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Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Apologetics/Religion Headline Archives (2024)

For the most part, the articles/columns linked below appear in chronological order, beginning with the earliest. 


2024:
Previous Apologetics/Religion headline archives are contained in a post at the end of each year and linked below:


2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008

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Monday, July 22, 2024

“Democracy” Means Little to Those Who’ve Made a god of Government

Say it ain’t so! Old, slow Joe is no mo’! At long last—a mere 107 days from the election—the Democrats have abandoned democracy and have concluded that their “party leaders” (Barack Obama’s words) will decide who will be their presidential candidate in 2024. It turns out the dastardly Democrat Party is a dreadful steward of democracy. Of course, this should surprise no one.

The idea that democrats are the “defenders of democracy” is as much a charade as was the notion that Joe Biden is “far beyond cogent” and “better than he’s ever been.” This would all be hilarious if it weren’t so fraught with peril. Having Joe Biden dodder around the White House, stumble across the country, and wander-off throughout the world for three-and-a-half years has proved a disaster for the United States. Americans are quite lucky (blessed!) that things are not far worse in our nation.

Things will get worse if a more capable Democrat gets the keys to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Because, again, it’s not Joe Biden’s lack of physical and mental acuity that have proved most disastrous for the U.S. His party’s policies are the biggest threat, and if a younger, more energetic, more enthusiastic Democrat replaces him and wins in November, we will spiral further and faster down the proverbial drain.

Joe Biden was simply the most electable tool for the democrats in 2020. He is no longer that, so “party leaders” decided he had to be replaced. As the past several years have well demonstrated, Joe Biden’s health was never a problem for his apologists. It’s not really a problem for them now either.

Make no mistake about it, if Joe Biden was looking like he was going to beat Donald Trump, the democrats would be happy to continue with his sham of a presidential campaign. (They still plan to continue with his sham of a presidency!) Running cover for a dreadful debate is light work for those who belong to the “father of lies.” But, since Biden looked like a sure loser in November, and since keeping the power of the U.S presidency is paramount for the Democrat Party, “party leaders” have decided their primary no longer matters.

Political power of any sort is vastly important to those who’ve made a god of government, and the pinnacle of political power in the world is the presidency of the United States. By and large, democrats across the U.S. have put their hope and trust in the things of this world. Thus, efforts at achieving political power in this world is where so many democrats focus their time, energy, and financial resources.

Donald Trump is a threat to this power, but efforts at removing him have proved fruitless. (Even for would-be assassins!) Therefore, democrats turned towards attacking (politically) a weaker, more vulnerable man, and if “democracy” had to be sacrificed to make sure this attack succeeded, then so be it.

(See this post at American Thinker.) 

Copyright 2024, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
trevorgrantthomas@gmail.com

 

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Saturday, February 24, 2024

25 Years of Debt-Free Living

In 2013, my wife Michelle and I published Debt-Free Living in a Debt-Filled World. Since we’re more than a decade removed from that publishing, and as we are now a quarter of a century into our debt-free journey, we thought it was time to share an update.

Michelle and I were married in January of 1998 and a little over a year later began our journey of living debt free as a calling. Our intention was always to be a witness to the world of the truth of God’s Word on all matters, but especially to be a witness to what God has to say about money and finances.

To briefly recap, after marrying in early 1998, and after Michelle fully grasped just how broke and in debt I was, she became very anxious about our financial situation. Prior to marriage, we had agreed to live on a formal (written) budget (maintained to this day). Before our honeymoon even ended, Michelle had begun to formulate a plan for getting us out of debt. I quickly agreed and we began paying off our debts, using the “snowball” method taught by the late, great Larry Burkett.

At the time of our marriage, Michelle was a full-time employee at the financial ministry Larry founded, Christian Financial Concepts (CFC). Most everything we learned about money, debt, and other biblical financial principles, came via Larry’s teachings at CFC (now Crown Financial Ministries). These sound, biblical financial principles are still at work in our lives today. Sometime in 1999, while living in our one-bedroom apartment, and after getting out of debt (we had a total debt of about $25k), Michelle began encouraging me to build/buy a home without a mortgage—in other words, completely debt free.

