The evangelical world was rocked on July 18 (2019) by news of Joshua Harris’ divorce, followed swiftly by his announcement on Instagram that he no longer considered himself to be a Christian. Harris rose to fame in late 20th century American Christianity with sales of his bestselling book I Kissed Dating Goodbye, released in 1997. The book detailed the concerns that a young Harris (then 21 and unmarried) had with the culture of casual, worldly dating popular among young Christians his age.
Media outlets portray his book as having been written in the context of the so-called “purity culture” of the 1990s. The slogan and movement “True love waits” was launched in 1993 by the Southern Baptist Convention, encouraging a biblical sexual ethic and calling on young people to save themselves for their future spouse. Millions of young American evangelicals would take the following pledge: “Believing that true love waits, I make a commitment to God, myself, my family, my friends, my future mate and my future children to be sexually abstinent from this day until the day I enter a biblical marriage relationship.”
By the 2000s, Joshua Harris’ book was well on its way to selling a million copies, and the young evangelical would go on to write several other successful books. He became senior pastor of Covenant Life Church in 2004, and led that church until 2015, when he stepped down to pursue theological education at Regent College in Vancouver. On January 25, he preached a final message to his congregation in which he announced his decision:
“I’m convinced that to be faithful and fruitful for the long haul, I need a season of recalibration. I need a time of retooling and training. I’ve been in public ministry for 23 years, I’ve been on staff here for 17 years and have served as lead pastor for 10 years. In that time I’ve never set aside time for focused study. I need a season of being poured into, a time of interacting with different thoughts and ideas, a time of gaining perspective and fresh vision.”
Harris had initially planned to study at least a year, and perhaps a second year, in order to pursue a master’s degree. In reality, he would never return to his church, or indeed to pastoral ministry. Joshua Harris went on to found a marketing company that focuses on helping business owners “use the power of story…to connect with their customers.”
Earlier this year, Joshua Harris released a documentary that was essentially an apology to his generation for having written I Kissed Dating Goodbye. He has stated that his views on his own book had been changing for the past few years, and that he now regrets having written it. Harris had apparently changed his views on how young people ought to pursue romantic relationships––to the point that he asked his publisher to remove his own bestseller from publication.
Last month, Josh and his wife announced on his Instagram account that they were divorcing: “We’re writing to share the news that we are separating and will continue our life together as friends. In recent years, some significant changes have taken place in both of us. It is with sincere love for one another and understanding of our unique story as a couple that we are moving forward with this decision.” In retrospect, the perceptive reader ought to have noticed that something was awry. This cold, matter-of-face announcement did not particularly sound like anything a believer would say.
In the days after news of Harris’ divorce was rippling throughout the evangelical world, the former pastor released another Instagram post. After thanking his followers for being gracious to him in light of the divorce he had announced, Josh slipped in another development: “The information that was left out of our announcement is that I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is ‘deconstruction,’ the biblical phrase is ‘falling away.’ By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.”
What are we as Christians to make of this shocking announcement? Whenever apostasy happens in a modern mass media age, millions of people (both Christians and non-Christians) are affected and pause to take notice. I believe, however, that there are several lessons we can learn as former Seventh-day Adventists in light of Joshua Harris’ leaving Christianity.
The new birth is a true reality
As Christians, we are understandably disheartened by the news of Josh’s apostasy. Perhaps even more than that, as former Adventists we may be tempted to become cynical about biblical Christianity. Having left a church that offered another gospel with a pretend Christianity, some will be left wondering whether evangelicalism can offer anything more beyond what we have already seen in our old religious past. Most importantly, many of us will be bewildered at what has just happened. How could a Christian who preached the gospel so passionately suddenly walk away from Jesus?
In moments like these, it is imperative to cling to the bedrock truths and promises given to us in the Word of God. When Jesus talks to Nicodemus about being born again in John 3, he is not muttering some pious religious language. When Paul declares so forcefully to the Corinthians––“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”––he is not uttering profound nonsense. For the believer, the new birth is a reality. If you have grasped Jesus Christ by faith and by faith alone, you––once truly dead in sins and trespasses––have been powerfully raised to resurrection life.
As a younger Adventist, I remember smirking in my mind whenever I heard talk about “being born again.” It sounded like so much blissful ignorance. “Let the Baptists proclaim that they are born again,” I thought to myself, “while we enjoy the deeper understanding of the Bible given to us by the Seventh-day Adventist tradition.” I didn’t have the slightest idea of what the new birth was, yet all the while I prided myself in my superior understanding of the Bible. When, however, I was confronted with the righteous and sovereign God of the Bible, I despaired of any hope in saving myself. I died. Then, in my wretchedness, I looked to the Son of God bleeding for me, and held onto him with my feeble, yet genuine, faith. The apostle describes my reality, and your reality, with these words: “We therefore were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
The new birth is a permanent reality
Now, if we believe what God promises us in his Word regarding the new birth, how should we react to Joshua Harris’ falling away? It is hard to not to conclude that there seems to be a massive disconnect here. In this regard, a well-known quote of Ellen White pertaining to assurance and the security of a believer has long troubled many Adventists:
“Those who accept the Saviour, however sincere their conversion, should never be taught to say or to feel that they are saved. This is misleading. Every one should be taught to cherish hope and faith; but even when we give ourselves to Christ and know that He accepts us, we are not beyond the reach of temptation. God’s Word declares, ‘Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried.’ Dan. 12:10. Only he who endures the trial will receive the crown of life (James 1:12)” (Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 155).
When we look at Joshua Harris’ apostasy as former Adventists, we are tempted to doubt both the reality of the new birth and its permanence. But as we have seen above, God’s Word tells us that being saved is not merely a matter of “feeling saved.” More fundamentally, salvation does not mean “accepting the Saviour.” Being saved does not mean uttering a superstitious prayer, or saying the correct formula. Here, a vital biblical concept is missing in Adventism: the doctrine of regeneration.
