I write this with no malice toward those who have walked away. My heart breaks for them. Being a Christian is hard enough; pretending to be one would be excruciating. But instead, I want to point this out and, by way of warning, direct professing Christians to “consider Jesus” (Heb. 3:1).
When people walk away from Christianity, there are some common reasons they give. They often stem from an unwillingness to maintain the Bible’s authority in the face of mounting criticism from an increasingly secular world. In some cases, it’s because of morality, other times it’s science, still others it’s the resistance of institutional authority.
But there is one thing that I don’t hear an apostate say that should get our attention: They don’t say much about Jesus.
We don’t hear of people saying that Jesus was dishonorable.
We don’t hear of people saying that Jesus was unfaithful.
We don’t hear of people saying Jesus was a fraud.
We don’t hear of people saying Jesus wasn’t good.
We don’t hear of people saying Jesus was unloving.
We don’t hear of people saying Jesus wasn’t sacrificial in his service.
We don’t hear of people saying Jesus didn’t exist.
We don’t hear of people saying Jesus didn’t captivate their imaginations.
We don’t hear of people saying Jesus let them down.
We don’t hear of stories of people saying Jesus wasn’t what they wanted.
The truth is, people don’t often turn away from the faith and talk much about Jesus. He is neither impugned nor discredited.
