Over the past few weeks, a couple of Christian leaders have made headlines with bold declarations rejecting their faith in Christ.
Author and speaker Joshua Harris, known best for his popular book on purity “I Kissed Dating Goodbye,” was the first to make the announcement on Instagram late last month.
“I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus,” wrote Harris. “The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction,’ the biblical phrase is ‘falling away.’ By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.”
Shortly after Harris’ “falling away” went viral, former Hillsong worship leader and songwriter Marty Sampson made an announcement on the same social media platform echoing many of Harris’ sentiments.
“I’m genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn’t bother me,” Sampson wrote in an Instagram post that has since been removed. “Like, what bothers me now is nothing. I am so happy now, so at peace with the world. It’s crazy.”
Sampson and Harris seemed to share a feeling of positivity and peace surrounding their new ‘spiritual enlightenment.’
“I don’t view this moment negatively,” explained Harris. “I feel very much alive, and awake, and surprisingly hopeful.”
The uncanny parallels between the two leaders’ core messages were almost eerie, and certainly unsettling for the Christian community.
In a Facebook post that has since gone viral, John Cooper expertly lays out rebuttals to several of their statements and rebukes their choice to publicly decry their faith without an ounce of remorse for falsely leading people into dangerous territory.
Read John Cooper’s post in full below, and be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments:
Ok I’m saying it. Because it’s too important not to. What is happening in Christianity? More and more of our outspoken leaders or influencers who were once “faces” of the faith are falling away. And at the same time they are being very vocal and bold about it. Shockingly they still want to influence others (for what purpose?) as they announce that they are leaving the faith. I’ll state my conclusion, then I’ll state some rebuttals to statements I’ve read by some of them. Firstly, I never judge people outside of my faith. Even if they hate religion or Christianity. That is not my place and I have many friends who disagree with my religion and that is 100% fine with me. However, when it comes to people within my faith, there must be a measure of loyalty and friendship and accountability to each other and the Word of God.
My conclusion for the church (all of us Christians): We must STOP making worship leaders and thought leaders or influencers or cool people or “relevant” people the most influential people in Christendom. (And yes that includes people like me!) I’ve been saying for 20 years (and seemed probably quite judgmental to some of my peers) that we are in a dangerous place when the church is looking to 20-year-old worship singers as our source of truth. We now have a church culture that learns who God is from singing modern praise songs rather than from the teachings of the Word. I’m not being rude to my worship leader friends (many who would agree with me) in saying that singers and musicians are good at communicating emotion and feeling. We create a moment and a vehicle for God to speak. However, singers are not always the best people to write solid bible truth and doctrine. Sometimes we are too young, too ignorant of scripture, too unaware, or too unconcerned about the purity of scripture and the holiness of the God we are singing to. Have you ever considered the disrespect of singing songs to God that are untrue of His character?
I have a few specific thoughts and rebuttals to statements made by recently disavowed church influencers…first of all, I am stunned that the seemingly most important thing for these leaders who have lost their faith is to make such a bold new stance. Basically saying, “I’ve been living and preaching boldly something for 20 years and led generations of people with my teachings and now I no longer believe it..therefore I’m going to boldly and loudly tell people it was all wrong while I boldly and loudly lead people in to my next truth.” I’m perplexed why they aren’t embarrassed? Humbled? Ashamed, fearful, confused? Why be so eager to continue leading people when you clearly don’t know where you are headed?
My second thought is, why do people act like “being real” covers a multitude of sins? As if someone is courageous simply for sharing virally every thought or dark place. That’s not courageous. It’s cavalier. Have they considered the ramifications? As if they are the harbingers of truth, saying “I used to think one way and practice it and preach it, but now I’ve learned all the new truth and will start practicing and preaching it.” So the influencers become the voice for truth in whatever stage of life and whatever evolution takes place in their thinking.
Thirdly, there is a common thread running through these leaders/influencers that basically says that “no one else is talking about the REAL stuff.” This is just flatly false. I just read today in a renown worship leader’s statement, “How could a God of love send people to hell? No one talks about it.” As if he is the first person to ask this? Brother, you are not that unique. The church has wrestled with this for 1500 years. Literally. Everybody talks about it. Children talk about it in Sunday school. There’s like a billion books written on the topic. Just because you don’t get the answer you want doesn’t mean that we are unwilling to wrestle with it. We wrestle with scripture until we are transformed by the renewing of our minds.
