ABANDONED FAITH!

 

A very close relative of mine, who was baptized in the mid sixties, had become a powerhouse of faith by the late seventies. This person was the office manager for a family business, and I happened to be present at some very difficult times for this family. I recall one day a customer had called and said he was very upset and was on his way to his lawyer’s office to launch a suit against the family business for some perceived product failure, and he intended to sue for every last penny the family was worth. My relative instantly left the office and found a quiet place to pray about the problem. It was only a short while later that this same customer came into the office and apologized profusely, as he realized suddenly that the fault had been his own! I personally witnessed similar situations numerous times, and each time, after this person’s earnest prayer, things became dramatically different.

 

 She was very strong in faith at all levels, until Mr. Armstrong died and the Church began to slide toward Protestantism.  By 1994, this wonderful person’s prayers seemed to have no effect at all. What happened?  She trusted that Mr. Armstrong was to live right on into the millennium and not die as he did, and that was the trigger that caused her faith to eventually fail. She began to doubt all she had learned about the Church and that it was not supposed to fall apart as it was doing. She then began to doubt God, as the Church she had known disintegrated.

 

I believe most all of the brethren have gone through various stages of doubt that has weakened each person’s faith to one degree or another. We all are familiar with the scripture that asks if Christ will find any faith on earth when He returns. This should be very sobering for each of us, as it is our generation of Brethren that this question is addressed to. The question is addressed to those who were called out of the world and were baptized, not the world in general, as God has not given the world His Spirit that carries the gift of faith with it. Many have abandoned faith altogether, and do not even try to keep the Sabbath or Holy days anymore.

 

For some brethren, their faith began to waiver when a derelict minister put them out of the Church for not honoring the new truths being taught. I have learned that no man can remove someone from the real Church, only from fellowship with other people. If a person has been baptized and has received the Holy Spirit, then only God or Christ can remove that person by removing the gift of the Holy Spirit. I doubt that has happened to anyone yet, as God called us to make it, not to fail. Our faith may be as a proverbial mustard seed now, but if we still have the Spirit, we can see it grow as we work to regain the faith we may have abandoned. As times get tougher, it will be necessary for our faith to become even stronger than ever before, so we must not allow ourselves to abandon such a precious gift.