Clawing at Our Doors for our Sons and Daughters
How the Church is Following Lot’s Lead
By Brace E. Barber
Christian Apologetics Speaker
June 6, 2018
Do What You Like With Them
The story of Lot offering his virgin daughters to the sex-crazed crowd of men to “do what you like with them,” is highly disturbing to me. (Gen 19:8 NIV) As a father of three, including my little girl, I can’t imagine facing a situation where I would offer her to be ravaged in this way. I can only think of protecting her at my own expense, no matter the situation. What would it be like to have a mob of men wildly beating on your door in the middle of the night threatening you and your guests? This is one of the most dramatic illustrations of the situations that arise for God’s people who live in a fallen world. No Christian today has to be convinced that we are fighting back the evil world clawing at our door, but we are losing the battle.
The Rape of Christian Children
Christians see the violent and prurient society all around us. We discuss it in our churches and read commentaries in our publications. We see the news of persecution of Christian-run businesses and the deterioration of the founding Christian values of our country. We cringe at the liberal-indoctrination going on in the public education system and plug our noses and turn our heads at the relativism encompassing every aspect of higher education. Like Lot, there are no authorities to come to the rescue. There are no police around who can say, “Back away! That’s not right.” We are trapped in our Christian homes with our children and guests and we feel that there is no alternative but to send our daughters into the crowd to have them raped and beaten. So that’s what we do.
When Hope is Actually Just Crossing Your Fingers
We spend 18 years trying to get Christ into our kids’ hearts in the midst of the world. We bring them to church on Sunday and send them to school on Monday. They download the BibleGateway app and they put it next to their YouTube app. They spend a week at church camp and never miss an episode of Modern Family. We raise them for 18 years as part of a Christian home and then open and shut the door quickly as we release them to the mob of Sodom that is college hoping that the Holy Spirit will protect them. We hope that we have done enough. We hope that they have a relationship with Christ that will carry them through the struggles, temptations and battles that Satan has prepared for them. The Church sends its sons and daughters into the world and 75% of them never come back.
Naked and Bloodied
The morning sun finds three quarters of the sons and daughters of the Church naked and bloodied in an alley of Sodom. If you have more than one child, pick the one you would prefer to see in this situation. There are no police to call. No one cares. The men of the city are still sleeping. They wake up late and hurry to the bar to gloat about the exploits of the night before not even knowing the names of their victims and with no worries about the consequences. Is the imagery too dramatic? Should we instead say that the majority of kids raised in Christian homes will spend eternity weeping and gnashing their teeth? Is this acceptable to us or should we do whatever is necessary to stop it?
Is Salvation Really Our Top Priority?
We are losing the battle to the world despite the power of the Holy Spirit. We are losing despite the fact that some churches are teaching their youth the Biblical perspectives on the tough issues of the day like homosexuality, pornography, evangelism and tolerance. Yes, Christ was victorious at the cross and we with him, but if our kids leave the Church, will they be? I’m not willing to take the chance. The exodus of our children from the Church for life is a problem of the highest magnitude for the Body of Christ. It is probably the highest priority for each of us as parents who understand the fear of the Lord when we beg for the salvation of our children. Discovering how to keep our kids connected to Christ should be our top priority as the Church. They are the future of the Word of God and right now, despite our best efforts, they are abandoning the faith.
The World has Credible Arguments Against Christianity
God has given us the means to protect our youth, but it will not happen by accident. The Church must get serious about teaching our children the Truth for the Bible that refutes, with evidence, the claims of other world views. If we will get as serious about teaching the evidence for God and for Jesus’ life as we are about teaching about David and Goliath, then our children will be protected. Eighteen year olds are getting challenged with serious questions about the Bible and the Christian worldview. How could a loving God allow bad things to happen to good people, and why should I believe that Jesus was more than a wise teacher if he even existed at all? To believe the resurrection or any supernatural event is simply naïve. If you felt a twinge in your heart at these challenges, you are not alone. The fact is that the Church at large has no idea how to answer these questions so we can’t teach our children how to answer them. That is why we are losing them. Our kids are smart and they want things to make sense. When the experts of the world throw credible arguments at them and they have no counter argument, Sodom wins. When our children know not only truth in the Bible, but also why the truth is the truth, then they are able to defend themselves quite easily against the mob. The way we protect our kids is through the proper application of Christian apologetics.
How to Save Our Kids
Christian apologetics is a field of study bubbling with great minds and aggressive debate. Apologetics is the study of how to defend the faith. It is the study of evidence – all evidence – to discover the truth supporting our beliefs, including Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. The answers to all of the nagging and troublesome questions about our worldview are available and already well researched and documented. We have to do the work to learn the answers. But it is not good enough for one or two people from each church to become experts, we must have Christian apologetics intertwined with every part of our Biblical education, especially from middle school thru high school.
Purpose
My purpose is to encourage and empower parents and churches to incorporate Christian apologetics into their existing programs. Together we can prepare our youth to successfully defend their faith and to evangelize others. I am determined to work with parents and Church bodies to apply God’s resources to preserve the faith of their youth. May our children be standing in the morning, not only victorious in Christ, but leading others to salvation.
Practical Help
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Brace E. Barber is a Christian Apologetics Speaker focusing on teaching Churches how to immediately stop the loss of Christian kids from the Faith. See more at Christian Apologetics Speaker