“Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?’ So Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is God.’” Mark 10:17-18.
“In this the love of God was manifested [revealed] toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10.
“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ…” Ephesians 4:11-13.
In 2016 a Pew Research Center survey received the following reasons Christians abandoned their faith:
Learning about evolution when I went away to college.
Religion is the opiate of the people.
Rational thought makes religion go out the window.
Lack of any sort of scientific or specific evidence of a Creator.
I just realized somewhere along the line that I didn’t really believe it.
I’m doing a lot more learning, studying and kind of making decisions myself rather than listening to someone else.