Why Are Young People Leaving The Church?
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There is a huge problem in most of our churches today. Unanswered questions.
The apostle, Peter, wrote: “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:” (1 Peter 3:15 ).
But when questions come, too often, they are left unanswered. When the church no longer has the answers, people look elsewhere. They look to the secular world. They look to the wisdom of man when the wisdom of God is not taught.
Hosea 4:6 says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
For lack of knowledge, our young people are looking to the world. For lack of knowledge, others are staying in the church, but bringing the values and culture of the world into the church.
According to a 2016 Pew Research Center survey which allowed respondents to answer in their own words, most who left the church said they no longer identified with a religious group because they no longer believed it was true. When asked why they didn’t believe, many said their views about God had “evolved” and some reported having a “crisis of faith.” Their specific explanations included the following statements:
- “Learning about evolution when I went away to college”
- “Religion is the opiate of the people”
- “Rational thought makes religion go out the window”
- “Lack of any sort of scientific or specific evidence of a creator”
- “I just realized somewhere along the line that I didn’t really believe it”
- “I’m doing a lot more learning, studying and kind of making decisions myself rather than listening to someone else.”
The fact is people often leave the Church because they don’t think anyone in the Church can answer their questions or make a case. I know when I was about 13, I asked questions in Sunday School and I was treated as a trouble maker. I just wanted answers to things I did not understand. In retrospect, I realize the problem was, the teacher didn’t know the answer. But I stopped going to church at that point.
For years, I only sporadically attended church, but continued to study on my own. Even as an adult in adult Sunday Schools, I discovered at various churches I visited, that I understood more about the Bible than the teachers did.
It wasn’t until 1995 that I discovered a church where most of the folks knew the Bible, and made the Bible the center of their lives. I had my questions answered and many of my beliefs questioned and corrected. I finally found a church where the average member knew more about the Bible than I did. A lot more. And they lived what they knew and encouraged me to live it, too.
I started attending every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and spent many evenings studying in the homes of the ministers and of church friends.
I am blessed to have had several mentors the past 20 plus years that took the time to open the Bible and study with me. Not just the standard Bible stories we teach our children, but real study. Digging deep into the word and finding the meaning of scriptures, their audience relevance and how to apply these things to my life.
I am convinced that if I had teachers like this when I was a lad, I never would have stopped attending church for twenty years.
We need to stop picking Sunday School teachers who do not have the gift and the burning desire to teach. The willingness to dig into scripture and to research earnestly and exegete correctly must be a requirement for teachers in the church.
From my experience, I know Christians of all ages and even nonchristians, get wide-eyed and engaged when I teach not only the words of the Bible, but what the words mean. People want to hear about what was happening when the words were written and how they would impact the original audience.
When we are asked a question about evolution or how the Genesis account compares to the Enuma Elish, as teachers we need to be willing to study and find the answers. As preachers, we need to preach expositional sermons, revealing what God is saying in his words. We need to do background studies and bring the history and culture of the writer into the message, to clearly convey what was being communicated.
It is right and it is important to say, “I don’t know,” when asked a question we do not have the answer to. Then it is our responsibility to find that answer.
It appears from the Pew survey that young people (and even older people) in our churches are experiencing the same thing I experienced as a teen. If our questions cannot be answered, we go elsewhere for answers. I went to independent study of the Bible, but too many go to secular teachings for their answers.
Pastors need to become true students of the Word, not just teaching easy topical messages, but bringing every aspect of the Word out that it may bear fruit in our hearers. We need to teach our people how to study the Bible for themselves. We need to teach our teachers how to become true students of the Bible themselves, that they may teach from a depth of knowledge and experience.
A true teacher inspires their students. When students are inspired, they study, succeed and hunger for more. When you feed a stray cat, the cat always comes back for more food. When we feed a hungry student, they will not leave.
I encourage you to leave comments and follow my blog. I will endeavor to answer any questions you may have.
Watch my video on why we need to stop trying to make the Bible relevant to teens – an interesting look into our youth ministry. https://youtu.be/Kxxu7d36Lok
Ba’al is Satan; Knowing Our Enemy
Ba’al is Satan
It’s strange to me that many Christians see Satan as a real spiritual being at war with God and humanity, yet they consider Ba’al as a make-believe character that existed only in the minds of his Old Testament followers.
I believe as we begin to see that the gods of the Old Testament were real spiritual beings, influencing man, we begin to understand the Bible more clearly. We start to see the battle between God and “the gods” in many places. Places where God shows himself to be the only true God, the creator and ruler of the universe. The cosmic war starts to be revealed to us in these episodes.
The most prominent of the Old Testament gods is Ba’al. We see him in Canaan and also in Egypt. But who is Ba’al?
Twice in the New Testament the Lord Jesus reveals the true identity of Ba’al.
