George Barna, a leading expert in church and worldview trends, has weighed in on some of the biggest issues facing the Church, including the steady decrease in a biblical worldview and dwindling concern for spiritual formation, which results in “Christian invisibility” in our culture.
Bible Colleges and seminaries set young ministry leaders up for failure. “You get what you measure,” George Barna contended. “So, if you measure the wrong things, you’ll get the wrong outcomes … pastors measure how many people show up, how much money they raise, how many programs they offer, how many staff persons they hire, how much square footage they built out. Jesus didn’t die for any of that. “If we were to go back to the Bible, I think we’d recognise the local church, the institutional church, as we’ve created it, is man-made. It’s not in the Scriptures,” he said.
Barna says, “We need to go back and recognise that it starts with families; parents have the primary responsibility to raise their children to become spiritual champions. Local churches need to support parents in that endeavour. Our primary focus needs to be on children … and growing their biblical worldview. If we do that, we’ll be able to increase the 3 per cent of adults who are disciples in America today to a larger proportion.”
I would also suggest that the church return to the church as described in the Book of Acts. Francis Chan got it right when he walked away from his church of 5000 to establish house churches where everybody is trained to be disciples to preach the good news of the Gospel.
Barna warns the church is at a critical juncture, and the path to a thriving Christian community lies in returning to the core biblical principles, the empowerment of parents as spiritual leaders and the intentional discipling of the next generation. “All the other stuff is noise,” he said. “If we don’t do those things, we’re going to lose even more in this war … this is our moment, we’ve reached a time of Christian invisibility in our culture. What I’m seeing now is that we’re getting to this place where the typical American … will not have anyone in their circle of influence who has a biblical worldview. You’re not going to be influenced by God’s truth.
The church is the last bastion of truth in many communities, as most institutions have been captured by the ideological Left. A recent survey reveals many Americans apparently now recognise the bankruptcy of ideologies pedalled by the Left and are truly searching for truth — truth found in gospel-preaching churches. So long as the church stays committed to God’s revealed truth in His word, the church offers a counter-narrative to much of what the world has sold.
According to research from the Barna Group released earlier this month, weekly church attendance reached a peak in 2009 with a 48% attendance rate among American adults. Since then, it has dropped and remained in the upper 20% range. However, preliminary data from 2025 suggests a potential uptick in weekly church attendance to approximately 32 percent.” Additionally, and perhaps more notably, 65% of the surveyed American adults disagree with the claim that “Church is not relevant in today’s world” — with 41% saying they “definitely disagree” and 24% saying they “somewhat disagree.”
Breaking it down between practicing and non-practicing Christians, 88% of those who are practicing said they either “definitely” or “somewhat” disagreed that church is irrelevant, followed by 67% of non-practicing Christians who “definitely” or “somewhat” disagreed as well.
Beyond attendance, the report highlights the social fabric of churchgoing. As The Christian Post summarised, “A majority of those surveyed (57%) said they talked to clergy before, during or after services. … 53% of churchgoers interact with ‘other attendees’ when going to church. … Exactly one-half of churchgoers (50%) reported they usually talk with a church staff member while at church,” and “one-third (33%) of those surveyed reported usually talking to church volunteers when they go to church.”
As the report emphasised, “These simple interactions represent important entry points for deeper discipleship community and leaders can help congregants consider how to strengthen those moments and take their Sunday engagement a step further.” In a deeper analysis, Family Research Council’s David Closson, the director of the Center for Biblical Worldview, shared with The Washington Stand, “As someone who has been around church for as long as they can remember, and as someone who has worked at and for the church for years, I am encouraged by recent reports that suggest most Americans reject the claim that church is irrelevant.” “As a Christian,” he added, “nothing could be more relevant than the church.” In fact, “Matthew 16 teaches that the church is God’s idea, and Jesus promises that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” Closson explained how a glance at what’s taken place over the last few years reveals the “variety of cultural developments that have likely demonstrated the importance of the church to many Americans who may have been disinclined to view the church favourably.”
