Whether you are a professing Christian or someone simply looking for some answers, I believe that what you are about to learn will be both shocking and disturbing. What would be your first reaction if you were to learn of a top notch university that was revealed to have an 80 to 90 percent failure rate? How about a surgeon whose resume included the loss of 8 out of 10 patients? How much faith would you have in an airline that couldn't explain why 82 percent of their departures never reached their destination? I believe it would be safe to say that you find these statistics not only unacceptable but extremely absurd. There is no way in our society today that failure to this degree would be allowed to continue without action being taken to correct obvious flaws within the system. Think again. Not only is it happening, but it has manifested itself in the most unlikely place of all.
You might not be aware of it, but we have something within the modern church called the fall away rate. This is a statistic of people who have made a decision to follow Christ and then for whatever reason, fall away from the faith and return to life as usual. It's estimated to be anywhere from 80 to 90 percent. Click on the Fallen Away icon to see for yourself some of these in real life situations. Does this statistic bother you as much as the previous ones? Do you find it hard to believe that this could be happening? And if it is, what could possibly be the cause of it?
It seems that the problem within the church doesn't merely apply to those who have actually turned away from it either. Bill Bright in his book "The Coming Revival" stated that only 2% of Christians share their faith regularly. It appears that a vast majority of the body of Christ are lost in worship and don't care about the cries of the ungodly or their fate, or they don't know what to say and therefore, they don't share their faith. That would be like a firefighter saying "I just didn't know how to save those people" after standing by and watching a home with a family trapped inside go up in flames. If he was a firefighter, he should have studied and learned how to rescue those people.
Now the remarkable news. Did you know there is a specific reason why the professing body of Christ seems to be on fire and in high gear for every other church activity whereas the sharing of the gospel is left to others? The root of the problem is also the cause of the mass exodus from the church of "new believers" into the statistical pile of the fallen away.
Believe it or not, the problem actually originates from the gospel itself. Or should I say the modern gospel which differs greatly from the original. The problem came into existence around one hundred years ago when we (man) decided to make a few minor adjustments to make it more appealing to a lost and sinful world. Want to know what those changes were and the devastating effects that they are having on the eternal fate of souls? You can find out by reading or listening. For listening, go to Living Waters and click on "Hell's Best Kept Secret". For reading, click on my own version, Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire. I have made a printable version available as well, so take advantage of that option if you'd prefer to get away from the monitor. Either version will take less than an hour from your life, but will be priceless in eternity. Please do not pass up this divine appointment.