Nowhere Else

Summary: There are many people who come unto Jesus and accept him as their Savior but later make the decision not to follow him any longer. One of the reasons why people abandon their belief in God is because they’ve become dissatisfied or disagree with his teachings. In addition to this, being a follower of Jesus is not always easy to do and sometimes when people go through hard times, it causes them to question their faith in God. This article examines these reasons and offers a way to help keep us from losing faith in Jesus.

As Christians, we’re familiar with the story of how Jesus fed five thousand people with just five loaves of barley bread and two fishes, but we don’t often remember that the next day when people came seeking him, Jesus said unto them, “Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed….

“Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread… [And Jesus said unto them] Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day… Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (John 6:26-68).

There are many people who accept Jesus as their Savior but later make the decision not to follow him any longer. One of the reasons why people abandon their belief in God is because they’ve become dissatisfied or disagree with his teachings.

One reason for this is because they feel that following the teachings of Jesus restricts what they want to do. It might be a restriction on what they can eat or drink, or what they are allowed to do or not do, or what kind of clothing they can or cannot wear. In other words, there are people who leave a belief in God because they want to follow their own standards of behavior rather than the one God has outlined.

Sometimes people will leave their church because they disagree with a particular policy or belief. For example, there are some who feel that women should be allowed to hold the priesthood or that same-sex marriages should be approved by their church, or that the church they belong to shouldn’t talk so much about sin or repentance because it’s uncomfortable for them to hear.

In cases like these, people abandon God because they don’t agree with what God wants them to believe. In other words, they become upset with God because he won’t change his beliefs to accommodate theirs.

The logic of this kind of thinking is like saying that because we don’t like walking in the rain because it gets us wet that therefore nature should change its laws to accommodate what we want. But the fact is that water will always be wet no matter how many people wish it wasn’t. The laws of nature are not subject to the opinions of man because they are constant and eternal. It is man who must learn to adapt to nature and deal with it on its terms rather than expecting nature to change to suit our desires.

God knows what it takes for man to live with him in heaven and that is never going to change. Heaven is a place where sin cannot exist and should there exist even the least amount of sin in heaven, it would immediately be removed. If that weren’t so, then heaven could not be a place of never-ending happiness. Therefore, if we want to live in heaven with God, then we have to learn to adapt ourselves to its laws, because they are unchanging, and forever constant. The only option man has is to either accept the terms God has set forth of what it will take for us to live with him or choose to spend eternity living somewhere else.

But this doesn’t apply just to individuals because there are churches who have abandoned the teachings of Christ by replacing them with their own beliefs. Since there are those who believe that women should hold the priesthood, there are some churches who have made the decision to abandon what they used to believe, and now allow women to become ordained ministers. The same is true of same-sex marriages where some churches not only sanction such unions but celebrate it as being something God fully approves of.

However, that’s no different than a church making an official proclamation that they now believe rain is no longer wet and that from this time forward it is their official teaching that we can walk in the rain without getting our clothes soaked.

If such a statement were actually true, it would require that person to have the ability to change the nature of water. In the same way, when someone declares they are changing the word of God, they can only do that if they have the authority to speak for Gud, but they never do make such a claim. Instead, they base their authority for such a change by reinterpreting what the Bible says. When they do this, they are fulfilling the words of Jesus when he said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9).

Therefore, people abandon God when they choose to belong to a church that teaches the commandment of men rather than the true doctrine of Christ. When that happens, they imitate the story of the emperor’s new clothes. In this story, two men claiming to be weavers tell the king they can provide him with a magnificent set of clothing that is invisible to only those who are incompetent and stupid. The king agrees to have them make this set of clothing but when they present it to him and he can’t see anything, rather than wanting to appear stupid, he acts as though he sees a magnificent suit which he proudly wears in a public procession for everyone to admire. But while he has deluded himself into thinking he is magnificently dressed, everyone else sees him walking through the streets completely naked.

Those who change the doctrines of Christ by replacing them with their own personal opinions of what they think God’s laws should be are only deceiving themselves into believing something that isn’t real. If God can change his laws from one generation to another, then he is a God we cannot trust or have faith in. But if God is unchangeable and is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8) then his laws and his teachings cannot be changed.

When people in the days of Jesus didn’t like what he told them about eating his flesh and drinking his blood, many of his followers “went back [to their old ways], and walked no more with him,” but when Jesus asked his twelve disciples if they would leave him as well, they answered “ to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.”

The question we need to ask is, if we don’t like what the scriptures teach, “to whom shall we go?” Do we stay with the words of Jesus, as uncomfortable as they may be, or do we go to someone else who tells us what we want to hear? If Jesus has the words of eternal life, then going to someone else to know what we should believe, will obviously not bring us eternal life. To think that it will is only deluding ourselves.
But there’s another reason why people abandon God.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is also known as the plan of happiness, but being a follower of Jesus is not always a fun thing to do. In fact, there are many times when life can be hard, even for a Christian and sometimes when people go through hard times, it causes them to question their faith in God. They reason that if God loves them and he wants us to be happy, then they have trouble understanding why they have to suffer.