Especially in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, Closson observed, “I think many of our friends and neighbours realised that when you shut the doors of the church, you release a host of social pathologies into the community. As such, perhaps “in large response to shutting down the church, many people realise just how important the church actually is.” Beyond this, Closson also pointed to how “the true church is the last institution that has consistently taken a stand against radical ideologies such as LGBT activism and critical race theory. And as long as a church stands on the Bible as authoritative, it is a countercultural influence that testifies to the created order and how God has set up the universe.”
“My hope,” Closson concluded, “is that this report points to a burgeoning revival that will draw more of our friends and neighbours into our churches where they will encounter the living gospel that alone can change their lives and save their souls.”
Sadly, most of the mainline denominational churches have compromised with the world on homosexuality, gay marriage and even transgenderism.
Because the history in Genesis 1–11 is the foundation for everything, and it has a totally different account of origins than what young people hear at schools, universities, and nearly everywhere else, they have questions about the Bible’s history that need answers. They need to know that the Bible’s history is trustworthy. Evolution has been one of Satan’s best strategies to destroy belief in God’s word. We need the basic answers for the history in Genesis 1–11 because the devil wants to cause people to doubt and not believe this history because it is foundational to the Gospel message. In fact, Biblical history is foundational to all doctrine, to marriage, to gender, the origin of sin, pain and death and how to deal with racism, abortion, and the environment, just as it is foundational to the saving gospel message.
Creation in seven days is fundamental to how we need to live. God made it clear in His commandments:
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it, you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11
The Fall: a once-perfect world is cursed by God, and sin and death enter the world because Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command. They were deceived by a fallen angel, Satan, who is now the prince of this world and with his minions. other fallen angels continue to deceive the world.
Nephilim: Genesis 6:1–4 tells us that the Nephilim, which means “fallen ones,” were the product of copulation between divine beings (i.e., sons of God) and human women (i.e., daughters of Adam). The “sons of God” as referring to angels seems to be the most consistent interpretation of this phrase. The expression sons of God is employed in antithesis to daughters of men; it is clear that the former pertains to beings outside the human sphere. The Nephilim are known as great warriors and Biblical giants (see Ezekiel 32:27 and Numbers 13:33). This is the main reason why God had to destroy all human and hybrid angel/human life on Earth.
Noah’s Flood was a worldwide flood that destroyed all but the eight humans and the animals, insects, and birds that were on the Ark. The apostle Peter tells us that before Jesus returns, people will deny Biblical history about creation and the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. Biblical prophecy is once again being confirmed.
“For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of the water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.“ 2 Peter 3:5-7
God created the nations by confusing their language because the people were disobedient to His command to multiply and cover all the Earth. The world has not been able to come up with a reasonable explanation for the nations and their languages, yet they totally reject God as the miraculous source.
“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there… Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth… And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do… Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city(Babel). ” Genesis 11:7-8
God created a nation, Israel, to fulfil His purposes on Earth. Much of the Old Testament is about God’s interaction with His nation and the prophets that God appointed. These prophets are all told that a Messiah would arise to lead and save the nation. Even before Israel went into the Promised Land, Moses told them their entire history, including their being cast out of the land and scattered throughout the world.
“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and He will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you.“Deuteronomy 30:1-3
“And the Lord yourGod will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” Deuteronomy 30:5-6
The Davidic Covenant (2 Samuel 7) is the promise that God made to David that David’s heir would sit on the throne of Israel. Jesus is that heir, but He has yet to take His physical, political birthright.
The New Covenant: It outlines the promise that Israel as a nation will return to God and worship their Messiah. These covenants will be fulfilled during the 1000-year reign.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke… For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jeremiah 31:31-33
All of the O.T. is about this coming Messiah, JESUS. Biblical end-time prophecies are playing out in our day, so we know Jesus’ return to Earth is not too far off. Next on God’s agenda for planet Earth is Jesus’ Millennial Kingdom.
Seth Gruber interviews Steve Dease about the current state of the church in the USA and what prompted him to produce his fictional film Nefarious, which is about the reality of demonic possession. Steve is committed to doing his utmost to get Christians to live out their Christian worldview totally trusting Jesus for the outcome.
Where was the American Church when America was descending into the progressive agenda? Steve Deace caught the cultural decline before most pastors did and stepped into the gap to educate Christians on how to stand in a culture of death. Deace and Gruber discuss the crumble of the Church and how Christians should respond to the modern Trump era.
