Why do young people raised in church fall away -- sometimes in their first semester of college?
It's the same reason any person ever rejects their former faith: They don't have that one thing that matters and endures.
And what is that?
(Hint: It's not the lack of a Christian worldview. Nor is it the lack of apologetics training.)
What such a person lacks is a personal experience with spiritual reality in which the person has come to know that they know that they know that they know: God is real. Hell is real. Without Christ they are going to hell, because they are an unholy rebel against God, and they deserve to be punished forever.
This is not just about thinking these things, or even believing these things. It is about having experienced these things.
Those who never fall away have experienced a give and take relationship with God in which He has manifested in their heart and in other ways. As such, they know that they know that they know these spiritual realities.
Those who do not have that real, life-changing experience with God, through Jesus Christ, have a much harder time attesting to His reality.
They have a much harder time availing themselves of Jesus as the anchor for their soul. Hebrews 6:19.
While some of us get saved without thinking about hell, and some of us do not experience a manifestation of God at or near that time, both the truth about hell and the manifestation of God will be experienced eventually, and in that moment, it is our relationship with Jesus which will become the anchor for our soul.
Therefore, if we wish to inoculate our youth, indeed all 'saved' people, from falling away, we must preach and lead them into confronting the essential truths about spiritual reality: We must repent of our life of sin and trust in Jesus Christ to save us from perishing in hell, where the worm doesn't die and the smoke of torment rises forever and ever.
This is not about scaring people. It's about helping them to know the truth and truly be saved.
For those who fall away have not experienced their salvation from hell. They don't even believe in the real hell and/or they do not realize they deserve to be there.
No amount of worldview or apologetics teaching will keep a false convert from falling away.
Lord, help us to present the gospel and teach from Your Word in such a way that we maximize the chances that, by Your Spirit, would-be converts would come under true conviction and receive salvation by the blood of Christ in a real experience of spiritual reality.
In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Amen.
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