Why Do People Lose Their Religion?

[Dan57]

It is an issue of doctrine there is very little food to found in the churches today.

I'd agree, people don't lose their religion, their religion loses them.
I'm convinced that if churches taught the bible, Christians wouldn't abandon their church.
I also don't believe a person needs to attend a church or play religious to be a Christian.

 

[Selene]

Fellowship is great and I certainly participate on forums like this for that reason, but as a Catholic, there is no substitute for a physical encounter with the risen body of Christ vis a vis the Eucharist. It's a corporal interaction that can't be duplicated online. But that's for us Catholics. Regarding Christians in general, they aren't meeting together because they don't want to, whether in a brick and mortar building or otherwise. Drifting away from God runs concurrent to drifting away from other Christians because our relationship to God is both personal and corporate. I am keen in identifying the problem but impoverished on solutions.

I have seen an increase of people in my Church, but that is due to the kind of priest we have. He has made the effort to visit the sick, the villages, and even the prisons. He made the effort to personally know the people in his village including the ones who are not Catholic. So, instead of waiting for people to come to the Church, he goes out to meet them.

Since he arrived into our Church, the rate of marriages have increased. I don't know how he did it, but he managed to convince those who were co-habitating to marry in Church. In fact, he will be performing another wedding next month and it will be to a couple who has been living together for many years. Now, this couple even wants to get involve in the parish. Some of the youths are also getting involved by volunteering to be alter servers. Every Christmas, Father and a whole bunch of kids would go Christmas caroling from one house to another bringing a statue of the baby Jesus. And on Christmas, you should see the altar. He made the entire altar into a nativity with mountains and waterfalls....the whole works!! After Mass, a little boy even pointed to the altar and asked his mother if that was a REAL sheep.

 

[jiggyfly]

I have lost many of my religious concepts and paradigms over the years by simply allowing HolySpirit to renew my mind and change my thinking. Most of what I learned through the christian religious institution has been discarded. I still have fellowship with Christ and other believers but I have found that I have no desire to participate in any religious liturgy. While I still have some wrong thinking and the need for spiritual growth, I now know that religious teachings and participation will not bring any spiritual growth but rather stifle it. This is part of what I consider to be picking up (embracing) my cross.

In light of scriptural revelation and personal experiences with HolySpirit I consider religion an enemy to spiritual growth.

 

[Angelina]

(originally posted by saintmichaeldefendthem [me])

Matthew 24:12
And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. ​

I'm seeing it everywhere in people I talk to. If anyone is over 40 years old, they'll talk about how they were "raised Christian" but have grown past it and adopted a philosophy that allows them to look down at the whole faith thing with disinterest. When they were twenty something, they were in the streets handing out pamphlets, on a mission in a foreign country, reading their Bible daily and fellowshipping several times a week.

But what causes people to become embittered and jaded over time, losing the zeal that once put a fire in their belly?

Taking myself for instance, I believe just as strongly as before, maybe even more so today. My roots have grown deep and nothing can dislodge me from my sure belief in Christ and his holy Church. But I don't pray as much, read the Bible as much, volunteer at missions, and work actively to lead people to Christ. I've somewhat cooled as well, not to the degree that I've stopped trying, like the people I'm talking about, but to a degree that I can sympathize with those who experience a little slack in their sails as they grow older.

But why and does it have to be so?

I understand what you are saying and think that there is a time and season for everything we do Eccles 3:1-8
Sometimes we need to make an effort to be zealous for the things of God again and fan the flickering flame in our heart toward him..."Restore the Fire Oh God!, Restore The Joy of our salvation!"
I love this passage from Isaiah...

Isaiah 40
To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.

In light of scriptural revelation and personal experiences with HolySpirit I consider religion an enemy to spiritual growth.

Jiggy..I do not think that religion and Christianity are the same thing to be honest with you...JMHO. Bless ya!

 

[HammerStone]

Why, do we (any of us) read the entire gospel - the story of Israel and the prophets right down through the story of Jesus and his disciples - and think that we are any different than they?