In Matthew 4:4, Jesus said, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Paul said in Romans 10:17 that our faith comes from “hearing through the word of Christ.” Psalms 119:105 says “Your Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path; something we store up in our hearts as to not sin against the Lord. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 12:13 “the whole duty of man” is to “fear God and keep His commandments,” which can only be done by knowing Him and His commands through His Word. Paulsaidin 2 Timothy 3:16-17 the Bible is how we are “complete” and “equipped for every good work.” Jesus says the Word is the truth that sets us free.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” John 17:17
Really, all of Scripture proclaims our need for Scripture. All of Scripture proclaims our need to pray. Time with the Lord, via our communication with Him in prayer and time spent in His Word, are the most valuable, precious, and significant ways we can spend our time. Jesus knew this. In His earthly ministry, we see how He knew Scripture, preached Scripture, and lived out Scripture. Encompassing all of this was His consistent communion with His Father in prayer. Jesus is the best example we have of prioritizing spiritual discipline over all other disciplines, and we’re supposed to imitate Him. Yet not only do we often fail to imitate Him we also often neglect to even try.
Jesus said in John 14:15, “Whoever does not love Me does not keep My words.” This is not to say you don’t love your Lord and Savior, but do you keep His words? Do you read His Word? We may proclaim, “Lord, I love you!” But do we also proclaim, “I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8)?
God’s Word is utterly substantial and worthy of being the top priority in our lives. Sadly, we prioritize other things. But don’t you see? The pursuit of spiritual growth is worth putting forth the same effort as we would toward any other form of growth. In fact, it’s worth infinitely more effort — hopefully, you will soon be convinced of this, if you aren’t already.
It’s a perspective focused on the immediate that often drives us to prioritize things other than spiritual growth, and this isn’t surprising. It’s easy to see how working toward a healthy diet, physical activity, or career advancement is beneficial now, and when we focus on these things, we often allow the importance of spiritual growth to be put aside. However, challenge yourself to consider these areas in light of eternity, and you just might see how minuscule their weight truly is.
One day, our bodies and worldly achievements will fade away. If we shove the maturing of our faith to the side, it may be too late before we realize our faith is all that matters. In reality, unlike everything else that will fade away, our souls will go with us to the White Throne judgement by God, which inevitably makes them the most important aspect of our life now. Am I saying you should put aside all earthly ambition to pursue spiritual growth? Certainly not. The argument is that prioritizing spiritual growth is what allows you to then prosper in other areas.
It would be a mistake to think our spiritual well-being only matters when considering eternity. It surely does matter then, but it equally matters now. It’s worth our every effort to grow in our faith now because the effects of such a pursuit will become manifest in both the immediate and what’s to come.
To prove that our faith plays a role in all areas of life. My question is: Is this the perspective you have each day? Do you believe what you do right now counts for eternity? If so, then it should change the way you view your priorities. You just might see the spiritual growth that’s easily forgotten is exactly what you need to get through today, tomorrow, and each day that’s to come.
A heart with the Word of God written upon it can have peace in the chaos, joy in the trial, and hope for the future. A life that prioritizes spiritual growth is one that inevitably leads to growth elsewhere. The way I see it, a strong faith makes for a better friend, spouse, relative, co-worker, athlete, musician — you name it!
We already know as we’ve read from 1 Corinthians 10:31, that “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” What we prioritize should glorify God, as well. And truly, I cannot think of a better way to glorify Him than by making His Word, His truth, and revelation what we cherish.
A great article by S.A. McCarthy. He serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
Every doctrine that Christianity preaches, leftism preaches its own perversion of it. The love advocated by Christianity is rooted in absolute truth, in “Love Himself,” as C.S. Lewis once put it. Leftism advocates “love” unmoored, anchored by nothing more absolute than the weight of fickle feelings and emotions — though, when those emotions are felt, they do reign supreme.
Christianity upholds sacrifice as virtuous — the giving of oneself for the sake of love is the zenith of the virtue of charity. Christ Himself tells His followers, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Leftism also values sacrifice, but never sacrifice of the self, only the sacrificing of others. Abortion is the ultimate example of this warped anti-virtue: sacrificing one’s own child for… financial comfort, a career, no responsibility, or even just consequence-free sex.
