Dan Corner Offers Critique of "Pulpit of Unbelief"

NEW YORK, NY, June 29, 2012

Jerry DeWitt, 42, was once shy about sharing his nonbelief in God. However, DeWitt, now an atheist, has broken out of that shell and is speaking about it at local humanist groups, according to a Washington Post article. DeWitt is the unpaid executive director of Recovering from Religion and helps with The Clergy Project, a website that supports unsure pastors in a protected and private manner. Dan Corner, director of Evangelical Outreach, said DeWitt is not the first person to turn away from God.

For years, DeWitt tried to pretend his religious beliefs were those of everyone else, but then, seeds of doubt took their toll. DeWitt had a hard time understanding the concept of hell, alongside loving God, and the authenticity of the gifts of the Spirit he presided over, such as speaking in tongues, healings and prophecy. DeWitt also could not give in to how his community took the Bible's authority so literally. He quit his first church in nearby DeQuincy, but came to First Community Church hoping for a "personal revival of faith." A year later, DeWitt was still questioning his faith, something that Dan Corner says can happen.

DeWitt was so disenchanted from his faith he could not even help a friend, who called asking him to pray for her family.

"I could not bring myself to pray for her," he said. "I could not do it. I got off the phone completely destroyed, the equivalent if you had called and told me a parent had died. If I couldn't pray for her, I couldn't pray for anybody. It was completely, officially, over."

Of course, leaving First Community Church has been difficult for DeWitt in his small hometown of DeRidder, Louisiana. The deeply religious town is made up of two-thirds of church-attending residents so DeWitt's change to atheism did not resonate well with some locals. When he went public about his atheism beliefs on Facebook, DeWitt received many vehement calls and emails about it. Dan Corner is not surprised by the reaction of some.

"The Bible cites various accounts of people who fell into sin or apostatized doctrinally," Dan Corner said. "Hymenaeus and Philetus (2 Tim 2:17), the example of Israel, which fell into unbelief (Rom. 11:19-22) and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor of the Lord Jesus (Luke 6:16). But none of these examples, past or present, change the fact that God is real, we have a soul and we will spend eternity in heaven or hell. We must endure to the end to be saved (Matt. 10:22; Heb. 3:14)"

ABOUT:

Dan Corner is director of Evangelical Outreach and author of three books; The Believer's Conditional Security, The Myth of Eternal Security and Is this the Mary of the Bible? More than thirty-five years ago, Dan Corner was saved after graduating college. Since then, he has strived to help others learn the teaching of Jesus Christ.

Website: http://www.dancorner.com/