Prison power
Answering ‘Genesis questions’ reaches young offenders for Christ
by Daniel Jarvis
The hard steel door slams behind me as I enter a room packed with what I affectionately
call ‘teenage skeptics’. Their prevailing doubt began somewhere around
age 12. In these ‘primitive’ stages of sceptical development, there
is no talk of deep philosophy or high-browed scientific jargon … instead,
we unearth the fruit of first-grade science classes, dysfunctional families and
rebellious hearts. Here at the Juvenile Detention Center in Medina, Ohio, there
is no question that the inmates are well on their way to becoming fully-evolved
cynics.
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However, when stripped of their nose rings and dark street clothes, these youths
look innocently naive and woefully misjudged. They are simply children who, because
of their abusive families, failing grades, evolution-saturated education, and the
evils of society in general, have been robbed of any sense of personal value, purpose
or security. I know that God’s Word has the answers for them, and I begin
communicating how Jesus Christ can change their lives. But then suddenly, like a
camera flash in a dark room, ‘it’ will come up. Not how to love a drug-addicted
parent or how to conquer anger problems, but a question about Genesis.
A pimple-faced youth will throw his hand in the air, just when I’m getting
to the ‘big point’ of my gospel message. I’ve spent time building
to this moment, weaving illustrations and Scripture together, preparing to bring
it home and make it personal. I see the insistent hand in the back row. Expecting
a relevant comment or soul-stirring inquiry, I pause and look at the questioner.
‘OK, Dan, but there’s no way all the animals fit on Noah’s Ark!’
he’ll say with a flash of challenge in his eyes.
‘Yeah,’ chimes in a girl on the other side of the room, ‘and the
dinosaurs. What do you say about them?’
And with that, my tidy devotional thought is cast ruthlessly beneath a deluge of
doubts, fossilized under the crushing weight of humanistic sediment. Now a ‘fountains
of the great deep’ scepticism bursts forth, and the questions rain down torrentially
for the next 40 minutes.
Personally, I’ve grown to appreciate these questions; in fact, I would confess
that I even look forward to them. Some teachers avoid Genesis issues, believing
them to be smokescreens thrown up by the devil to distract attention from the ‘real’
message. My experience has taught me otherwise. Leaving questions of biblical reliability
unanswered allows the flood of scepticism to wipe out any trace of relevance from
the Christian message.
Why does Noah’s Ark need to be explained at the end of a message about sexual
purity? What on earth does Cain’s wife have to do with a lesson on drug addiction?
How does the extinction of the dinosaurs relate to a discussion about family relationships?
Whether a person is 17 or 70, he needs to know that the Bible is true before he
will commit his life to obeying it. We don’t have to provide answers to every
conceivable objection, but we do need to demonstrate our confidence that every
part of the Bible is true—that Genesis 1:1 is just as accurate as John 3:16. And, in the case of my juvenile detention
centre friends, I know that if I can get them to understand their origins, digging
down to the very deepest strata of truth, my fossilized devotional will finally
come to life.
Building a foundation
If I don’t have answers to their ‘Genesis questions’, why should
they trust the rest of what I’m saying? Why should they believe the words
of Jesus if the first book of the Bible is full of fairy tales and contradictions?
If the animals didn’t fit on Noah’s Ark, or the dinosaurs really
did roam the earth millions of years ago, then the message of hope I proclaim
is completely invalidated.
I remember one Sunday morning in particular, at the juvenile detention centre’s
church service. We spent a good hour in dialogue about Genesis 1, the days of creation, where fossils come from,
how dinosaurs lived with man, and a host of scientific issues. There was one guy,
whom we’ll call ‘Mike’, who was particularly sceptical. His questions
seemed almost venomous; he was ready to contradict or challenge every assertion
I made.
Although he might have seemed like a lost cause, I dutifully responded to his questions,
hoping that at the very least they were provoking thought among the other students.
But at the end of class, a shocking thing happened. In front of all his sceptical
buddies, this juvenile offender respectfully raised his hand. ‘Thank you so
much for coming. I never believed in God before, but today you’ve shown me
that I can.’
What looked like venomous attacks were really the heart-questions of a young man
who wanted to know if he could have faith.
What looked like venomous attacks were really the heart-questions of a young man
who wanted to know if he could have faith. Creation served as a ‘door-opener’
for the gospel! Taking time for truth builds a foundation—it plants a seed of confidence
that the Creator exists and that His Word can be trusted!
Genesis lays the foundation for everything about our faith—in those historic accounts
about the creation of mankind and the serpent’s deception, we can find a well-preserved
answer to life’s deepest questions. So, whether you brave the world of steel
and glass at the local jail, teach Sunday school in your church, or try to make
the message of Jesus real to the guys at work, you need to gain as much wisdom as
you can from the ‘book of beginnings’.
We’ve all been ‘evolutionized’
It is hard to find a person who hasn’t been influenced by evolution. This
presents a hurdle that we must overcome if we want to reach our generation. People
today don’t only need the reason for the hope that we have; they need to know
that hope is possible in the first place—that a God exists who is personal
and powerful and cares about their existence.
One girl whom we’ll call ‘Tamara’ was sitting in the second row,
looking detached from the whole ‘Bible study thing’. But her casual
demeanor turned to an angry variety of ‘teenage sceptic’ when I mentioned
homosexuality. She interrupted me in a harsh tone: ‘So are you saying that
everyone who’s a homosexual is going to burn in hell? It’s not their
fault, you know!’
I told her to hang on just a moment as I finished my previous thought. Then, gently
and carefully, I began to answer her.
‘I didn’t say homosexuals are all going to burn in hell. I’m just
trying to explain what the Bible says. It calls the gay lifestyle a sin because
that kind of living goes against the exciting purpose God made humans to fulfill.’
I spent some time detailing what life might have been like in the Garden of Eden,
and how God is working to re-create people so that they can be part of His family
again. ‘Just like lying, lust or greed, homosexuality separates people from
their Creator and His plan. The good news is that Jesus came to bring hope to all
of us!’
Tamara, who was probably expecting a ‘fundamentalist’ bash against the
evils of sodomy, immediately switched out of ‘teen sceptic’ mode and
began to cry. A kind, Genesis-based answer struck a nerve deep in her soul. Her
‘off-topic’ question opened the door for us to discuss the purpose of
life and, ultimately, the thrilling hope of restoration that Jesus offers.
A reason to believe
The faces of Tamara, Mike and the countless other sceptics I’ve met remind
me of how much our world needs the peace and love of Christ. But how can we reach
them? What can unlock their doubting hearts and allow us to present the life-changing
message of Jesus? Genesis is the key! Its simple accounts of the history
of the universe can turn evolving sceptics into new creations. And as our class
comes to a close, and the juvenile offenders line up and head back to their heartbroken
worlds and shattered relationships, I have the quiet confidence that at the very
least, I’ve left them with a reason to believe that ‘[God] exists and
that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him’ (Hebrews 11:6).
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