Christianity mandates submission to the will of God, accepting His design no matter how painful or difficult. Again, Christ Himself prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). Leftism demands obeisance to the only god it recognizes: the self-centered self. Transgenderism is demonstrative of this: just as Christian martyrs have willingly suffered torture for the sake of their faith, so the confused, self-centered, and self-loathing suffer mutilation and torture for the sake of their own wounded and twisted egos.
Like the dominant Christianity of the Middle Ages, leftism even has its own office of the Inquisition. Those who do not toe the leftist line, who dare to question the new religion’s dogmas, are hounded out of the anti-church. The famed “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling is indicative of this. A multi-millionaire and self-declared feminist, Rowling was once a darling of leftist media and political activists. She supported the Labour Party in the U.K. and Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Yet as soon as she voiced her concerns over transgenderism, she became a “heretic” to the church of leftism, targeted for disbarment from all the institutions controlled by leftism.
Although leftism is a uniquely 21st century phenomenon, its fundamental principles are nothing new. In fact, God has been dealing with the motivating mindset behind leftism since before the world began. The chief and unifying tenet of the leftist religion — indeed, that of all its precursors and predecessors, also — is naturalism. When first Lucifer said, in the words of the poet John Milton, “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven,” naturalism was born. Naturalism is the belief, the assertion that the creature can replace the Creator, that the peasant may, if he slays the King, rule in His stead. It is the hubristic declaration that “God is dead, I am god.”
Satan was the first to declare thus, in his immense pride, galled by the humility of God’s plan to become a man, to take on the form of a mere creature — “these disgusting little human vermin,” as Lewis called them in the character of Screwtape, a hateful demon. He has declared it ever since, leading countless souls astray. In the Garden of Eden, that was the temptation offered by the Serpent: “You shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5). Throughout Scripture and, certainly, throughout human history, that has been the great temptation, the great sin: to be as gods. When Moses ascended Mount Sinai, after God led the Hebrews out of slavery in Egypt, that temptation reared its head and the Hebrews made for themselves an idol (Exodus 32). Even then, the Hebrews fell to worshipping the demon Baal, until the prophet Elijiah proved the supremacy of God and slayed the Baalite priests (1 Kings 18).
Whether in the twilight years of the Roman Empire, throughout the Middle Ages, into the age of discovery, or even now in the modern day, men are tempted to declare themselves God, to worship their own selves over the crucified and resurrected person of Christ, to adhere to their own principles or preachings as supreme. Leftism is simply the culmination of this evil, this unbridled, unrestrained pride, brought to the fore via political prowess and instituted in American culture via institutions long ago captured by the prophets of leftism: Marxists, communists, perverts, abortionists, eugenicists, atheists, relativists, and countless other little ideologues subservient to the Luciferian sin of naturalism.
The current division in America is not ultimately a matter of Left versus Right, of Democrat versus Republican, of communist versus capitalist, but of good versus evil, of naturalism (in the form of leftism) versus Christianity, of the fallen angel Lucifer and his minions versus the crucified and resurrected Christ and the forces of Heaven. The war being waged over America at present is not a matter of differing political opinions but of diametrically opposed religions.
One side says that unborn babies, the most innocent of all persons, may be executed at will, torn apart and unceremoniously vacuumed out of the wombs of their mothers; that children may, on a whim, decide to ingest hormones foreign and unnatural to their bodies before subjecting themselves to irreversible surgeries so horrific that not even the most warped and depraved authors of the 19th and 20th centuries could have imagined them; that procreation is wholly unrelated to the conjugal act, that two men might sodomize one another and call it “love”; that sex-trafficking and child sexual exploitation are just the price to be paid for virtual images of increasingly perverted sex acts, readily available to young and old at the mere click of a button; that a nation has no sovereignty and must be subjected to millions of unvetted, unrestricted immigrants.
The other side says that innocence is worth preserving, that unborn children and their mothers must be cherished and protected from the evils of the abortion mill; that children must be raised to think and think critically, think well, think deeply; that the family is the basic and fundamental unit of society, that the very fabric of civilization would unravel without the family as its basis; that love necessitates self-sacrifice, not self-gratification; that nations have a God-given right to defend their borders and preserve the safety and security of their own people; that Christ is indeed King.
