Churches are producing atheists by not answering the questions of young people and explaining why they believe in the Bible, said a Christian apologist who works with young adults.
Anthony Horvath, who was formerly an atheist himself after years of Christian education, pointed out that renowned atheists such as Richard Dawkins were raised in the Church but have become some of the fiercest attackers of God.
He further noted, “Books like Richard Dawkins’ ‘The God Delusion’ and Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’ do not become best sellers in a society that understands what Christianity is all about.”
Horvath, who has taught religion to middle school and high school students, explained that some of the recurring questions young adults struggle with but churches often fail to address include the formation and development of the Bible, the presence of evil and suffering in the world, and the question of inspiration and inerrancy.
“In large part, it happens when the church leadership is completely unaware that their members – and not necessarily just the young members – have questions at all,” explained Horvath to The Christian Post. “And [they] continue merrily along thinking that to retain the youth they just need to be entertained.”
Young people question whether they should trust the Bible since it “is so old,” and are not satisfied with the simple answer that they should trust it because God wrote it. Horvath explains that though they understand that to be the Christian position, they want to know how they can be sure of that.
Furthermore, the younger generation continues to wrestle with the age-old question of why, if God is good, then there is evil and suffering in the world.
“The evidence – which they can see with their own eyes on TV and in the newspaper – is that God is not good,” said Horvath. “It is only a matter of time before a young person begins to encounter pain and suffering in their own lives and has to grapple with the issue personally.”
He added that these youth will be less likely to trust what the Church says as they continue to be fed easy answers which do not really explain why.
As a solution, Horvath recommends apologetics – the defense of the Christian faith. He points to 1 Peter 3:15 which teaches believers to be ready to give the reasons for what they believe.
“I am talking about apologetics at a much broader scale then normally understood,” said Horvath. “It should not be left to professors or specialists, such as C.S. Lewis. It needs to be incorporated into everything we do as the Church from cradle to grave.”
He called for believers to not only be able to say that Jesus rose from the dead as church dogma and doctrine, but to be able to explain why they believe this.
Horvath maintains an online discussion forum on Christianity and welcomes non-Christians to openly vent their opposition to the faith for discourse.
Comments
It is most unfortunate that the church which should be a place where the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ should be thoroughly expounded is the very place where you are shut down and told that you can not grasp the things of the spirit by reasoning except by faith alone. Worst still you are declared an heretic. So they step out of the church and step straight into the devil who provides them with abundant “seemingly” evidence.
How many Christians really take the time to study the bible. They always listen to the interpretation of the pastor or clergy without verifying from the bible, then whenever they come across contrary views, seeds of doubts are sown and reaped in denial of the faith.
Pastor Tunde Bakere (Nigeria) always admonishes Christians that: It is the truth that you know, that you live, that sustains you in the days of adversity. If you do not know what the word of God says concerning a situation and that situation assails you, what word would you speak into that situation?
The ones that do study the word of God, never really applied it in their situation but always tried to do things in their own strength and therefore Christ never showed forth. Hence, there never was a testimony. TURNING is harvested. This is why people like Friedrich Nietzsche, Richard Dawkins and Bart Ehrman etc turned against God and renounced their faith. God was never allowed his role in their lives. They “seemly” murdered Him and took his place.
The atheist is who he is because God has sent him a strong delusion. Despite all creatures testifying of God he denies it to live in his own lust.
Are you a Christian? Study, reason, live and have faith in the Word of God.
The bible might have been messed up. Elohim remains who He is. Remember He did not terminate Adam or erase the devil. Though His words might have been corrupted by Man. He is still the WORD!
Don’t be deceived, the Lord is as real as the devil. Go to Africa and see the power of evil LIVE as the name of Satan is invoke.
Has anyone read the story of Alexander the Great? this is just the second go around from that story,...that army started out as a mighty force across the I forget what hemisphere in that side of the world,...and then that Army started to relax after a number of victories,accumulating extra baggage (treasures?) along the way,..and turned into the worst , laziest bunch one could run into, Interesting......
It always amazes me when we try and make a positive step there is always people who aren't willing to accept us (http://defendreason.blogspot.com/2007/08/are-they-waking-up.html). I think that better explanation of our beliefs is the best option to get more people to believe the goodness of the Bible.
It's been my experience over these many years that the so-called main-line churches indeed fail to give faith-filled meat to not only the young but to the whole church. I found that the charismatic churches however teach from the bottom up! After I began to attend a spirit-filled church, I learned all sorts of wonderful information about the bible, it's origin, the power in Gods word and the deep love of Jesus. And the children were taught and knew more than I did!!
