Anonymous
I want to share a glimpse of my personal life in hoping that parents will rear their children to be convicted and commit themselves to a true, personal relationship with God, not to build on their parents’ faith (2 Timothy 1:5). When I was growing up “going to church,” I cannot remember a time when I did not always believe in a Supreme Being who created this universe. It was just obvious and intuitive to me even though later in life there would be available evidence (such as the cosmological, design, and moral arguments) to support that belief.  
Ten years into my life, I started to understand the concept of sin because I believed that I committed sin (1 John 3:4). I had told the preacher that I was ready to be immersed for the remission of my sins (Acts 2:38). He studied with me personally and I held off for a year because I thought that I needed to understand what I was really doing. I realized later that he was teaching me that I was making the greatest decision that one can ever make in this life––to become a Christian. I understood a little about commitment and that I needed to recognize that I was making a life-long commitment that would eventually “turn the heat on” through some intellectual fiery tests later that would put a strain on that commitment (1 Peter 1:6-9).  
A year later after becoming a Christian, there was a lecturer who came into our town at a sister congregation who was speaking on the subject of Christian evidences. That weekend changed my whole way of viewing the world. I was on the intellectual journey to “getting it.” He gave presentations on the existence of God in that science and philosophy shows that there had to be a beginning for this universe and that it could not have created itself out of nothing nor could it be eternal. The universe had to have been created by something (or Someone) not of this universe. He did not at any time use a Bible verse in that lecture. He wanted to show that true science could point to a beginning in the universe, which had to have had a Cause. He also gave a presentation on what may have happened to the dinosaurs that would fit into a Biblical worldview rather than a naturalistic worldview. At that point in my thinking, the Biblical framework of creation and its history vaguely though started to fit, mold, and correspond with true reality to me.  
You must understand that being a product of the public school system I was being taught macroevolution. I have to admit that our county was very religiously oriented and many public school teachers held to a Christian worldview (in a very broad sense). There were some teachers who skipped over the material, but there was also some who did not skip over it. There it was in plain sight in those science textbooks that millions of years ago such and such event occurred. We had to read and ingest some of that material. To give another example, my mother had bought this book on dinosaurs for me that I loved so much, but sadly it contained a lot of evolutionary concepts. Two of my favorite movies growing up were Jurassic Park and The Land Before Time. I just assumed at this age that somehow in someway that God may have used macroevolution to bring about life on earth. I was so naive and had not developed the necessary critical thinking skills to see the true differences between creation as defined in the Bible and theistic evolution.  
I went to the website that the speaker who spoke on Christian evidences worked for which was an institution that was dedicated to defending New Testament Christianity. When I started to get into high school, I started to question my faith a little bit. Why you may ask? It seemed like nobody else believed what I believed. I felt all alone. You see, I was tired of seeing all the evil that was going on in our high school––students disrespecting the teachers, the promotion of homosexuality, bullying, lasciviousness, and many other immoral activities. I truly stuck out because I was trying to make a difference as a Christian. I did not belong to any clique in the high school. I am so glad I had friends who were Christians who were in a youth group that both supported the youth and got families involved where we had spiritual activities such as retreats that would help to overcome the temptations of the world. I would talk with my homeroom teacher who believed in the evolutionary hypothesis and he would give me what seemed like adequate and satisfying answers at the time. I was still wondering if my faith was true though. I had some doubts that clouded my thinking. I kept these doubts to myself. I am so glad that I did not continue to feed these doubts. Since I was not involved in sports or after school activities, I had plenty of time to search for answers. I developed a love for truly digging into the Bible to see whether or not it really came from God. I would use the website of the Christian evidences organization to really apply the points they were making and whether or not the evidence was corresponding to true reality. I went to my church library and I started to check out book after book. I was very thirsty to learn the Truth. I remember one comical time in Spanish II class the teacher got onto me because I was reading from a book called The Book of Genesis: Foundational Truth and the Unfolding of God’s Plan of Redemption (over a 1,000 pages long!)  that I had put right below the desk so the teacher could not see me reading from it and yet she found me reading it and called me out for it.  