The prophets wrestled with abandonment, depression, and loss of faith. The Psalms are replete with the struggle of David and the other Psalmists. Peter denied the Christ he witnessed not once or twice, but three times.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

I understand what you are saying and think that there is a time and season for everything we do Eccles 3:1-8
Sometimes we need to make an effort to be zealous for the things of God again and fan the flickering flame in our heart toward him..."Restore the Fire Oh God!, Restore The Joy of our salvation!"
I love this passage from Isaiah...

Isaiah 40
To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens:
Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one
and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength,
not one of them is missing.

27 Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord;
my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.



Jiggy..I do not think that religion and Christianity are the same thing to be honest with you...JMHO. Bless ya!

I think out of all of these responses, all of the well intended, you were the only one to understand the OP. Many people have hang ups about the word religion even though it's in the Bible and has been used to characterize Christianity lo these 2000 years. But you mention fire and that also expresses what I'm trying to say, whether we call it fire or religion. When tongues of fire fell on the apostles at Pentecost, they went out filled with the Holy Spirit and their zeal could not be contained. It's something I yearn for more of in my life.

And then there are some that have walked away from Christianity completely. I don't believe in OSAS, I believe we continue to have free will, and some use it to allow their love of Christ to grow cold. Thank you for your response.

 

[Rex]

To be honest I dislike the term religion its best applied to churches in the context of Christianity, but it can also be applied to religious beliefs that have nothing to do with Christ.

I find religion is best defined as a man made form of worship, you can apply the term to all the churches that fall under the category of christian but the "religious" beliefs and worship very greatly. Religion is best understood as different beliefs with-in the context of Christianity.

Now when you lose your religion what it says to me is you have lost an agreement with a group of believers that worship and interpret as you once did.
Religion is a divider.

 

[Dodo_David]

From Matthew 25:31-40 :

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

It seems to me that an OTR truck driver who acts like a sheep in the Messiah's above-quoted parable is in a better spiritual position than a person who is in a church building seven days a week but who does not act like such a sheep.

Nevertheless, a person who claims to be one of the Messiah's sheep ought to be desiring fellowship with the Messiah's other sheep, as well as desiring to identify with the Messiah through participation in communion.

As for why alleged "sheep" drift away from the flock, I suspect that the answer is in the Messiah's parable about the sower:

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

. . . 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.

It is my belief that God knows the heart of our brother This Vale Of Tears and accepts the desire of his heart as an expression of his faith in and love for the Messiah.

 

[mjrhealth]

Me, wont have anything to do with religion, that flame has only grown more since i quit the religion, i spend my whole day with Jesus.

In all His Love

 

[HammerStone]

Yeah, I used to be part of the anti-religion crowd, but then I studied it a little more.

Religion is just the term for how to relate God. It's whatever is done in worship of God. So, by very definition, it's what everyone does when they believe in a deity. You can practice religion that does not worship the one true God yes, but that doesn't make religion inherently evil. It only becomes evil, like everything else, when it's corrupted.

Unfortunately, as noble as the proposition seems to say that you're not religious or don't practice religion, it has lead to this notion of "spiritual but not religious" (aka the "nones") across the country. At the end of the day, yes our worship is not about the system, but about the God. However, we've once again jettisoned the baby with the bathwater, so I fully repent of anything I have ever said about not being religious.

To steer this post back to the topic, I hope some are getting my point who read this thread.

We ebb and flow and even lose religion because our hearts are dark. We try and go it alone.

With that said, I echo Dodo_David's post above.

 

[AndyBern]

Religion means different things to different people. In the Bible, the word is never used to describe how we follow Jesus, except in James where it is redefined as simply helping the needy and living uninfluenced by the world (James 1:26-27). Man tends to translate that into ritual, liturgy, traditions, additional rules, candles and incense, stained-glass, whatever... things the Bible speaks nothing of.

Although they had rituals and tradition to some degree, the founding fathers of the United States used the term 'religion' in a more general sense, as simply living a day-to-day Christian life, like what James wrote.