This then causes them to doubt that what they once believed about God may not be correct, and as they dwell on this thought, they can convince themselves that what they were taught about God is nonsense and nothing more than a myth, based on wishful thinking, Once they come to that conclusion, they then abandoned their faith in God and put their trust in one of the many philosophies of the world.

Some people put their trust in what science teaches, while others turn to a belief that there is no purpose to life, while others believe in the philosophy that man is the master of his own fate and prospers only by the labor of his own hands and the genius of his own intellect, while others seek for happiness in the acquisition of material things.

However, to paraphrase the words of a once popular song, they’re looking for happiness in all the wrong places. Numerous studies have found that fame, money, material possession, success, gaining power or indulging in doing whatever they want doesn’t bring happiness. In fact, many times, people who follow these philosophies may appear happy to others, but on the inside, they feel empty and unfulfilled. And to compensate for this they turn to drugs, alcohol, or engage in risky behavior in the hope of finding something that will satisfy their unfulfilled yearnings, but instead it only makes things worse for them.

Studies have also shown that those who believe in God tend to be happier, have less problems in their life, are able to endure hardships better, and have improved relationships with others. The paradox is that when people abandon their faith in God when things are not going as well as they want, it’s like someone jumping out of a ship in the ocean in the middle of a storm.

Although the ride in the ship may be rough, the truth is a person is still much safer there than anywhere else. If someone leaves the ship, the only place they can go is into the raging waters. Even when wearing a life jacket, it’s still much safer being inside the ship than being in the water. Although a life jacket might keep a person from drowning, being in the water during a storm is a lot harder to deal with. At least when they’re in the boat, they have some control over what they can do to keep themselves safe.

But once in the water, a person is at the mercy of the winds and the waves, with no other option than to bob up and down and be pushed around by the forces of nature. As anyone who has been to the beach and been caught in the riptide of the ocean or has been knocked down and dragged underwater by a large wave knows, man is powerless to fight against the forces of nature. At least, the ship provides some sort of protection, but once they leave the ship, they leave whatever protection they once had.

If we think life is hard when trusting in God, it is not nearly as hard as dealing with the challenges of life without him. He’s not just our life jacket, nor is he merely a lifeline. He is the boat and those who stay close to him are better protected from the storms of life than those who choose to abandon him.

The apostle Paul explained that one of the reason Christ established a church is so “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” (Ephesian 4:14).

The church of Jesus Christ is the ship because it is where all the teachings and blessings God has provided man is found, and it is those blessings that can help protect us from the storms of life. When we leave the church, we are leaving the means by which God delivers all we need to inherit eternal life, which is the greatest blessing God has to offer us.

The words of eternal life are found not just in the scriptures but in the teachings of the church. It is in the church where we are brought to “the knowledge of the Son of God.” It is in the church where we are edified “till we all come in the unity of the faith.” It is the church that helps us grow to become “a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” This is why God has given his church “some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers.” (see Ephesians 4:11-13).

In our journey through life, it is certain we will encounter storms, some of which may be severe, but we can think of the church as a strong, sturdy ship that has on it everything we need to safely get to our destination no matter how rough the seas may occasionally become. During those times, the journey may be hard to endure, but when people leave the church, they are abandoning all the blessings God has provided for their safety.

When people leave the church because they disagree with what it teaches, that’s like getting into a lifeboat and charting their own course in life. When that happens, as they look out over the vast expanse of the ocean, they have no idea where they need to go, nor do they have a compass to steer by. Because of their decision, they find themselves hopelessly adrift with nothing to guide them but their own reasoning. And when the storms come, their small lifeboat is far less capable of surviving the rough seas than the ship they choose to abandon.

Life is very much like traveling on the open sea. As we look to the future, we can barely see one day ahead of us, nor do we have any radar warning us of approaching storms. As such, we go from one day to the next, unsure what we’ll encounter. We look forward to hopefully arriving in heaven, but we have no idea how to get there, nor how long our journey will be.

However, Jesus is the captain of his church and as long as we rely on him he will get us to where we want to go. Like the captain of a ship, he sees what lies ahead and as long as we stay with his church, he will provide us with all we need to make it through both the hard times as well as the good.

When many of the followers of Christ left him because they thought his words were too hard, “Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.” It is in Christ’s church where we find the words of eternal life. If we leave his church, for whatever reason, there is nowhere else we can go to find them.

 

Related articles can be found at The Nature of Spiritual Growth

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