The Cultural Research Center (CRC) at Arizona Christian University recently released data from a survey of 400 children. This survey sought to examine “the prominence of belief in the ‘Seven Cornerstones of a Biblical Worldview’ among adolescents” (children ages 8–12). The seven cornerstones are the following:
God exists and is the all-knowing, all-powerful, perfect Creator and ruler of the universe.
As a sinner, the only solution to the consequences of sin is to acknowledge your sins, ask God to forgive you through Jesus Christ and rely on Him to save you from those consequences.
Sin is real and significant; we are all sinners, by choice.
Your most important reason for living is to do what God wants.
You trust the Bible because it is completely true and personally relevant to your life.
The Bible provides a complete and reliable understanding of right and wrong.
Success is consistently doing what the Bible teaches.
For me, an important cornerstone is missing, 8. Biblical history clearly teaches a young earth and a worldwide flood of Noah’s day that caused billions of dead things to be buried all over the world including fossil fuels from buried plant life. God ordained 6,000 years of man’s rule with Satan, god of this world, next will be Jesus ruling with the glorified Saints for 1,000 years (Satan bound in the Abyss) from a newly created Jerusalem. Israel will be the ruling nation on this Earth for Jesus’ Millennial reign. In 7,000 years this Earth’s history will be complete. “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away… ” Revelation 21:1
The CRC survey found that just 3% of children embraced all seven of these cornerstones. The majority only agreed with one or two, rejecting or stating they were unsure about the others. As the survey report states, “That does not bode well for adolescents building a stable foundation that will lead to a robust and biblical worldview.”
So what worldview are these children forming? Researcher George Barna says it’s a worldview of syncretism—the dominant worldview in the West today as people combine a little bit of this and a little bit of that into a religion of their own making. Barna says:
They are following in the footsteps of their parents, only 2% of whom have a biblical worldview, and 96% of whom are Syncretists. That mindset and lifestyle is modeled for their children every day and has become the comfortable default position among most adults, teens, and children who call themselves Christian.
Every person has a worldview. The question is whether it is the right worldview. The answer to that is this: “The only correct worldview is the one grounded on God’s Word.” Every other worldview is ultimately founded in man’s opinion (man’s word) and is therefore subjective and arbitrary. The only absolute worldview is the one that comes from God’s Word.
Parents, these survey results should be sobering. They should make you stop and consider what kind of priority teaching your children the things of the Lord has in your home. And that doesn’t just mean teaching children good morals from God’s Word so they do what is right. It means teaching them the theology and doctrine of God’s Word so they can look at the world through the right lens. It means teaching them the gospel so they understand what Jesus did for them and how they can be saved. It means always taking everything back to Scripture as the ultimate authority.
Yes, this is hard work, but it’s the task the Lord has called parents (and especially fathers!) to, and it has eternal consequences (life or death). Don’t delegate your children’s worldview training to the church, a Christian school, or the world. Open the Word of God with your children and teach them diligently so that they may proclaim the works of God to a generation yet unborn (Psalm 78).
Helpful resources available from Answers in Genesis
These findings come from The American Worldview Inventory 2023, conducted by the Cultural Research Centre at Arizona Christian University under the supervision of George Barna, director of research at the Cultural Research Centre. While born-again Christians make up about one-third of all U.S. adults and are considered “the backbone of local church activity because of their higher level of commitment to the Christian faith,” the study shows that between 2020 and 2023, the share of those who say they believe Jesus did not commit sins during his lifetime on Earth fell from 58% to 44%.
Jesus being sinless is central to the hope Christians have in Him as Saviour explains the apologetics website Got Questions because, “If Jesus were not sinless, there would be no sacrifice for sin.” The apostle Peter stated it clearly: ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth.’ (1 Peter 2:22) Indeed, as Jesus Christ is God, He has no capacity to sin,” the Christian website explains.
This shift in belief among born-again Christians was among six that showed a significant decline in the past three years that Barna characterized as “indefensible.”
Fewer than half of born-again Christians also now believe they have a unique, God-given calling or purpose. The share of those who held that belief fell from 88% to a staggering 46% during the pandemic.
A downward trend was also observed among those who say the Bible is unambiguous in its teaching about abortion. That belief fell from 58% to 44%. Those who say human life is sacred fell from 60% to 48%.
