(Marsha West – Christian Research Network) Here’s a sobering fact the Church must come to grips with: Even children who are “churched” are woefully unprepared to “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3) This is a frontline issue, yet Church leaders and parents just don’t “get” how important it is to teach the younger generation to defend their faith.
The Apostle Paul faced this issue head on in the early church. In a letter to Timothy, he warned: “For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Tim 4:3-4) All the Apostles dealt with false teaching, Gnosticism in particular, and for this reason they wanted to insure correct doctrine was taught.
What exactly is Church doctrine? Doctrine establishes a set of core principles that must be upheld by followers of Jesus Christ. Doctrine describes and teaches God’s will for His people.
You ask, “Why should anyone care if churches teach doctrine these days? I mean, this is the 21st Century contemporary Church!” Churches that fail to get the Word of God firmly implanted in the minds of youngsters are doing them a great disservice.
Today many people claiming to be Christians out right reject the basic essentials of the faith. To the progressive mind agreeing with everything Jesus taught is unnecessary. They couldn’t be more wrong. In fact, taking this view is absolute nonsense. Those who reject Christ’s teaching do not belong to Him, they’re counterfeit Christians. In 1 John, the Apostle lays out what will naturally come about once a person is saved. He explains the fruit that should spring forth in the life of a Christian.
My point is that “Progressive Christianity” is to be rejected. Why? Because progressivism encourages freedom from all restraint in both speech and action while Christianity does just the opposite. First John makes that clear. What John teaches is that believers must show restraint in both speech and action. Liberalism’s self-centered worldview, its materialism, decadence, and moral depravity make it incompatible with historic, orthodox, biblical Christianity.
It is clear by what is going on in the visible Church that Christian parents are either ignorant of the Bible’s teaching on morality, or they know perfectly well what God says and they choose to allow their children to imitate ungodly behavior. So it isn’t surprising that unbelievers label Christians hypocrites. Christians cannot profess a belief in Jesus Christ and live like the devil. Jesus had no use for hypocrites and called them out publicly: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness.” (Matthew 23:27) Ouch!
Our government is in shambles. The Church is a dead mess. Parents are living for themselves, not for their children — and children are suffering because they lack parental guidance. Many youngsters go it alone in their daily dealings with “the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life.” (1 John 2:16) Proverbs 22:6 offers this message for parents: “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
Sadly, even kids who’ve been raised in a “Christian home,” that go to church on Sunday and attend Sunday school, don’t have both feet firmly planted in a biblical worldview. Instead their feet are planted in quicksand and they’re sinking fast! The reason youngsters are sinking is primarily the fault of parents. The fact of the matter is, a lot of parents aren’t preparing their kids for a life of service to God. Some people feel that the lack of a biblical worldview in our youth is the fault of the Church, and that does play a part. But as I said, dad’s and moms can take most of the blame.
Youngsters attending government-run schools have no protection against liberal wolves, whose aim is to pound their secular worldview into student’s receptive minds. And yet these same parents wouldn’t allow their precious little ones to ride a bike without a helmet or jump on a skateboard without protective padding. And they make darn sure their kids are buckled up before heading out on the road.
We’re not living in the 50’s. It would be nice if we could go back to when the family meant something, and people showed some moral restraint. But we can’t. If you pay attention to the news then you know that we’re living in a war zone, battling the world, the flesh and the devil. Because of this, Christian families must be armed for the battle for the hearts and minds of America’s children! (Ephesians 6:10-20) Not to be redundant, but I must reemphasize that Christian kids who attend public schools are at the mercy of agenda-driven liberal educators. Youngster’s impressionable minds are being bombarded with virulent anti-Christian propaganda. Facts are hard to ignore. Studies show that somewhere around 70 percent of college faculty admit that they’re liberal. So, it’s not surprising that two-thirds of “born again” Christians become committed liberals and leave the Church by the time they graduate from college.
