EVIDENCE OF A DECAYING CULTURE

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8.3 million minors in the USA received mental care in 2023, highlighting a ‘Decaying Culture’.

The family unit, social interaction, and politics are a few of the many variables that impact a developing adolescent. When a child’s family unit is broken, social life is in shambles, or the political public square becomes unavoidable, it can have consequences on who they become as their worldview takes shape. As evidenced by previous reports, as well as one published last month, mental health concerns are exploding in the younger generation.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) conducted a July survey that analyzed the amount of counseling, medication, or other forms of mental health therapy minors underwent in 2023. According to the results, 8.3 million youth ages 12 to 17 received mental health care, which The Epoch Times noted “is equivalent to nearly one-third of the adolescents in the U.S. undergoing treatment for mental health issues.”

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which is the title of SAMHSA’s annual survey, found that the results were in line with the trend they’ve seen since 2009, namely, that “the percentage of teenagers who receive treatment for mental health has climbed practically every year.” As ET highlighted, “Authorities from SAMHSA said that they considered the increase to be a positive development, highlighting efforts to mainstream and remove the stigma associated with getting treatment for mental health issues.”

The survey included statistics concerning the underage and their use of alcohol and drugs, as well as the rates of suicidal thoughts, plans, and attempts among adolescents. To accompany those statistics in greater detail are countless other studies accentuating what causes children to engage in such harmful behaviors and acts — all of which often lead to mental health issues.

For instance, The Washington Stand highlighted a report from last year “that compared dozens of studies conducted between 1987 and 2022,” emphasizing the way fatherlessness impacts children. In analyzing the results, the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) noted there were “clear correlations between children raised in fatherless homes and developmental challenges ranging from bad grades, anxiety, and suicide to violent behavior, drug use, and criminality.”

Additionally, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study from 2022 examined 7,111 children “who did not identify as anything other than their biological sex, as well as 58 transgender-identifying children between the ages of 9 and 10.” As the report emphasized, “Children who identified as transgender at this young age were more likely to experience depression … anxiety … conduct problems … and suicidality.” The study also pointed out that trans-identifying children were more likely to have endured “significant psychological trauma” such as “exposure to domestic violence, mental illness, alcohol or drug use in the home, physical or emotional abuse or neglect, sexual abuse, and parental divorce.”

Needless to say, there are many factors involved in the “recipe” of “despair, hopelessness, nihilism, [and] disaffection,” as Marlo Slayback, national director of Student Programs at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, previously shared with The College Fix. According to Slayback, Generation Z is surrounded by a “decaying culture,” which inevitably affects them as they try to navigate through it. But to further break down how this all relates to the most recent findings, Joseph Backholm, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement, shared his insight with TWS.

“It’s beyond dispute at this point that social media is harming the mental health of young people,” he said. Especially among the youth, the technological realm is “creating constant comparison which leads to a lack of contentment.” Not to mention, he added, it’s replacing real-life relationships with the appearance of virtual relationships.” But beyond social media, Backholm urged that our analysis should consider that “the way we talk and think about mental health may explain some of this as well.”

He continued, “We have destigmatized mental health in ways that are good, but we have almost glamorized certain mental health ways that make young people want a diagnosis.” Numerous instances prove that “adults are rushing children into mental health treatments in ways that have never happened before.”

“Abigail Shrier does a good job documenting this in her recent book Bad Therapy,” where she “argues that the problem isn’t the kids — it’s the mental health experts.”

It appears, Backholm stated, that “in an attempt to make sure we don’t ignore a child’s struggles, adults may inadvertently be encouraging children to fixate on them which could make things worse.” In addition to that, “if children receive special attention for having a mental health challenge, we inadvertently encourage children to have them, or at least claim to.” According to Backholm, “Mental health challenges are real, but they are also invisible, which makes diagnosing them more difficult and more susceptible to cultural and personal factors rather than scientific ones.” 

From a biblical worldview, Backholm explained how “a sinful world is full of challenges,” and really, “Christians understand why.” Ultimately, “When we live and think the way God intended, in relationship with Him and others, our minds will be better for it.” But the truth is, Backholm contended, “We live in a broken world, and no one escapes the consequences fully.” As a result, we are incapable of living completely as God intended us to live.

A major influence is that most young people have been taught in schools and universities that God does not exist, they evolved from monkeys and therefore there’s no meaning or purpose to life. They have no hope. God’s commandments have been jettisoned: homosexuality, gay marriage, transgenderism, and abortion are acceptable. Christians who hold to God’s standards are bigots, homophobes, and worse.