The number of born-again Christians who say God is the basis of all truth fell from 69% to 63% over the period. The share of born-again believers who say they are deeply committed to practicing their religious faith fell from 85% to 50%, while the share of those who say they read or study the Bible at least once a week fell from 60% to 55%. When it comes to the general population of U.S. adults, Barna said the share of the population that claims to hold a biblical worldview fell from 6% to 4% in the last three years, while less than half now claim to be “deeply committed to practicing” their religious faith. That measure fell from 60% to 48%. Barna also found that only 33% of adults now say they attend church service during a typical week which shows “a decline representing the loss of about 15 million churchgoing adults each week.”
The veteran researcher said the findings on the drastic shift in Christian belief over such a short period of time are “highly unusual” because “religious beliefs and behaviors have typically been a hallmark of consistency.” “Most religious beliefs change over the course of generations, not a few years,” Barna said.
Barna noted that a significant driver behind the decline in Christians holding on to a biblical worldview is syncretism, an ideology described as “the worldview that merges otherwise incompatible philosophies of life, particularly evolution and a Cosmos that has existed for billions of years, into a made-to-order worldview that incorporates enough biblical elements to be minimally Christian in nature.”
These statistics highlight how successful Satan’s strategy to undermine the foundations of God’s Word has been. Thankfully God has raised up ministries such as Creation Ministries International (CMI) and Answers in Genesis to show that evolution and its history of billions of years for this Cosmos is not defensible. In fact, the audacious claim by secular scientists in the New Scientist book How Evolution Explains Everything About Life (2017) cannot be substantiated. On page 69 they claim ” The only thing we know for certain is that life must have popped into existence sometime between Earth’s formation 4.5 billion years ago and the appearance of the first undisputed fossils about 3.4 million years ago.” Living cells require information (DNA) and decoding machinery. Even the simplest living cell has an enormous quantity of information on its DNA (about 600,000 letters) and it has the decoding machinery to read these letters. Also, the instructions to build this decoding machinery are encoded on its DNA. DNA can’t be decoded without the machines, but the machines can’t be built without the DNA coding for them. An impossible vicious circle for chemical evolution. There is simply no way “life must have popped into existence“.
George Barna, director of research at the Cultural Research Center on the findings from his research said,
“The ideological and philosophical confusion that characterizes America today is perhaps the biggest reflection of the nation’s rejection of biblical principles and its decision to replace God’s truth with ‘personal truth.‘”
Using recent data from the American Worldview Inventory, which is the first-ever national survey conducted in the United States measuring the incidence of both biblical and competing worldviews, Barna shows how the four adult generations in the U.S. — millennials, Gen X (baby busters), baby boomers and elders — had very different spiritual responses to the pandemic.
The research, which involved the tracking of a nationally representative sample of 2,000 adults undertaken in January, showed the lowest incidence of adults with a biblical worldview among the youngest cohorts, millennials, adults born between 1984 and 2002, and Gen X, adults born from 1965 through 1983.
The data show that of the four generations, millennials had the lowest incidence of biblical worldview at 2%. Their connection to Christianity was also shown as quite weak before the pandemic and “was even weaker by the end of the COVID-19” pandemic.
“Millennials were hit hard by the pandemic in dimensions such as their emotions, finances, vocation, relationships, and ideology,” Barna wrote.
Only 5% of Gen X adults held a biblical worldview, according to the data. The study shows that Gen X endured the greatest degree of “spiritual turbulence,” with 10 statistically significant changes and two notable directional changes.
“In all but one instance, those changes showed Gen Xers moving away from biblical perspectives or behaviors. In general, the nature of the spiritual transitions among Gen Xers during the pandemic era was a shift away from trust in God.
Among the biggest changes in their religious perspective was the decline in believing God created humans, that He is the basis of truth, and that He is the omniscient and omnipotent ruler of the universe,” Barna noted.Proof that the teaching of evolution in schools and universities has been one of Satan’s greatest strategies to undermine belief in God’s Word.
“Those doubts have precipitated important transitions in religious behavior, including less frequent Bible reading, church attendance, confession of personal sin, seeking to do God’s will, and worshiping God. Another noteworthy shift is the decline in how many Gen Xers believe that human life is sacred.”
