AN OVERLOOKED REASON FOR I KISSED DATING GOODBYE AUTHOR
JOSH HARRIS’ DEPARTURE FROM THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
BY LT EDITORS
I
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. . . .
to the LGBTQ+ community, I want
to say that I am sorry for the views
that I taught in my books and as a
pastor regarding sexuality. I regret
standing against marriage equality,
for not affirming you and your place
in the church. 1 —Josh Harris
n July of this year, the Christian world
was rocked when Josh Harris, the
author of the highly popular book on
sexual purity, I Kissed Dating Goodbye,
announced he was separating from his
wife, recanting his Christian faith, and
apologizing to the LGBT community for
his former conservative views on sexuality.
The story hit the headlines of both
religious and secular news sources (e.g.,
Christianity Today, Newsweek, CNN,
Washington Post, Charisma). While many
Christians are scratching their heads try-
ing to figure out how this could have
happened with Harris (who became a
husband, father, and pastor) amid offering
possible reasons for this demise of faith,
there is one reason we have not heard
mentioned—Josh Harris’ Calvinism.
Volume 7—No. 5
BACKGROUND
hen Josh Harris was 21, his book,
I Kissed Dating Goodbye, was pub-
lished by Multnomah Books (1996). The
book hit the charts and has sold nearly a mil-
lion copies. There are few evangelical Chris-
tians who haven’t heard of the book; and, in
particular, it was read and embraced widely
by Christian homeschooling families.
As Josh Harris describes in his more re-
cent book Dug Down Deep: Building Your
Life on Truths That Last (also published
by Multnomah), in his search for spiritual
depth, he went from a seeker-friendly
Willow Creek-associated church to a
charismatic church, but neither of these
gave him what he was looking for. Fi-
nally, he ended up under the mentorship
of Calvinist pastor, C.J. Mahaney who
planned to raise up Harris to eventually
take his place as senior pastor of a large
Calvinist/Reformed church (Covenant
Life in Maryland). As Harris describes
in his book Dug Down Deep, he plunged
into extensive reading of numerous heavy-
duty Calvinist/Reformed teachers, ones
he thought would give him truths that
would last.
At the age of 30, Harris did become
the senior pastor of Mahaney’s Reformed
church. Harris remained pastor of Cov-
enant Life for over a decade until 2015 at
which time he stepped down from being
pastor telling his congregation he planned
Concludes on page 3
W
ATONEMENT REJECTED!
BY ROGER OAKLAND
For he hath made him to be
sin for us, who knew no sin;
that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.
(2 Corinthians 5:21)
T
he heart and core of the Christian
faith is based upon Jesus Christ’s shed
blood at Calvary as the only acceptable
substitutionary atonement for mankind’s
sins. The Gospel message requires this
foundation. The Bible says the wages of sin
is death—thus every person alive should re-
ceive the penalty of spiritual death because
none of us is without sin. Satan hates the
Gospel message. He understands what
the Gospel means, and his agenda is to
deceive mankind from understanding and
believing so they can suffer eternally with
him. While Scripture is very clear about
the necessity of Christ’s death in order for
us to be saved, some believe this would
make God a blood-thirsty barbarian and
that a loving God would never send His
Son to a violent death. Embedded within
the structure of the emerging church is
just such a belief.
PRECIVILIZED BARBARITY
any in the emerging, so-called
progressive church movement (i.e.,
the “new” Christianity/New Spirituality)
M
Continues on page 4
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019