I forgot to mention one other event that happened on our beach getaway. We stopped on the way back at a restaurant while we were there, in comes a church youth group. We’re just sitting at our table, but we get an evil idea. It’s a wonder of ours how prepared these students are for what lies ahead in the future when the onslaught from atheists and others that oppose Christianity comes.
So we decide to play Devil’s Advocate and see if anyone will respond.
Thus, at our table, the general conversation changes and the volume increases a little bit with things like,
“I can’t believe some people believe the Earth is 6,000 years old!”
“Well, look at what the church did to Galileo.”
“How can someone believe that a man died and came back to life?’
“Especially since there’s no evidence Jesus even existed.”
“I just don’t see how anyone can believe in a good God when natural disasters are taking place all of the time.”
“Besides, we know the Bible’s been changed so much.”
“It’s got those stories anyway of a talking donkey and a talking snake.”
“And have you seen God in the OT? He’s a mass murderer.”
“Evolution explains everything anyhow. You’ve read ‘The God Delusion’ after all. Right?”
And on it went.
And no one ever confronted us.
Now seeing as I’m the driver, I went back to the car earlier so I could get things unlocked. I don’t know the reaction when I left, but I’m told when my roommate left, that there were some stares at him as he went out the door.
I get concerned about our future honestly. I saw these kids and most of their talk seemed to be emotional and their clothing seemed to be emotional. It seems equivalent to me often of a lot of kids going to a retreat and getting a “Jesus high” where they get excited about their faith for a short while and then they go back to their regular lives. It seems Christianity is treated like a drug to make you feel good.
What’s going to happen to so many of these kids when they go off to college and face real challenges to their faith? A strong emotion is not going to be able to counter a rational argument. You’re not going to be able to talk about how Jesus makes you happy when you encounter the angry atheist who is dealing with the problem of evil after seeing a cyclone rip through a city.
Our plan next time is simply to find who the leaders are of the group and go up and start asking them why they’re Christians. Our hope is that we can get them to realize not only that there are questions out there, but that there are answers as well and the youth of the church need to be growing up and hearing the answers instead of just going to concerts, movies, and bowling alleys.
I do see many that give me hope for the future. The problem is, there aren’t many enough? Is the church ready for the future? Are you ready?
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