This present war is not between two ideological factions but between powers and principalities, between leftism and Christianity, between good and evil, and between God and Satan. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve… As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
In an era when biblical narratives are often relegated to the realm of mythology, the “Ark and the Darkness” documentary seeks to reframe one of history’s most debated tales: Noah’s Flood.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about the flood. Hollywood not only doesn’t represent the true biblical account, they add a lot of mythologies and a lot of themes that are just clearly not biblical. … The two biggest misconceptions would be mythologizing the flood, saying it’s an allegory, it didn’t really happen. The other one that’s actually within Christian circles is, ‘It was just a local flood, God’s judgment was only pertaining to the people living in Mesopotamia Valley.’ … Our movie shows it wasn’t an allegory; it happened in real-time just thousands of years ago, and it was a worldwide event.”
“The Ark and the Darkness,” from Sevenfold Films in collaboration with Genesis Apologetics, bridges the gap between various scientific disciplines — geology, paleontology, the study of fossils, ancient civilizations, volcanic activity, and Earth sciences — all pointing unanimously to the reality of Noah’s Flood.
The documentary features experts, including scientists from Answers in Genesis and Liberty University, like Dr. Andrew Snelling, paleontologist Dr. Gabriela Haynes and researcher and speaker Dr. Terry Mortenson, who uncover the factual basis of Noah’s Flood.
The film hit theaters on Wednesday and Thursday.
Biddle pointed to a variety of scientific findings he said corroborate the biblical account, including the discovery of bioorganic materials in dinosaur bones, which suggests they were buried rapidly and relatively recently.
“There’s no way that these tissues could have lasted for millions upon millions of years,” he said.
The documentary, directed by Ralph Strean, explores the Morrison Formation, a geological site spanning 13 states in the middle of America, which contains a vast number of dinosaur fossils intermingled with marine life.
“How could you take a 13-state zone region and bury land creatures and marine creatures together over that much of an expanse?” Biddle asked. “The answer has to be a worldwide flood.”
Beyond presenting physical evidence, “The Ark and the Darkness” also delves into the implications of Noah’s Flood for understanding the state of the world today. Drawing parallels between the days of Noah and contemporary times, Biddle highlighted a perceived increase in lawlessness and moral decay, echoing biblical prophecies of the End Times.
“We just look around the world today, and it seems like a stage is being set for some interesting things,” he said. “I’m not a doomsayer, I’m not a sensationalist, I’m not even really a prepper. But I would just say that most Christians nowadays can look around the landscape and say, ‘Yeah, there’s a lot of shift going on.’ It’s not a time to be fearful. It’s a time to trust in the Lord, to run in our lanes, and to trust Him for both our short-term lives and what’s going to happen in a longer play. Jesus Himself draws that parallel between the flood and End Times, and so we do the same thing in the movie.”
The film counters evolutionary arguments, suggesting that Noah’s Ark could indeed have housed representatives of all animal kinds necessary to repopulate the Earth post-flood. Biddle challenged the notion that the ark’s capacity would have been insufficient, proposing that only around 7,000 animals were needed to account for the biodiversity seen today.
“One of the most popular allegations is … there’s no way that Noah could have taken all of those different species on Earth today on the ark because there are millions and millions of species. … But that’s one of the things that the Bible addresses straight out of Genesis and chapter one,” he said.
“The experts at Answers in Genesis believe that you only need 7,000 animals total on the ark to reproduce all the different species and all the different breeds that we see today. So that would be one aspect of how we go against evolution theory in the movie,” Biddle added.
Biddle also expressed concern over the growing trend among Christians to interpret the story of Noah’s Flood as allegorical rather than historical.
“We hear a lot of people say they’re just New Testament Christians,” he said. “If that’s true, please explain to me the Gospel without citing Genesis, and no one can do it.”
Biddle stressed that understanding the Gospel’s message of salvation is impossible without acknowledging the reality of sin introduced through Adam in the Garden of Eden. According to Biddle, denying the historical truth of events like Noah’s Flood undermines the entire biblical narrative, including the teachings of Jesus and the writings of New Testament authors who referenced the flood as a factual event.
“It really cripples the Gospel message to say that either the garden or Adam or the flood was a myth,” he said.
Biddle hopes viewers, regardless of their religious or scientific background, reconsider the historical validity of Noah’s Flood.
“I think every person who watches this movie, from a hardened, licensed geologist who’s a complete atheist all the way to a homeschool Christian who believes every word of Scripture, … will be shifted, shifted towards believing more about historic Christianity,” he said. “It would be really hard to sit through an hour and 52 minutes worth of this avalanche of evidence and not come out believing, ‘My gosh, I think they have a case.’ And, we do.”
Sarah does not mention the key factor that is impacting the mental health of teens. It is the teaching of evolution as a fact in schools, even Christian schools. The Big Bang and Evolution remove God from His creation and make the Bible a book of fables and myths. It also removes any purpose or meaning to life. There is no hope or knowledge of the God who loves His creation and has provided a way back into a right relationship with Him.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
A recent study conducted by Common Sense Media (CMS) found that America has a teen mental health crisis. Yet, with the way social media has plagued the younger generations, is anyone really surprised by this? But it goes beyond technology, as many factors contribute to the decay of younger generations and their mental health.
“The negative effects of social media on young people’s mental health is a top concern, including across party identification,” CSM reported. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a survey in 2021 that noted the roles “risky sexual practices, illicit drug and alcohol use, and bullying at school” play in this analysis. We are also seeing a rise in broken homes and fatherlessness, and many researchers suggest the pandemic worsened the mental health crisis that was already present.
And at a time in history when the world is warring over the topic of identity, how are developing youth supposed to know what to believe about anything? Marlo Slayback, national director of Student Programs at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, shared with The College Fix that over time, “the culture surrounding Gen Z [has changed]. It’s a recipe for despair, hopelessness, nihilism, disaffection.” She described it as a “decaying culture” that causes young people to “feel alienated and lost at sea.”
While many societal factors could be considered, the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University conducted a survey that found children between eight and 12 years old, preteens, are increasingly denying biblical truths. Is this a coincidence amid the growing mental health crisis? I don’t think so.
According to the results, only 21% of preteens agreed that “there are absolute truths — things that are right and things that are wrong, that do not depend on feelings, preferences, or circumstances.”
Only 27% of preteens believed “the main reason to live is to know, love and serve God, with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.” And only 17% felt a successful life was connected to obedience to God.
George Barna, the director of Arizona Christian University’s Cultural Research Center and Family Research Council senior research fellow, said these results only reflect the lack of biblical worldview present in the lives of many today. He added, “[W]e are on the precipice of Christian invisibility in this nation unless we get serious about this crisis and invest heavily in fixing what’s broken.”
Barna explained, “Children are intellectual and spiritual sponges in their preteen years. They are desperately trying to make sense of the world, their identity, their purpose, and how to live a meaningful and satisfying life.” As such, it’s obvious how toxic social media and other issues have caused mental health problems among this group. But it’s also worth emphasizing the spiritual aspect.
As Christians, we know the only true life is a life lived for Christ. Upon conversion, we are spiritually reborn into a new creation that has a desire to follow and obey Jesus and His word. Our eyes are opened to the truth of this world as laid out in Scripture. And once our eyes are opened, we can see how the world has so greatly abandoned these biblical truths. And what follows? Disorder and destruction; confusion and hopelessness.
When I was growing up, life wasn’t as crazy as it is now, but I still had to face the realities of its brokenness. And it was my biblical worldview that allowed me to persevere through any hardships growing up. Young people now are growing up in a society that believes men can become women and vice versa. They are being raised to believe that marriage has nothing to do with God and that sex (specifically outside of marriage) has no consequences. Truth is subjective, and children can carve out their own reality as they enter adulthood. This is detrimental to physical, mental, and spiritual well-being.
No wonder these children feel lost and in a constant state of unrest. They’re being fed lies around every corner — physical or virtual. Approaching this crisis, Christians “should respond with brokenness and a realization that much of our discipleship efforts in the church geared towards young people has failed,” said David Closson, director of FRC’s Center for Biblical Worldview.
