First as a Reformed/Calvinistic Christian & based on 1 John 2:19, I am with most that would view a person who could renounce their faith as them having never been a Christian in the first place. But there are also people who may be Christians who have been so abused by the false systems & hypocritical people claiming to be Christians that they have simply lost their way but have not actually lost their faith…even if they claim they have.

There are some people that have accused me of being “intolerant” & “judgmental” but how then do they reconcile my ongoing conversation with this Christian turned Atheist?  These accusers never have understood what type of “intolerance” & “judgmentalism” has been at work – it is an intolerance & judgment not against folks that genuinely are exploring the boundaries of their faith, but I am repulsed by people especially people calling themselves “Christians” who have agendas so obviously out of step with the Bible; agendas they even try to pretend aren’t agendas; social agendas to re-image & reshape the simple Gospel message of “Repent & Believe” (Mark 1:14-15) into some soft-pedaled message of promiscuous “love”.  The one-man belief systems being pawned off on others as if these guys are traveling snake-oil salesmen should be rejected. THOSE are the things against which I am intolerant & judging – not against sincere Christians confirming their faith through testing.  The Bible even calls us to “make our calling & election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). Test our faith & see why we believe & if we really believe & not just following along because everyone else is.

Now, as for this friend who has turned from Christian to Atheist, perhaps I should use the term he actually uses about himself: “reluctant atheist” which is more accurate since it is actually more irrational to believe the universe came from nothing rather than to believe it came from something.

Let me give a little background on my friend.  Since his early adulthood he has claimed to be a Christian, having experiences like many of us going through the dispensational system, walking the aisle & making the profession of faith.  His “faith” became one “on fire for the Lord”, reading his Bible & many of the hot “Christian” authors within dispensational circles.

At some point in his studies as he became more & more independent of his “discipling” fellow dispensationalists & pastor, he saw a whole other Christian world opening up.  This Christian world didn’t begin in the 1800s with John Nelson Darby or the moment C. I. Scolfield’s first study Bible rolled off the presses. My friend found the Reformation, an era in Christian history where men & women didn’t expound their theology from posh offices or while seated on gold-gilded chairs but the theology of the Reformers was often hammered out with the ending of their very lives.

Like many former long-term dispensationalists turned Reformed, there was the initial feeling of having been duped by a conspiracy that was hiding this broader Christian world from us. Then that sentiment turned & like many former dispensationalists my friend took to refuting dispensationalism wherever he could.

Between refuting dispensationalism, my friend’s Reformed faith grew more & more.  Where he had previously been reading the light weight & eisegetical works of men like Hal Lindsey & Charles Finney he was now delving into the solid & exegetical weighty works of men like John Owen & John Knox.

The more & more my friend studied the solid & heady theology of the Reformers the more he was seeing that modern Christianity was so far removed from not only what was being advocated by those original Protestants but from the very Bible itself. This was another frustrating step toward his eventual atheism.  It was discouraging to see that hardly anyone practiced a biblical form of Christianity but have instead turned to emotionalism-based religion where Christians are saying “Jesus loves you & has a wonderful plan for your life” or espousing the fictious “age of accountability” whose own advocates will admit it is not actually in the Bible but for God to be “loving” they don’t think He can condemn babies.

The next step toward atheism for my friend might seem like the breaking point but it really must be seen as only a part of the process.  Turning now from soteriology or the nature of salvation (with which the Reformation most concerned), my friend began to study the so-called “end times” or what is theologically called, eschatology.  His former dispensationalism would have taught him that the world was increasingly becoming more evil & that soon Christ would come back & judge it but not before removing or “rapturing” all the Christians off the planet.  As my friend progressed into his Reformed faith he would have adjusted his eschatological understanding to be more in line with Reformed eschatology which is typically what is called amillennialism or postmillennialism.  Most of the Reformers were postmillennialists which in short means they viewed the world getting increasingly better through Christian expansion and then after it was suitably Christianized then Jesus would come back.  Postmillennialism typically did not advocate any sort of rapture removal ahead of time.

My friend in his study of eschatology, like in the rest of his Christian faith was always thorough & would push the boundaries to make sure his “calling & election” was sure. This vigorous effort to prove all things (1 Thes 5:21) would lead my friend to explore another eschatology perspective called “preterism”.  Preterism advocates that most if not all of the prophecies of the Bible culminated in the AD70 destruction of the Jewish Temple & city of Jerusalem.  “Full Preterists” also advocate that Jesus’ “Second Coming” or Parousia (Heb 9:28) occurred at this time in some form.

Now, my friend’s form of Christianity was not only an oddity because not many Christians are any longer akin to Reformed Christianity but with his new eschatological views he was making himself even at more odds with many Christians.

After years & years of trying to interact with people who call themselves “Christian” who rarely base their faith on things Christ has actually said, except for the nicey-nice parts that they like, can take a toll on anyone.  It began to appear to my friend that the whole of Christianity was a fraud – that if there really was a God He would not have allowed people to so distort Him & His Word.

First he began dropping other aspects of his faith such as the reality of “hell” or what some people call “eternal conscious punishment”.  He reasoned that if so many diverse views are being allowed by God then surely a “loving” God can’t hold this against people.  Add into this that my friend now had young children & as he looked at them he could not fathom how a “loving” father could ever condemn these precious beings to eternal punishment no matter how rebellious they have been.  My friend was succumbing to the very emotionalism he had once despised.

Also, with his newly acquired preterist perspective that Christ/God is now present with us my friend’s desire to experience the "realness" of His presence became more profound.  He no longer wanted to simply read the “love letter” (the Bible) from the distant Father but he wanted to experience Him.  He wanted to be able to experience God like we experience any person with which we have a close relationship.  He doesn’t want to hear that we experience God through “nature” or even through human philanthropic deeds.

It is here where I must end this article because I have not yet had further discussions with my friend.  I do plan to meet him soon for lunch & discuss these things.  I have some ideas how to address this issue with him but here is where I’d like the input from the readers of this website.  You do not need a registered account to make a comment.

Thank you & God bless

Roderick

[The picture is an optical illusion -- stare at it for a moment & then move about 8 feet back from the screen & you will see the angry face switch places with the serene face.  I thought it a fitting image for this article.]