Saturday, September 8, 2012

CAN UNBELIEVING PARENTS TEACH ABOUT JESUS?

PART 1 - THE FACTS
The Chicago Tribune ran a piece this morning in our local Faith section headlined "TEACHING KIDS ABOUT FAITH WHEN YOU DON'T PRACTICE ONE"! Now we can end this conversation right now with one word, which would finish the thought behind that headline - the word is "hypocrite". But that is letting parents completely off the hook! While we know that most churches don't teaching on hell, judgment or even the responsibility of EVERY human sitting in the pew, to Holy God, that does not lessen that said responsibility!

Incompetent and an increasingly disobedient church leadership is no excuse for parents being unable to account for the Spiritual Lives of their children. Every human being, ever born, will stand before Him on Judgment Day to give an account for our lives on this earth.  Being too busy trying to pay the bills or too tired to read the Bible/pray/worship/fellowship with the saints will not fly! If you choose not believe this, it is well, at your own risk.

The latest Gallup poll on Religion found that America is an increasingly ungodly place - something we already knew. It did not take a political party booing God to confirm what we see, when Biblical prophesy is being fulfilled right before our eyes. Churches and so-called Christians do not have 1/4 the influence, for good, that we had a generation ago. But that too is not surprising. Jesus Himself predicted that in Matthew 24:10 "And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another".

The Gallup Poll says that the number of Americans who said they were "Religious" dropped from 73% just seven years ago to only 60% today! Next, 5% of the United States are atheists up from only 1% in the same 7 year period - 2005-2012! I venture to say, the majority of Americans are actually Practical Atheists in their daily lifestyles! We don't need a poll to tell us that, we see it before our eyes!

There are other figures, but who needs more numbers, when we can see the evidence walked out before our eyes. One of my closest brothers in the faith and a fellow minister - one with whom I communicate daily since Iron Sharpens Iron - and I were talking about the level of Biblical discernment (almost zero) and ignorance (almost 100%) of not just teens and children under 10 today, but increasingly more and more adults!  We have discussed, with increasing urgency what it is going to take to reach these people, one last time. We can go into deep socio-economic and religious detail about why the huge drop from 73% to 60% and the accompanying increase in Atheism, but what's the point. Be it known that this fall from grace is actually a pulling back of the curtain on those who were fake believers in the first place! 

Briefly,  what happened in the past seven years was a decrease in financial wealth as the economy started to slip around 2008. But from 2005-2008, people were rolling in prosperity and apparently did not need God  or His blessings or His peace that passeth understanding! They were living in the high times of the American Dream, neglecting the Word of God, neglecting prayer, neglecting Jesus Christ and neglecting a Walk with Him! So when the Economy crashed in 2008, they had no spiritual foundation in the Lord and -proved the Jesus quote above correct! When you add that to no spiritual leadership in the church - NONE...with national Christian leaders more interested in getting along with other Faiths or promoting their multi-media empires, it was no surprise that almost 50% of evangelicals (notice I did not say Christian) voted pro-abortion and pro- everything counter to the Bible in 2008 and since! They did not know any better, because they do not know Jesus Christ, period!

So all that historical and empirical data aside, how DO parents teaching their kids about Faith when they don't practice one? 

TOMORROW - PART 2 - ANSWERS?

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