Most teenagers today who make professions of faith in Christ
still do not believe Christianity is the one true religion, an international
Christian apologist and youth ministry expert insisted.
“Seventy-five percent of all kids coming to Christ today
are not coming to Jesus because hes the way, the truth and the life,”
Josh McDowell says. “They are coming to Christ because he is the best thing
thats come along so far that theyve filtered through their experience.
And as soon as something better to them comes along, theyre gone.”
Most teenagers today who make professions of faith in Christ
still do not believe Christianity is the one true religion, an international
Christian apologist and youth ministry expert insisted.
“Seventy-five percent of all kids coming to Christ today
are not coming to Jesus because hes the way, the truth and the life,”
Josh McDowell says. “They are coming to Christ because he is the best thing
thats come along so far that theyve filtered through their experience.
And as soon as something better to them comes along, theyre gone.”
Indeed, the greatest challenge facing the evangelical church
in the 21st century is communicating the truth of the gospel in a culture where
all truth claims are perceived as equal, McDowell said at a recent Southern
Baptist meeting.
In a 1999 survey, 65 percent of evangelical teenagers said
they believe there is no way to determine which religion is true, McDowell noted.
Instead, the prevailing cultural mindset is to define truth according to “personal
perspective” and “personal experience.”
A cultural chasm separates the church from todays teenagers,
who have a worldview founded on the concept that truth is not there to be discovered
but there to be created, McDowell emphasized. Modern teenagers do not understand
the world – or the language – of their elders, he said.
For example, many evangelical teenagers say the Bible is true
and historically accurate because they believe it, McDowell noted. But this
belief system is faulty because it is based on personal opinion and not on the
concept that there is an objective standard of truth outside of ones self,
he said.
The recognition of an objective standard of absolute truth
leads one to acknowledge the Bible is true regardless of his or her agreement
or acceptance, McDowell noted.
McDowell blamed the propagation of Darwinism in schools for
rejection of absolute truth. “If there is no Creator God, then there is
no external truth and all you have left is man. If there is no Creator God in
which dwells truth apart from yourself, then all truth is created, all truth
is personal.”
Todays generation has replaced John 3:16 – the message
of salvation – as the most-quoted Bible verse with Matthew 7:1 – “Judge
not lest you be judged.”
A society void of the concept of absolute truth universally
acknowledged for all people for all time stands increasingly vulnerable to the
barbaric displays like what occurred last year at Columbine High School, McDowell
warned. “What (student shooters) Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold did in killing
those kids and that teacher was morally right … according to their own personal
value system.”
McDowell visited Columbine in the wake of the worst-ever school
shooting, which left 15 people dead and dozens injured. He said a 1999 survey
that showed 52 percent of “evangelical church kids say the only intellectual
way to live is to make the best decisions you can based on your feelings at
the moment” is exactly what Harris and Klebold did.
McDowell dismissed the popular notion that “high-risk”
teenagers are the results of broken homes. He cited a Columbia University study
that shows even children in two-parent homes are 68 percent more likely to get
involved with drugs and violence when there is a “fair-to-poor relationship”
with the father. “Its not so much the structure but the relationship
within the structure,” McDowell noted.
The answer for reaching the teenage culture with the truth
of the gospel remains the same now as in the days of the New Testament, McDowell
suggested.
“You will not reach this culture if you cannot impart
your life. … Todays culture will not care how much you know until they
know how much you care.”
But the gospel should not be compromised to make it attractive,
he said. “Compassion is not a substitute for truth. Compassion is an attraction
to truth. … I believe a personal testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ
alive in his or her life is one of the top attractions toconsider truth as truth.”
McDowell said one of the greatest heresies being taught in
some churches is the concept of salvation by faith without any mention of Christ.
“If you could be saved by faith, you wouldnt need Jesus – just
build up your faith,” he explains. “Faith does not give credence to
the object – the object gives credence to the faith.”
Teenage audiences today never have been more receptive to
his message that Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven, McDowell said. “All
over the world, every culture Ive been to, they want to hear a daddys
heart, and they want it from a daddy who loves them,” he said. (BP)