And lastly, and most shocking imo, as these influencers disavow their faith, they always end their statements with their “new insight/new truth” that is basically a regurgitation of Jesus’s words?! It’s truly bizarre and ironic. They’ll say “I’m disavowing my faith but remember, love people, be generous, forgive others”. Ummm, why? That is actually not human nature. No child is ever born and says “I just want to love others before loving myself. I want to turn the other cheek. I want to give my money away to others in need”. Those are bible principles taught by a prophet/Priest/King of kings who wants us to live by a higher standard which is not an earthly standard, but rather the ‘Kingdom of God’ standard. Therefore if Jesus is not the truth and if the Word of God is not absolute, then by preaching Jesus’s teachings you are endorsing the words of a madman. A lunatic who said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.” He also said that he was alive before Abraham, and to see him was to see God because he was one with God. So why then would a disavowed Christian leader promote that “generosity is good”? How would you know “what is good” without Jesus’s teachings? And will your ideas of what is “good” be different from year to year based on your experience, culture trends, poplular opinion etc and furthermore will you continue year by year to lead others into your idea of goodness even though it is not absolute? I’m amazed that so many Christians want the benefits of the kingdom of God, but with the caveat that they themselves will be the King.
It is time for the church to rediscover the preeminence of the Word. And to value the teaching of the Word. We need to value truth over feeling. Truth over emotion. And what we are seeing now is the result of the church raising up influencers who did not supremely value truth who have led a generation who also do not believe in the supremacy of truth. And now those disavowed leaders are proudly still leading and influencing boldly AWAY from the truth.
Is it any wonder that some of our disavowed Christian leaders are letting go of the absolute truth of the Bible and subsequently their lives are falling apart? Further and further they are sinking in the sea all the while shouting “now I’ve found the truth! Follow me!!” Brothers and sisters in the faith all around the world, pastors, teachers, worship leaders, influencers…I implore you, please please in your search for relevancy for the gospel, let us NOT find creative ways to shape God’s word into the image of our culture by stifling inconvenient truths. But rather let us hold on even tighter to the anchor of the living Word of God. For He changes NOT. “The grass withers and the flowers fade away, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8).
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Date published: 20/08/2019
Written by: Kelsey Straeter
Feature image: John Cooper Skillet Singer
Article source: faithit.com *This post originally appeared on John Cooper’s Facebook page.
Thank you-what you have written resounds in my spirit.There seems to be an increase of New Age thinking and so many are jumping on their own pulpit to gather followers.It is Jesus we must follow and no one else. There is NO other way to Heaven but through the shed blood of Jesus
Amen and amen could have not said it better.
When we read of well-known christian influencers proclaiming that they no longer have faith in Jesus Christ, it comes as a shock to the rest of christendom. It hurts the believers. But the Bible has given us ample proof that this would happen.
Jesus had prophesied it would happen in the end of the age : At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other… Mat 24:10. Also, 1Tim 4:1 states that “in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.”
Believers must mature in faith to realise that not all who call ‘Lord, Lord’ or sing gospel songs have a heart of good soil which received the seed of the Word; many of them have a heart of “rocky places” and “thorns” that for a while sprouted some crop which we deemed to be godly, but as the heavenly law would have it they must wither away.
Not all believers are meant to last in the Kingdom! They were not “predestined to be conformed to the likeness” of Christ: Rom 8: 28 – 30. They must fade away.
There are tough questions in our christian belief system for which answers will not be forthcoming. Long ago, a man called Job raised a quiver full of them. God didn’t explain to Job the deal with the devil. Instead God thundered out His response to Job: Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? Job 40:2 ; Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Job 40:8; Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Job 40:11. And then God proceeded to paint a verbal imagery of His sovereignty; Job despised himself.
For believers who choose to stay in the faith, every apostate is a reminder to take stock of our faith. Even when we do not have answers to the difficult questions, our faith must affirm above all the sovereignty of God, and we dare not question Him.
Let those who choose to leave, leave.
The beloved Bible tells us that this will happen. We should not be surprised by it. Thanks for sharing this. Pray pray pray! 2 Timothy 3.
As an older member of the Body of Christ and one who is often shocked with what passes as Christianity, I can only say Amen to John Coopers letter. So much has changed in the 40 years odd I have been saved. There was a lot of legalism back then and a resurgence of the gospel of grace since, hallelujah, but with that treasured grace has come so much licence that often the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and that for which He died, is completely unrecognizable.
The Word is the Truth we stand upon, will never fail and not to preach it will have disastrous consequences!!
A relationship with the Father through our Lord Jesus, the Word, will keep us from denying our faith! A too liberal view on grace without responsibility and accountability is a deathtrap to our faith.