In this series of posts, I’ve been writing about some of the challenges that we face in seeing younger people become disciples of Jesus. I’ve talked about the impact of COVID over the past two years, the pervasive presence of screens/entertainment/social media, and the over-politicization of faith. This week I want to write briefly about how competing worldviews have taken root in younger generations (like my own generation) and have drawn people away from biblical Christian faith.
To be honest, I don’t really know where to begin. I thought about running through what some of those worldviews/beliefs are and why they’re an issue. But that’s massive. That’s the subject of many, many books. So maybe I’ll start here: this is nothing fundamentally new. God continually warns us in the Scriptures about the dangers of false teaching. God warns us in various ways not to be conformed to the patterns of the world, because those patterns are so often contrary to the Gospel. He warns us to guard against this in the church. And apparently, this issue of false teaching, including in the church, will be a reality until Jesus comes again.
2 Peter 2:1 says that “there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them- bringing swift destruction on themselves.” Paul writes in 1 Timothy 4:1 that “the Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits.” He writes in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 that “the time will come when people 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.”
False teaching- as in, worldly views about God and humanity that seep into the church- has always been an issue. But according to some of those passages, we are to expect that rather than false teaching being progressively rooted out, it will in fact only ramp up before Christ returns. From what I can see, that’s happening today across the board.
As an example, Ligonier Ministries has conducted a few surveys on the “State of Theology” in the US. 65% of American evangelicals agree with the statement that Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God. 74% of evangelicals aged 18-34 agree with that statement. This is a heretical view of Jesus (denying his full divinity) that has been condemned by thousands of years…and 3/4 of Christians in this generation affirm it! On the statement that the Holy Spirit is a force and not a personal being (another unbiblical belief), it’s 46% of American evangelicals who agree and 57% of the 18-34 year old evangelicals. Here’s an alarming one: can the Holy Spirit tell me to do something that is forbidden in the Bible? Only 18% of evangelicals overall agree, but 39% of 18-34 year old evangelicals affirm that! What about the connection between faith and material blessings? Is prosperity guaranteed if you have faith? 39% of evangelicals overall think it is, but 58% of 18-34 year old evangelicals agree. On the statement that religion is a matter of personal belief rather than objective truth, the split is 23% agreement from evangelicals but 41% among 18-34 year olds.
In my eyes, this presents a picture of Christians in the West becoming increasingly confused and disconnected from the Scriptures when it comes to fundamental beliefs. We don’t know what our Bibles say. Where we do know it, we sometimes ignore it or outright disagree with it. We don’t know fundamental Christian doctrines about who God is. Where we do know them, we have often done a poor job of passing them on to the next generation. Added to that, in part because of all the distractions on hand (remember the screens/social media thing), millennials and GenZ’s often lack the desire to grow in their understanding. That’s going to have huge implications for how we respond to challenges regarding social justice, sexuality and gender, money, and evangelism, along with all the other issues in our world today. Again, there has always been false teaching. That’s not a modern invention. The challenge, as always, is to ensure that believers are aware of what teaching is false and to stay away from it. It’s precisely here that I wonder if the modern western church has failed and is failing.
It starts with our church, or whatever church you’re a part of: are we devoted to the apostles’ teaching? Are we committed to making the Scriptures foundational in our life together? It starts with our families, if we have kids at home: are we teaching our children? Are we spending time in the Word of God together? Are we responding to questions and issues by reflecting on biblical theology? It starts with you and I, personally: are we making the investment to grow in our understanding? Are we aware of our own worldviews and are we reflecting on the extent to which those have been shaped by our culture, instead of the Bible?
May Ephesians 2:14-15 be true of us and this rising generation: that “we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.”
