Ya and it's like the way I see it. Peter was a disappointment to Jesus. And I get the feeling that continued with him. Until it was time for him to be executed.
While a few may have been abused before, those usually are the minority. Most Christians leave because many Protestant and even some Catholic churches are spiritually dead so they preach about "current day" stuff like LGBT and Politcs. These churches typically have women pastors, LGBT pastors, and pastors who are athiests where all they do is preach about social justice and make heresies that would get them smacked by the early church fathers. Liberal Protestant Churches have no real foundation and as a result, they end up collapsing
I'm hoping it leads to new conversions especially seeing how catsuit the world is where having an account on this Kiwi Forum is enough to brand you as an evil person yet trannies can get away with grooming kids into becoming trannies or use them for sexual purposes. Generally the best advice is to have them watch videos about Christianity and also start attending Church on Sunday.
In contrast I thought it was very interesting how pleased and grateful Jesus is to John for being brave enough to be with him during the crucifixion. So much so he's the only one who dies peacefully of old age.
Fortunately these churches are in Rapid Decline. Look at the Anglican Communion, you have the liberal churches like the Episcopal Church and the home church of the Church of England in rapid decline while the Conservative sub Saharan African churches are growing. Now for the first time in the history of the communion the Church of England is no longer the largest church by membership in the Anglican Communion, they've been overtaken by the Church of Nigeria. The Liberal Churches have been trying to get Resolution 1.10, a resolution passed by the communion in 1998 that called Homosexuality incompatible with scripture, removed for years now and as their numbers shrink and their influence diminishes their window of opportunity has seemingly closed.
It's a good idea to check their websites for statements of faith/principles to get a better idea of what that specific church is about, and look into whether they offer classes on baptism.
A friend of mine who's one of the leaders in the actual neopagan scene came up with a funny name for those types of people along with Jay Dyer types he called them diorites and Fuentes freaks.
Worthless larpers that might as well larp as pagans, they have no faith and never will unless they receive proper guidance.
Yeah as above read the Bible. I think Bible in a Year podcast is a great resource because you get a bit of history / context and some connections are spoon fed to you. Maccabees is very interesting as it’s the bridge between the OT and the NT.
One groyper asked for people to pray for him as he was trying to stop fapping to hentai. He legit said that shit. Groypers grossly violate the spirit of Matthew 6:5, it's all a stunt, performative hypocrisy.
I'm glad you've highlighted the importance of not abandoning atheists, you may be the best chance they have to hear the gospel. If you believe that the only way to salvation is through Christ than completely shutting out an atheists simply for his beliefs denies him the chance to receive the word and, potentially, receive salvation.
Yep, and I have an uplifting story. My best friend who was raised in an atheist household and never showed any interest in the church has started praying during the last year. I was so moved when i heard it. Never think you cant make a difference.
You are right, but I think it is also important not to force the Gospel on people or else you might end up doing the opposite. The most psychotic atheists are always people who grew up in religious houses.
I'm not saying to go out at convert people at gunpoint or continuously rant to them or something like that but if you believe, I mean truly believe from the bottom of your heart, that faith in Christ is essential for salvation then you would be doing a disservice to others not sharing the Gospel. Theres a quote by noted Atheist Penn Jillette about evangelization I like, "I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe there is a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward."
I think the main cause is simply lack of discipline within the church because of it becoming more modernized that causes people to leave. Why stick with Christianity when there's nothing unique about it? Ironically enough, the church being steadfast in its old ways would make more people stay even though they'll complain about it being too strict or outdated.
Oh, and you're better than Peter? I can't stand modern Christians like John MacArthur constantly denigrating Peter. As if they would do any better! No, you'd do far worse.
