Out-of-Church Christians: Part 2
[Editor's Note: This the second part of a series examining the phenomenon of large numbers of Christians leaving the organized church in order to preserve their faith. To read Part 1, click here.]
Over thirteen million people in the United States and a total of 112 million people worldwide have left the church in recent years. So what’s going on? It is the “great falling away” spoken of in the scriptures? Or could it be of God?
In Chapter Two of the booklet I’m reviewing, author Andrew Strom reveals that he believes God is calling many people out of the church into what he describes as “the wilderness.” After telling of his own wilderness experience, he reminds us of Moses, David, John the Baptist and other men whom God called into the wilderness to prepare them for leadership. As we all know, the wilderness experiences of these men often pre-empted massive changes God was about to introduce to His people, such as the exodus of the Israelites in the OT or the coming of Jesus in the NT. Strom believes that God is calling many people away from the church and “into the wilderness” for a time to prepare their hearts to lead a coming reformation and massive global revival where God will restore mainstream Christianity back to its Apostolic roots and purity of doctrine.
That’s a grand hypothesis, and I have to admit I’m still a little skeptical, although I’d certainly like to wholeheartedly believe that! When I think it through on a “big picture” level, however, some things are clear:
- Christians in other churches are just as valued by God as Christians in Apostolic churches.
- God makes no distinction between religious labels nor who has correct doctrine and who doesn’t.
- If a person is searching for God, they are guaranteed to find Him.
(All these, of course, should be givens. You’ve heard this before, hopefully.)
I think we Apostolics have been much too quick to write off Christians in non-A/P churches as not really desiring the whole truth, being blinded by false doctrine, being satisfied with a watered-down doctrine, etc. This is only way to reason away the fact that God was not revealing to seemingly otherwise wonderful people the same great truth that He had revealed to us. In other words, since there was nothing wrong with our doctrine, there must be something wrong with them.
In recent years I haven’t been as satisfied with that simplistic answer to such a hard question. Even a cursory examination of Christians in other churches will reveal that they are just like us in many ways – people who, for the most part were born and raised in their respective religions or they were converted and their lives were truly changed; genuine Christians just trying to do the best they can; Christians just believing what they’d always been taught by their beloved leaders; Christians who took someone else’s word for it and followed the traditions of the church rather than reading the Bible and thinking for themselves.
- Therefore, if A/Ps are truly correct in their salvational doctrine (and I believe we are or else I wouldn’t be Apostolic), then it stands to reason that God would want every faithful Christian to gain the knowledge of this truth.
- It further stands to reason that God would call such people out of their respective churches to get them away from all the “clutter” in order to reveal this truth to them personally because they’re unlikely to hear this sort of thing anywhere else.
- If God heard the cry of the Israelites during their suffering in Egypt, if it was important to Him that His people not remain in bondage, doesn’t it make sense that He would hear the cries of his true followers around the world? After all, 112 million people is almost 45 times the number of the estimated 2.5 million people God led out of Egypt for the Promised Land. This isn’t to say that numbers impress God, but it’s impossible for Him to turn a deaf ear on even one hungry soul, much less intervene due to millions upon millions of combined prayers.
So what does this mean for us as Apostolics? As you will see in Part 3 (coming tomorrow), many of the reasons why people left their respective churches are due to problems that are often present in our own Apostolic churches in varying degrees. (And don’t think people aren’t leaving our churches as well, because they are.) So the question is, why?
Questions, comments, concerns?
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