A 2018 study from Barna Group found that Gen Z is the least Christian generation in American history as just 4% holds a biblical worldview, with more teens identifying as agnostic, atheist, or not religiously affiliated than previous generations. “Gen Z is different because they have grown up in a post-Christian, post-modern environment where many of them have not even been exposed to Christianity or to church. So that is a really unique shift,” Brooke Hempell, Barna’s senior vice president of research, said at the survey’s release event. “There are a lot of churches that are empty in this country. Gen Z is the one who is really showing the fruit of that. There are many of them [who] are a spiritual blank slate. For the first time in our nation’s history, that is more and more common.”

What is happening with the Gen Z generation reminds me of what happened when Joshua died. The Millennials (Gen Y) were brought up in schools and universities that taught evolution (billions of years) not creation (six thousand years and a worldwide flood) as the origin of the Cosmos, is it any wonder that the next generation, Gen Z no longer believes the Bible and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.“ Judges 2:8-10

The generation that lived in Joshua’s time knew what God had accomplished through Joshua but they were no longer living in obedience to God’s commandments. Hence the next generation saw no evidence of God in their lives, in fact, the opposite.

“And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt.” Judges 2:11-12

Jesus told us that during the last days before His return there will be a great falling away from Biblical faith which is exactly what we see happening in our day. The following was told by Jesus to the disciples prior to Pentecost as Jesus knew the persecution of the early church that would follow.

“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away… Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.” John 16:1, 3-4

Jesus told us that the same “falling away” would happen to the church in the last days before He returns in Matthew 24.

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:9-12