I immediately bristled at the notion, thinking there was no such path to that dream. I was a teacher of mathematics (still am to this day) and she was an employee at a Christian ministry. In other words, we were not in high salary jobs. (Throughout our 26+ years of marriage, our total annual income has almost always been between $75k and $100k.) Also, our parents were not wealthy—by American standards—thus, I saw no way we could get into a home within a reasonable amount of time without borrowing money.

Michelle persisted, and then God took it even further. In His “still, small voice,” God revealed to me that, to be a witness to the world, He desired for us to live a completely debt-free lifestyle. In order to get into a home (easily the largest expense for the vast majority of us), our plan was to live in as low rent a situation as possible, save every dime we could, and build on a small approximately one-acre lot that we owned (it was part of the debt we paid off early in our marriage).

After saving around $40k, we broke ground in the spring of 2000. Acting as our own contractors, and with tremendous help from several generous and handy family members, we partially finished our home in the late summer of 2001. We were able to move into our 1,000 square foot basement at that time. Approximately two years later, doing things in stages as we could afford them, we completed the rest of our home.

Our snow-covered North Georgia home from a few years ago.

Michelle continued to work full time at CFC until our first child Caleb was born in the spring of 2002. After Caleb was born, Michelle became a stay-at-home mom. This was always our plan, and our debt-free lifestyle made this a much easier transition. Michelle has remained a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom until this day. She has been able to work part time mostly from home through the years to bring in some income.

As was her desire long before even marrying, Michelle has homeschooled each of our four children throughout their k-12 education. Again, our debt-free status made this much more doable. What’s more, homeschooling has allowed us to take full advantage of the dual-enrollment options our home state of Georgia offers.

Thanks to Michelle’s hard work and diligence in this area, both of our two oldest children (Caleb and Jesse) both finished high school with an associate’s degree. Both are now done with their undergraduate degree. Caleb graduated at 20 with his B.S. in cyber security and Jesse finished at 19 with a B.A. in humanities. Both finished their degrees with zero debt. (We started college savings accounts for each of our children at a young age.)

Our daughter Caroline (child #3) will finish high school this spring and our youngest, Noah, is a high school freshman. Now that Noah is 15, everyone in the house is a driver! With the exception of Noah, who’s yet to have his own car, we’ve been able to help each of our children obtain a vehicle of their own, paying cash each time.

However, every vehicle we have owned was bought used —and with the exception of one, cost $10k or less, with several costing less than $5k. (We’ve never bought a new car. We paid over $10k for a minivan once early in our parenting.) Because we have a car maintenance category in our budget, we do regular maintenance on each automobile and thus are able to help extend the life of each car. Our oldest car is 24 years old, and the newest one is 13 years old.

Along with budgeting for cars, gas, food, insurance, school, and so on, we’ve regularly saved and invested throughout our marriage. Our savings account wouldn’t impress Hunter Biden, but we’ve socked away far more than the average American family. We’ve saved well for retirement, and we’ve even been able to save for weddings!

Our oldest son Caleb married the beautiful, sweet Emma last spring. They were both 21 at the time. To help them get a good start on the expensive American life, Caleb and Emma live in our re-modeled full basement apartment.

Caleb/Emma’s Wedding Day, June 2023. Left to right: Noah (14), Caroline (17), Emma (21), Caleb (21), Michelle, Trevor, Jesse (19).

Our debt-free life has been far from easy, and we’ve “missed out” on some of the expensive “pleasures” that going into debt can allow for. However, more than anything else, our 25+ years of debt-free living has brought us peace! The peace that only comes from surrendering to the One who made us and doing things His way instead of our own way.

