Why Many People Aren’t Christians
Many People Fall Away from Christianity between 19 and 29
I was a late bloomer at 33 when I became Christian. I formed a trio in high school in Texas: THE SATAN TRIO. We weren’t making any type of statement about God or the devil. It was just a catchy name. If you’re old enough to recall, it was the closest name to THE KINGSTON TRIO we could think of. They were a hero of ours at the time.
My Home Life Was Less Than A Model Experience
What was interesting was that we performed at least twice in our Methodist church, and no one ever mentioned there might be something wrong with our name. This included the pastor.
At home as a teen, we didn’t have a Bible on our coffee table. Instead we had Playboy and Penthouse magazines. My dad was addicted to them, and very proud of them. He even displayed them for others to see.
He told my brother Tim and I we could look at them. He even encouraged us to, as long as we didn’t bend the pages. And he encouraged us in other things that aren’t really good for teenagers. He said he wanted to teach us to grow up and be ‘real men.’
I rejected much of what I was offered, but Tim accepted it all. He also died of a heart attack at a young age. I miss my brother dearly.
I talk of my dad more in my article, “Honor Your Dad and Your Mom.” This was something hard for me to do when I was younger. I really had to deal with this and work at it. It wasn’t easy the way I was raised.
Is Christianity A JOB, Or Is It A JOY To Live?
So I didn’t have much to do with Christianity during my 20’s, although I met my wife-to-be, Leenie, on a church hay-ride when I was about 18.
I did start going to church, several years later, and was introduced to the law of the Old Testament: THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. I didn’t know much about Jesus until later, except he was a nice guy and real smart.
Like so many in church, I was raised in the DO’S and DON’TS. “DO attend church, read your Bible, pray, have quiet time, serve in some way, attend small group, and give lots of money.” Or: “DON’T lie, cuss, cheat, steal, commit adultery, yell at your spouse, kick the cat, or be a brat.” Churches have their own slant on it, and it varies from church to church.
Being a Christian was like a big JOB! The Bible speaks of having JOY!
Gospel Fathers vs. Instructors in Jesus’ Ways
Paul has a verse in I Corinthians that talks about ‘10,000 Instructors in Christ’ VERSUS very few ‘Fathers of the Gospel.’ As I observed Christianity I had to agree with Paul. Almost everyone I heard was an instructor in what to do and what not to do — to be a good Christian.
As a lawyer, I’d been raised on the law, so this sounded like the right thing to me. After all, having grown up in the law, that affected everything I did, why not relate to God the same way?
Law Preachers Preach the Ministry of Guilt
I later found some verses that led me into being ‘The Gospel Life Coach.’
In II Corinthians 3, he says the OLD Testament law is ‘the ministry of condemnation and death.’ That’s a strong allegation. In the same chapter he says we should only live and minister the NEW Testament.
This doesn’t mean to avoid the Old, — but just don’t try to live by it. It was for a different time and place. Hebrews and other books talks about our ‘BETTER New Covenant’ in Jesus.
The book of Acts says that all who tried to live by it failed. All means all. Galatians even calls us all FOOLS if we don’t live by the gospel.
I may not be the sharpest tack in the box, but I’m not totally dumb.
I began seeing things that I never heard in church ! ! !
The gospel talks about God’s goodness and grace attracting us to him.
The Gospel Is “Good News of Good Things”
The gospel being ‘good news of good things’ comes from a verse in Romans. When I started getting my head screwed on straight, spiritually speaking, God started showing me all the good things in his gospel. Several times I read that God gave us everything he has to give — both abundant life on earth and eternal life in heaven. What a deal!
I began seeing that the gospel was like the delivery vehicle God used to give us so many things we couldn’t receive any other way.
And I even read where the commands of Jesus were not grievous, hard or burdensome. Jesus says his way is easy and his burden is light. And Jesus had lots of negative things to say about us LAWYERS. “Woe to you lawyers.”
But I actually began learning that being educated in the law helped me more in understanding the Bible! The Bible is full of legal terms: pardon, reconciliation, adoption, redemption, judgment, and many many others. Even ‘faith’ is defined in the book of Hebrews as ‘evident’ — a very legal subject. Being a lawyer has helped me understand many things in the Bible that often go over the heads of a lot of people.
God Is Not Often Found In Church
It you have your eyes open, you can find God anywhere. On our wedding venue property in Evergreen Colorado USA, I spent a half hour one day watching our dogs relate to a horse. They just really wanted to play with him, and I sense he wanted to play with them too.
It has become my observation that, if a church is not preaching the gospel, and is not ‘a father of the gospel’ to us, it turns people away. Just to be given an endless list of things to do — that keeps getting longer depending on the church — is nothing that attracts most people.
These type churches should have a sign over their door when you enter:
“A Church of Guilt, Condemnation and Death.” That would really get some attention and raise some eyebrows, now wouldn’t it?
CONTINUED NEXT TIME! I’ll have more to say about this next time when I tell about a gospel duo I sang with (Roy, a black man, recited the scripture from memory in an elegant baritone voice). We called ourselves THE SALVAGE COMPANY.
We were ‘salvaging souls for Jesus,’ but had no clue what that even meant. We dubbed ourselves ‘gospel salt and pepper’ — but we didn’t have a clue what the gospel even was. It was ‘gobbledegook’ to us.
Neither Roy nor I were Christians, although we attended a Methodist church in Denver, Colorado USA. “God does work in mysterious ways” — and often it is totally outside of church.
