4 Reasons Christians Lose Their Faith
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How does someone who once seemed completely sold out for Jesus suddenly walk away from Christianity?
We’ve seen pastors, worship leaders, authors, and other Christians publicly announce that they no longer believe what they once taught.
And it can leave us wondering:
How does this happen?
Does someone simply wake up one morning and decide they no longer believe?
Or is losing one’s faith usually the result of something happening much earlier—something that was happening beneath the surface?
I don’t believe most people wake up one morning and suddenly abandon everything they once believed.
Faith is usually lost long before someone announces that they’ve lost it.
The Bible Gives Us Some Answers
Jesus actually gave us some insight into this through His parable of the sower and His parable of the wheat and the tares.
And when we look closely at Scripture, we can see several patterns that help us understand why some people eventually walk away from their faith.
Let’s look at four reasons Christians lose their faith—and, perhaps more importantly, what we can do to guard our own faith.
1. They Didn’t Really Have Faith to Begin With
Sometimes what looks like a loss of faith is actually the revelation that a person never had a deeply rooted faith in Christ to begin with.
Jesus described this in the parable of the sower.
Some seed falls on rocky ground. It springs up quickly, but because it has no deep roots, it doesn’t survive when hardship comes.
Jesus said:
“These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.”
Mark 4:16–17
There is a difference between being excited about Jesus and being deeply rooted in Jesus.
A person can grow up in church, know Christian vocabulary, attend Bible studies, sing worship songs, and even serve in ministry without ever developing a deep, personal relationship with Christ.
And when the pressure comes, what’s underneath the surface eventually becomes visible.
But having shallow roots isn’t the only way faith can disappear.
Sometimes the problem is what is growing around the roots.
2. Their Roots Were Too Shallow
A healthy tree doesn’t become deeply rooted by accident.
And neither does a healthy faith.
Deep roots are developed through time in God’s Word, prayer, obedience, worship, and allowing the Holy Spirit to expose the things in our hearts that compete with God’s truth.
This is why spiritual habits matter.
We cannot expect a deep faith from a shallow relationship with God’s Word.
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3. Their Faith Was Strangled by Legalism
Not every person who walks away from Christianity was running away from sin.
Some were running away from a version of Christianity that taught them they could never be good enough.
At one time or another, every Christian will face a crisis of faith.
And that crisis can expose what we’ve actually been trusting.
Are we trusting Jesus?
Or are we trusting our ability to perform for Jesus?
Once you believe you have to earn God’s love, acceptance, approval, or “well done,” you’ve stepped onto a hamster wheel.
There is always another Bible study to attend.
Another sin to overcome.
Another Christian to compare yourself with.
Another spiritual discipline you aren’t doing well enough.
Another standard you have to meet.
There is no rest on the hamster wheel of legalism.
And eventually, exhaustion can make freedom look incredibly attractive.
The problem is that freedom from legalism and freedom from Christ are not the same thing.
The answer to legalism isn’t abandoning Jesus. It’s discovering grace.
If you’ve struggled with feeling like you have to be “good enough” for God, the book Charis – the Power of Grace helped me understand grace more deeply.
4. They Worshiped a False God, Not the God of the Bible
Sometimes people don’t lose their faith because they stopped believing in God.
They stopped believing in the God they had imagined.
They believed in a God who would always agree with them.
A God who would never judge.
A God who would never say no.
A God who would never ask them to surrender something they loved.
A God who would never confront sin.
And then they encountered the God revealed in Scripture.
And the two didn’t look the same.
We cannot create God in our own image and still call Him God.
If we only accept the parts of Scripture that make us comfortable, eventually we aren’t worshiping the God of the Bible.
We’re worshiping a god we’ve created.
What If I’m the One Whose Faith Is Struggling?
Maybe you’re reading this and thinking, “I’m not worried about losing my faith. I love Jesus.”
That’s wonderful.
But this isn’t really an article about them.
It’s an invitation to examine ourselves.
Is my faith deeply rooted?
Am I spending time in God’s Word?
Am I allowing Scripture to challenge me?
Am I trusting God’s grace—or trying to earn His approval?
Am I worshiping the God revealed in Scripture—or a version of God I’ve created in my own mind?
How Can We Keep Our Faith Strong?
1. Stay rooted in God’s Word
Don’t just learn about the Bible and pump your brain with information, but let the Bible sink deep into your heart. You do this by eagerly studying His Word and meditating on it so it changes your spiritual DNA!
2. Build a consistent prayer life
If there was ever a time to begin establishing a strong habit of daily Bible reading and prayer, it is now. We can’t truly know God if we don’t know what the Word of God says.
3. Surround yourself with mature believers
Find a strong local church with a pastor who isn’t afraid to preach the truth of God’s Word, who doesn’t just “tickle ears”, or preach what the congregation wants to hear.
4. Let Scripture challenge you
We must allow the Holy Spirit to tear down the altars and “high places” in our hearts built to the gods of this culture so that we are able to read the Bible without reservation and rationalization.
5. Know Jesus—not merely Christian information
We must have regular encounters with Jesus; experiences when we know that we met with Him face to face and our life was radically changed in that moment.
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5 Questions to Ask When Your Faith Feels Shaky
- Am I deeply rooted in God’s Word?
- Am I trusting Jesus—or trying to earn His approval?
- Am I allowing Scripture to challenge my beliefs?
- Am I surrounded by believers who will lovingly challenge me?