The true history of the world is no longer taught even by our Bible Colleges. Due to the acceptance of evolution, they have abandoned Genesis, its creation account, and the worldwide flood of Noah’s day. Fortunately, God’s Word, the Bible tells us that this would happen in the last days before Jesus’ second coming.

“Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of 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.” 2 Peter 3:3-6

Christians know how the story of this world ends. Jesus in his Olivet Discourse, given in three of the Gospels, provides a lot of detail as does Revelation. In the O.T. the revelation given to Daniel was for the end times. Three times Daniel was told, “Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.” Daniel 12:9

Daniel, like no other book, reaches all the way back to Israel’s beginnings and outlines the whole sweep of Israel’s history of crisis and covenant discipline, reaching its glorious resolution in the kingdom that has come on earth as it is in heaven. Daniel is the key to organizing the whole of scripture around the main themes of kingdom, covenant, and mystery. But it is Jesus’ Olivet prophecy in particular, and the emphasis He puts on one centermost event (abomination of desolation), that becomes the key that opens not only Daniel but also sets all the prophecies spoken concerning the coming day of the Lord in clearest covenant context.

We must remember that the NT revelation of the mystery of the gospel is built around Christ’s first coming, His departure, and His return to Israel, specifically to the Mount of Olives from whence He ascended. He must return to the place where He was crucified under the placard that said, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.”

Why end the age just there, in that physical locality? Why has God constructed the end of the age around an ancient land dispute that is divinely calculated to plunge the nations into an insoluble crisis from which none will be able to extricate themselves? (Zech 12:2-3). Why would God bind together the issue of the mystery of the gospel with the mystery of Israel?

Part of the answer regards His deliberate intention that both comings would be surrounded by an element of mystery is to elude the pride of self-reliance (Mt. 11:25-26), just as Paul warns in Ro. 11:25. Just as the mystery of Christ’s twofold coming so deeply searched and tested Jewish hearts, just so, the mystery of Israel is designed to test and sift the hearts of the nations, even gentile believers.

But there is one important difference: The mystery of Christ’s cross and twofold coming was not only hidden from Peter and the disciples (Mt 16:22; Lk 18:34); it was hidden even from the angelic powers (1 Cor 2:7-8). Not so the mystery surrounding the Lord’s return.

Those well-marked days will only come “as a thief” upon the unregenerate church and the unbelieving world, but not upon the faithful children of the light (1 Thess. 5:4). We know this because Daniel’s prophecy is clear that the vision will be unsealed and known to the wise at the time of the end. They will be doing great exploits, instructing many, and turning many to righteousness. A countless number will be saved out of, “the great tribulation (Rev 7:14).

But the larger answer to the question has all to do with the completion of an ancient covenant promise. It is the age-ending climax of the “everlasting covenant” that forms the framework of the future. In the larger context of God’s eternal purpose in Christ, this is what defines how and why the age ends just as the prophecy of both testaments so fully describes.

Reggie Kellie of Mystery of Israel (www.mysteryofisrael.org) says, “Towards the goal of seeing the big picture, I believe the Lord Jesus Himself has given us the key to establish what I like to call a “plumbline of simplicity” that will align and pull many of the strands together into a coherent clarity. The object will not only be to know what is most important to know, but how best to show others how to make the case from scripture without getting bogged down in details, in a way that will equip others to equip others.

If observed, God has given us an amazing, and now especially timely, provision to equip the body, not only to escape the manifold forms of end-time deception but to have the Lord’s own, personally commended key of interpretation that will enable them to “instruct many” and “turn many” to righteousness” (Dan 11:32-33; 12:3, 10).

Much of the back end of this post is extracted from an article by Reggie Kelly The Olivet Key to Daniel’s Prophecy of the End

ANOTHER PROPHESIED END TIMES SIGN

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“Up until recently,” mass shootings were “almost exclusively men. But something’s changed,” said Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, host of “Washington Watch.” “Something’s changed,” agreed Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, director of the Center for Family Studies at FRC, “and it’s been in conjunction with the rise of transgenderism.”

“This is an alarming trend,” Bauwens added, “that we’re seeing these young women who don’t fit the profile … commit these heinous acts.” On Sunday, a 36-year-old woman opened fire at Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. In March 2023, a 28-year-old woman killed six people at Covenant School in Nashville, Tenn. A female shot nine people at a Colorado charter school in May 2019, and another female shot three people at her Maryland workplace in September 2018. In all four cases, the female shooter identified as transgender.