Baby boomers, adults born between 1946 and 1964, and elders, adults 77 and older, were shown to be the most likely among adults to hold a biblical worldview. However, they were still in the minority among their respective cohorts and showed declines over the course of the pandemic.
The biblical worldview incidence among boomers dropped from 9% to 7% over the past three years, while it dropped among elders from 9% to 8%.
“The last three years have been a time of high anxiety for tens of millions of adults. It was an ideal time for the Christian Church to provide wise guidance and emotional calm. Unfortunately, most churches agreed to the government’s dictate that they close their doors and remain mostly silent. That left an unprepared populace to follow the primary form of leadership available to them: government perspectives and policies,” Barna argued.
“Obviously, that has not worked well, given how dissatisfied a large majority of the country is with the direction of the nation and the quality of post-COVID life. With only one out of every 50 millennials embracing a biblical worldview, America’s children are especially vulnerable to the inward-looking approach to life that their parents and most other adults practice,” he added.
“As a nation, we may be past the danger of COVID-19, but we are in the thick of the danger brought about by people relying upon syncretism as their dominant worldview.”
Biblical churches must see this as a time for an urgent response to the direction society is taking. While the Left pursues the Great Reset, it is time for the Church to pursue the Great Renewal — to get in step with what God wants to do to turn people’s hearts, minds, and souls back to God and His life principles.We are currently celebrating Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came and transformed the believers into disciples of Christ operating in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is time to operate in that same Holy Spirit power today, only then will the world know the truth about God and His Word.
Ministries such as Creation Ministries International (www.creation.com) and Answers in Genesis (www.answersingenesis.org) are essential in restoring faith in the foundational book of the Bible Genesis and its young earth history. Essential is belief in the worldwide flood of Noah’s day when God poured out His wrath upon the earth destroying all but the eight people on Noah’s Ark. Look what Jesus said about the last days before His return.
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:37-39
Life sized replica of Noah’s Ark, spanning 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high, produced by Answers in Genesis. It is now completed and being viewed by thousands of vistors to the site in Grant County Williamsburg, Kentucky.
The information in this post was largely extracted from an interview with Dr. Sarah Fay Buckland titled GEOGRAPHY EXPERT FOR CREATION (Jonathan Sarfati chats with Dr. Sarah Buckland) in Creation Magazine 2023 Vol 45, Issue 2.
Dr. Sarah Fay Buckland earned her doctorate in geography from The University of the West Indies (Kingston, Jamaica) with high commendation. Dr. Buckland, who is a lecturer and published researcher, also holds a certificate in Bible evidence from the Creation Apologetics Teachers’ College (USA) by the Creation Training Initiative. She is the founder and principal director of Chosen to GLOW Ministries, which seeks to amplify the Christian voice in the public sphere and equip more youths to defend their faith.
Dr. Sarah Fay Buckland explains why it is imperative we believe the Genesis account of origins.
Evolution undermines the reliability of biblical history:
Evolutionary theory posits that human ancestry cannot be traced directly to only one man, contrasting with the biblical account of a literal Adam and Eve. This compromised belief undermines Jesus’ entire genealogy, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus’ human ancestry traces back to Adam and the patriarchs. So how much of the Bible, therefore, would be deemed trustworthy? As Jesus asked:
“If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” John 2:12
Evolution undermines Jesus’ authority, omniscience, and thus His deity:
In several Bible passages in Luke, Jesus refers to real events that occurred in Genesis. He specifically referenced patriarchs and events, including the murder of Adam’s son Abel.
“Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. ” Luke 11:51
Also in Luke, Jesus uses the time of Noah and the Flood to reference the time of His soon-coming return.
“Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.” Luke 17:26-27
Once again in Luke, Jesus makes it clear that God made Adam and Eve at the beginning of creation they were not the product of evolution over millions of years.
“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”Mark 10:5-9
Genesis clearly states that all human beings were created in God’s image. All persons being created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights has formed the foundation for most positive anti-racial campaigns, including those by William Wilberforce and Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The Bible clearly teaches that God created humanity from ‘one man’ (Acts17:26). While many secular movements depict Christianity as racist, the evolutionary worldview inherently has the most racist roots, both philosophically and in practice.
