Why So Many Fall Away: Recovering the Depth of the Apostolic Faith

  Why So Many Fall Away: Recovering the Depth of the Apostolic Faith

The more I study Scripture, the early Church, and the writings of the earliest Christian teachers, the more I recognize how thin and fragmented modern Christianity has become. We often wonder why so many fall away from the faith in adulthood, but the reason becomes clear when we look honestly at how Christianity is taught today: many believers were never given the depth, the formation, or the roots needed to endure.

From the beginning, the faith entrusted by Christ to His apostles was not shallow, individualized, or disconnected from its Old Testament foundations. It was cohesive, historical, sacrificial, and lived within a community that understood what it had received.

The apostles did not preach a half-formed message. They did not risk their lives for vague spirituality or minimal doctrine. They lived—and died—for the fullness of the gospel.
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  The Apostles Died for What They Knew to Be True

Ancient Christian tradition preserves accounts of their martyrdoms—sobering reminders of the gravity and conviction behind their witness:
• Peter – crucified upside down in Rome.
• Paul – beheaded under Nero.
• Andrew – bound to an X-shaped cross, preaching until his death.
• James the Greater – executed by the sword.
• James the Just – thrown from the Temple and beaten to death.
• Thomas – speared while evangelizing in India.
• Matthew – martyred while preaching.
• Bartholomew – flayed and beheaded.
• Philip – killed after converting influential families.
• Simon the Zealot – martyred in Persia.
• Jude Thaddeus – killed in Persia alongside Simon.
• Matthias – stoned and beheaded.
• John – survived martyrdom attempts, ultimately exiled and persecuted.

These men did not die for a watered-down or incomplete gospel.
They died for the truth Christ entrusted to them—truth they expected would be preserved, taught, and lived in its fullness.
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  Why So Many Fall Away Today

Many Christians grow up hearing only the most introductory elements of faith:
• Pray the sinner’s prayer.
• Believe you are saved forever from that moment on.
• Trust that this settles your spiritual destiny.

These ideas form a beginning, but not a foundation. They were never meant to replace lifelong discipleship, formation, understanding, or obedience.

Scripture itself warns about remaining in spiritual infancy:
“I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready.”
— 1 Corinthians 3:2
“You need milk, not solid food… solid food is for the mature.”
— Hebrews 5:12–14

A faith that never moves beyond its earliest stages cannot endure real testing.

Enthusiasm without understanding collapses.
Emotion without formation fades.
Conviction without roots cannot stand.
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  A Faith Without Roots Cannot Stand

Jesus described this in His parable:
“They have no root in themselves… when trouble arises, they fall away.”
— Matthew 13:21

This is the experience of countless Christians today—not because they are unwilling, but because they were never taught the fullness of the faith.
Their roots were never anchored in:
• the unity between the Old and New Testaments,
• the larger story of salvation history,
• the apostolic interpretation of Scripture,
• the practices and beliefs of the earliest Christians,
• the theological continuity preserved through generations.
Without these, faith becomes shallow—and easily uprooted.
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  Many Christians Don’t Know the Origins of Their Own Faith

Part of the problem is simple but devastating:
many Christians do not know where the Bible came from, how it was canonized, or why certain books were included.

They don’t know:
• the difference between the Torah/Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and the Masoretic Text,
• why early Christians primarily used the Septuagint,
• how the earliest manuscripts differ from modern ones,
• how the early Church recognized the authoritative books of Scripture,
• when the canon was formally affirmed,
• or how their own denomination came into existence.

Many believers have never heard of—or misunderstand—central figures in early Christianity:
• Augustine, the great theologian of grace and human nature,
• Justin Martyr, one of the earliest defenders of the faith,
• Tertullian, an early apologist who shaped Western theology,
• Polycarp, who learned directly from the apostle John,
• Ignatius of Antioch, who wrote about church structure and unity on his way to martyrdom.

These names are foundational to Christian history—yet unknown to most Christians today.

Even more tragically, many believers dismiss the faith of other Christians simply because they belong to a different tradition. They do not know the origins of their own denomination, much less the history of others. They do not know what the earliest Christians believed or how doctrinal developments unfolded.

Disconnection from history breeds division, confusion, and arrogance.
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  The Path Forward Is Depth, Not Departure

The solution is not abandoning faith—it is rediscovering its fullness.
This requires:
• reading all of Scripture, not only the familiar passages,
• learning how the Old Testament prepares the way for Christ,
• studying how the earliest Christians understood and lived the gospel,
• understanding how the Scriptures were recognized and preserved,
• forming a mature faith rooted in truth rather than emotion,
• embracing discipleship as a lifelong journey,
• grounding belief in the teaching handed down since the apostles.

This is the “solid food” Paul describes—the kind of mature, resilient faith that can withstand temptation, suffering, cultural pressure, and intellectual challenge.

When believers root themselves in the whole of God’s revelation and the witness preserved throughout Christian history, they discover something far deeper than what many modern expressions of Christianity offer.

They discover the same faith the apostles lived, taught, guarded, and died to pass on.