Joshua Harris, the former lead pastor of Covenant Life Church, the founding church of Sovereign Grace Ministries in Gaithersburg, Maryland, has now stepped away from Christianity.
I’m sure you’ve read the Instagram message. Here’s a brief snippet:
…The information that was left out of our announcement is that I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is “deconstruction,” the biblical phrase is “falling away.” By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now…
This news came in the wake of news of Joshua Harris separating from his wife. Though they both plan to remain friends and tend to their children, it’s just unfortunate. He’s gone through a transformation that looks more like the everday Internet Marketer hunting for the next startup. This is is life, his choices.
I wish him the best.
But why Rev? Why are you not outraged?
It’s simple. Christians, like the sheep that we are go astray. Somewhere between writing books, raising kids, being a husband something obviously became a great distracter, if not a deciever. I also found quite interesting how he immediately recanted everything said to the LGTBQ community. I can only assume, like you readers, that whatever he’s looking to do next he wants to make sure he’s hitting all the right buttons on the world stage.
The problem with Chrisitanity is that we look at the world instead of at God. We’re trying to figure out what we can do instead of what God has called us to do at our level of understanding and abilities. There are a thousand, if not millions of Joshua Harris-like believers out there that just burn out and quit. They have their reasons. Serving only as a casual reader and not as judge I can tell you he’s not the first, and he won’t be the last. Many will turn away and will embrace the world for what it is. They will bear whatever marks they need to achieve their desires, and they will love, reject, destroy, and affirm whatever and whomever they need to do so.
In Second Thessalonians 2, Paul’s first set of verses leads us to understand this process:
- First, the warning: Paul emphasizes to the people to be weary of anyone who brings a different Gospel.. In addition, the signs conclude that the person will make himself God in God’s house (v. 1-4).
- Second, the spiritual facts: There’s a “…secret power of lawlesness already at work…” (v.7) For it to be secret is to be kept from public eye, in the dark. Remember, anything that has to be done in the darkness cannot be of God, because God is light and truth.
- Third, the spiritual victims: Do you think you’ll be caught up in this chaos? As a follower of Christ, you might bear witness to seeing it, but Christ will protect you! But where are you in your walk with Jesus? Paul explains in v.10 that those that will be decieved were already perishing. What does that mean? It means they were already on a path away from the Lord, and this just sped up the process.
- Fourth, God’s plan to identify and erradicate: Once those persons have been idenfitied, (Those who believed the lie, and fell to the delusion as per v. 11), they will be condemned. God calls for authenticity in service to him. He wants us to be just as real with him as he is to us. But a choice HAS to be made! And once that choice is made you must accept the path ahead of you. Joshua Harris can’t get mad at God when things don’t go his way. The good thing is we all have a chance to turn back. The bad part is no one can gurantee how much time you have left to do so.
I do hope Joshua Harris comes back to Jesus and re-forms his Christian walk. Whatever he’s going through or has gone through cannot be worth serving a worldview as a Cultural believer that “something created something out there”. He knows the truth. I pray that somewhere a revelation occurs quickly and with great conviction, just as I do for everyone that turns away.
But until then, the work to save souls and fight evil continues.
