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The Church and the decay of the nation!

Geoff Stevens, [former] AiG-US lecturer

12 May, 2001

A lion singles out a water buffalo, pursues, catches, and sinks its teeth and claws deeply into the buffalo’s back. It forces the giant beast to the ground. Other lions rip and tear the flesh, and the poor buffalo screams its last breath.

This is what sin looks like.

I use a video clip of the above scene in my lecture ‘From Pain to Christ.’ When shown to adults, they cringe, and some turn away, unable to witness this act. But the message really connects with them. This is what our once-perfect world–scarred by sin–now looks like.

Recently I gave this lecture at a Christian high school. As I began to play the clip, the usual hush and silence did not fall over the crowd…instead, the audience was cheering! With arms raised they began to yell and chant for the lion. I was dumbfounded. I showed it at a youth conference; again, a similar reaction. This video clip had the reverse effect as compared to adults. Why?

Such behaviour on the part of young people bewilders parents and pastors today. Disrespect, anger, rebellion…the list goes on. Why? It is clear that there is now a greater chasm between teens and adults. This is not the typical generational shift that historically occurs with teenagers; you know, the one that parents easily pass off with, ‘Well, boys will be boys, and when they grow up they’ll settle down.’

And why is there so much school violence today? Adults cannot fathom why two teens would devise a plan to blow up 2000 fellow students, hijack a plane, and crash it into New York City, wiping out as many as possible. Young people not only understand, but also identify with the two teens.

Youth decay

For example, according to Reuters News Service, April 30, 1999, ‘Sixty-one percent of teen-agers believe the Littleton, Colo., shootings have given troubled students in their schools similar ideas, according to a Time/CNN poll published Friday.’ Why? Why are they so obsessed with violence?

Obviously, a major cultural shift has taken place in this nation. Sadly, I believe the Church is often a part of this. Young people from ‘Generation X’ are the fruit of a culture that has lost its Biblical foundation. We must not write it off with the adage, ‘Well, signs of the times.’ We must have the courage to look squarely at this major problem and realize what is happening today. We have the first generation ever that lives consistently with what they believe. You see, ever since the Enlightenment over 200 years ago, Christians lived one thing and believed another.

In generations past, Christians clung tenaciously to a literal Biblical morality amid a culture embracing moral relativism, but they were inconsistent. They claimed they believed the Bible, but added evolutionary ideas like millions of years to the Bible. Hence, the ‘gap theory’ was born, then day age, progressive creation, etc.

Because they were very inconsistent, they adopted a new hermeneutic (i.e. method of interpreting the Bible). They wanted to embrace the world’s view of history and still claim the Bible to be true. But they continued to use the literal hermeneutic on passages dealing with more "serious" things, such as morality, the Virgin Birth, etc. They wanted to keep a Biblical moraity, but didn’t mind compromising the historicity of the Bible.

These seeds have been fertilized for generations, and the plants are now in full bloom–in today’s young people. Young people are consistently employing this relativistic hermeneutic. So when youth pastors preach, ‘Don’t be unequally yoked,’" the youth snicker and think, ‘Well, we all know, the days in Genesis aren’t literally true either.’

As the church goes, so goes the nation. Therefore, we can blame none other but those leaders in conservative Christianity for the decaying culture.

Why is this new generation so disrespectful and even angry? Is it TV, movies, music, or guns? I believe it is quite simple. Because Christians have added millions of years to the Bible, logically: 1) young people see the Bible as not all true for them and 2) this has given young people a twisted picture of God. Let me explain the second point.

You see, ‘millions of years’ teaches that death is completely natural, the way God made it, some Christians say. For generations, we have been presenting this awful picture of God.

Today young people—even in what are called Christian families—believe it. The whole connection between sin and death has been lost. Why should we wonder that young people cheer at violence, or deeper yet, why teens want nothing to do with the Biblical God? In effect, we have made God a laughing stock.

Let me close with a telling example.

After my lecture in a New England state, a troubled father came up to me and said, ‘I have totally blown it with my children.’ He described a situation involving his four-year-old son and his much-loved pet cat.

One day the cat ate some baby birds that the boy was watching in a nest. The child couldn’t imagine how the beloved family pet could do such a dastardly deed. The child became incensed, and amidst the tears he asked his dad to spank the cat.

His dad responded, ‘Son, you can’t spank the cat–it’s not his fault. That’s the way God made him!’ He didn’t think to tell him that that was not the way God originally made cats.

And we ask, ‘Why are young people so disrespectful and even angry at God and His Word?’ We need to teach them the correct, Biblical view of our world.

Published: 3 February 2006