Has the Culture Influenced a Spiritually Ignorant Generation?

In an article entitled "Evangelical Christian Leaders Fear Teen Believers Abandoning their Faith", Laurie Goodstein writes, 

"Despite their packed mega churches, their political clout, and increasing visibility on the national stage, evangelical Christian leaders are warning one another that their teenagers are abandoning the faith in droves.  

"If current trends continue only 4 percent of teenagers will be Bible-believing Christians as adults. While some critics say that the statistics are grossly exaggerated, there is widespread consensus among evangelical leaders that they risk losing their teenagers."

In 2009, The Barna Group conducted a nationwide survey of Christian teens between the ages 13 and 17. They discovered that only 40% of Christian teens read their Bible apart from church services.  

“American Christians are biblically illiterate. Although most of them contend that the Bible contains truth and is worth knowing, and most of them argue that they know all of the relevant truths and principles, our research shows otherwise. And the trend line is frightening: the younger a person is, the less they understand about the Christian faith.” —Barna Group

We are all governed by a belief system whether we realize it or not. Any opinion we have or standard we hold has been influenced by someone or something. 

If the Bible is being neglected, then the average Christian teen is being governed by philosophies based only on the culture around them. 

You can slap Bible verses on your personal viewpoints and even use Christian lingo but unless you are being saturated by God’s Word, the culture is heavily influenced your belief system.

Should the culture dictate how we define our worldview or should the Bible influence our responds to the culture?

Paul answers this question in Romans 12:2: 

“Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.”

God has chosen us out of the world and has even warned us that we will be hated by the world (John 15:19). In James, God defines true religion by stating that we must not be corrupted by the world (James 1:27) and has commanded us not to love the world (1 John 2:15). 

Being in the world and not of the world never justifies compromise. 

Being in a culture doesn't mean we should adopt the philosophies of that culture. The culture is constantly changing but the truth never changes. The Bible is cross-cultural, multi-generational and unchangeable  (Hebrews 13:8; Psalm 119:89).

The Southern Baptist Council on Family Life determined that 88 percent of teenagers who are involved in youth group throughout the four years of their high school will walk away from the faith once they graduate from high school.

Based on these statistics, teenagers aren’t taking the Bible seriously any more. My dad once said, “Christians are on a spiritual junk food diet. Instead of feasting on steaks, they are satisfied with Twinkies.” 

“Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). 

Faith doesn’t come by listening to the culture -it comes from Word of God alone. But are we listening?