As we’ve often said, the most important financial principle that the Bible teaches is that of stewardship. Whatever our status with financial debt, the sooner we grasp the fact that God owns it all and that we are merely stewards—managers—of what is and has always been His, the better we will be in every area of our lives. May God richly bless you as only He can!

(See this column at American Thinker.)

Copyright 2024, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.TrevorGrantThomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
trevorgrantthomas@gmail.com


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Tuesday, January 2, 2024

Apologetics/Religion Headline Archives (2023)

For the most part, the articles/columns linked below appear in chronological order, beginning with the earliest. 


2023:
Previous Apologetics/Religion headline archives are contained in a post at the end of each year and linked below:


2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008

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Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Why Christianity--and Christians--Should Reject Same-Sex "Marriage" (Rev. Calvin Robinson)

Last month, in a meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England, the Rev. Calvin Robinson gave a clear and powerful response for why Christianity, and thus any faithful Christian, should reject any redefinition of marriage, including, and especially, same-sex "marriage." Some excellent pull-quotes: 

  • We are directly talking about undermining God's plan as He has revealed it to us. We are replacing His authority with our own. 
  • Yes, God is love, but He sets the terms, not us. 
  • The church should absolutely be inclusive. Christ spent time with tax collectors and prostitutes, but it is they who went away changed, not Christ. 
  • The church is open to sinners. Of course it is! That's the purpose of the church. But it should not be to encourage people to continue to sin. 
  • [Christianity] is inherently discriminatory. God is discriminatory. He sets conditions on us entering His heavenly kingdom. It is not a free-for-all. We must turn away from sin--repent--and follow Christ. 
  • [To those church leaders supporting same-sex "marriage"]: Stop teaching about diversity, inclusion, and equality. Get back to teaching about redemption and salvation. [To do otherwise] is spiritual neglect. 
  • [To those church leaders supporting same-sex "marriage"]: We are seeing the most rapid decline of Christianity in this country that we may have ever seen. Do not accelerate it with heresy. You do not have the authority to bless sin. 
  • When I hear the Bishop of London on record saying: "These new prayers will mean Priests can bless same-sex relationships (some of which may be sexual in nature)," I hear the Devil at work! 

This video clip is a condensed version of Rev. Robinson's talk (and contains all of the quotes above): 

Here is his full talk: 

Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
trevorgrantthomas@gmail.com

 

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Saturday, June 18, 2022

Advice On Fatherhood

The words here are dedicated to all the current and future fathers out there, especially to my three sons, Caleb, Jesse, and Noah, and to my future son-in law. I’m 52 (soon to be 53) years old. I’ve been married to my wife Michelle for nearly 25 years now. One of the greatest joys of my life is being the father to Caleb (20), Jesse (18), Caroline (16), and Noah (13).

I’ve by no means been the perfect father. I’ve made countless mistakes and almost certainly have other mistakes—though I hope far fewer—awaiting me. Through my personal experiences, through the numerous wise men and women with whom God has graced my life—especially my parents and my wife’s parents—and above all, through the wisdom of God, I’ve learned some things when it comes to fatherhood that I would like to pass on.

Stay Sexually Pure

There’s probably no quicker way to destroy a marriage these days than through sexual immorality. C.S. Lewis was right when he wrote, “There is no getting away from it: the old Christian rule is, ‘Either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your partner, or else total abstinence.’” Lewis was also correct we he noted that this is the most unpopular of all the Christian virtues.

Lewis wrote those words in the middle of the 20th century, many years prior to the rampant spread of pornography and the evil LGBTMYNAMEISLEGION agenda, and decades before the internet. In other words, as unpopular as chastity was when Lewis was speaking and writing on such matters, given how easy and acceptable it is today to live contrary to God’s teaching on sex and marriage, it is even more unpopular now. Yet, the truth remains.

Be faithful to your wives men, before and during marriage. Flee from pornography and the like. Seek reliable sexual accountability before and during marriage. Have no secrets in this area from your wife. Make sure she has complete access to every digital device you own. If and when you fail—and you almost certainly will have some failures—confess, repent, and seek help if necessary. Also, model and teach your children the truth in these grave matters.

