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My Theory for Why People Apostatize from Christianity for Intellectual Reasons

  • Writer: A Writer for Christ
    A Writer for Christ
  • Jul 16
  • 2 min read
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Image Credit: Media from Wix


As the title of this post indicates, I have a theory on why people reject Christ on intellectual grounds. I word it as "I have a theory" because I want you to take this idea, compare it to Scripture to see whether or not it FULLY accords with the Word, accept what does match the Bible and reject what doesn't, and use this theory (again, only insofar as it accords with what God's Word says) to understand and deal with cases of apostasy that are based on intellectual reasons.

The Holy Spirit teaches us that receiving Christ means believing in Him (John 1:12). And the Christian (the true Christian, that is) receives the Lord Jesus Christ as all that the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Scriptures, reveals Him to be. And one of Jesus's revealed attributes is truth (John 14:6). God is Truth. Not merely true, but truth. So, the Lord Jesus Christ, being God the Son and the Second Person of the Trinity, is Truth. So, to believe in Christ means receiving Him as the Truth.

And this brings us to my theory: for those who turn away from the faith for intellectual reasons, whether they merely claimed to believe in Christ or believed in Christ on some level but not a salvific one, they did not believe in Him as the Truth. Maybe they believed certain truths of the Bible, but they did not believe God's Word as what it is: the truth itself (John 17:17). Because, however it specifically comes about, Christ's teaching does not accord with the standard of truth that this kind of apostate holds to in his heart. At the point where he comes across a Biblical doctrine that contradicts his standard of truth, he is at a crossroads: will he accept Christ and God's Word as his standard of truth and reject the one he currently adheres to, or will he hold on to whatever other standard he is adhering to at the time and reject the Biblical teaching that contradicts it? To sum it up, such former believers may have believed in Christ in a sense, but they never, by repentance, rejected other standards of truth, and they reject Christ when He does not submit to the standards of truth they hold to in their hearts.

 
 
 

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