A LEAP OF FAITH TO FAITH
Reading the Bible carefully, we see that the current decline in religious affiliations is not a new phenomenon. When we interpret Bible stories for their spiritual content we understand that God is constantly moving his people from Old/First Covenant religion to becoming New Covenant disciples. This movement is an ongoing Biblical theme that is still being played out in people who are leaving religion.
In all ages, including modern times, people have been shut up to the sin of Old/First Covenant religious works until they were ready to reject religion in favor of New Covenant faith and mercy. The only difference is that in these modern times the transition from Old/First Covenant to New Covenant is being documented in real time through research and the daily news.
Most people would not see it this way, but exiting religion is a leap of faith in which people leave something (i.e., religion) that is tangible and highly controlled in favor of unseen faith which is not governed by written laws, tradition or religious leaders. New Covenant faith is always governed by the spirit of God speaking to the heart day and night. Real faith does not happen in certain places at certain times and never requires a human to function as a go-between between people and God. God does all the teaching and guidance in his home in heaven, a spiritual temple which is the human heart.
Because these are major adjustments in the thinking and practice of religious people, most of them resist making the change. Leaving the certainty of religion for the uncertainty of faith is very hard. Doing so requires sacrifice and risk that religion never demands. It is all a very new way of doing life. That is why God calls the transition from Old/First Covenant to New Covenant disciple a process of death and resurrection as we are being born again to new spiritual life.
STUDY TIP: See this link and this link for understanding of what it means to be born again:
God represents these stark contrasts between faith and religion as light and dark, as clean and unclean and life and death. He also uses the terms spirit and flesh and good and evil with the spirit being good and the flesh being evil. The many people who are leaving religion may not express their attitudes of religion in these exact terms, but they are beginning to understand the differences and are making decisions to leave religion based on what they now know to be true.
The Bible says that these people once walked in darkness but now see the light, it also says that they were blind but now see because God has opened their eyes. It can be said that these ex-religionists have begun to enter into God’s rest by ceasing to participate in the many kinds of ceremonial work and traditions by which religions are identified. And it must be said that they are free from bondage to religion and oppression by religious leaders.
Hardly anyone would accept the proposition that Judaism and Christianity are guilty of holding people in bondage. Once eyes are opened, however, it becomes clear that these religions do enslave their followers because, like all religions, they are built on man-made doctrines, traditions and regulations for morality and worship. God says that these are laws of sin and death. They are not his laws written on the heart according to the terms of the New Covenant. And that is why he is calling his people out of religion.