Our friend Frank Turek from Cross Examined is hosting a live web simulcast tonight, addressing what to do about the youth exodus from our churches once students hit college. The simulcast is from 7-10 pm CST. That's a start time of 5 pm for all you West Coasters (the time listed on the AFA website--6 pm CST--is incorrect). His guests include William Lane Craig, Bill Dembski, Mike Adams and Josh McDowell.
In the Parable of the Sower 3/4ths of the converts washed out. Since John says whatever is born of God overcomes the world, we must assume these were not.
Posted by: Dave | January 20, 2010 at 04:44 AM
Do we know if the audio and/or video will be available? I couldn't catch the live stream.
Thanks
Posted by: thomas | January 20, 2010 at 06:48 AM
Interesting. Answers In Genesis commissioned a survey and came to conclude that compromise on 6-day, young-earth creation is one of the reasons why kids start to doubt the Bible and eventually walk away (if you can't believe/read-with-straightforward-interpretation the first chapter of the Bible ... ).
From what I know Frank Turek and Bill Craig both hold to old-earth theory!
Posted by: kpolo | January 20, 2010 at 12:55 PM
As an adult, if I was held to a literal 6-day creation, 6000-year old earth, I'D doubt the Bible and walk away!!!
Posted by: Perry Shields | January 20, 2010 at 03:15 PM
Dave, I don't think the parable of the sower was meant to give us exact statistical averages on conversions. Rather I think they simply describe different responses to the Gospel presentation. I would agree though that there aren't deconversions, with the poor practices of many churches today one should not be surprised to find people with sandy foundations blow out of the way and toppled over.
Posted by: Chris | January 20, 2010 at 04:44 PM
didnt Jesus hold to a 6 day creation?
Here is AIG's brief summary of why they believe the bible teaches 6 literal 24hr days for creation: http://www.answersingenesis.org/us/newsletters/0801lead.asp
I have watched a number of debates between OEC's and YEC's and have yet to find a reasonable explaination (and yes, I have been on RTB's site) for why "Yom" was used.
I am a Christian based on the evidence (historical Jesus being who he said he was), but I do struggle with the YEC vs OEC position. If anyone could direct me to some GOOD scriptural reasons to explain "Yom" and other biblical references as anything other than from a YEC position, I would like to hear it. Again, I have been to RTB, their reasons are NOT satisfying at all.
Posted by: anonymous | January 21, 2010 at 06:21 AM
I am not that interested in the YEC/OEC squabble personally, but other than RTB, this site offers arguments for the OEC position:
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/creation.html
HTH!
Posted by: emmzee | January 21, 2010 at 10:38 AM
Thank you for this information. I will review it and see where that leads me.
Posted by: anonymous | January 21, 2010 at 10:54 AM
I was not able to watch the event, but I have been bothered by Turek's (and others') use of statistics. On Turek's site, for example, he claims that "3 out of 4 Christian teens walk away from the church after they leave home."
This is misleading, because it leads people to believe that 75% of kids are abandoning Christianity. That's not the case. According to a study by LifeWay (the best I’ve seen in terms of its thorougness and controls), only 7% of the 70% who stop attending church do so because they became atheists (~5% of all Christian teens). The rest continue to be non-church-going Christians. And 2/3 of them will start attending church again regularly or semi-regularly by the time they are 30.
This isn’t to dismiss the fact that a sizable minority of teens do abandon their faith after high school, often due to intellectual challenges to the faith they encounter in college. And even those who maintain their faith often do so in the face of serious, unresolved intellectual struggles. So we definitely need to promote apologetics among our Christian teens. But we would all be served better if a little more precision was used in reporting the statistics, so as to present a more realistic picture of the situation, and avoid more alarmism than is necessary.
Furthermore, I don't know why we would be surprised if 75% of teens raised in church did reject Christianity after leaving the home. After all, faith is not inherited. These kids have their own fallen will. And just like so many others who weren't raised sitting on a pew, they have a volitional problem with the idea of submitting their life to God. The vast majority of people reject Christianity, so I'm not surprised when those who hear the Gospel preached every Sunday do the same. The youth in our churches are often just captive sinners. They do not love God, but are forced to go to church by their parents. Once the captive sinner is in a place to leave, he will.
Posted by: Jason Dulle | January 21, 2010 at 11:58 AM
Jason, WELL SAID!!! That is a lot of food for thought for people. I was the reverse of typical situation, my parents weren't "religious" at all. I decided to investigate the claims of Christianity in relation to other "religions" out there and Christianity had the best evidence.
Thank you for the post.
Posted by: DW (formerly anonymous :-) | January 21, 2010 at 12:08 PM
Anonymous said: "didnt Jesus hold to a 6 day creation?"
I don't claim to know what Jesus thought about the sciences. If Jesus was indeed God, though, then He knew a lot that He just couldn't share, such as heliocentrism and the immensity of the universe, what stars are (many stars are actually whole galaxies), etc. Or, that kind of knowledge was not part of Jesus' intellect as it was not taught to Him.
Either way, I believe theories about the origin of the universe and our solar system outside of the Bible and Jewish culture were not widely bandied about in those days, hence Jesus's knowledge was either withheld or He truly didn't know.
Posted by: Perry Shields | January 21, 2010 at 04:39 PM
Check out the below on the age of the earth
http://www.geraldschroeder.com/AgeUniverse.aspx
Posted by: Anonymous | January 21, 2010 at 06:38 PM
FWIW, any person will be prone to the temptations of the world if they are raised in it, and that is what it seems most "Christians" do, as pertains their children.
TV, movies, worldly music, public schooling serves as the perfect launching pad into the anti-Christian teachings one is exposed to in 99% of university.
Simplistic? Yes. But what is so complicated about the Gospel? One can learn and never stop learning upon entering into the wisdom of the Lord but, the fundamental of remaining apart from the world is an undeniable necessity if one is to maintain faithfulness to His Holy Word.
Posted by: Mark Ducharme | January 21, 2010 at 09:09 PM
Thanks for the link. Very informative and interesting.
Posted by: Perry Shields | January 21, 2010 at 10:44 PM