In tenth grade, there were two speakers from the same institution who produced Christian evidences that came to speak at a high school gymnasium in a nearby town. They both spoke on evidences for design, the unity between science and the Bible, and many other related subjects. They were helping me to see more clearly the truth. I started to view the world more strongly through the Bible and that it made perfect sense. As C.S. Lewis once stated:  “I believe in Christianity as the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”  
I started to let go of the theistic evolutionary worldview in that it could not explain the universe that we were living. There are twelve questions that every worldview strives to answer, but the Christian worldview, as described in the Bible, answers these questions consistently and coherently, as Kenneth Samples brings out in his book A World of Difference:  (1) Ultimate Reality: What kind of God, if any, actually exists? (2) External Reality: Is there anything beyond the cosmos? (3) Knowledge: What can be known and how can anyone know it? (4) Origin: Where did I come from? (5) Identity: Who am I? (6) Location: Where am I? (7) Morals: How should I live? (8) Values: What should I consider of great worth? (9) Predicament: What is humanity’s fundamental problem? (10) Resolution: How can humanity’s problem be solved? (11) Past/Present: What is the meaning and direction of history? (12) Destiny: Will I survive the death of my body, and if so, in what state? The Bible was able to answer these questions and much more. There were some very strong logical lines of evidence so that I myself could not see how mere men by themselves could have formed this ancient book, such as its supreme unity and theme, the prophecies and fulfillments that took place in history, and scientific foreknowledge. My faith was becoming more fortified and stronger. The doubts that I was having were disappearing. I honestly now understood and could answer the most important questions of life. I finally not only wanted to learn the Christian worldview, but to act on it. It became my whole life. I knew that it relevantly had to touch upon what kind of person I wanted to marry, finances, the kind of work I wanted to be involved, and many more decisions. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that God existed and that God is the God of the Bible. The Bible is His inspired Word (2 Timothy 3:16,17) because of the evidence that helped to support its claims. Jesus is the Son of God because of the “infalliable proofs” that He Himself showed to His eyewitnesses (Acts 1:1-3).  
I am one of the lone exceptions out there. I was honestly willing to search for the Truth. I knew that life had to have a deeper meaning and significance. It was obvious to me. There are so many people though who live out their whole lives, yet never come close to the Truth. As Henry David Thoreau wrote:  “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them.” As a movie slogan once put it, “Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” 
I know there are many people in the Lord’s church who have become Christians in their early teenage years, but who have left the faith. I know some of them personally. Why did they leave?  

  1. They believe that they can find deeper meaning and significance in their lives by the pursuit of worldly pleasures and desires. The devil knows that our lives cry out for meaning, significance, and purpose, and with his own devices he tries to attract us to the “pleasures for a season” (Hebrews 11:25) scent of the world in throwing us off pursuing the fragrant scent of the Gospel (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Solomon, who was the wisest man in all the world, became the greatest fool because he pursued the wicked pleasures of the world such as fornication, drunkenness, and many other hopeless endeavors that brought him to the realization that what makes man’s life significant is to “fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all” (Ecclesiastes 12:13,14). 
  1. They did not consult the resources that could have helped them to develop and fortify their faith. Certainly, we understand that the Bible is all-sufficient (2 Timothy 3:16,17), but there is nothing wrong with tapping into other resources (such as websites that help the Christian to learn the evidences, books, videos, such as the ones that Focus Press and Apologetics Press offer) that would help us to greatly increase our knowledge of the Word of God and build up and fortify our children in equipping them to become soldiers who will carry the Truth and live the Truth wherever they may go. It would be wonderful for many congregations to buy these resources, put them in their church libraries, and make sure that they are being used frequently. Many libraries are like tombs full of dead men’s bones and cobwebs that have not been entered into for many years.  
  1. They need a daily spiritual education from their parents. Parents need to realize that it is not enough to just send our children to “Sunday school” or to a private school. Children need to be “homeschooled” (Ephesians 6:1-4). Parents need to live the Christian life and help their children to want to imitate them (1 Corinthians 11:1). If parents are not living the Christian life, what makes us think the children are going to live it? Parents need to set aside a time of worship in their home and Bible study for their kids. One of my great Christian friends used this method and their children have been proven to be strong in the faith. One of the methods that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints uses for their high school kids is called seminary where their kids will get up at 5:30 A.M. and meet at their church building at 6:00 A.M. and study for an hour before going to school. That takes a lot of dedication from these parents and kids. What is the Lord’s church doing to help promote spiritual education besides “Sunday school”?  
  1. They need to be taught critical thinking skills. I think that part of the problem is because people have never really dove into studying whether their faith is true or not. They have never developed critical thinking skills, that are not taught anymore in our public school system. My wife recently bought from a poster that depicts dinosaurs drowning in the global flood of Noah. Some of the kids at the private school where she works have looked at the poster and thought that the dinosaurs died off millions of years ago by an asteroid that struck the earth. Some of the kids who had “grown up in the church” had become “evolutionized” just like I was when I was younger. They had never asked themselves a question: If the dinosaurs died off, why didn’t everything else die out? There are many Christians who never seriously develop their own personal faith. If my parents were to stop living the Christian life, the question is: Will I?   

I pray that we as parents will invest our time, love, care, and concern to help equip our kids to be the servants of God that God would be pleased. They will stand up for the Truth and live for the Truth because they have studied and understand it to be the Truth.