I USED TO BE A CHRISTIAN, BUT IT DIDN'T WORK FOR ME.

Throughout my life as a believer, I have encountered people who claim to have been Christians at one time, but then either through reasoning, social conditioning, or personal disappointment, decided that Jesus was not the right thing for them. But it is only in recent years that I have seen people make this claim more boldly and proudly than ever before. As if being a follower of Christ is a burden to be lifted, a lie to be set free from.
I can't understand why anyone would ever walk away from Christ and declare themselves an unbeliever. I understand that religious pressure from family or the culture we live in can lead to rebellion-but to walk away from Christ, the truth you claim to have once known? It doesn't make sense. 

The apostle John explains why this is possible. He says that because we live in the last days, there are many antichrists among us. These people who once claimed to be one of us were never one of us, otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left us, it proved that they did not belong to us. -1 John 2:19
He is saying that these people were never true to what they claimed to believe. They were/are antichrists. Wow, that's a tough statement!
I have people in my own family that I love dearly that have walked away from Jesus and it breaks my heart.  I wonder if there is a way back for them. Are these people just so-called "backsliders"? I hope so, because if they are, life or death will eventually turn them around and they will run to Jesus again. But I don't think John is talking about "backsliders" here. He is talking about the seed of the Antichrist. And I believe that these people are truly lost forever. Let's hope and pray that none of our unbelieving loved ones are among them.