Why He Left Christianity: The 3 Bible Issues He Couldn't Ignore

🎉🎉🎉 Thanks for having me on Derek. If you’re reading this as a Christian content creator and disagree with me, have me on, I’m up for a friendly discussion.

I almost gave up my faith - but I couldn’t deny the certain creative ways some of my prayers were answered… (That and J.S. Bach’s music!) I don’t have all the answers, I’ve had disappointments, I have accepted gray areas in my faith, and wrestling with questions isn’t a bad thing! Thank you for sharing your perspective, I respect your journey.

My mother TORMENTED and abused me with end times theology my entire life (until I went no contact after age 34, and her telling me I shouldn't have had children because "woe to those who are pregnant and nursing in the end times"). This is both SO validating and INFURIATING.

I can relate very much the same. I struggled, then sincerely went into deep prayer and asked what I can do to fix the struggle and feel the Spirit again. To my surprise, the still small voice pressed on me saying “it’s time to walk away from the Church and discover new”. I was shocked. I didn’t expect that answer. I made a compromise, “If I do this, I trust that is God wants me to come back, then God will lead me back”. What I discovered is the topics here, Myths and the common thread of that ties all traditional spiritual traditions. It’s a lonely walk sometimes, because it hard to walk away from the social comfort of all my Church family, but it’s still a meaningful spiritual life.

I’m so amazed by how some people were so intellectual about de-converting. Mine was a more emotionally based de-conversion. Mostly, I got tired of feeling guilty and depressed all the time.

I was told that I was "overthinking" doctrine issues all the time. It seemed that any amount of thinking was "overthinking". Bible studies at the church I used to go to were like English comprehension exercises for six-year-olds at infant school, even though everyone present was an adult.

I've had all these questions since I was a kid. That's when I surmised that the adults at my church were not not reading the WHOLE bible. I started paying attention to our sunday school lessons and realized that we came back the same lessons every 2 years. I knew I would not have or find permission to deconstruct my faith or anyones BUT I am 63 years old and I have given myself permission to dive into a deconstructed faith with a realization that if there a God and creator of this material universe there is no way that God is as religious as we want to believe.

I tried my best to be a born-again Christian, I really did, but the answers kept bringing on more questions. My break from organized religion didn't happen overnight, and I don't exactly remember a specific point when it happened, but it occurred to me that to be a Christian, you had to follow Paul; for any given sermon, the reading would most likely be from an epistle, rather than the gospel. Paul mentions in 1 Corinthians 1:17 that he was there to preach the gospel, yet the epistles are full of his opinions (interpretations, perhaps). Romans 1:32 is a good example, and rather disturbing. This is the same God who loves everyone? Sure, everyone who thinks the same way, and does the same things. It's almost like getting mugged: do what God tells you, and nobody gets hurt. I'm glad I came to my senses...

I asked my pastor about gay people. He said that it was just a cross that God wanted them to bear, that they had to be celibate for life.... My pastor also had a female assistant pastor.

As a teenage girl, caught up in the "Born again" Christian movement (early '70s), everything regarding women in the Bible was cruel and unjust. That's what turned me off, and I went the complete opposite direction, Feminism and atheism.

I too was raised in a full gospel church and spent some time in the ministry. I now call myself agnostic. I find your story extremely interesting. I also find Bart Ehrman just as interesting. Some of the things I had trouble with as a Christian were the virgin birth (I can only imagine how many girls found themselves pregnant and claimed to be impregnated by the holy spirit), the resurrection of Christ, the two creation stories for man, and the whole timeline regarding the age of the earth (science says the earth was created 4.5 billion years ago). Also there are so many ancient religions that existed long before the time of Christ which are so similar to the Christian faith it makes the Christian faith seem like a huge "hodgepodge" of these other ancient faiths. These are just a few of the things that bothered me about Christianity.

@DeepDrinks I love hearing you speak. All of the scriptures you mentioned are the ones that lead to my deconstruction along with this one ... “'The older will serve the younger.' Just as it is written: 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'" (Romans 9:11-18)

I was born and raised a mainline Protestant...became an Evangelical at the age of 29...stuck with it for 26 years...I remember all the excuses, all the twists and turns and tapdancing used to get around the clear and obvious contradictions, errors, and plot holes...I believed them not because they were truly sensible but because I really wanted to believe them. I think that is the power of living in a bubble, being embedded in a community one does not want to lose. Until I finally decided to step outside the bubble and look at my own religion with the same critical eye I would use on any other religion, I just could not see the problems clearly.

The main reason I left Christianity is because I discovered it didn't comport with reality

I also deconstructed my faith a few years ago after 35 years of being a very serious Christian. I can relate to everything in this video. Thank you.

I'm so glad to find your channel. Thank you for sharing your story. I am struggling. Your words and book suggestions have helped.

The fundamentalists will tell you that when Jesus said,"This generation," he meant the generation that sees all the signs spoken of in that same chapter, i.e, the generation we live in now.They have ready made answers to every contradiction, no matter how stupid it is.But they are obviously good enough "answers" for the choir they preach to-who see what they want to see and disregard the rest.

Listening to you and David speaking, as an ex-fundie myself, I am starting to think there is a connection or correlation between the level of intensity or seriousness one experiences the faith and the likelihood that they will end up researching themselves into deconstruction. The believers we would have called 'lukewarm' are actually the clever ones, playing it safe. Why torture yourself on the path of deconstruction unless you are starting from a point of wanting, needing and dying to know God in the most literal way possible; rather than letting yourself merely be convinced of the fact a priori?

David, I feel you! Derek you too. This video reminds me and is analogous to Mark Smith’s book “Broken Promises”. I think Mark was a pastor or church leader and saw all the eschatology discrepancies and outlined them in more than an orderly and detailed way in his book. It is very evident to me that both you guys are adhering to Jesus’s main law of loving others! I do believe that is “The Way” Good luck to you both! Joel

I live near David 🙌 however, in 2000 I came to Sydney to study with a huge church, which was up to no good and Ive been stuck here since! Havent seen my homeland 🍀since 2003 😢. I can tell by David's voice how he would have been as a pastor. So glad he's deconstructing. The church here makes my stomach turn!