We were blessed to have Dr. Emir Caner speak in our church last Sunday. He did an excellent job talking about how Christians need to renew their passion for the Lord and to renew ourselves with the fellowship of one another (1 Corinthians 16:13-18).
For starters, I'm not here to disagree with Dr. Caner on anything he said. But one thing he said did stand out in my mind. See, Dr. Caner is currently the president of Truett-McConnell University, a Baptist college in north Georgia, and he spends his time working with young adults who are growing as believers and as advanced learners.
So when Dr. Caner talks about young adults in the 18-25 range leaving the church in droves, he knows what he's talking about. He listed off some pretty disconcerting statistics while he was with us on Sunday, the essence of which were that tons of young Christians who are raised in churches are not sticking with the Church as they grow older.
There are countless theories out there about why that's true. Some cynics will say that the church is dying and pushing the younger generations away. Some people will say that these young adults are moving off to college and becoming "enlightened," so they no longer need religion.
There may be some truth to those ideas, and others, but I think the biggest problem we have when it comes to keeping young adults in the church is that most of them have been lied to about what the Bible actually says.
Let me pose a question to you. If the Bible is really the focus of our faith and the centerpiece of who we are as the Church, then what do you think happens if someone could ever actually disprove the Bible? I'm not talking about someone trying to make an argument, we see that all the time. I'm talking about someone who successfully disproves the Word of God with definitive proof.
You know what happens then. Christianity is deemed false and most everyone gives up on the church. With definitive proof that our faith is false, it dies. You may bristle at that, that's fine. But you know who agrees with me on this?
The Bible. (Specifically Paul, but you get the gist.)
"And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone world." - 1 Corinthians 15:19 (NLT)
So you know what happens when these kids leave the nest and go off to the big, scary world that doesn't defend the Bible? They hear another opinion and they compare it to what they've been told and, sometimes, they follow the new opinion instead. If you're lucky they just combine the two ideas into some sort of mega-theory for how to live life.
And this is possible because we keep lying about what the Bible actually says.
Listen to me. The Bible is the Holy, mistake-free Word of God. It cannot be disproven or debunked or ignored. But what can be disproven and debunked and ignored are the lies we keep adding to the Bible.
One of the most pernicious lies we keep telling as the Church is in regards to the gay community. How often do we hear people say things like this: "Gay people are pedophiles," or "Gay people are victims of abuse and aren't thinking straight."
Is it true that there are some gay pedophiles? Sure. Is it true that some are victims of abuse? Sure. Because that's true of any cross-section of the population. I'm sure you could find a trans-Muslim woman who is a pedophile or a Bhuddist man who is a victim of sexual abuse if you look hard enough. Are they representative of their entire group? Of course not! But they fit the narrative you want to espouse, so you prop them up.
The Church has lied about the gay community and called them names and demeaned them for decades because we thought that was best for our kids.
So what happens? These kids leave the comfort of home, they go to college, they make gay friends, and bam. They realize that their friends aren't disgusting pedophiles.
"Maybe everything else I've ever been taught isn't true, either."
We have gotten so uncomfortable with calling sin a sin that we have to add something else to it. It's not enough to say that certain behaviors are sinful, we have to make them abhorrent. And as long as we keep lying about what the Bible says about these sins, we're going to keep losing young adults to other ideologies. If everything is a lie, then no lie is better than any other.
When we lie about the Bible, we give people license to stop listening.
We do the same thing with science, don't we? Some Christians are so on-board with this idea that science is evil and futile that we refuse to believe anything even remotely scientific.
I think there should be room for healthy questioning about science, sure. After all, that's the scientific method. We look at the results, then we question them again and again and again.
But when we just off-handedly dismiss science because it's science, we lie about the Bible and we lie about Christianity. There should not be some great war between science and Christ.
Again, there are certainly tenets of modern science we can disagree with like macro-evolution. (Micro-evolution, on the other hand, is an observed and proven phenomenon, so please be careful and specific when you tell someone that "Evolution is a lie!")
And we have some people who try to use the Bible to convince others that their ideas of the world are true, no matter how asinine that idea might be. Everyone from the Flat Earth Society to the Anti-Vaccination crowds will use scripture to justify their causes, and for no reason. Their connections are tenuous at best, and straight-up fraudulent at worst.
Here's another big one. How many of us have ever heard someone try to justify their racism with scripture? That one drives me up the wall. There is nothing in the Bible that justifies racism, there is nothing in the Bible that makes it okay for you to hate someone because of their skin color. In fact...
"There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:28 (NLT)
Oh, yeah. The Bible says the exact opposite of that, doesn't it? There is no justification for racism to be found in the Bible, and if someone tries to convince you otherwise, they are wrong.
I know there are also plenty of non-Christians who lie about what the Bible says, but they're not really who I'm talking to right now. Plus, they have an excuse of not being regularly taught the Bible and not having an expectation of reading the Bible. Some non-Christians do read the Bible with the purpose of learning, and I greatly admire and respect their initiative, but I'm not really talking to non-Christians here.
I get that we're not all Bible experts. I'm not a Bible expert. But if you're going to put yourself out there and talk about the Bible, at least make sure that you do so honestly. We all make honest mistakes, and there are times when we'll get a meaning wrong or misquote something, but there is no excuse for deliberately misleading people about what the Bible says.
Especially when you consider that what the Bible says, more importantly, is what God says.
"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right." - 2 Timothy 3:16 (NLT)
So please. When you decide to talk about the Bible, do your research first. There is nothing more important for believers to do than speak the Truth with love and mercy. Truth is, we speak for God.
When we tell people that we are Christians, we speak for God. Even more so when we tell people that we're Christians and then quote the Word of God. This last part goes for non-Christians, too, since the Bible is the Word of God for anyone and everyone.
I don't know about you, but the last thing I want to do is lie about what God says.
NOTE: Like I said above, I'm not a Bible expert. I have read the Bible and been taught the Bible by some wonderful people over the last 29 years of my life, but I'm not a Bible expert, so I'm not interested in having a heated argument over what it says. I will, however, happily discuss the Bible in a calm, friendly environment whether you believe the Word or not.
So please forgive me if I got some details wrong, and I'll extend the same grace to you.