Spend Time With Your Family

I’ve been blessed with many friends throughout my life. However, there is no one that I would rather spend time with than my wife and kids. I almost never “hang out” with anyone other than my family. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with friends outside of your family, but always make your family the priority. Do what they enjoy, even if it conflicts with what you would rather do. Love is far more than what we feel or say. Let your actions communicate your love for your wife and children. Time is a precious commodity. Spend it on abundantly on your wife and kids.

Work and Provide!

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from my father is the value and importance of hard work and providing for one’s family. In their early years, our children most need time with their mothers. It is tremendously important that men do all possible to allow for this. By American standards, Michelle and I are far from wealthy. Throughout our marriage, the vast majority of our income has come from my work as a teacher of mathematics. Typically, one doesn’t get wealthy through working as a teacher.

Nevertheless, from the moment Caleb exited his mothers’ womb—over 20 years ago—until today, with rare exception, Michelle has been a stay-at-home mom. She has been able to earn some income working from home, and she has at times, now that our kids are older, worked outside the home.

However, it has been more common for me to take on extra work. For most of the past decade, as life has gotten more expensive, and in order for Michelle to remain at home, I have worked multiple jobs. We still can’t afford to purchase new cars, and we don’t take fancy vacations, and the like, but we are able to provide our children with far more than what most kids across the world receive. Most importantly, our kids have grown up with their parents present in their lives, and are very close to us and one another as a result.

Be a Man!

No doubt you’ve encountered the notion of “toxic masculinity.” For the most part, this is simply another attack from the modern left on traditional Christian values. For example, much of what I write in this column will be despised by today’s leftists and will be attributed to my “toxic masculinity.” As Ben Shapiro wrote in 2017,

The goal of the Left, therefore, becomes to train boys not to become men. Instead, boys should be feminized; they should never be encouraged to “be a man.” …

If men are not trained by good men, they will be trained by bad men; if they have no good males to follow, they follow bad ones. The Left routinely speaks about a world run by women and why such a world would create better men. But the most male-free environment in America exists in black communities, where well over half of black children grow up without fathers. This hasn’t made black boys less violent; it’s made them far more prone to criminality than their non-black peers. Many of these boys follow teenage role models, many of whom have lacked fathers themselves, and lack the training to be a gentleman.

To “be a man,” it is important to remember that this is not just about physical strength and hard work, but about being a “gentleman”: being patient, kind, giving, and above all, loving. Got Questions puts it this way,

A true man is someone who has “put away childish things.” A true man knows what is right and stands firm in the right. A true man is a godly man. He loves the Lord, he loves life, and he loves those whom the Lord has entrusted to his care.

Be a Good Husband

As I’ve often pointed out, the biblical family model is at the foundation of every institution in the history of humanity. Thus, the importance of the family is paramount. Of course, the enemy of all mankind knows this well. This is why I believe that the hardest two jobs in the world are being a good parent and being a good spouse. As I’ve often said before, after our relationship with our Creator, the most important relationship in the universe is the relationship between a husband and his wife.

In other words, men, if you want things right between you and your children, you need to have things right with your wife. Prioritize your relationship with your wife! Your children need to see a proper, loving, healthy relationship with their parents. This will bring them much peace and joy (whether they even realize it at the time or not) and will be a tremendous help to them as they embark on their own marriages.

Lastly, and Most Importantly: Follow Jesus

The greatest model for what it means to be a good earthly father is the model provided for us by our Heavenly Father. Christians believe that God sent His “one and only Son,” Jesus Christ into the world to save the world. God gave of Himself in the most precious way possible in order to do for those He loves what it was impossible for us to do for ourselves.

God’s greatest gift met humanity’s most desperate need. In His earthly walk, Jesus modeled love, forgiveness, patience, kindness, generosity, strength, wisdom, and so on, like no else who has ever lived or will ever live. The more you are like Him, the better husband and father you will be.