“In large part, it happens when the church leadership is completely unaware that their members – and not necessarily just the young members – have questions at all,” explained Horvath to The Christian Post. “And [they] continue merrily along thinking that to retain the youth they just need to be entertained.”
Most youth groups are pizza, a guitar and a place to hangout!
The Church's failure to adequately address people's intellectual questions is indeed one of the reasons for the defection of people such as Richard Dawkins. But it isn't the only reason. A second reason is that a lot of professing Christians have done a lousy job of demonstrating the fruits of the Holy Spirit in their own lives.
Of the two reasons mentioned in the preceding paragraph, I'm inclined to think that the second reason gets to the heart of the matter more often than not. We can have the greatest arguments in the world, but if we fail to treat one another with the love of Christ on a consistent basis, it won't go very far in terms of persuading people to commit their lives to Christ.
In all fairness, though, it should be acknowledged that there's nothing we can do to guarantee that people "raised in the church" will adopt the beliefs of their parents. Ultimately, each person must make the individual choice to follow or reject Christ. We should do everything possible to insure that Christianity is portrayed in the best possible light, so that we do not become stumbling blocks who prevent people from fully understanding the message of Christ, but we also need to understand that there will always be some people who will reject the gospel in spite of our best and most conscientious efforts.
All we can do is to do our best, and then leave the rest up to God.
Church is busy chasing money, popularity, the good American life. No time for the Word of God and for teaching the children the Word, let alone seeking God with all your heart etc. Logical outcome.
The Albatross forever hung around the neck
http://poleblog.polemos.net/2007/08/albatross-forever-hung-around-neck.html
Ray\'sMom,
your essentially using the Cosmological argument. Which is...essentially if everything has a cause, eventually go back far enough in time and you will have to have a un-caused cause in order for the universe as we know it to exist. This uncaused being is God(who exists transcendentally outside of time and space). It is a pretty good argument .
::begin quote::
Now, you clever scientist, create life for me using nothing.
::end quote::
Your essentially stating the scientific Law of Biogenesis (All life comes from life). This is also a good argument because as of yet the Theory of Abiogenesis (life coming from non-life) has yet to be demonstrated.
Well done.
I have been a Christian for over 40 years now. I am also a lover of science. What atheists fail to realize is their science hasn't caught up with the Bible yet. I might have become an atheist but it took way too much faith. Any scientist worth his salt will tell you that matter can neither be created or completely distroyed. Only it's form can be changed. If that is true, and I know it is, where did the matter needed to creat the universe come from? The Bible says that there was nothing but a void and God spokie everything into existence. Now, you clever scientist, create life for me using nothing. Even if you use every chemical known to man, you can not create life. Until I met Jesus, the author of life, I was lost. Praise God that even though I didn't believe in him, He always believed in me.
Citizen-another interesting and compelling-documentary,by james cameron called the exodus decoded,a lot of newly unearthed evidence, its on dvd and i beleve it can be downloaded
Citizen-again to use your line of reasoning-New York City is a real place, does that mean spiderman exists-do you discount the writings of historian joesephus,who was a Jew not a christian, well the bible speaks,about so many citys and peoples that existed,yet were said by the scientific comunity to have not existed because they didnt beleve the truth of what is writen in the bible untill the past-100 years,untill they were unearthed,so they were shown that the bible was correct after all,so a few year pass and once again the scientific community make the same claims about other items stated in the bible,such as the accuracy of the manuscripts of the foundation of the bible, then the dead sea scrolls are found so the scientific community moves on to another topic to prove the bible isnt true,when will the atacks stop.
Citizen,there are hyrogliph,showing the massive migration of the hebrews into egipt,there are also the plages recorded,there is the exodus of as well as the persuit ect, one dvd that i know of is called the exodus revealed, theres another one called mysterious origins forbididen archeology another called exodus decoded,plus robert balards work on the exodus,
Citizen-sounds like you have alot of faith in science,i think science can be very usefull however it isnt the end all be all,That belongs to God,
Laforte: New York City is a real place, does that mean spiderman exists? As for actual events well, you should read The Bible Unearthed as well to see how wrong the Bible gets it. For example, there is no archaeological evidence that the Hebrews were ever in Egypt in the first place, much less that the exodus took place. Moreover, Judah in the time of King David and Solomon was a grubby little village, not a magnificent city with a palace as portrayed. The Bible is very far from historically accurate on multiple points.