To lose one's religion (in the sense of the things man has added) is a good thing if it gets us back to following Jesus and living Spirit-led lives.

 

[Selene]

Religion means different things to different people. In the Bible, the word is never used to describe how we follow Jesus, except in James where it is redefined as simply helping the needy and living uninfluenced by the world (James 1:26-27). Man tends to translate that into ritual, liturgy, traditions, additional rules, candles and incense, stained-glass, whatever... things the Bible speaks nothing of.

Although they had rituals and tradition to some degree, the founding fathers of the United States used the term 'religion' in a more general sense, as simply living a day-to-day Christian life, like what James wrote.

To lose one's religion (in the sense of the things man has added) is a good thing if it gets us back to following Jesus and living Spirit-led lives.

Actually, the New Testament books do speak of candles, incense, the liturgical readings of the scrolls, etc. It's found in the Book of Revelations. Who is to say "how" we should worship God? Christ said that we are to love God with our whole heart, mind, and strength. God is the only one who can see into person's heart and determine whether they actually worship Him in spirit or not. So, even if one walks into a place where Christians worship God using a "concert-like" type of music with bands, God is the only one who knows if they truly focus on Him or if they are only there to enjoy the music. And if one were to walk into a place where Christians worship Him with incense and readings of the Bibles along with prayers, and the songs of "Alleulias," God is the only one who can see in their heart and know where the focus is on.....whether they worship God in their heart or daydreaming of what they will do after church services.

 

[The_highwayman]

Actually, the New Testament books do speak of candles, incense, the liturgical readings of the scrolls, etc. It's found in the Book of Revelations. Who is to say "how" we should worship God? Christ said that we are to love God with our whole heart, mind, and strength. God is the only one who can see into person's heart and determine whether they actually worship Him in spirit or not. So, even if one walks into a place where Christians worship God using a "concert-like" type of music with bands, God is the only one who knows if they truly focus on Him or if they are only there to enjoy the music. And if one were to walk into a place where Christians worship Him with incense and readings of the Bibles along with prayers, and the songs of "Alleulias," God is the only one who can see in their heart and know where the focus is on.....whether they worship God in their heart or daydreaming of what they will do after church services.

Selene, you said " Who is to say "how" we should worship God?"

Jesus tells us how to we should worship in John 4:24.

John 4.24
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

Yeah, I used to be part of the anti-religion crowd, but then I studied it a little more.

Religion is just the term for how to relate God. It's whatever is done in worship of God. So, by very definition, it's what everyone does when they believe in a deity. You can practice religion that does not worship the one true God yes, but that doesn't make religion inherently evil. It only becomes evil, like everything else, when it's corrupted.

Unfortunately, as noble as the proposition seems to say that you're not religious or don't practice religion, it has lead to this notion of "spiritual but not religious" (aka the "nones") across the country. At the end of the day, yes our worship is not about the system, but about the God. However, we've once again jettisoned the baby with the bathwater, so I fully repent of anything I have ever said about not being religious.

To steer this post back to the topic, I hope some are getting my point who read this thread.

We ebb and flow and even lose religion because our hearts are dark. We try and go it alone.

With that said, I echo Dodo_David's post above.

I agree. We stop going to church because we're living a compromised lifestyle and we're living a compromised lifestyle because we're not going to church. It's a circular paradox. People are tempted to think church is unnecessary, but it's not possible to have any relationship with God without also having a relationship with God's holy church. (Matt 5:24) But perhaps the most relevant lesson in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that those who have been living apart from God don't come home to scolding, they come home to welcoming arms and rejoicing. If people could just understand that God wants us to come to him just as we are, it would make a big difference.

