More teens becoming 'fake' Christians

[trc123]

http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/08/27/almost.christian/index.html?hpt=T2

Strange..................

[John81]

While some of the terms used here are different, what's being described really isn't.

What it amounts to is many parents are churches teach and live a watered down or worldly form of Christianity and once children grow up they don't want anything to do with this.

Watered down, worldly Christianity, as the article points out, is mostly fluff and offers nothing solid for the real issues of life.

In most of these sort of churches biblical salvation is neither taught nor expected. Like many said in the study, they believe if they do good God will bless them. That mirror's my own experience growing up in a Methodist church. If I was good enough I'd go to heaven, if not I'd go to hell. The prOBlem, of course, is there is not standard for "good enough" and thus one can never truly know if they are heavenbound or on the bus to hell (naturally, the Bible makes it clear that our "goodness" won't earn our way to heaven, I'm speaking in regard to those who believe such wrong teaching).

Another point I've witnessed time and again over the years is parents sending their children to churches with entertainment based youth groups in the hopes that will help their children turn out better than some of the others.

Our youth groups do some fun things, nothing wrong with some entertainment, but that's never the focus of our youth groups. The focus is Christ...knowing the Gospel...hoping they will be biblically born again...growing in the Word...learning how to live as Christians in an unchristian world...

What we should really learn from the article is just what Scripture says. Christ is the only Way and only by abiding in Him can we find true fulfillment.

Without Christ, youth and adults alike will search elsewhere for fulfillment, never really being able to find such outside of Christ.

[ThomasCooper]

Personally, I believe that the first step in ministering to young heathens is to remind them of the eternal torment that awaits them for rejecting God's Word. Secondly, we must remind them that their lives are meaningless drivel as long as they are outside of God's plan.

If their parents are true Christians, we coordinate our efforts with their home life to maintain a 24/7 assault upon their carnal natures until the Fear of Isaac breaks into their crusty, sinful young hearts. If their parents are backsliders, this may be more difficult, but good results are often achieved through subtle manipulations of the the carnal youths' mind through Christian education.

In the end, God elects His Own, so we need hold nothing back in our efforts to crush the carnality from the youth. If God rejects them, we have merely done our duty, and may move on to (hopefully) more promising stock with a clear conscience.

[asysin2leads]

Teens, for the most part, are involved in "what's the latest and greatest" new thing. If Christianity is the "in thing" at this moment in their life, then that's what they are "passionate" about. They change their focus and priorities as often as their socks. Please don't get me wrong. There are those who are determined to life a Christian life and they are to be commended for it. However, those are few and far between. Peer pressure has a lot to do in the life of a teenager. Yes, kids can be pressured into getting "saved." I've seen it a lot over the years. The pressure can also come from the parents, btw. I do hope that anyone who makes a profession of faith truly understands what that means and is sincere. However, that is not always the case.

[amblivion]

When I was in highschool and college, almost everyone I knew said they were a Christian. I can tell you that only about two or three people in my class actually lived it. The rest of them partied every Friday night and some smoked weed. It was pretty much the same story in college except a little more of them actually walked the talk. This is because the college I went to has a Christian background and claims to be Christian. Needless to say, when I was on the fire department, all of my fellow firemen claimed some form of "Christianity." I will tell you right now some of them had the most perverse language I have ever heard in my life. For awhile there I was pretty much the only one on the fire department that didn't drink. One of our department members even was making some kind of whiskey brew in his room. Anyways that is just what I have noticed at the schools I have been to. That either A: we have a lot of very carnal Christians that don't care about the things of God or B: they are "fake" Christians. In other words, I think this article is pretty much right.

[John81]

If parents don't live a Christian life, if they don't take steps to raise their children for Christ, if the churches don't preach the whole Word of God and the congregation live accordingly, it's little wonder we have so many professing Christians who don't even know what the Gospel is and live as the world.