Copyright 2022, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
trevorgrantthomas@gmail.com


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Saturday, June 11, 2022

On Sex and Marriage, God’s “Precedent” Must, and Will, Prevail

Alas, as you almost certainly well know by now, it’s Pervert—aka “Pride”— Month again. Whenever you hear “Pride Month,” remember, this is the kind of thing the LGBTMYNAMISLEGION apologists take “pride” in (warning: graphic content):

Tragically, as one observer noted, this was not even the worst footage from the “Drag The Kids To Pride” event in Dallas, Texas. Along with these vile actions, in their own words, these “Drag Demon Queens” have declared, “This is going to be the grooming of the next generation. We are trying to groom the next generation to not see the way that they just did.”

No one should be surprised that these fools are now openly telling us that they are “grooming” the next generation into the evil LGBTMYNAMEISLEGION agenda. We’ve been on this path for years. What was long (and rightly) seen as immoral—and even laughed at by numerous Hollywood leftists—and more recently something that needed to be treated and cured, is now promoted and celebrated.

And as anyone not named CornPop well knows, the Democrat Party seems to be fully on-board with every new perversion the LGBTMYNAMEISLEGION apologists can dream up. In addition to anything they can accomplish legislatively in support of this evil agenda, one of the leading Democrats in America, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, will make a promotional reappearance on RuPaul Andre Charles’ TV show, RuPaul’s Drag Race.

In describing drag, RuPaul has correctly noted that it is a “very, very political” act because it “challenges the status quo.” He further adds, “Drag says ‘I'm a shapeshifter, I do whatever the hell I want at any given time.’” Of course, “I do whatever the hell I want at any given time” is an admission that one fully embraces the godless Pagan philosophy of “Do as Thou Wilt.” This godlessness is the foundational principle of the modern left.

There is nothing more “status quo,” or put another way, there is nothing in the history of the universe with more precedent than what is a male or female, and what is marriage. In other words, if you want to wage a war on the truth, marriage and sex (the noun and the verb) would be—and in America have certainly proved to be—prime targets.

Emboldened by the wicked ruling from the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in Obergefell, which legally redefined marriage throughout America, the left is attempting to do the same with the definition of male and female. As Matt Walsh’s recent and excellent documentary What is a Woman reveals, they are well on their way to accomplishing this. Again, the SCOTUS is aiding and abetting this evil effort.

In its 2020 ruling on Bostock v. Clayton County, the SCOTUS “unilaterally redefined” the word “sex” to mean “sexual orientation” or “gender identity.” Since that ruling, the SCOTUS has added Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who, in her Senate confirmation hearing, refused to define what is a woman.

The disasters that such abandonment of foundational truths portend can hardly be imagined. Yes, we already have rampant disease, drug use, and despair in the homosexual community, adopted children robbed of a mother or father, men in women’s restrooms, men taking trophies (and money) from women, girls in the Boy Scouts, a Drag Demon Queen in charge of our nuclear waste, and so on. Just 20 years ago, if you warned that the evil LGBTMYNAMEISLEGION agenda was going to lead to such, many—if not most—Americans would’ve dismissed you as a hysterical, hyperbolic loon. Yet, here we are, and headed to who knows what!

The only way out of these disasters is for more and more individual Americans to decide that they want to be on the right side of the truth in these grave matters. This also means that those of us who already understand the truth here must speak and act frequently and boldly for the truth. We must not be ashamed to do so!

We need more like the few Tampa Bay Rays’ baseball players who refused to wear the LGBTMYNAMEISLEGION logos on their uniforms as their team celebrated Pervert Month. Franklin Graham rightly recognized the Rays’ players on his Facebook page when he declared,

I appreciate these Tampa Bay Rays players who said no to endorsing and celebrating sin during Saturday night’s game…Followers of Jesus Christ must love everyone, but also stand with the truth of God’s Word and share that truth with a lost and dying world.

