Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Leaving Christianity for All the Wrong Reasons

C Michael Patton @ http://www.reclaimingthemind.org has an interesting post on theological reasons why people leave Christianity.

Theological Reasons: Casualties by Friendly-Fire

Thesis: We have the tendency, left without theological discipleship and accountability, to make God into who we think he ought to be. When that version of him fails, it is not as if the true version has failed, but only the version we created. Therefore, we have not really left God in a proper sense, but we have left the God we made. Sure, this God may be called “Jesus” and he may have died on a cross for our sins, but, for some people, these form secondary characteristics that are not foundational.

The lack of theological discipleship in the Church has created casualties by friendly-fire.

The “My will be done” type of God named “Jesus”

The personal promise maker God named “Jesus”

The “I am primarily concerned about your success and stability” God named “Jesus”

The “I am about your glory” God named “Jesus”

The “Jesus” who said the world was flat

"In summary, the church needs to look long and hard at its current Gospel discharge methods and see that the lack of intellectual viability presented and the bad theology allowed for form the bed that we have made. From a human perspecive, we may be suffering such loses due to friendly-fire. We need to make sure that if people are leaving Christianity, they are not doing so for all the wrong reasons".

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