Dr Paul Allen

Year after year, it seems like a never-ending supply of pastors, pastor’s kids, and artists formerly known as Christians are making the headlines in the religious and secular world alike. As a result, many a writer takes up the pen to provide some commentary on the subject, either celebrating the “victory” of winning them over to the secular cause, or bemoaning the state of the church, or the state of apologetics, or the state of the family. While those bemoaning the state of the church, apologetics, and the family (and more) are all true to an extent, I believe people miss the fundamental issue behind every one of these de-conversion stories. The reality is that many can make all sorts of grand excuses for why they’ve defected from the Christian faith, but the apostle John summarizes it most succinctly for us when he says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us…” (1 Jn. 2:19). Now, for many that is simply not a satisfactory answer because at first blush, it’s a bit too Calvin

“Have you heard that .__________, is no longer a Christian?” But that person had been one of the most influential, and apparently fruitful, members of our church?  What would those who had been influenced by her witness to Christ say, or do? Would they be shaken to the core and now doubt their own Christian faith ? After all, the person who had pointed them to Christ no longer trusted Him. On occasion we wonder if an individual really has been converted. And sometimes we have an inexplicable, ill-defined sense that something is missing. But we cannot read the heart. Even so, we hear of friends—whose faith we never doubted—turning away from Christ. Apostasy is the old, vigorous word to describe this abandonment of Christ. The New Testament church was familiar with it. It was a major concern of the author of Hebrews . That is why he wrote the often-discussed words of Hebrews 6:4–6:  Those once enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit