Chapter Seven — Reasons That May Justify Leaving (1 of 2)

Some reasons do justify leaving. A book that pretended otherwise would be lying to you.

Scripture records believers parting ways, and it does not always condemn them. The traditions in Chapter Four, even the strictest, name conditions under which a person may or must go.

This chapter gives those reasons their full weight. It also asks of each one, "What has to be true?" Any of them can be borrowed by a lighter reason dressed as a heavier one.

John told the churches to test the spirits (1 John 4:1). Test your reasons the same way, gently and honestly, in the light.

When the gospel itself is denied. The heaviest reason is when a church no longer holds the faith at its center: who Christ is, what He did on the cross, His rising from the dead, salvation by God's grace.

Paul did not soften this:

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel—not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell!"

— Galatians 1:6–8 (NET)

John wrote that "Everyone who goes on ahead and does not remain in the teaching of Christ does not have God" (2 John 9, NET).

Paul warned of teachers who "do not agree with sound words (that is, those of our Lord Jesus Christ)" and who "suppose that godliness is a way of making a profit" (1 Timothy 6:3, 5, NET).

The Protestant traditions agree here more than anywhere. The Lutheran confession defines the church by the gospel rightly taught. Calvin held that where "lying and falsehood have usurped the ascendancy," there is no church (Institutes IV.2.1). Wesley set the line at being made to do what the word of God forbids.

What has to be true: this reason is about the gospel, not about every doctrine you hold dear.

A church that differs with you about the end times, or the mode of baptism, or the gifts of the Spirit, has not denied the gospel, even if it is wrong. A church that no longer confesses Christ as Lord and Savior, or that preaches another way to God, has.

Be honest about which you are facing. Ask your pastor plainly what the church believes about Christ.

If the answer is the historic faith, you are in a family that disagrees with you about something smaller. If it is not, you may be in a place that has stopped being what it was.

Catholic and Orthodox Christians do not hold that a believer may judge the Church itself to have lost the gospel. They hold that Christ keeps His Church in the truth.

For them, a priest or parish that strays is taken to the bishop. It is not a reason to leave the Church. Chapter Four gives their view.

When the church requires what your conscience forbids. Sometimes a church does not deny the gospel, but it requires its members to do or affirm something a believer cannot do in good conscience before God.

When the authorities commanded the apostles to stop preaching, they answered, "We must obey God rather than people" (Acts 5:29, NET).

Paul treats conscience with great seriousness too. On matters where believers differ, "Each must be fully convinced in his own mind" (Romans 14:5, NET), and "whatever is not from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23, NET).

What has to be true: Romans 14 cuts both ways, and it is easy to read only half.

The same chapter that protects conscience commands believers not to despise or judge one another over these matters: "Now receive the one who is weak in the faith, and do not have disputes over differing opinions" (Romans 14:1, NET).

Most matters of conscience can be held inside a church that does not share them, as long as the church does not require you to act against them.

The line is not "my church holds a view I don't share." It is "my church requires me to do or say what I believe God forbids." Those are very different.

A point your church only teaches, or leaves to conscience, is not a point it requires of you.

When leadership cannot be corrected. Every leader errs. A church is in danger when its leaders cannot be corrected by anyone.

John wrote about such a man:

"I wrote something to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not acknowledge us. Therefore, if I come, I will call attention to the deeds he is doing—the bringing of unjustified charges against us with evil words! And not being content with that, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but hinders the people who want to do so and throws them out of the church!"

— 3 John 9–10 (NET)

Scripture gives a way to correct even an elder: "Do not accept an accusation against an elder unless it can be confirmed by two or three witnesses. Those guilty of sin must be rebuked before all, as a warning to the rest." (1 Timothy 5:19–20, NET.)

Some churches cannot do this. The leader answers to no one. Those who raise concerns are pushed out. That church is in the condition John described.

What has to be true: the question is not whether the leaders disagree with you. It is whether anyone can correct them when they are wrong.

Ask this of any church: who decides what Scripture means here, and who can correct that decision?

Every tradition has an answer. In some it is a bishop. In some it is a presbytery or a synod. In some it is the congregation. Find out your church's answer, and whether it works.