I take issue with the idea that if someone is no longer a Christian, they weren't a Christian to begin with. This seems like deflection at best and blatant gaslighting at worst. Lets say for example a girl named B was at one point Christian. She fully believed in the trinity and every word of the bible. B is also the victim of horrific sexual abuse as well as emotional abuse at the hands of Christians with the bible being used to justify it. B breaks free from the church and renounces her faith. According to you, B was never Christian. Do you see the problem? People hace legitimate reasons for leaving Christianity and to claim they were never Christian to begin with is just horrid and teetering into no true scotsman. Do you know who B is? B is me and many others. Saying they were never Christian to begin with only enforced the idea thst Christians shrug off abuse and just plain don't care.
It's really just a simple matter of Biblical truth.
When I say "Christian" in this context, like Mr. Friel, I don't mean a person who identifies as a Christian, reads their Bible, goes to Church, and claims to believe all of the essential Christian doctrines. What we mean is a person who has been spiritually regenerated, or "born again" as it is sometimes described; this is a spiritual experience that a person who truly places faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior necessarily has, the effect of which is absolutely irrevocable. Once you experience the new birth, you're in Christ forever; you can't and won't walk away. Nothing external can take you away from the Lord, and you'd never want to leave Him. If you can walk away (and many people who claim the title Christian do walk away all the time), that means you never experienced the new birth, and thus were never saved. Why a person walks away is irrelevant to the point.
Paul writes, "17 Dear brothers, pattern your lives after mine, and notice who else lives up to my example. 18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again now with tears in my eyes, there are many who walk along the Christian road who are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their future is eternal loss, for their god is their appetite: they are proud of what they should be ashamed of; and all they think about is this life here on earth. 20 But our homeland is in heaven, where our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is; and we are looking forward to his return from there. 21 When he comes back, he will take these dying bodies of ours and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same mighty power that he will use to conquer all else everywhere." (Philippians 3:17-21)
And John writes, "3 And how can we be sure that we belong to him? By looking within ourselves: are we really trying to do what he wants us to? 4 Someone may say, “I am a Christian; I am on my way to heaven; I belong to Christ.” But if he doesn’t do what Christ tells him to, he is a liar. 5 But those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more. That is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian. 6 Anyone who says he is a Christian should live as Christ did...19 These “against-Christ” people used to be members of our churches, but they never really belonged with us or else they would have stayed. When they left us it proved that they were not of us at all...
"4 But those who [make a practice sinning] are against God, for every sin is done against the will of God. 5 And you know that [Christ] became a man so that he could take away our sins, and that there is no sin in him, no missing of God’s will at any time in any way. 6 So if we stay close to him, obedient to him, we won’t be sinning either; but as for those who keep on sinning, they should realize this: They sin because they have never really known him or become his. 7 Oh, dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: if you are constantly doing what is good, it is because you are good, even as he is. 8 But if you keep on sinning, it shows that you belong to Satan, who since he first began to sin has kept steadily at it. But the Son of God came to destroy these works of the devil. 9 The person who has been born into God’s family does not make a practice of sinning because now God’s life is in him; so he can’t keep on sinning, for this new life has been born into him and controls him—he has been born again." (1 John 2:3-6, 19, 3:4-9)
There are other passages that I could cite, but I think these are sufficient for the purpose. It doesn't really matter why a person walks way from Jesus; if they do walk away, they weren't born again in the first place, which means they weren't really Christians, regardless of anything else.