What a shame more MLB players (and other team employees and owners) didn’t join these men in the simple gesture of not promoting sin. If you haven’t already been in the position of these Tampa Bay Rays’ players, you likely soon will be, and like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you will have to choose.

Unlike the brave Jews who disobeyed King Nebuchadnezzar’s immoral decree, you almost certainly will not face death for standing up for what is right, but you almost certainly will face some sort of ridicule or persecution as you stand for the truth. This is especially true as you stand against the lies of the enemy on matters in the sexual realm.

Don’t be surprised at what you might face in this sin-sick world. The higher your profile, and the braver your stance, the more danger you will face. As Brett Kavanaugh recently learned—because of how the left perceives he will rule on abortion—SCOTUS justices who are on the right side of the truth now face the reality that their lives, and the lives of those near and dear to them, may be in danger from those who hate the truth. (Like homosexuality and “transgenderism,” abortion is a sexual issue.)

Marriage is the oldest institution in the history of humanity—older than God’s covenant with the nation of Israel, older than The Law, older than the church, and older than any government. Marriage is one of the earliest truths revealed by God. About the only truth older than what is marriage is what is a male and what is a female. No amount of protest, no volume of deceit, no laws of men will ever change these important, eternal truths. The sooner each of us embraces this, the better off the world will be.

(See this column at American Thinker and The Blue State Conservative.)

Copyright 2022, Trevor Grant Thomas
At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.
www.trevorgrantthomas.com
Trevor is the author of the The Miracle and Magnificence of America
trevorgrantthomas@gmail.com


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Sunday, June 6, 2021

A Challenge to the Modern Church: Invest in Christian Education!

On schools, the Father of the Reformation, Martin Luther, said,

I am much afraid that the universities will prove to be the great gates of hell, unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures, and engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.

Tragically, the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in America have proven this wise adage true. In the world today, there are few things more corrupt than the godless government schools that dominate the education system of the United States of America. Additionally—proving themselves “great gates of hell”—few things are more responsible for the widespread immorality, and corresponding cultural rot, that currently plagues America than are the godless government schools. This is true of k-12 schools as well as colleges and universities.

Not only do American government schools shun the Scriptures, but they directly undermine them. Everything from instruction to discipline is rooted in a godless, secular worldview. America's government schools promote or encourage a wide variety of wicked philosophies that are almost always in direct opposition to a Christian worldview. Most of such philosophies are rooted in the evil “theology of self.” The ultimate goal of the “theology of self” is to make oneself the center of all things, or put another way, to rule one’s own world. From the Fall until today, this is the age-old problem of humanity, and nothing in secular education, therapy, science, or politics is—nor are those devoted only to such—properly designed to deal with this problem.

A “theology of self” elevates humanity above God and looks to human efforts and achievements alone to solve the world's problems. Foolishly thinking that humanity alone has the solutions for all that ail us, the godless government schools have helped lead the way in turning generations of Americans away from true religion and the Truth and into scientism. Scientism is not science. It is an ideology that is often confused with science. It is, rather, an abuse of the scientific method and scientific authority.

In other words, scientism is a false religion with many “denominations:” Darwinism, environmentalism, feminism, hedonism, humanism, Marxism, socialism, and so on. Scientism arrogantly attempts to lift itself above all other beliefs and disciplines—philosophy and theology included. “Philosophy is dead,” declared Stephen Hawking in his 2010 book The Grand Design. Hawking declared it “dead” because, “Philosophy has not kept up with modern developments in science, particularly physics.”

Thus, as we see, scientism seeks to elevate the methods of natural science to a level where it is the bar by which every other intellectual discipline is held. Scientism ridicules faith and religion and tells us that “God is dead.” Scientism tells us that the “debate is over,” so “shut up and get in line!” Scientism tells us to “put on your mask” and that you must “get the [experimental] vaccine!”

