Are “Christians” Who Reject the Faith Actually True Christians?

20 Aug Are “Christians” Who Reject the Faith Actually True Christians?

Last week, we looked at the question, “What happens when I willfully continue to sin?”

 In answer, we made the observation that three things may happen:

• Cause / effect consequences
• Spiritual warfare consequences
• Divine discipline consequences

We also concluded that a Christian’s sin does not cause him/her to lose salvation, but in the examples of the “Sinning Son” and the “Sinning Celebrants,” we see that the consequences of divine discipline can become severe – including even physical death.  But their souls were still saved.

Are people who defect from the faith truly Christians in the first place?

This week, we look at the question, “What happens when a ‘Christian’ rejects the Christian faith?”  That is, a person is not just willfully sinning, but actually announces that he/she no longer believes what one must believe to be a Christian… no longer believes in God, no longer believes that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus.

Was that person ever a Christian in the first place?

This question is particularly relevant because of some recent defections from the faith by very high-profile Christians.  From pastors of monster mega-churches, to best-selling Christian authors, to celebrity musicians, a number of defections and near-defections have rattled the Christian community in America and set the unbelieving community abuzz.

These unfortunate revelations beg several questions, but the one we want to look at today is whether or not these people are/were ever true Christians in the first place.    And the bottom-line answer is, “we don’t know.”  But we want to unpack that a bit.

In Matthew 13:18-23, Mark 4:3-20, and Luke 8:4-15, Jesus told the parable of the seed and the soil, which identified two types of responses to the Word:

• Bad Soil Responses:
  • Soil beside the road: seed (Word of God) did not sprout
  • Soil on rocky places: seed (Word of God) sprouted but quickly died
  • Soil among thorns: seed (Word of God) sprouted but eventually died
• Good Soil Response:
  • yielded 30-fold increase
  • yielded 60-fold increase
  • yielded 100-fold crop

The bad soil represents those who have not become true Christians.  The last two in the bad soil initially might have seemed to be Christians, but produced no true fruit, demonstrating that they were never truly born again. The second kind of soil, good soil, produced varying degrees of fruit – some meager, some lavish. 

So, these people who declare that they reject the faith they formerly professed, are they soil that initially looked as though it would produce fruit to maturity, but the seed was eventually choked out by the cares of the world, indicating that they were never Christian in the first place? 

Or, are they true Christians who have been deceived by the enemy into denying the faith they once embraced? 

2 Timothy 2:24-26, says, “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged,  with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,  and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”        

So, we see Christians who were “held captive by [the devil] to do his will” because they could not come to a “knowledge of the truth” because they had not come to “repentance” of some sin. 

So, harboring sin can give the devil an advantage against us in spiritual warfare to keep us from coming to a knowledge of the truth.  We are not told what the sin is, but when we harbor sin, including the sin of pride (James 3:14-15) and unrepentant anger (Ephesians 4:26-27), it can be used by the enemy to keep us from understanding and accepting truth, presumedly even deceiving us into rejecting the faith we once embraced. 

So, what is the situation with the recent high-profile defections from the faith? As I said, we cannot know. Only God truly knows the heart.  If they were never true Christians, then, of course their destiny is the same as all non-Christians.  If they are true Christians, then they may experience the escalating consequences we mentioned last week… which could potentially become very severe. 

Conclusion

We should pray for those who formerly claimed to be Christians and now say they no longer believe. And, since we don’t know what their situation is before God, we pray for their salvation if they never were Christians, or, if they are Christians who are being deceived, pray that God will grant them the privilege of repenting and returning to their Savior.  After all, even Peter cursed and denied that he ever knew Jesus… but later, repented and was restored to fellowship with the Lord and became a powerful witness for Him. 

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