There’s more than one epidemic sweeping the country. As COVID-19 spreads from sea to shining sea, a pandemic of paganism cripples Christian music. Hillsong’s Marty Sampson, Michael and Lisa Gungor, Jahaziel, and recently Jon Steingard of Hawk Nelson. Why are so many high-profile Christians leaving Christianity? At the risk of being called judgmental, they aren’t actually leaving Christianity.

Imagine an athlete who has spent his life playing the game of football. He played in elementary and Jr. High School. He spent his summers at football camps. He had personal coaches in High School. He attended college on a football scholarship. He was a first round draft pick in the NFL. He played professionally for several years then one day, he makes this statement:

“After growing up playing football, being a coach’s kid, playing in the NFL, and having ‘athlete’ in front of most of the things in my life — I am now finding that I no longer believe in football. Tackling is violent and inhumane.”

I don’t know much about football, but know tacking happens all the time. I would think that a professional player would have worked out his feelings about tackling long before he was drafted into the NFL.

Now imagine a Christian musician after “…growing up in a Christian home, being a pastor’s kid, playing and singing in a Christian band, and having the word ‘Christian’ in front of most of the things in my life…” suddenly saying:

“Why does he (God) say not to kill, but then instruct Israel to turn around and kill men women and children to take the promised land?” and “Why does Jesus have to die for our sins (more killing again)?”

Yowza.

I would think a person who has professed Christianity his entire life would have worked out his feelings about Jesus’ death a long time ago. In fact, Jesus death for our sins is the whole Gospel in a nutshell.

The question, “Why does Jesus have to die for our sins,” is what pagans ask BEFORE they become Christians. It’s not a question that should be asked by someone who makes his living singing in a Christian band.

In football, some people get tackled. In the Christian faith, God sometimes kills people. If that shocks you, then I can say with confidence that you’ve never read the Bible.

When I was a kid, I used to wonder about all those people who drown when God flooded the world. My thought was, “Why didn’t they ask Noah to let them on the boat?” As a little kid, it never crossed my mind that God was the villain for wiping out those people. I understood that they were evil people and God was righteous. And I understood that making God angry is a really bad idea.

Sin makes God angry. It brings about His wrath which is an unimaginably terrible thing. So terrible, that God doesn’t want to unleash it. He sent Jesus to eliminate my sin so that I wouldn’t suffer God’s terrible wrath. The reason Jesus died on the cross is so we don’t experience God’s wrath.

This is basic theology. This is the stuff we teach little kids in Sunday school. At least, we used to teach this stuff. Perhaps the reason we’re seeing so many people leaving the faith is because they never understood the faith in the first place.

They know that the church has a cool band, and great coffee, and a super-fun kid’s program, and a hip pastor who’s funny and doesn’t judge people. They know they’re “welcome just as they are” at the “church for people who hate church.” They know it’s “okay to not be okay.”

But nobody ever tells them they’re sinners at war with God. Nobody tells them that they are outside the boat and the rain is falling and that shaming God for his “cruelty” will not save them. Only Jesus saves.

The most recent apostate is still “open to the idea that God is there.” That’s good! Now that he has turned his back on fake Christianity, there’s hope he will discover the real thing.