How “Evangelical” Are the Youth?

Well, I’ve said many times before that the secular world is out to win the hearts and minds of this generation of youth—and here’s just another example of it. In December of last year, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) released the results of a survey examining the trends of sexual activity among 18–29-year-old professing Christians (i.e., “evangelical Millennials”).

Now, I know that many of these surveys use a broad definition of “evangelical” or “Christian.” So below are the criteria that the NAE used in choosing participants for the survey:

This study for the NAE represents the attitudes and opinions of Millennials who attend a Protestant church once a month, believe they will go to heaven when they die, because they have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, and strongly hold these statements:

• The Bible is the written word of God and is accurate in all that it teaches
• You have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in your life today
• Eternal salvation is possible only through Jesus Christ
• You, personally, have a responsibility to tell other people about your religious beliefs

One of the sad things about the results of the survey is the inconsistency this generation lives with. The survey found that 77 percent of evangelical Millennials surveyed believe that sex outside of marriage is wrong. But do their actions reflect this? Sadly, they don’t.

You see, the report states that “44 percent of unmarried evangelicals ages 18–29 have had sex, including 25 percent who have had sex in the last three months.” The survey reported that the evangelical Millennials explained their actions in the following way:

Respondents said that the sexualized society is the top reason why some young, unmarried Christian adults have sex even though they believe it is morally wrong. Lacking a strong foundation in the Bible and “living for the moment” closely followed.

You know, we do indeed live in a world that is permeated with sex. It’s on TV, on the Internet, in video games, and books—sex is hard to avoid in our culture. However, I believe these respondents have the reasons for their behavior backwards. You see, what’s really at issue here is their foundation—is it man’s fallible word or God’s unchanging Word?

Biblically, we are responsible for our own actions, so these respondents cannot simply blame the “sexualized society” for the participation of professing Christians in premarital sex. For example, in 1 Corinthians 6:15–20, Paul instructs the Corinthians, and all Christians by extension, to “flee sexual immorality.” These young people believe that the Bible “is accurate in all that it teaches,” but they are not willing to submit to its authority when it comes to matters that impact them personally.

And in the school system, evolutionists are teaching our children that they supposedly came from ape-like creatures and that they’re basically just animals. Even some churches have embraced evolutionary ideas! So it’s no surprise when this generation just follows its impulses without taking seriously what God says about it. Biblical authority has been eroded at every turn.

Also, when so many church leaders take man’s ideas of evolution and/or millions of years and add it to the Bible, I believe that this opens the door for those people (e.g., these young adults) they influence to take man’s ideas regarding sex and reinterpret the Bible. Really, compromised teaching actually opens the door to those being taught not to regard the Bible as the absolute authority as they should.

Two-thirds of this generation are walking away from the church. We reveal the reasons why they are leaving in droves in the research we have summarized in our book Already Gone. The moral inconsistency of a large percentage of young professing Christians is evident in these survey results. I urge you to read Already Gone and to begin equipping your children with answers from God’s Word so that they will know what it means to live a consistent life. We have to stand our ground and rescue our kids, which is our main theme this year as a ministry.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken

Note: I thank Steve Golden for his work is composing this blog post.