The Reason Evangelicals Leave the Faith Part I

I realize that I owe DagoodS another post in the series, Christianity’s Biggest Difficulties, and I’ll return to that soon.

Recently, I’ve been jarred by the apparent apostasy of some very good friends.  Through the years, all of us hear of the unfortunate “backsliding” of those who were once faithful Christians, but that is not what I am describing here. Most “backslidden” Christians don’t deny the truth of the Christian faith; most come to the conclusion that their selfish desires are simply more important than Christ. I am describing people who were once devout Christians but have vocally left the faith and are now claiming that their previously held faith is not the truth.  These are the kinds of people that I believe Hebrews 6 speaks of: those who “have been enlightened…” but “fall away.”

As I talk to these good friends who have “fallen away,” the overwhelming problem that they have with Christianity, at least evangelical Christianity, is the central document of Christianity, the Bible.  The Protestant Reformation placed a high value on the Inerrancy of Scripture, the idea that the Bible is the perfectly preserved word of God, without flaw or error.  Since then, the evangelical church has adopted this doctrine and placed it at the core of Christian theology.

The problem for many evangelicals is that when they take a look at the Scripture, they find a document that, at least at face value, appears inconsistent or flawed.  The books within both the Old and New Testaments seem to disagree with themselves in a number of places, depicting a God who is unchanging and immaterial in one passage, and a God who changes His mind and physically walks in the Garden of Eden with His children in another.

When a skeptical-or even open-minded-Christian takes an honest look at these problems, his faith is put to the test.  Many Christians, some of my closest friends included, have decided that a Scripture this internally conflicted cannot possibly be inerrant; therefore they conclude that they cannot trust any of the Bible’s claims-if it is flawed in one place, it cannot be trusted throughout. So, they walk away from the faith.

I’d like to dialogue more with you all about this.  If you are a believer, how do you handle these problems with the Scripture vs. the Doctrine of Inerrancy?  If you are an apostate or an un-believer, have I misstated your case?  What are your thoughts on inerrancy?

Related Posts:

Biblical Inerrancy - The Meat of the Matter

Biblical Inerrancy: From the Bible, or Enlightenment?

Is the Bible Inerrant?

The Authority of the Bible