Michael, I see many of your points have merit, but for me, the reason I left the church was because at the end of the day, the Church lied to me. To all of us. They lied to us about Jesus. About who he really was and about what he taught. They lied to me about the Gospel; and about their Bible.

The bottom line from my perspective is that the Church is due for a major correction, a Second Reformation, if you will.

The Church is powerless to stop the exodus because armed with a lying writ and a false gospel, the Church isn't equipped to really show people who GOD truly is. They're incapable. They truly do not know GOD.

The Holy Spirit is leading people young and old out of the Pagan Christian Church, finally. I am a prime example of this, there are millions of others.

The church will continue to die until the people left within it realize that GOD is through with a lying Church, just like GOD was through with a lying Priesthood.

I've started to write and blog about this; others have as well. But doubling down on stupid, is not what is going to save the Church from imploding.

https://medium.com/backyard-theology/why-jesus-left-the-church-aab86cb3dd0e