“A good researcher would say, ‘What is going on here? And why is it that these women are also connected in some way to the transgender ideology?’” suggested Bauwens.

One factor is the presence of mental health issues. Bauwens acknowledged that there was “a mental illness issue with shootings across the board.” Police revealed almost immediately that the Lakewood Church shooter was mentally ill, and the Covenant School shooter wanted to die.

However, Bauwens added, in the case of the Lakewood Church shooter, “You have to wonder, was there more going on than just her baseline mental health distress?”

Mental health issues are often caused by “adverse childhood events,” said Bauwens, and as a result they have unprocessed trauma. As a former clinical researcher of trauma patients, Bauwens has studied how trauma can manifest in other areas of a person’s life. Whether recognized or not, childhood trauma can often lead to the mental health issues so often linked both with people with gender dysphoria and those with a propensity toward mass shootings, Bauwens explained.

Another overlap between the two groups is a “susceptibility to suicidal ideation or committing suicide,” Bauwens continued. She was “not saying that everyone who has a suicidal ideation is going to commit mass murder,” she clarified, but anyone with suicidal ideation is already fantasizing about “committing murder of yourself,” making the leap to contemplate the killing of others that much more likely.

While these relationships have been well established by research, Bauwens contended, the recent change, which corresponds to the rising trend of trans-identifying female mass shooters, is the advent of cross-sex hormones and a worldview of victimhood. If “there’s already mental health distress, and now you’re going to throw the wild card of hormones into the mix,” Bauwens observed, “it’s a recipe for disaster.”

“We’re not talking about, in some cases, [a female] just identifying as a male,” Perkins agreed, but the increasingly widespread “experimental use of drugs and surgery. So, if you’re a female and you are wanting to identify as a male, you take male hormones. And if you have an underlying mental illness, … this is like a concoction that is just so volatile and dangerous.”

Even a healthy person would be negatively impacted by hormone treatments, Bauwens contended. “If you take someone who has great mental health, and then you pump them with higher levels of male or female hormones,” she posited, “how can you expect a good outcome? … That’s not rocket science. It’s not normal.”

If you “take a woman and you pump her full of testosterone,” Bauwens argued, it would introduce even more psychological variables. “Now she’s having to socially adjust to the fact that her body is changing to look more like a male,” she said. “That’s introducing all kinds of other mental health issues with the possibility of greater levels of bullying, etc.” On top of that, Bauwens added, the woman would “have all these new emotions to deal with,” such as rage, an increased sexual drive, and other effects of testosterone.

Bauwens pointed out the absurdity of mental health professionals affirming a woman that this volatile situation is normal. If a woman takes testosterone because she wants to identify as a man, said Bauwens, she will “have a mental health community that’s surrounding her saying, ‘This is great. This is the answer to all your problems.’”

Bauwens also warned about the influence of Marxist ideology that encourages a person with gender dysphoria to adopt an identity of victimhood as a member of an oppressed minority. “You have this framework that says, ‘You are a victim, and there are these other people — Christians, others who believe that sex is binary — [who] are keeping this vital treatment from you,’” said Bauwens.

“So, you can see,” Bauwens concluded, “just how some of the circumstances in our society have set up the belief system that Christians are the problem.” Police have not officially released the motive for the shootings at either Lakewood Church or Covenant School, but both incidents involved female shooters who identified or may have identified as transgender, and who attempted to inflict mass casualties associated with Christianity.

“There is a convergence of transgenderism, drug treatments, and violence,” Perkins summarized, at a time when “both mental health [problems] and attacks on churches continue to rise.”

This is just another confirmation that we are living in the prophesied end times before Jesus returns.

“But understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5

THE WORLD CONTINUES TO REJECT GOD AND CREATION AND TEEN MENTAL HEALTH WORSENS

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Article by Sarah Holliday in the Washington Stand, February 13, 2024.

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.

For resources to reach young people go to http://www.answersingenesis.org and http://www.creation.com.

YOUNG PEOPLE: RELIGION IS GOOD FOR YOU

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I published the results of this research under the post – GOD LOVES YOU, DO YOU LOVE GOD? with a different message but this post is aimed at young people with the message on the CBN video.

Dr. Josh Packard, executive director of Springtide Research Institute, told CBN’s Faithwire about his extensive research into 13-to-25-year-olds, noting studies have long found “religion is good for you.”

“Faith and spirituality are good for you,” Packard said. “If you’re a person who believes in some kind of higher power and has a connection to that higher power, you’re generally flourishing more than your peers.”

He continued, “Those who pray more tend to be flourishing more in all areas, including their mental health.”