In the first of these instances, Jesus heals a demonized man who is mute and blind (we are left to assume that his demons were causing his illness and when Jesus removed them, the man was healed). After the public saw this healing they began to wonder if Jesus was the long awaited Messiah. The Jewish authorities respond by trying to discredit the source of Jesus miracles with this:
Matthew 12:24 “But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.“
Beelzebub or Beelzebul (/biːˈɛlzɪbʌb/ bee-EL-zi-bub or /ˈbiːlzɪbʌb/ BEEL-zi-bub; Hebrew: בַּעַל זְבוּב Baʿal Zəvûv) is a name derived from a Philistine god, formerly worshiped in Ekron, and later adopted by some Abrahamic religions as a major demon. The name Beelzebub is associated with the Canaanite god Baal. Source: Wikipedia
According to: M.G. Easton M.A., D.D., Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, published by Thomas Nelson, 1897. Public Domain:
Beelzebub (Gr. form Beel’zebul), the name given to Satan, and found only in the New Testament ( Matthew 10:25 ; Matthew 12:24 Matthew 12:27 ; Mark 3:22 ). It is probably the same as Baalzebub (q.v.), the god of Ekron, meaning “the lord of flies,” or, as others think, “the lord of dung,” or “the dung-god.”
Jesus responded to them and in so doing, referred to the devil as both Satan and Beelzebub.
Matthew 12:25-28 “And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand: And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.”
The second instance is in the Book of Revelation.
Revelation 2:13 “I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan’s seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.”
The city of Pergamon was a center of cultish pagan worship. Chief among the city’s features was a temple dedicated to the king of Greek gods, Zeus. The masterpiece of this great temple was an altar featuring a statue of Zeus up on his throne. This monument is what Jesus was referencing when he calls Pergamon the place of “Satan’s throne.”
Jesus is identifying the Greek deity Zeus with the devil. Zeus is the Greek counterpart of Ba’al and was considered by their respective followers to be the same being in different cultures. Both the Greeks and Canaanites believed that Ba’al and Zeus were the same deity, they came to this conclusion for a few reasons.
Ba’al was a storm god whose weapon of choice was the thunderbolt and in his iconography he is typically shown with lightning, just like Zeus. Both Ba’al and Zeus defeated sea monsters to gain control of the universe. The parallels between the two gods clearly indicate they were the same god, represented similarly in two different cultures.
As we study the religions of other cultures, we discover that Satan has been called and worshiped by many names, including Ba’al, Zeus, Jupiter, and even in Chinese religion, the old dragon is a major character in their theology.
Satan has been deceiving humanity for a very long time. His role in the Old Testament story is much deeper than just tempting Adam, Eve and Job. He is the main adversary of God in many scenes like the Red Sea crossing, we just haven’t recognized him because he was going by his alias Ba’al. But beyond just Scripture, the devil’s role in human history runs deep. For thousands of years he has been using the other religions of the world to trick our fellow humans into serving him.
The only thing that Satan has ever created is falsehoods, the only language he knows how to speak is lies (John 8:44). When we shine God’s truth on the shadows that the devil has created for himself and begin to strip away the masks we can see him for what he truly is, a pretender, a trader, a rebel who has already been defeated.
Please feel free to comment below.
Who Are Elohim In The Bible? by Dennis Regling
The Danger of Patchwork Preaching by Dennis Regling
The Danger of Patchwork Preaching by Dennis Regling
Like a patchwork quilt, many preachers take a piece of scripture here and a piece of scripture there and sew them together into what passes as a sermon.
The method is simple and common. The preacher decides what topic he would like to preach on. He decides what points he wants to make. Then, he goes through the Bible(or uses his concordance) and finds verses on that subject which he can use to make his points.
For example, he may decide his church needs to hear about hospitality, so he’ll look for verses about hospitality and build a sermon about them. Taking them out of context, but because he is quoting scripture, his audience will believe they have heard a message from God’s Word.
Almost every sermon about hell includes Jesus’ account of the Rich Man & Lazarus. Yet, if you look at the context, you will see Jesus was not warning about hell. He was teaching about, and exposing the religious leaders’ hypocrisy. Yes, hell is real and is mentioned, but hell is not the message.
Does this mean we can’t learn anything about hell from this account? No. But, we also need to teach what is being taught, and not build messages around the periphery.
When writing a sermon, or doing a study, verses need to be looked at in their complete context. It must be established what the topic of the passage the verse is found in is. The audience needs to be identified, and how they would receive the message. Other portions of scripture where the writer uses the same phrases should be examined, in order to understand what the writer is saying.
One of the worst types of patchwork preaching only uses one patch. This is called textual preaching. A textual sermon allows you to teach themes that are important to you, but that the Scripture does not specifically address.
