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,than by polls and statistics or psychiatric expertise, the Church crisis
is a crude reality. But in the last instance, the Church's crisis is
actually the individual's crisis. According to Jeffrey K. Hadden, the
individual's crisis is advancing toward two foci, one referring to the
"purpose and the meaning of the Church," and the other one to the
"belief."3 This means that on one hand there is a crisis of authority,
while on the other hand a crisis of faith exists.
As shown by the above observations, the central theme of this thesis
concerns apostasy as a resulting manifestation of a crisis in the life of
a believer. Today it seems to be an issue which deserves full attention, deep investigation, and operative solutions.
Need for the Study
There are three background circumstances which contributed to this
study. First, it was out of personal need that this thesis was written,
in an attempt to find a satisfactory answer to this question: "Why do
people leave the Church and drop their faith?"
The author was born in a Christian home, with a father who has been
a minister in the Seventh-day Adventist Church for more than 30 gears.
During his childhood and then as he became a member of the same Church,
the writer had occasion after occasion to see crowds of people committing
their lives to Jesus as their own Lord and Savior, and becoming members of
the Church, while many others left the church. "Why?," was the persistent
question in his mind.
Later on, in Seminary studies and practice, the writer devoted more
time to this question, looking for a theological understanding of
apostasy. At the time some other questions had added to the previous
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