Because Adventism denies the reality of the soul, it has fatally altered the biblical nature of man. The person without Christ is truly dead, because their spirit is dead, enslaved to sin. When God solemnly warned Adam and Eve in the garden that they would surely die if they ate from the fruit of that tree, he was not speaking in poetry or using a metaphor! The Bible teaches that anyone outside of Jesus Christ is dead in their sins and tresspassess, possessing a heart that is implacably opposed to his Creator. Every human being who does not have the Son, no matter how good they may look on the outside, does not have life (1 John 5:12).
But if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature! The true believer has a new nature. God’s Holy Spirit dwells in them. Instead of being dead to God, the believer’s brand new heart, regenerated by God himself, cannot help but respond in love to God’s own beloved Son. Having been adopted by the Father, the believer is promised, “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Listen to the wonderful words that Jesus Christ declares in John 10:28–30:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
The New Testament soberly warns us of apostasy
However, just as surely as the new birth is a promised reality in the New Testament, so also we are warned of self-deception and apostasy. Yet we need to be careful as former Adventists, not to get caught up in the idea that people who depart from Christianity simply did not believe hard enough, or strive to retain their salvation, or live sufficiently sanctified lives. The apostle John gives a simple yet sobering reason for why people leave Christianity: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us” (1 John 2:19).
I do not know Joshua Harris’ heart. I cannot search his soul to discover the ultimate reason for his falling away. But we learn from Scripture that two main factors play a role in apostasy.
Firstly, it matters what kind of gospel we believe in. We, as former Adventists, should understand this. A gospel that is unable to save is of no use to anyone, no matter how well-intentioned. Unfortunately, evangelical Christianity has in recent decades often watered down the truth of the gospel, or altered it (sometimes subtly, sometimes drastically), such that it has less power to save. The apostle Paul was genuinely concerned about a diluted gospel, as he stated to the Corinthians: “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Cor 1:17).
How on earth could the cross of Jesus Christ be emptied of its power, you ask? In the context, Paul explains that the message of the cross is in fact foolishness to the world, and as such, there is always a temptation in every generation for Christians to diminish or hide that which is mocked by the world. Sadly, many people in modern American evangelicalism are being presented with a God who is the holy and sovereign God of Scripture. Furthermore, Jesus is often regarded as a wonderful teacher, a loving friend, a merciful healer, but not a Savior from sin. If we do not exalt Christ as the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, then these other things do not ultimately matter (even though Jesus is all those things, and more).
Secondly, however, the New Testament warns us of the possibility of a true gospel being rejected, or not truly embraced. We learn from Colossians 4:14 that Paul ministered alongside Demas, his fellow worker. Yet toward the end of his life, Paul laments in 2 Timothy 4:10: “Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me.” The sad reality of apostasy was present, even as the early church was experiencing incredible growth through gospel. Jesus’ well-known parable of the sower and the seed describes good seed that is sown on various kinds of soil. The first kind landed on a path, and was devoured by birds. The second kind fell on rocky ground, and though it sprang up quickly, it had no depth of soil and just as quickly withered in the sun. The third kind fell among thorns, and although it grew for a while, the thorns eventually chocked it later. Only the fourth soil, the good soil, produced a lasting crop.
The truth is that a person can deceive themselves into thinking that they are a Christian, when in fact they have not truly placed their trust in Christ and in his blood. I believe that such a person is never so deceived that they are utterly oblivious to this fact, but to outsiders, their eventual falling away can be very shocking and unexpected. Wherever the truth with Joshua Harris lies, we should not be surprised when apostasy happens, because God’s Word warns us about it.
A word of encouragement
Having seen both the glories of the new birth, and the sobering reality of apostasy, what should we take to heart of Josh’s departure from Christianity? If you are a former Adventist who has truly trusted in Jesus Christ and his cross, God’s Word promises you that you are his child and that he will never forsake you. Though every Christian struggles with remaining sin while dwelling in this old body, God’s Holy Spirit is our seal and guarantee––we have eternal life right now! Nothing and no one can take away this promise from you.
To everyone, however, God’s Word also says this: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” (2 Cor 13:5). From time to time, it is right and appropriate for us to search Scripture and consider whether we are truly in Christ. No, this should not be a morbid, fear-filled process. We ought to be aware, however, of the weighty realities of the gospel of God’s Son: eternal life and eternal death are at stake––everything depends on what we do with Jesus Christ in this earthly life.
Ultimately, however, we need to take comfort in the words of Jude, as he encouraged those he was writing to with this beautiful promise: “Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen!” †
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Thank you for such encouraging words and a necessary perspective based on the unfortunate about-face in the life of Joshua Harris. This is the first I heard of it, and as you said, it is not the first time something like this ever happened; and we cannot fully understand the intellectual, emotional, and spiritual changes that took place in his and Shannon’s life that culminated in this apparent apostasy. But apostasy doesn’t happen to you, it happens within you, subtly and progressively, until your girders of self confidence weaken and collapse under the weight of worldliness and its values. That’s why we need what you wrote.
There are so many like him which proves this article is accurate. As a former Adventist I thought I was a Christian and I was pios. I never was taught the gospel in the SDA church and I saw many hypocrites which confused me, but little did I know I was a hypocrite too. Until one day I was reading John 3 and asked the Lord to help me be born again. The deal is this, if your confronted with the truth we need to talk to the Lord and not assume your the ‘elect’. The ‘new Calvinism’ sweeping the world is a problem within the Southern Baptist movement, and other movements. “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge, of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses.” Hebrews 10:26-28. I highly recommend this video to show they are not preaching the gospel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0NXWI5Ts4