Thoughts On "Falling Away"

posted by Kirk M. Wellum

There is something that I have been thinking about for a while now that I want to talk about here on "Redeeming The Time". It is the very common phenomenon in the church circles in which I move to hear people who are giving their testimonies tell of how they made a profession of faith at one time in their past, and then they wandered away from the Lord, but now they have recommitted themselves to him and want to go on with him from this point forward. My concern in raising the issue is to try and understand why this happens so frequently and to think about what can be done to prevent this pattern from repeating itself.

When I stop and think about it, there are several reasons why it occurs in the first place.

First, is an inadequate understanding of the gospel. Sometimes this is the fault of the one doing the preaching, but more often than not, I have observed that it is a problem with those who are hearing the Word of God. For some reason they have trouble grasping the fact that Jesus is both Lord and Savior. He does not give us an option in this regard. It is not a flip-the-coin or take one-out-of-two proposition. He saves those who are spiritually dead as Lord and he rules over those whom he brings to himself as Savior. But no matter how clearly this is explained by preachers and teachers, myself included, this is not what people hear us saying. They seem to hear what they want to hear. They want forgiveness for their sins and the promise of eternal life, but they are not prepared to surrender themselves without reservation to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Consequently, theirs is only a partial response to the gospel. They are like those described by Jesus in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13, Mark 4, Luke 8) as seed sown on rocky ground. They hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root they last only for a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Notice the initial joyful response. They are thrilled with what they hear. But it does not last because they are not sufficiently grounded in Jesus.

One of the great dangers of this kind of spiritual predicament is that such people are often given a false sense of assurance by other well-meaning Christians. They are told that now that they have made their possession of faith they should never doubt their salvation. Doubt is treated as if it were the great sin and something that would only be inflicted on them by Satan himself.

The fact of the matter is that they need to be told to continue on in Jesus. The implications of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit need to be communicated to them. They need to be encouraged to grow in the Lord and helped in their walk with Jesus. During this time the genuineness of their profession will be revealed for what it is, or isn't!

I fear that this "falling away" is as common as it is because there is very little follow-up. Too many are left to fend for themselves. Too many assumptions are made about their spiritual well-being and what they actually believe about the Christian life. It is my growing conviction that taking time to probe a little deeper would go a long way to preventing some of these spiritual difficulties.

To be continued...