Packard’s comments are particularly stunning when America faces an “epidemic of mental health [crises] among young people.” Meanwhile, there’s also a massive rise in the proportion of “nones” who no longer affiliate with a specific faith or religion.

Data pointing to increased wellness among the faithful is particularly pertinent in the midst of these dynamics, pointing to a potential solution to cultural conundrums.

Packard said there are lessons in Springtide Research Institute’s findings that can inform the culture and churches alike, especially in an era in which faith is being downplayed or diminished.

“Young people would be … better off if more of them had a connection to something bigger than themselves,” he said. “But also, I think a lot of religious institutions and leaders would do well to take mental health into account, so that like faith and belief could be appropriately part of somebody’s overall approach to health.”

While young people might not be aligning with Christianity at rates they once were, Packard said many still see themselves as spiritual, and more than half pray.

While the separation from biblical truth is undoubtedly troubling for Christians, these realities show at least openness to a higher power. And that intrigue could lead to receptive Gospel introductions.

“We see lots of desire from Gen Z to embark on these conversations and explorations of meaning and purpose and, ‘Why am I here on this Earth?’” he said. “So, the desire hasn’t gone away. The exploration hasn’t gone away.”

As Faithwire has extensively reported, countless surveys and studies show the benefits of faith.

Recent research has found Christians are exceptional at giving, fare better in relationships, church attendees are happier and more content, and churchgoers have better mental health. Read more about these findings.

GOD LOVES YOU, DO YOU LOVE GOD?

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Dr. Josh Packard, executive director of Springtide Research Institute, told CBN’s Faithwire about his extensive research into 13-to-25-year-olds, noting studies have long found “religion is good for you.”

God is real and He is concerned about His Cosmos particularly those in it that He made in His image to be in a relationship with Him so it is natural that He responds to those that sincerely call on Him in prayer.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7

“Faith and spirituality are good for you,” Packard said. “If you’re a person who believes in some kind of higher power and has a connection to that higher power, you’re generally flourishing more than your peers.”

He continued, “Those who pray more tend to be flourishing more in all areas, including their mental health.”

Packard’s comments are particularly stunning when America faces an “epidemic of mental health [crises] among young people.” Meanwhile, there’s also a massive rise in the proportion of “nones” who no longer affiliate with a specific faith or religion.

Data pointing to increased wellness among the faithful is particularly pertinent in the midst of these dynamics, pointing to a potential solution to cultural conundrums.

Packard said there are lessons in Springtide Research Institute’s findings that can inform the culture and churches alike, especially in an era in which faith is being downplayed or diminished.

“Young people would be … better off if more of them had a connection to something bigger than themselves,” he said. “But also, I think a lot of religious institutions and leaders would do well to take mental health into account, so that like faith and belief could be appropriately part of somebody’s overall approach to health.”

While young people might not be aligning with Christianity at rates they once were, Packard said many still see themselves as spiritual, and more than half pray.

While the separation from biblical truth is undoubtedly troubling for Christians, these realities show at least openness to a higher power. And that intrigue could lead to receptive Gospel introductions.

“We see lots of desire from Gen Z to embark on these conversations and explorations of meaning and purpose and, ‘Why am I here on this Earth?’” he said. “So, the desire hasn’t gone away. The exploration hasn’t gone away.”

As Faithwire has extensively reported, countless surveys and studies show the benefits of faith.

Human beings were created to live in fellowship with God. We know from God’s Word that the two people God created, in the beginning, disobeyed God and the consequence of that disobedience was separation and subsequent death.

We also know from God’s Word that God created angelic spiritual beings prior to making mankind and that rebellion by one supreme angelic being named Lucifer, now renamed Satan convinced one-third of God’s angelic beings to rebel with him. Moreover, it was Satan that tempted Eve who then enticed Adam into disobeying God. Satan is now the prince of this world and our prime battle is against him and his demons.

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” Ephesians 6:12-13

God has provided all we need to overcome Satan and his demons. God sent Jesus, His Son to pay the price for our rebellion against Him. Once we repent of our rebellion and accept Jesus’ offer of Salvation and submit to Him as Lord then God the Father sends the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, to indwell our spirit and enable us to live the Christian life as our counsellor, comforter, and teacher. Moreover, He teaches us how to pray and will even intercede for us when we do not know how to pray.

“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:26-28

God has also told us the end of His Story. Satan is defeated and Jesus is made king and will rule and reign on this earth for one thousand years.

“And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Revelation 12:9-11

“They (resurrected Saints) came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.” Revelation 20:5-6