For instance, biological evolution requires an evolutionary ‘progression’ from the first ‘primitive’ humans to modern man. Unfortunately, Darwin and the early Darwinians point to an African origin of the most ‘primitive’ humans. Conversely, Europeans were considered the highest-evolved race. This philosophy influenced some of the most racist movements, including Hitler’s Nazism. It even filtered into early practices under the guise of ‘science’. African Pygmies were even caged in zoos.
Once again, the Bible’s unchanging doctrines always provide the most ethical basis for all aspects of life, in contrast to the ever-changing story of evolution.
The vast majority of Americans, 96%, do not hold to a biblical worldview following the COVID-19 lockdowns, according to a new survey. Calling it a “significant change” in Americans’ worldview, the Cultural Research Centre of Arizona Christian University led by researcher George Barna found in its survey that the lockdowns impacted the already-dwindling number of people who claim to hold a biblical worldview.
A biblical worldview is one in which the entirety of a person’s “ideas about all dimensions of life and eternity are based on biblical principles and commands.” The data, which was part of a survey that began in 2020 known as the American Worldview Inventory (AWVI), which evaluates the worldview of the U.S. adult population, also found the pandemic fuelled a decline in biblical worldview even among those who identify as born-again Christians, from 19% pre-pandemic to 13% post-pandemic.
We should not be surprised at this great falling away from God and His commands, Jesus told us that this would be the state of the world prior to His second coming.
“What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered them: ‘See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. 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 thenmany will fall awayand 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 24:3-12
The Biblical prophesied end times signs are being manifested in our day. But, it is only those that hold a Biblical worldview (4% in the USA) that will know the truth that we are in end times and that the judgement of God is imminent for those that reject Him and His Word.
Only eight people survived the first time God poured out His wrath upon an unbelieving lawless world (Worldwide flood of Noah’s day) and sadly we know many will be destroyed during the Biblical prophesied wrath to come.
SEVEN TRUMPET JUDGEMENTS (Revelation 9)
“Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet… So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind… The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshipping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.“ Revelation 9:13,15, 20-21
SEVEN BOWL JUDGEMENTS (Revelation 16)
“Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” Revelation 16:1
“The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.” Revelation 16:17-21
The vast majority of Americans — 96 percent — do not hold to a biblical worldview following the COVID-19 lockdowns, according to a new survey. A biblical worldview, the survey said, is one in which the entirety of a person’s “ideas about all dimensions of life and eternity is based on biblical principles and commands.”
Sadly, most of the institutional churches and their Bible Colleges no longer hold to the truth of God’s Word so why should these figures surprise us. Also, if the bulk of Americans do not believe God’s Word is the truth it is highly probable they will embrace the deception of the coming Antichrist and take the Mark of the Beast in order to survive.
Calling it a “significant change” in Americans’ worldview, the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University led by researcher George Barna found in its survey that the lockdowns impacted the already-dwindling number of people who claim to hold a biblical worldview.
In what Barna called the first national study of its kind, the incidence of biblical worldview declined to a mere 4%, down one-third from the 6% recorded just months before the pandemic lockdowns started in March 2020.
“When you put the data in perspective, the biblical worldview is shuffling toward the edge of the cliff,” said Barna. “As things stand today, biblical theism is much closer to extinction in America than it is to influencing the soul of the nation.”
Part of the problem, said Barna, is that younger people, in particular, are “largely isolated from biblical thought in our society and are the most aggressive at rejecting biblical principles in our culture.”
Barna said Christian churches and schools should be putting more effort into helping their congregations and students think through the Scriptures. What Barna should have said is that churches and schools should be teaching our young people that evolution and billions of years of earth’s history are nonsense. Fortunately, God has raised up His ministries to provide excellent resources to overcome the deception: http://www.creation.com and http://www.answersingenesis.org are just two of the organizations that I recommend. Evidence for Noah’s worldwide flood is starkly evident with fossil fuels and billions of dead things preserved in the rocks all over the world. The flood, not billions of years caused the geology we observe today.
The impact of teaching that evolution not creation by God is the reason for the Cosmos has had a diabolical effect on our children.
