Ken Ham of Answers In Genesis lays out the cold hard truth that a large number of the younger generation of Christians–millennials–who attend church regularly are biblically illiterate. What happened in our churches that brought this sad state of affairs about?
By Ken Ham
If I told you the following statistics about a certain group of people, who would you guess I’m talking about?
- Over 40% say they are not born again.
- 35% declare the Bible has errors (or they don’t know if it has errors).
- Close to 90% attend or attended public school.
- Over 45% say that Sunday school did not teach them to defend their faith.
- 45% say homosexual behavior is not a sin, or they don’t know if it is a sin.
- 40% believe “gay couples” should be allowed to “marry” and have legal rights.
- 20% say there are books (other than the Bible) that are inspired by God.
- 65% believe that if you are a good person you will go to heaven.
Would you be surprised to learn that this nationwide research was conducted with people in their 20s?
And would it shock you even more to discover that these same people regularly attend our churches today (at least three times a month)?
Then you should be saddened to realize that these millennials in our churches (those born between the early 1980s and the early 2000s) are largely biblically illiterate, and they are going to fundamentally change the church and culture if their beliefs continue to take hold.
At the end of 2014, we commissioned America’s Research Group (ARG) to analyze the state of the 20s age group (and also the 40s) in our churches in the USA, and what we discovered was shocking (and I believe it reflects the state of the church in the Western world in general). The survey’s results greatly sadden me.
Our research also conclusively showed that the issue of the age of the Earth/universe was one of the major factors that has caused this generation in American churches to doubt that the Bible can be trusted.
Aren’t you as deeply troubled and tremendously burdened as I am when you read these sad statistics about the millennials who attend our churches?
Looking at this 20s age group in our churches today, we need to recognize that the future leaders of society will come out of this group. The spiritual state of these young adults provides a glimpse into the future of America! Continue reading
In addition to lack of knowledge, they don’t know how to apply it. So many ‘believers’ are going along with whatever society dictates when we are to obey God rather than man. Acts 5; 29
There is a new senate bill; AB 775 that is the latest scandal coming against Christians. Look it up and see. A true Christian response is to refuse, we must refuse to comply with this. We simply cannot refer anyone to get an abortion. If we perish, we perish. But alas, no one is willing to suffer for the faith anymore. Some do, but many do not. After all, they have their house payment to think of, right? Well, the early Christians were persecuted for not worshipping Caesar, and martyred. A true Christian response is to obey the Lord and remain loyal to Him unto death. We cannot worship anyone else or condone sin, etc. We cannot say, “but, well…. they will put us in jail!” or “they will kill us!” Yes, friends, they will! And so it has been throughout all of church history all over the world! You truly follow Christ and you will suffer persecution. We must refuse to go along with anything that contradicts the Lord’s ways, and disobey that. Better to obey God and disobey man than vice versa-Acts 5; 29, Exodus 1 (midwives), Daniel 3 & 6. Our time is coming up shortly too. I pray that all will stand firm in the Lord until the end.
“Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
2 Timothy 3; 12
“that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3; 10-11