Posted by:
behindcurtain
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Date: January 11, 2020 04:26PM
How many people resign and come back? Do a fair number come back, or do almost none come back?
If quite a few come back, it supports the idea that people who left because they became convinced the Church is not true were deceived, and that the reasons people give for the Church not being true are not very strong. It would suggest that Jesus would have mercy on these people and would provide ways for them to come back. Jesus would show them why the reasons that they thought the Church wasn't true were really not good reasons. He would want them to come back, and some of them really would come back. I'm not sure how many, but the percentage might be in the neighborhood of 5-20%, or even higher.
On the other hand, if almost nobody comes back, it would suggest that the reasons that convince people the Church is not true are very powerful reasons, and that they really do prove the Church is not true.
I'm talking about people who resign, not people who are excommunicated, since people who resign are more likely to be unbelievers than are people who are excommunicated.
If the number of people who come back is less than 1%, it suggests that Jesus is not trying to convince these people to come back, and that logic and human persuasion are not convincing them to come back either.
Many of the people who resigned did so reluctantly. They wanted the Church to be true, and they were shocked when they learned it wasn't. They tend to be decent people, and they would join the Church again if they could find a way to believe again. So if the reasons they thought the Church was not true are really not that strong, we would expect a lot of people to come back.
It would be interesting to see statistics on this.
If people who resign almost never come back, it would be powerful evidence that the Church is not true.
(Jesus, if He exists, might want people to attend churches that are not true for some reason, but that is another subject.)
Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2020 04:46PM by behindcurtain.