Farewell to the Christian God

Charles Templeton was a man widely known in the 40s & 50s among Christians.  He was an evangelist who was even better known than Billy Graham.  He spoke to thousands, both in the USA and abroad, leading hundreds of people to the Lord.  Templeton’s ministry was prominent, and in 1946, he was listed among those “best used of God”by the National Association of Evangelicals.

Charles Templeton was a  former associate of Billy Graham. Templeton had once preached to stadium crowds of up to 30,000 people calling them to place their faith and trust in Christ.  He later rejected the Christian faith and wrote the book "Farewell To God, My reason for rejecting the Christian Faith".

What caused Charles Templeton to reject Christianity?  

Charles Templeton's  popularity and success as an evangelist began to unveil serious doubts.  The more he read, the more he found himself questioning the essentials of  Christian faith.  

His doubts began with the book of Genesis.  In his desire to pursue a more liberal approach to his questions, he began studying at Princeton Theological Seminary.  

 Charles Templeton recounts his conversation with Billy Graham (Farewell to God, My reason for rejecting Christian Faith, pages 7-8)

In the course of our conversation I said, ‘But, Billy, it’s simply not possible any longer to believe, for instance, the biblical account of creation. The world was not created over a period of days a few thousand years ago; it has evolved over millions of years. It’s not a matter of speculation; it’s a demonstrable fact.’ ‘I don’t accept that’ Billy said. ‘And there are reputable scholars who don’t.’ ‘Who are these scholars?’ I said. ‘Men in conservative Christian colleges[?]’ ‘Most of them, yes,’ he said. ‘But that is not the point. I believe the Genesis account of creation because it’s in the Bible. I’ve discovered something in my ministry: When I take the Bible literally, when I proclaim it as the word of God, my preaching has power. When I stand on the platform and say, ‘God says,’ or ‘The Bible says,’ the Holy Spirit uses me. There are results. Wiser men than you or I have been arguing questions like this for centuries. I don’t have the time or the intellect to examine all sides of the theological dispute, so I’ve decided once for all to stop questioning and accept the Bible as God’s word.’ ‘But Billy,’ I protested, ‘You cannot do that. You don’t dare stop thinking about the most important question in life. Do it and you begin to die. It’s intellectual suicide.'”‘I don’t know about anybody else,’ he said, ‘but I’ve decided that that’s the path for me.'”

Charles Templeton started questioning the reliability of thr Bible.  He was taken in my the compelling evidence in support of the Darwinian theory of evolution.  He later confessed that he always doubted the Genesis account of creation.  He also could not reconcile himself with the biblical teachings of final punishment for the disobedient.

Charles Templeton Could no longer live with this private conflict he faced inside.  One day, he cut loose from it all.  He bade "Farewell to (Biblical) God".

Among other things, Charles Templeton recognized that Christian theology completely failed to explain the problem of evil.  It failed to offer a cogent theodicy, Justice of Christian God.  

Theodicy is a troubling area for many practicing Christians.  While some choose to let faith get ahead of questions, others simply cannot get past them.  In a future article, we will look into this in detail.