There have been some unsettling stories of high-profile Christian leaders turning their backs on the faith over the past few months.
Harris’ ‘Goodbye’
Joshua Harris, best-selling author and successor to C.J. Mahaney at Covenant Life Church in America, issued a statement on Instagram in July 2019 revealing that he was no longer a Christian. He had already distanced himself from his highly influential book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and was separated from his wife of 20 years. His social media post declared: ‘I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is “deconstruction,” the biblical phrase is “falling away”. By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.’
Sampson’s ‘So long’
A second Christian ‘celebrity’ to announce their falling away via Instagram was Hillsong worship leader and songwriter, Marty Sampson. His post (later removed) gave a little more detail as to why he could no longer believe, asking: ‘Why is the Bible full of contradictions? No one talks about it. How can God be love yet send 4 billion people to a place, all ’coz they don’t believe? No one talks about it … I am not in any more. I want genuine truth. Not the “I Just Believe It” kind of truth.’
Sampson’s words are particularly disturbing. What kind of Christianity never talks about these things or asks these questions? I can’t think of a page of the New Testament that does not, in some sense, address questions like these. But perhaps there are forms of church life where such teaching is avoided.
The merit of modern apologetics
I am only naming these two examples because they chose to go public on social media, but we will all know of others who have quietly departed from the faith for undisclosed reasons. I doubt there is any ‘general principle’ for why people fall away. Christians have always faced the challenge of fake faith, along with the World, the Flesh and the Devil. Life is complicated. But these examples do remind me of the value of apologetics for the church.
Often apologetics, giving reasons for our faith, is seen as part of evangelism. It is seen as a tool for those who want to reach awkward non-believers and sceptics. But apologetics must also be for the church. It helps Christians, old or young, clarify what they believe and why. It creates a healthy environment for raising questions and realising that none of us has all the answers.
Our faith should be strong enough to welcome difficult questions, knowing that we have nothing to fear from exploring science, culture and religion. The Bible really does give satisfying answers – but we need to know what questions to ask.
I am not suggesting that apologetics will prevent Christians, in leadership or otherwise, from falling away. And I am not so naïve as to think that most falling away is the result of unanswered questions.
But I do think robust apologetics should be part of healthy discipleship. We would certainly benefit from less celebrity-obsessed and more truth-obsessed Christianity. The New Testament writers warned us that those professing faith may come and go, but God’s word remains true (1 Peter 1:24-25). Apologetics helps keep our focus on that eternal word.