 

[Dodo_David]

I agree. We stop going to church because we're living a compromised lifestyle and we're living a compromised lifestyle because we're not going to church. It's a circular paradox. People are tempted to think church is unnecessary, but it's not possible to have any relationship with God without also having a relationship with God's holy church. (Matt 5:24) But perhaps the most relevant lesson in the Parable of the Prodigal Son is that those who have been living apart from God don't come home to scolding, they come home to welcoming arms and rejoicing. If people could just understand that God wants us to come to him just as we are, it would make a big difference.

This Vale Of Tears, my brother, you are no more a prodigal son than a missionary serving in a remote location or a Christian serving in the military. Sure, your job takes you away from your local congregation, but you are serving your fellow man with your job. Your desire for fellowship with your local congregation is commendable and expected. It shows that your heart is in the right place. I am glad that your heart yearns fellowship with your local congregation.

If I were in your situation, I would rejoice whenever I was back home and able to have fellowship with my local congregation. Then, when I was away because of my job, I'd seek a way to serve God right where I was.

As I see it, we are prone to stray when we are not receiving edification from other Christians, which is the purpose of gathering together. As Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

This Vale Of Tears, my brother, you are no more a prodigal son than a missionary serving in a remote location or a Christian serving in the military. Sure, your job takes you away from your local congregation, but you are serving your fellow man with your job. Your desire for fellowship with your local congregation is commendable and expected. It shows that your heart is in the right place. I am glad that your heart yearns fellowship with your local congregation.

If I were in your situation, I would rejoice whenever I was back home and able to have fellowship with my local congregation. Then, when I was away because of my job, I'd seek a way to serve God right where I was.

As I see it, we are prone to stray when we are not receiving edification from other Christians, which is the purpose of gathering together. As Hebrews 10:24-25 says, "Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

The OP addresses two different phenomenon and I was talking about the more profound estrangement that I see in people I run across in my travels. And I'd rather serve my fellow man in a capacity that keeps me home and going to holy Mass every week, but this work provides for my family better than anything else I can do now. I got 3 kids and a 4th due in January. Yikes!

 

[Selene]

Selene, you said " Who is to say "how" we should worship God?"

Jesus tells us how to we should worship in John 4:24.

John 4.24
24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

If you read my entire posts, I said that God is the only one who can determine whether we are worshiping Him in spirit because He's the only one who can see into a person's heart.

 

[Dodo_David]

If you read my entire posts, I said that God is the only one who can determine whether we are worshiping Him in spirit because He's the only one who can see into a person's heart.

That is true.

 

[aspen]

because protestants are told to love God and hate religion. Ironically, many are left wondering why their churches are bleeding members.......

 

[Rex]

because protestants are told to love God and hate religion. Ironically, many are left wondering why their churches are bleeding members.......

where as Catholics are under contract to glorify Mary and Peter and leave God out of the equation all together.

Mary is the church

829 "But while in the most Blessed Virgin the Church has already reached that perfection whereby she exists without spot or wrinkle, the faithful still strive to conquer sin and increase in holiness. And so they turn their eyes to Mary":306 in her, the Church is already the "all-holy."

and Peter is the pope

838 "The Church knows that she is joined in many ways to the baptized who are honored by the name of Christian, but do not profess the Catholic faith in its entirety or have not preserved unity or communion under the successor of Peter."322 Those "who believe in Christ and have been properly baptized are put in a certain, although imperfect, communion with the Catholic Church."323With the Orthodox Churches, this communion is so profound "that it lacks little to attain the fullness that would permit a common celebration of the Lord's Eucharist."324

813 The Church is one because of her source: "the highest exemplar and source of this mystery is the unity, in the Trinity of Persons, of one God, the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit."259 The Church is one because of her founder: for "the Word made flesh, the prince of peace, reconciled all men to God by the cross, . . . restoring the unity of all in one people and one body."260 The Church is one because of her "soul": "It is the Holy Spirit, dwelling in those who believe and pervading and ruling over the entire Church, who brings about that wonderful communion of the faithful and joins them together so intimately in Christ that he is the principle of the Church's unity."261 Unity is of the essence of the Church:


What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her "Church."262

You have to ask yourself WHERE DID JESUS go pertaining to the church and the church leadership?