If we believe in the sovereignty of God, then how do we explain friends or prominent leaders who turn their backs on Jesus? As I read the emails that come in and hear from podcast listeners, there’s nothing that dominates the conversation right now more than the fact that a very prominent leader within our circles has “de-converted.” He’s calling it a “de-conversion.” You know him, and he was my pastor for four years — a beloved pastor. A lot of people just don’t know how to handle the news. Online, there’s a lot of hand-wringing and finger-pointing: Is this big American evangelical celebrity culture gone wrong? Is this the consequence of huge Reformed conferences even like this one? Is this the backlash of the “repressive purity movement” gone wrong? Is this a leader who was given too much responsibility too young? On and on. There’s lots of finger-pointing.
But I’ve noticed a different tone among self-reflective leaders. They realize, “This could be me. If he could fall, this could be me.” So what would you say to those of us in this room who have a healthy distrust of our own hearts, who look at this man who has now walked away from the gospel, and we say, “Could this happen to me too? Could I one day walk away from the gospel, walk away from my spouse, walk away from Christ?” What would you say?
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