Nearly one in five (19.7%) members of Generation Z consider themselves part of the LGBT community, with 13.1% describing themselves as bisexual, 3.4% identifying as gay, 2.2% categorizing themselves as lesbians, 1.9% saying they are trans-identified and 1.5% chose the “other LGBT” category when asked about their sexual orientation. The share of adults belonging to the LGBT community dropped in descending order by generation, with 11.3% of millennials (born between 1981 and 1996) having a significantly larger LGBT population than Generation X (3.3%), baby boomers (2.7%) and the silent generation (1.7%). Generation X is categorized as those born between 1965 and 1980, while baby boomers were born between 1946 and 1964 and the silent generation was born before 1946.
Jesus told us beforehand that this is what the world will be like before He comes back to restore righteousness:
“And brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” Mark 13:12-13
Why are younger people departing from a Biblical worldview? How did this happen?
Satan developed a strategic plan to destroy God’s Word and he took aim at the foundational book of the Bible – Genesis.
Take God out of the creation story and you destroy the Biblical foundations: man and woman made in God’s image, marriage, supernatural beings, angels, including enemies of God – a fallen angel called Satan and his demons, The Fall of mankind, a worldwide flood of Noah’s Day, confusion of languages (Tower of Babel) that established the nations, andGod established His nation, Israel for His purposes. All leading to God, JESUS, entering history at the appointed time.
Evolution has been Satan’s most successful strategy. If Darwin’s evolution is true, God is not necessary to explain the existence of the Cosmos. It evolved over billions of years. To do that you have to make Noah’s Flood a myth and yet just about all people groups around the world have a flood story in their foundational history and numerous geologists of today recognize that there is abundant evidence in the rocks and fossils that speaks of water-related rapid catastrophic deposition, just as would be expected with Noah’s Flood. Sadly, the growing number of neo-catastrophists still cling to millions of years by assuming many sequences of catastrophes separated by millions of years.
Schools and universities now teach evolution and the Big Bang as fact. The U.S. District Court on December 20, 2005, charged that even teaching intelligent design (ID) was an unconstitutional establishment of religion. Even many theological schools have now accepted evolution and billions of years as scientific fact which has destroyed Biblical history and belief in an inerrant Bible.
Once God was removed from history then it was only a matter of time before God’s commandments were also jettisoned from every area of life: government, law, sex, marriage, family, life (abortion and euthanasia), and finally lawlessness abounds.
The institutional church has abandoned God’s word and lost its power. It is no longer relevant and in fact considered a danger that must be controlled by legislation.
Most parents still try to teach Christian values to their kids: how to be kind and generous and hardworking, etc. They have disciplined their kids in life skills like keeping a clean room and working hard at school and being polite. But at school, they are taught evolution and therefore the Bible and the God of the Bible are myths. The Bible and its God are no longer relevant, and “SIN” what is that? We can make up our own rules. Hence, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, gay marriage, and transgenderism are all acceptable lifestyle choices.
Unless parents tackle the creation/evolution issue and therefore the historical accuracy of God’s Word they will have little to no impact on their children’s evolutionary worldview which allows them to live the life they choose. Why would they choose all the constraints the God of the Bible requires? However, God’s Word is true; fulfilled Biblical prophecy proves it to be an accurate record of God’s dealings with His world. Parents need to teach this truth so their children will submit to their Creator and reject the lies of their enemy Satan who is out to destroy them. To help parents teach biblically, God has raised up ministries like Creation Ministries International (CMI – http://www.creation.com) and Answers in Genesis both with Ph.D. scientists who can clearly show evolution as a failed theory and that the Bible’s “young earth” history is supported by scientific evidence. They have excellent resources for Christians to use. Also, discipleship must be daily, and not just in life skills, but apologetics, theology, prayer, the power of God, and missions.
Also, Children need to be taught how to become born-again Christians with the Holy Spirit indwelling their spirit. We cannot live the Christian life without the Holy Spirit. We are told the Holy Spirit is the one who produces the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, kindness, and self-control. He is the one who will make us Christ-like (sanctification). He is the one who provides all nine gifts (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) of the Spirit for ministry. Much of the institutional church teaches that God the Father sent Jesus to provide the way back to the Father by His sacrifice for us on The Cross but they do not teach that Jesus made it possible for the Father to send the Holy Spirit to enable us to live the Christian life and all that entails. It is the power of God.