Textual preaching will take one verse, or one small section of scripture, and turn it into a message that has no relationship to the context of the scripture. One example, and sadly a popular one, is 1 Samuel 17:29 “And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?” One example of this method is here: Is There Not A Cause ?
Preachers will take this one verse and then preach for an hour on whatever cause is dear to them at the moment. Perhaps raising money for a building project or starting a new ministry in the church. Maybe teaching men they need to find their cause. All these things may be noble, but they in no way reflect the message of 1 Samuel 17.
This type of preaching is very dangerous to the listener and to the health of the church. It can cause the preacher to hold onto pre-conceived ideas, even if they are wrong. These ideas are then passed on to the congregation.
Many times when patchwork preaching is used, the preacher will ignore the parts of the Bible that are messy and not as clean as “life topics”. Not only does the quality of the preaching suffer, but the depth of the preaching, too.
When patchwork sermons are regularly preached in a church, people may think that this is how you find God’s truth. If you’re struggling with something, you open the concordance, grab five verses and try to apply them even if they don’t fit.
Weird theology develops as a result, and the individual has only learned how to improperly read the Bible. As preachers, pastors and teachers, our goal should be to give people the tools to study the Bible themselves and learn the truth that God intended there to be.
Patchwork preaching also presents the danger of people not relying on the Bible for truth. Too often, patchwork sermons rely on humorous stories, anecdotes, and cute illustrations for the meat of a sermon.
If most of what is said is coming from sources outside of the Bible, then the person listening is probably hearing that it’s okay to look outside the Bible for truth for their lives.
We see way too many Christians getting their theology from Christian best-sellers rather than from the Bible. The pastor is quoting extra-biblical authors, so that becomes the method used by the congregation. The best illustrations for preaching will always come from the Bible itself, not from the local Christian bookstore.
Additionally, patchwork preaching creates a congregation that is Biblically illiterate. Fifty years ago, talking about a Bible story would have instant familiarity in our culture.
Today, that is no longer the case. People do not know about certain stories, histories, or even famous biblical characters.
As preachers stop preaching scripture, in context, with appropriate background instruction, Bible illiteracy grows in the church. We end up with anemic Christians, never growing in the Spirit and failing to have a rock-solid scriptural foundation for their lives.
When the preaching suffers, the entire church suffers. We see churches start compromising on truth and individuals compromising on sin. We see churches become nothing more than social clubs, tossed around by the waves of popular culture, rather than standing firm on truth.
Let us put away patchwork preaching.
Can we know our Bible accurately records what the writers wrote?
Can we know our Bible accurately records what the writers wrote?
We have over 5600 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, more than any other ancient work. Add to that the early translations into other languages of the New Testament and the early commentaries of the “church fathers,” quoting the Bible. The entire New Testament could be reconstructed just from these commentaries.
The average classical Greek authors have fewer than 20 copies of their work still in existence, (usually less than 6).
We have manuscripts that date back to within a 100 years or so of the original writing. Other ancient manuscripts have no copies closer than 800 years, more or less, from original authorship. No other book is more widely attested to than the Bible.
There is no doubt that we can know what the originals said with great certainty. The influence of the Bible is also clearly demonstrated by the vast number of manuscripts.
Why Did Jesus Refer To Himself As The “Son of Man?”
Who Is The Son Of Man?
If Jesus was the Son of God, why did He call Himself the Son of Man (Matthew 20:18; 24:30)?
This sounds like some kind of contradiction at first glance, but in fact there is no contradiction. An examination of Scripture reveals that the phrase “Son of Man” carries broad significance.
Matthew 24:30-31 “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.“
Matthew 20:18 “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death,”
Matthew 20:28 “Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
Matthew 16:13 “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?”
When questioned by the high priest as to whether he was the Christ, Jesus again referred to himself as the Son of Man. A statement the priest instantly recognized as Jesus saying he was more than a man, he was the very Son of Man referred to in the Book of Daniel.
Mark 14: 60-65 “And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.”
Daniel 7:13-14 “I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.“
This Son of Man was to rule and be glorified. Jesus was saying he was this Son of Man. It actually is a claim to deity, since all these things given to the Son of Man belong only to God. Indeed, Jesus was saying he was equal with God. As Christians we understand this as part of the Trinity of God. The Jews were not Trinitarian, but they were binatarians. They saw the “Angel of God,,” in the Old Testament as God, incarnate. Such as when God visited Abraham, and in several other parts of the Bible. See: http://twopowersinheaven.com
This was blasphemy, in the eyes of the religious leaders who did not recognize Jesus was exactly who he said he was.
Enemies of the faith say that Jesus never claimed a special heavenly status or kingship for Himself. But, as we have seen, when Jesus calls Himself “Son of Man,” He is claiming to be sovereign over all things.
All scriptures from the KJV