Why I’m Leaving Christianity

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Why I'm Leaving Christianity

Here are a number of reasons I’m leaving Christianity. You might be discouraged that most of these are just my thoughts and opinions of the current state of “Christianity” and isn’t going to incorporate much Scripture, but I have other studies focused on church issues that use Scripture.[1] The purpose of this post is unlike my others. It’s just a soapbox. Some of these are going to sound the same. Perhaps I’m beating a dead horse, but that’s what Christianity is—a dead horse.


Brief Introduction


I’ve attended Fundamentalist Baptist churches, Charismatic Churches, Seventh-Day Adventist churches, Catholic funerals; I’ve been to Gospel-Hall Brethren meetings; I’ve been part of an Anabaptist church-plant failure as a teaching elder; I’ve been part of a praise and worship team, and helped establish campus ministries; I’ve contemplated attending seminary, missions work; I’ve lead “soul winning” groups; I’ve led people through prayers; I’ve baptized; I’ve gone to busy public places and shouted on the street corner, and I’ve rang a great deal of doorbells, anxious to press a tract into someone's hand. I’ve had my fair share of experiences with a number of different groups, and each one has undoubtedly shaped my worldview. You would think I have a healthy appreciation for all the differences within “Christendom.” But I don’t. I despise it. In fact, I hate Christianity. Does this shock, discourage, frighten, or enrage you?


Why am I doing this? I’m a non-conformist from birth. It’s just my habit of asking questions and digging as far as I can to find the truth. I’ve had a lot of eye-opening conversations with many people who unwittingly informed me of the reasons I now think Christianity is a joke. It was never my intention to arrive at this sort of scathing conclusion, but it’s just a natural result of my curiosity. Understand that I’m not going to stop following Jesus or reading the Bible. But what I’m doing is departing from something I find monstrous and dangerous. I’m essentially fleeing to the wilderness, taking whoever wants to come with me, and hopefully inspiring others to do the same. In short, I’m convinced that what many people call “Christianity” is ruined by leaven. It’s not reformable. 


Disclaimers


By this I mean it’s not worth trying to distinguish between the “true” and the “false” by using quotes or air-quotes in conversation. Christianity is what it is: a fake religion that’s long departed from the Gospels. Let’s face it, everyone who professes faith in God and or Jesus Christ adamantly assures the listener that their particular brand, movement, denomination, etc., is the truest reclamation of “historical Christianity.” It’s not worth the disclaimer. Sadly, it's still something I do. That's what this essay is. I think the difference is just how self-aware I try to be.

 

It’s ridiculous how often I find myself having to dissociate myself from the psychopaths who call themselves followers of Jesus. “Well, I’m not a Republican,” or, “No…the Catholics did the Crusades, not true followers of Christ,” or, “No…we don’t pass an offering plate at our meetings…we don’t want or need your money…” or, “No, Jesus wouldn’t use an AR15…” or, “No, Jesus doesn’t hate immigrants.”


Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists (of all stripes), Church of Christ, Church of God in Christ, Seventh-Day Adventists, Christian Universalists, Pentecostals, United Pentecostals, “Non Denominational,” Methodists, Lutherans, Quakers, Anabaptists (Amish, Mennonites, Brethren, Landmark Baptists), LDS, Christadelphians, and on and on and on and on and on, all claim to be Christians, believers, followers, etc. Are they? I can’t judge, per say. But I see fruit, and I’m trying to base my decision off the fact that these all can’t truly be saved followers. But neither are all of them lost. Perhaps some from among each of these are genuine, but the issue is that the term “Christian” is far too broad of a term that’s applied to each of these larger groups that are generally apostate.


Jesus is forgotten


I hate how much lip-service is paid to Jesus. Everyone who calls themselves Christian places more emphasis on the following: the teachings of Paul, “church Fathers”, creeds, Prophets/ prophetesses, pastor/ evangelist/ “Dr.” so-and-so; Luther, Calvin, Knox, Zwingli, Popes, and little Popes; Charles Spurgeon, the so-called "Prince of Preachers"; for my Hebrew-Roots friends, Moses. Yet Jesus stands alone outside of Christianity knocking. We all admit this in our "Powerful" Conferences, but yet we all still refuse to go to only him. We always lug some other dude with us as a sort of "teacher." These teachers though point elsewhere. This in contradiction to Jesus who said, "Call no man "rabbi" (meaning "teacher") for you have one Teacher [referring to himself]." It's always--always--from the earliest I can remember as a boy going to Baptist Church--bothered me how little Jesus is regarded as far as his clear Teachings from his God and his Father are concerned. That's why Tolstoy's words are so resonant with me. Like himself and many others, I have come to the conclusion that Christianity is in contradiction to Jesus and have, like many others, including Tolstoy, decided to forsake Paul in favor of Jesus. This was the most profound understanding I could've had, now about five years ago, and it frightened me because I knew exactly what it would cost me: everything--A relationship on the rocks with my entire, already broken, family; former friends I'm trying to rekindle relationships with that were destroyed by my Pauline Fundamentalism; everything I'd made a mess of trying to fit in as "a Christian" was because I was following an example I didn't understand and that never seemed practical--Paul. I have a lot to reckon with, but Jesus Christ is the only example and Teacher who makes the greatest and most practical sense toward that end. Since dispensing with Paul (the truest and only Dispensation), I have found the greatest amount of freedom from so many past vices, that no argument made in favor of Paul could persuade me away from my claim. I say this: that Paul had given me what I found to be a license to sin. The Gospel of "Grace" taught to me amounted to this: say this prayer and believe these facts, that Jesus died, was buried, and resurrected, and you shall be saved, always and always, no matter what, even if you murder someone. But I was always much more struck by Jesus' own words which, like for Tolstoy, were so amazingly attractive. "Love your enemy." I can't help but understand these words to be something we are capable of doing. When I accepted this, then scales began to fall from my eyes. And I knew I had found a Treasure. A true answer to the silly question people asked all my life but never bothered to demonstrate: WWJD? Jesus would do what God told him to. What practical "advice." The question is only silly if you ask it without intending to give the logical answer. But now I see the question and the answer, and I'm happy to sell everything for it! Goodbye Paul! No license to sin! I have Teachings to apply--I HAVE WORK TO DO. I had called upon the name of the Lord to be saved, but in vain. I was being asked by Jesus, "Why callest thou me 'Lord, Lord!' and do not the things that I say?" The true meaning of Jesus' teachings are best distilled by these words:

 

24 "¶Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:"
25 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock."
26 "And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:"
27 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

 

These words have always been in my mind, but they were fogged by the "easy Beleivism" I'd been introduced to through Paul, with his "no works gospel," with his, "Simply call upon 'the Lord' and believe only and be saved--no works necessary." But Jesus tells us when we "hear only" his words but not practice them not that we reap Destruction. The exact thing I'd experienced in Pauline Christianity until my realization of and submission to Jesus' Words Only. Imagine if Jesus meant what he actually said.[1][*]


Conclusion