PRAYER
Father, we thank you for ministries like CMI that are addressing the attack on the inerrancy of your Word. Bless them we pray and show us how we can play our part in supporting their efforts, particularly with churches in our area of influence. We pray for Christians in schools and universities that they may be able to bring your truths to light in their sphere of influence. Equip them with the correct materials to use by guiding them to websites like http://www.creation.com. Heavenly Father we ask you to raise up churches that will operate like the early churches described in the Book of Acts in the power of the Holy Spirit to do what you called us to do:
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age” Matthew 28:19-20
“ You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also.”2 Timothy 2:1-2
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6
When you have a biblical worldview, you know that God loves you and He knows you love Him and trust Him. As a result, God is your foundation and His truth guides your decision-making about what you spend money on and what you spend your time on. Moreover, you want to have a good witness so that your family, friends, and those in your workplace see that you use God and His Word for all decision-making.
In a world that has largely excluded God from its life it is imperative we teach our children how to overcome, be resilient, and have a biblical worldview.
How do we raise Bible-minded children in a chaotic culture? That’s what Dr. Kathy Koch, founder, and president of Celebrate Kids, Inc., tackles in her latest book, “Resilient Kids: Raising Them to Embrace Life with Confidence.” “One of the things that does concern me is … the helicoptering, the overprotection of children, the bubble wrapping of kids,” she said. “I’m concerned about that because children need to grow up and develop their own strength. They can’t always depend upon a mom and a dad or a teacher.” Koch said kids’ character is strengthened and faith is developed after we face a challenge. Overprotecting children can weaken them because they’re not able to have these overcomer moments. She also described the power and importance of “resiliency.” “Resiliency is readily recovering from difficulties, readily coming back from trauma, grief, fear, loss,” she said. Another question many Christian parents today struggle with is how to ensure their kids love Jesus throughout their lives — and not simply because their parents do. Koch said it all comes down to the examples we set. “Do they see that we use God and his Word for decision-making?” she asked.
It’s all about our children seeing us live out authentic biblical truth in our lives.
A biblical worldview is critical because that’s what enables you to become a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Romans 12 talks to us about, ‘you have to have your mind renewed’, you must be ‘transformed’ by that ‘renewing of your mind’ with God’s principles at the core of all of your thoughts so that you can in fact live like Christ.”
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
Moreover, this is impossible unless we have been born again with the Holy Spirit now indwelling our spirit. Proverbs tells us that the spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord and of course a lamp needs oil to function which is, of course, the Holy Spirit. To function as God intended we have always needed the Holy Spirit to be our counsellor, our comforter, and our teacher.
“The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.” Proverbs 20:27
Also, according to Barna, the only way to achieve cultural transformation is if people choose to “believe God’s truths,” which in turn will allow them to “act upon those truths based upon those things that you believe.”
“We are here to be salt and light. That’s what transformation is: changing the world around us forever based on God’s truths. But in order to do that, we need a healthy church. We need believers who get it, believers who are willing to put their lives on the line. Today’s traditional church and leadership model has veered far from Christ’s New Testament model of disciples making disciples typically in house churches.
In fact, a study released earlier this year by the Cultural Research Centre of 1,000 pastors found that only 37% of Christian pastors in the United States have a biblical worldview. The majority possess the hybrid syncretism worldview.
“As you read the Scriptures, you find that biblically, it is the role of the community of faith, i.e., our churches, to be supporting families and particularly parents in that process, equipping them for raising up their children to be dynamic followers of Jesus Christ,” Barna advised. Only the church model Jesus established, as described in the Book of Acts, will achieve that goal. I a convinced that the House church model is Jesus model and the institutional church will not survive the prophesied “end times” tribulation.
Martyn Isles does a great job at looking at “what is a woman” from God’s perspective. God created us and He has told us in Genesis exactly why He created us and the roles He assigned to men and women.
Sadly, the world has jettisoned God and His Word and is intent on playing God in His world. Moreover, they are totally unaware that they are under the control of the enemy of God, Satan, and his minions.
The confusion that surfaces when the world is considered to be the result of random chance with no meaning or purpose is evidenced by transgenderism which insists biological identity and sexual identity are different and why our leaders are unable to answer the question “what is a woman” or “what is a man “for that matter.
We are blessed to have a man of the calibre of Martyn Isles heading up A.C.L.
LIVING ETERNAL NOW 