Progressives have impacted society in ways no one who remembers the 1950’s would have thought possible. Their goal is to see America go the way of Western Europe. They want to remove any vestige of religion, especially the Christian religion, from the public square. Progressives make no secret of their disdain for conservative values. They especially loathe biblical Christianity. In fact, they oppose everything Bible believing Christians stand for. Live and let live is not in a liberal’s vocabulary. Their goal is to completely shut down the opposition. Fairness has gone out the window. If you’re a registered Democrat, brethren, then you support the Democratic National Committee’s platform. What does the DNC promote? Abortion on demand, a radical LGBTQ+ agenda (which includes “gay Christianity” and men who pretend to be women using women’s restrooms), curbing of the First Amendment, abolishing the Second Amendment, redistribution of wealth, welfare state, open borders (lawbreaking and the destruction of America’s sovereignty), giving illegals the right to vote, euthanasia, drug legalization, squelching freedom of speech (especially on college campuses), and the right of Americans to worship God freely. Pretty much anything conservatives are for, Democrats oppose. And God help anyone who has the temerity to disagree with their godless worldview.
Progressives have their fingers in every pie. In case you haven’t noticed, they’re bony digits have gotten control of public education, the “free press,” plus every aspect of recreation and entertainment — name 10 Republican Hollywood celebs. Even worse, if you place Christian before each of the following; media, colleges, seminaries and churches, you must know they are teaming with Progressive (Social Justice) “Christians” (SJC).
A Bible believing Christian’s worldview should not mirror the debauchery coming from Hollywood. On the contrary. The worldview of those who profess Christ should come from His Book. The Bible teaches those who claim to love Him how He expects us to live out our lives while on this planet. God has expectations! His Word, the Bible, is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. (Psalm 119:105) If it hasn’t been a lamp and a light for you, then you cannot possibly know what God’s will is for your life. Furthermore, you couldn’t possibly know what truth is. Absolute moral truth does exist, brethren, and it’s clearly laid out in the pages of Scripture.
Before I move on, I must remind my brothers and sisters in Christ that your daily marching orders must come from your King, not from a pack of SJC wolves in sheep’s clothing – and certainly not from the morally bankrupt, unprincipled Hellywood elite who’d like nothing more than to completely obliterate biblical Christianity! The number of people who say they believe in Jesus Christ but don’t bother to crack open a Bible and never darken the doorway of a church is stupefying. They couldn’t care less what the Lord Jesus taught about how His followers must conduct their lives. “If you love me you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) Who said that? King Jesus! Your King commands obedience!
There should be a noticeable difference between a child raised in a Christian environment and a child raised in a secular environment. But often there is no difference. Mainly because a lot of Christian parents think training a child in the way he should go is to be left to Sunday school teachers, youth pastors, even the child’s grandparents. Sadly, some parents simply take the path of the least resistance and adopt the “no backbone” approach to parenting.
Children have excellent minds, an enormous potential for learning, and they soak up information like a sponge. Most of them really do want to learn new things! A lot of children want to learn what’s in the Bible – they love when adults read Bible stories to them. Unfortunately, many parents are under the misconception that their kids aren’t interested in stories such as Jonah and the whale, Daniel in the lion’s den, even the best selling book The Pilgrim’s Progress. Which brings me to this question: if kids aren’t taught the Bible how will they know about God and His ways? Those who know little about the Bible have no understanding of who God is and no understanding of who they are. Moreover, they don’t have the slightest idea what it means to be a Christian, let alone what a Christian worldview is. I cannot stress enough that the Bible is the framework for how followers of Jesus are to live. The scriptures instruct God’s people how to please Him.
In closing, here’s another important consideration. How are believers to identify error when it rears its ugly head? Unfortunately, over my many years I have observed a large number of professing Christians who are unable to identify false teaching and the wolves who promote it. In 2 Corinthians 10:5 we are commanded to “destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
Dads and moms, are you equipped to destroy arguments raised against the knowledge of God? Can you “contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints?” because if you’re unable to give a defense of your faith and explain what you believe and why you believe it, your children won’t be able to either. Christian kids must slay wolves in sheep’s clothing, not pet them!
Copyright by Marsha West, 2019. All rights reserved.