In what might be the most notable Christian celebrity to become so explicitly apostate in more than a century, Joshua Harris—former I Kissed Dating Goodbye author and heir-apparent at C.J. Mahaney’s Sovereign Grace organization—has officially announced on Instagram that he is no longer a Christian.
Other Christian apostates, such as Rob Bell, have not been so blunt as to deny Christianity altogether and usually claim to hold on to the religion while redefining or deconstructing major tenets of the religion.
While Harris admits to “deconstruction,” he also flatly denies Jesus.
Harris said, “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. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now.”
Another term for “falling away” is the word apostasy (ἀποστασία). This makes Harris, by self-definition, an apostate.
3Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first...(2 Thessalonians 2:2)
This revelation came only days after Harris’ bizarre divorce announcement and an article in the leftist Sojourners publication about his renunciation of Biblical purity.
Harris also apologized to the LGBTQ+ community, saying, “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, and for any ways that my writing and speaking contributed to a culture of exclusion and bigotry. I hope you can forgive me.”
