The Reason Evangelicals Leave the Faith Part 2

Previously, I’ve discussed the main reason many young evangelical Christians leave the faith.  The problem that many apostates have with Christianity is the veneration of the Bible as the completely perfect Word of God, without flaw or blemish.  When a curious person begins to notice apparent contradictions in the text, often they conclude that the faith is based upon faulty foundations, and they abandon it.

The Fundamental Misunderstanding
According to Islamic doctrine, the only real “miracle” that Mohammad performed was the was the writing of the Qur’an. Muslims believe that the angel Gabriel appeared to Mohammad and enabled him to write the text of his scripture.  Muslims hold the text in incredibly high regard, claiming that it is entirely perfect in its original language, and that it is perfectly preserved by the divine will of Allah.  Sound familiar?  It should, because this is the same position that many Christians hold about the Bible.  Oh, we don’t claim that Gabriel came down and dictated the whole texts of the books of Scripture to the authors of Scripture, but we do hold that the text has been perfectly inspired and preserved down through the ages by God, and that it contains a consistent revelation of the truth in all situations.  This teaching has become a core doctrine of the evangelical Christian faith, and I think that it reflects a poor understanding of the Christian gospel.

Don’t misunderstand, I have a high regard for the Scripture, and I do believe that the Bible was inspired by God to the writers of its books. I also think that many of the so-called “contradictions” in the Bible can be rationally reconciled with careful consideration. What I fear, however, is that this belief has become the central tenet of Christian theology, so if it can be shown to be erroneous, the whole Christian faith falls apart.  The Christian faith becomes Bibliocentric instead of Christocentric.

Making or Breaking the Christian Faith
In my view, while the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture is important, it neither makes or breaks the Christian faith.  Those who have placed the Bible at the center of the faith are missing the point, because the point of Christianity is that the God of the universe wants to have a relationship with humanity.  Apostates caught up in Scriptural “problems” forget that they were not ultimately convinced of the truth of Christianity by the arguments presented in the Bible, but that they (if they were genuinely converted) had a personal experience with God that convinced them of His love.  Often, the Bible was an important part of that experience, but ultimately, God spoke to them in a personal way through the work of His Spirit within their hearts.

Those who hold the Scripture as the absolute center of the faith have obviously ignored the fact that the Christian church thrives throughout history whether the Scripture is available to believers or not.  The church spread like wildfire before the completion of the canon, and in modern times, it spreads like wildfire in places where Scripture is outlawed.  This is because the work of Christ is not bound by even the pages of the Holy Text of Christianity.

So, if your on the way to deconversion, or if you’ve solidly deconverted, perhaps you can see that your objections to the Bible don’t automatically equate to objections with Christianity.  Perhaps you’re just looking at the Bible in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons?

This video is relevant, and although I don’t necessarily agree with all of what this hermit says, I really enjoy looking at him, so you might as well!

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