the Gospel..

Do you include your church with most churches? Or, is your church the only true church?

 

[EarlyActs]

Are you able to heal a paralytic and then say 'your sins are forgiven'?

The context of 1Pet3:15 is suffering (vss 16,17), not doing apologetics.

Besides, what has all this to do with the OP???

Can’t you see that Jesus did that miracle that way to prove the truth of what he was saying?

 

[EarlyActs]

Are you able to heal a paralytic and then say 'your sins are forgiven'?

The context of 1Pet3:15 is suffering (vss 16,17), not doing apologetics.

Besides, what has all this to do with the OP???

 

[EarlyActs]

Are you able to heal a paralytic and then say 'your sins are forgiven'?

The context of 1Pet3:15 is suffering (vss 16,17), not doing apologetics.

Besides, what has all this to do with the OP???

Suffering for your beliefs? You better have proof of what you know! Or you’ll whither.

People leave the church bc it has no answers or the ones given are subjective . Think of how many people get stuck about ‘why is there evil?’ Answers matter!

 

[CrowCross]

@prism @EarlyActs

Are people actualy leaving the church or are they changing church?

Sure some people simply leave the church....I left a church but found another. I know of many people who have church swapped.

 

[EarlyActs]

Prism,
how do you personally reconcile the 'problem of evil'--why evil things happen to you, or why they happen to others, or why God 'allows' evil to happen?

 

[makesends]

Prism,
how do you personally reconcile the 'problem of evil'--why evil things happen to you, or why they happen to others, or why God 'allows' evil to happen?

MOD HAT: How is that relevant to the OP, or the subject of the OP?

 

[EarlyActs]

MOD HAT: How is that relevant to the OP, or the subject of the OP?

It's about why people leave the church; they don't accept explanations they hear.

In some churches, no one knows how to take a question like this without getting defensive, because they are so convinced on a superficial level. It is when a person has been through a huge ordeal of pain and difficulty, and still believes the truth of the Bible, or at least that there is goodness, and that God is good, that an audience is gained.

 

[EarlyActs]

I don’t know why there is a post 32. Maybe a mod can delete it.