- Am I worshiping the God revealed in Scripture, or a god I’ve created in my imagination?
Don’t Just Protect Your Faith—Grow It
Friend, the answer isn’t to live afraid that one day you’ll wake up and discover you’ve lost your faith.
The answer is to cultivate a faith that is deeply rooted in Christ.
Stay in the Word.
Pray.
Worship.
Stay connected to mature believers.
Let the Holy Spirit search your heart.
And when Scripture challenges something you believe, don’t run from it.
Run toward Jesus.
A deep faith isn’t built in one dramatic moment.
It’s built day after day, as we learn to know God, trust Him, obey Him, and surrender our lives to Him.
Don’t settle for a faith that only looks strong on the outside.
Let God make your roots deep.
You have hit the nail right on its head! Your 4 reasons are right on! As well, your ways to strengthen our faith.
I’m in the process of starting my own blog aimed at Christian men who are struggling with faith issues. I would like to be supportive of your blog by sharing links to posts from time to time.
You are invited to visit MEN WHO CONQUER to read what I have been blogging. It’s great to find other bloggers to support!
Gary – thank you for your encouragement, and welcome to the blogosphere! I am so glad that you’re starting a blog for men (great name, btw!), that is a much needed niche, and thank you for your invite. I will be definitely checking you out. I would also like to invite you to visit my dad’s blog. He is a pastor of over 50 years and blogs at fdeanhackett.com.
Thank you for being one of the sane, balanced, firmly rooted in Scripture voices today. So rare. May God continue to bless you with wisdom, strength, and boldness.
Thank you so much for your encouragement!
I am inspired every time I visit this website, today I thought to leave a message. I am blesses beyond measures,most of time I use this website materials to teach the church here in Kenya, maybe you might like also to check this out https://INSPIRATIONALLIFELESSONS.CO.KE you inspire me
Thank you so much for your encouragement! God bless you!
Thanks, Rosilind! It is so difficult when I feel like I am on the wrong side of Christianity these days. I don’t agree with a lot of what I see as “hate” that my Christian friends preach toward anyone who disagrees with them. I know people calling themselves Christian who post one post on how we are supposed to love one another, then another post that rails against “communist” Democrats. I’m not exaggerating on this! It’s like they have completely forgotten what they say they believe. Thank you for your message. Jan
I recently found your site while researching the enneagram for a post I was writing. I am thrilled to find your writings— thank you for addressing the hard topics with clarity and truth!!! Sadly, it is rare to find. Bless you as you continue to share truth.
Weird. I did literally all of the things you suggest and none of the things you say make people lose their faith, and yet I still discovered that not one of Christianity’s beliefs are founded on reality and deconverted. Isn’t that a weird thing? In fact, I’ve never met an ex-Christian who described their faith like you think we experienced it. They talk about all four of your deconversion-proofing techniques in their lives. You sound either delusional or like you’ve never once met any ex-Christians. May I suggest the deconversion ex-timonies over at ex-Christian.net? You’ll find thousands of them, and I’m sure at least some of them will fit into your narrow little boxes of virtuous excuses. Mine 100% would.
When I was Christian, I was exactly and precisely like you, in fact. I thought I knew exactly what made people lose faith. None of those things were things *I* was doing though, so I would surely be deconversion-proof. Only those who were insufficiently Jesus-y would ever lose faith, and I was Jesus-ed to the max! I know if you’d met me you’d have thought I would NEVER deconvert. I sure never thought I would.
And yet I did.
You know what caused my deconversion?
A lot of things happened all at once that absolutely none of my talking points convincingly hand-waved away. I think typically Christians constantly face contradictions of their beliefs from reality — again, none of those beliefs are based in reality — but their indoctrinations hand-wave them away before they get too serious. But if enough happens at once, then the hand-waving looks just as silly and foolish as it really is. Suddenly our beliefs snap into focus and we see things we can never un-see again. We do all the things our leaders tell us to do: we read the Bible, we cry out to Jesus, blah blah blah. None of it works. We’ve seen too much. We can never un-see.
And then I see hateful, smug, self-congratulatory virtue signals like this, and I think to myself how happy I am to have left such a toxic tribe.
As long as you and other Christians think that deconversion only happens to fake or weak Christians, your decline will continue — and your credibility will only continue to suffer. You need to grapple with the very serious contradictions to your beliefs offered by reality constantly. Until you accept that reality absolutely does not cooperate with your beliefs, nothing will change.
Worse, you sound hateful toward ex-Christians. You are smearing and mischaracterizing us to feel better about your religion’s decline and to feel like your faith is a little safer from deconversion than it is. We know you, and we know why you act like this. It does not make your faith look strong. It makes it look very, very weak and fragile. It can only survive if you act like this toward those who’ve left. That does not speak well of you or your faith. Please think about this, next time you feel the need to shoot off your big mouth about a group you know nothing about, okay?
I wouldn’t be so quick to sniff and scoff at those who have walked away from their faith. Many have had true faith yet serious troubles can easily capsize your boat. Some of you say “Oh I’d never let go of my faith.” Really? How bout if your child or grandchild was abducted, raped and murdered? You think you’d get through that? How about getting sent to prison for 20 yrs for a crime you didn’t commit? There are plenty of horrible things that could hit you and sink your faith. You think not? Sometimes the burdens of life are unbearable. Don’t be quick to scorn those who have walked away. You don’t know what they’ve been through.