As a result of decades of indoctrination in godless philosophies, staggering numbers of American youths are abandoning Christianity and the Church. According to the American Worldview Inventory 2021—a study conducted by the Cultural Research Center of Arizona Christian University—more than any other generation of Americans, millennials (born 1985-2002) have cut ties with Christian beliefs. Tragically, 43% of millennials stated that they either don’t know, don’t care, or don’t believe that God exists.

Additionally, the study notes that “Millennials…are far more likely than any other generation to:

· Define success in life as happiness, personal freedom, or productivity without oppression  

· Consider an abortion performed to reduce personal economic or emotional discomfort to be morally acceptable

· Consider premarital sex with someone expected to be their future spouse to be morally acceptable

· Deem reincarnation a real possibility

· Be liberal regarding fiscal and social policies

· Champion liberal theology.”

The study also reports that millennials are “much less likely [their emphasis] than Americans from older generations” to:

· Embrace the Bible as their primary source of moral guidance

· Accept the notion of God being the all-knowing, all-powerful and just creator of the universe who still rules that universe today

· Consider Satan to be a real and influential being

· Participate in religious activities such as worshipping God, praying to God, studying the Bible, seeking and following God’s will, and asking for God’s forgiveness for their sins

· Identify as a Christian

· Believe that after they die they will spend eternity in God’s presence solely because they have confessed their sins and have accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.

Of course, millennials did not get to this sad point on their own. These “spiritual transitions” represent a continuation of dramatic changes introduced by Gen X prior to the arrival of the Millennials. As George Barna—Director of Research at the Cultural Research Center—points out,

[T]he reshaping of America’s religious landscape began nearly 60 years ago. Baby Boomers were the most aggressive initiators of spiritual change, embracing dramatically different beliefs and behaviors than their predecessors. Their successors, Gen X, realigned the nation’s religious boundaries even further. The youngest adult generation of today, Millennials, are now threatening to reshape the nation’s religious parameters beyond recognition.

To combat this long and tragically effective war on Christianity and the truth, U.S. churches must embrace and invest in Christian education. For far too long, far too many American Christians have surrendered their children to the godless government schools. This must change, and the church in America must act as a powerful agent for this change.

This is especially true for churches with large campuses and large budgets. These large campuses often sit mostly empty throughout the school day and could be used for classrooms, cafeterias, theaters, and the like. Gyms and athletic fields could be built; buses could be bought; and so on. It’s true that schools require large budgets, but churches—especially “mega churches” could forego campus expansion and the like and devote such resources to providing children with a sound Christian education.

Also, many U.S. churches have long been devoted to foreign missions, and rightly so. However, while seeking to spread the Word on other continents, many American churches have neglected the moral decay and the war on Christianity that’s been right under their noses for decades. Instead of trying to undo the vast damage caused by godless government schools, churches should rid themselves of the problem by getting in the education game.

Small churches that lack the budgets and other resources to provide a quality education could pool their resources and partner with other small churches, or they could partner with larger churches. Christian schools could be supported by a network of churches, both large and small, making this an affordable educational option for Christian families. This could happen in communities across the U.S.

What’s more, once this network of Christian schools spreads and becomes more popular, Christians could lobby for state laws to change so that the tax resources of Christians could be directed to the schools of their choice. Thus, not only would the godless government schools lose vast numbers of students, they would also lose the large financial resources that (are supposed to) follow these students. Almost without fail, Christian schools would prove themselves much better stewards of these resources (both financial and human).

To turn the tide of rampant immorality that currently plagues the U.S., many Americans are longing for a new spiritual “Awakening” for our nation. Educating millions of American youths from a Christian worldview would go a long way toward this end.  

(In the coming days I will publish my opinion on what should be the mission of modern Christian schools.)

(See this column at American Thinker and The Blue State Conservative.)

The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
Trevor Grant Thomas
At the intersection of politics, science, faith, and reason.
www.TrevorGrantThomas.com
Trevor is the author of The Miracle and Magnificence of America.

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