The answer to whether a person should date a
non-Christian is closely related to the
purpose of dating.
That is discussed in another article so we'll just summarize
it here.
The goal of dating should be to find someone who is
suitable to marry. If a person is not suitable to
marry, then no time should be invested in dating them.
So then the question becomes
if a Christian
should marry an non-Christian. This article
discusses biblical reasons why a Christian should not marry
an unbeliever.
Many people do not take dating seriously and therefore if
they date a non-Christian isn't a big deal to them.
Some even view dating a non-Christian as a way of
evangelizing and getting a person into church. This is
known as missionary dating.
The problem with missionary dating is its low success
rate and high potential for dangerous repercussions.
The pitfalls are the same whether a person is actively
trying to win their boyfriend or girlfriend to Christ, or if
they are just dating for fun.
There are some success stories of people who were brought
to Christ through the work of the person they were dating.
But for every success story, there is a hundred or even a
thousand stories of Christians who were pulled away from
Christ because of who they were dating. Sometimes it
is temporary, other times it is permanent.
The truth is it is far easier to lower one's standards
than it is to raise them. A good illustration is that
of a Christian standing on a chair. As they reach out
to an unbeliever standing on the floor, they do all they can
to pull them up onto the chair. It is hard work and
often fails.
On the other hand, it doesn't take much effort at all for
the non-Christian to pull the Christian off balance. A
slight tip in the wrong direction and the Christian can be
sent tumbling without the non-Christian even intending to do
so.
Dating is not the same as marriage but a lot of the same
rules apply. What is most influential is the amount of
time people spend together. Because of this, many of
the same biblical reasons for not marrying an unbeliever
apply to dating an unbeliever. For the biblical
reasons against marrying a non-Christian see the article, "Can
I Marry an Unbeliever?"