He explained how we are at the “highest rates of biblical illiteracy and the lowest of biblical worldview” since it’s been measured. “It’s not good,” he said, “but the writing has been on the wall for a long time.” And a lack of biblical worldview does factor into decreased mental wellness. Why? Because anything other than a biblical worldview is “a deficient worldview,” Closson noted, and sets “people up to fail very early.”
He added, “Since most people are not thinking rightly about the world, we shouldn’t be surprised that they’re not going to be thinking rightly about other things. Not just theological matters, but they won’t be thinking rightly about themselves, their place in the world, body image,” or anything under the sun. Ultimately, Closson concluded, “[W]e need to be [more] intentional in our discipleship efforts” in reaching younger generations.
Younger Americans are more likely to dissociate from organized religion, according to a recent Pew Research study on religious “nones.
Fully 69% of ‘nones’ say they believe in the God of the Bible or some other higher power, but only 3% “go to religious services at least monthly,” and a plurality (43%) says religion does more harm than good. These numbers don’t show “a rejection of God,” Perkins interpreted, but rather a rejection of “organized religion, that in many ways has become milquetoast and has abandoned truth. ‘So,’ [think the ‘nones’], ‘why bother?’”
An exploding number of young Americans are drifting through life without any theological mooring. Many of them were raised in the church, yet they remain largely ignorant of the Bible and its teachings
The real reason is that churches and Bible Schools have compromised God’s Word by accepting evolution and billions of years as fact. The Bible reveals that God made a perfect world about 6000 years ago. Adam was made in God’s image on the sixth day and given dominion over all the earth. He was there at the beginning. Death and suffering entered the world as a consequence of Adam and Eve disobeying God. The world rejects this true history as it does the Biblical account of the worldwide flood of Noah’s day when God judged the world and destroyed all but eight people and the animals that God had brought to the Ark. The entire topography of the Earth was changed due to the catastrophic flood “All the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” Genesis 7:11. It is the reason we find billions of dead things buried all over the world including buried vegetation (fossil fuels). The world denies this event ever happened but has difficulty explaining the geological evidence.
Children are taught in schools that the universe started with the Big Bang. Life started in a primordial soup. Creatures evolved into more complex creatures as a result of natural selection and mutation. After much death and suffering men and women evolved from apelike ancestors. The survival of the fittest. God is not necessary and therefore does not exist. Does science support this theory?
The recent Encode project investigated DNA and its role in controlling the functions of all cells in the body. It revealed that DNA is a multi-dimensional assembly of information that controls the machines and transport devices in cells. Darwin did not have access to an electron microscope to see these complicated machines and transport devices inside all cells nor the DNA, the Information System that controls these machines. Information does not derive from matter or energy. There is only one source an Intelligent Designer who was outside of the universe (Time, Matter, and Space) He created. There is no way even the simplest cell could have evolved over time. The DNA, the information controlling the machines, and the complex machines had to be created perfectly at the same time to function – irreducible complexity.
God has raised up ministries such as Creation Ministries International, http://www.creation.com, and Answers in Genesis, http://www.answersingenesis.org to provide resources to present the case for creation so make sure you connect and support them.
How can we build the right worldview? There is only one way and that is to start with the origins of this complex universe with its multitude of living things that require many scientific laws to make it function correctly. Those inter-related laws could not have constructed themselves. Science has discovered that DNA (complex information) controls all of the machinery in living cells instructing them what to do. Both the information and the machinery have to be complete and functional at the beginning. They cannot evolve. Moreover, information only comes from intelligence, not matter or energy, hence proof there is an Intelligent Designer. Even better still the Intelligent Designer has revealed Himself to us both by Word, and the person of Jesus Christ, God incarnate.
Down through the ages God has spoken to and worked with individuals so we know He created us in His image to be in a relationship with Him. As a result, we have His Word (Bible) most of which is now fulfilled prophecies so that we know it is God’s Word and that the many end times prophecies will also be fulfilled.
Why is church attendance decreasing SO drastically? In this presentation, Ken Ham discusses the mass exodus that churches are experiencing in Western society and what Christians can do about it.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 