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The church’s youth and the people who are won to the Lord from outside are the future of the church. A pastor once told me, “I used to think that the youth are the future of the church. I no longer think that. I now think that those we win to Christ are the future of the church.”

It appeared to me that he had changed his thinking because of a general lack of good fruit among the church’s youth.

I am convinced that both our youth and those we win to Christ are the future of the church. In light of God’s promises, there is no reason why we can’t win our children to Christ and train them as true disciples of Christ.

Youth Are Leaving

Yet most churches are losing their youth.

Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, warns, “A mass exodus is underway. Most youth of today will not be coming to church tomorrow” (Already Gone, p. 22).

The latest research shows that a frightful percentage of Sunday School children drop out of church in adolescence.

After analyzing 25 different surveys, Barna Research found that 61% of young adults who were active in church as children and teens “spiritually disengage” by their twenties (“Teenagers Embrace Religion but Are Not Excited about Christianity,” Jan. 10, 2000, www.barna.org).

In 2005, Answers in Genesis contracted a survey of young adults between the age of 20 and 29 and found that two-thirds of teens who regularly attend “conservative” or “evangelical” churches are gone by college age.

Our own survey in 2005 found that 50% of youth are leaving the churches, and this is a survey of very conservative independent Baptist congregations.

Church and Home Working Together

The church and home must work together to produce disciples. These two divinely-appointed institutions should work together in perfect harmony to evangelize, train, and disciple children for God’s glory. The church builds up the homes, and the homes raise the children.

Therefore, a major part of discipling young people is the church’s ministry to the families.

A young person in a weak family, either unbelieving or spiritually lukewarm, is handicapped. He can serve the Lord, but it is more difficult than if he were in a godly home that is helping and encouraging him.

A great many churches are failing in this. They are not building the types of homes that can properly train their own children. And the churches themselves are not effectively discipling the youth. As a result, they are dying.

We deal with this in the chapter “A Discipling Church Builds Godly Homes.”

One pastor wrote,

“I came to this church finding the second generation barely holding on to the foundations their parents put in place and a third generation that is nowhere to be found. Why? I believe that the Bible was not given a priority and many false assurances of salvation were given at an altar for emotion’s sake and not Christ’s sake. We must preach the Bible more thoroughly. We need to trust our young people with the Bible and teach them how to properly use it in their everyday lives. We teach fundamentals of math, grammar, spelling and history, why not a systematic study of the Bible geared toward young people?”

This statement describes the condition in a great many churches, and it also identifies two fundamentals of what needs to be done, which is to be careful about salvation and to help the young people to become true Bible students.

Not a Youth Ministry but a Ministry Geared to Youth

The church doesn’t need a youth ministry; it needs a biblical ministry geared to youth.

All too often, a typical youth ministry isolates the youth from the adults, the children from the families, and creates a Christian version of the world’s youth culture. Typically such a ministry is a large part entertainment and a very small part New Testament discipleship. It is fun and games with a veneer of biblical spirituality. A typical youth activity consists of a little devotional message sandwiched between a whole lot of goofing off.

This type of thing is nowhere ordained in Scripture. But the Bible does instruct the churches to warn and teach every man in order to present every man perfect in Christ Jesus (Col. 1:28), and this applies to young people as well as older people.

The New Testament Epistles address young people specifically and directly (e.g., 1 Timothy 4:12; 2 Timothy 2:22; Titus 2:6), so it is obviously not wrong for a church to have a ministry to youth.

We see in Titus 2 that every age group of saints has its own particular situation and spiritual challenges, and these should be addressed.

A biblical ministry to youth is all about discipleship. This is the plan we follow, and we have seen great fruit from it.

Be Careful about Salvation

The most fundamental thing in youth discipleship is to be careful about salvation, because you can only disciple a born again believer.

I am convinced that the average church youth group has a lot of unsaved young people, and I am not referring to the visitors. They have grown up in the church. They know how to act when they need to. They know what to say if asked, “Do you know the Lord?” They have “believed in Jesus” all their lives. But while their mouths profess love for Christ, their daily lives give testimony that they actually love the world.

We are extremely careful about baptizing young people and receiving them into the church’s membership. We don’t look for a profession; we look for a conversion.

We have dealt with this in the chapter “A Discipling Church Begins with Caution about Salvation.”

But what is often lacking is a clear conversion experience and a clear born again testimony.

I’m not talking about sinless perfection. I’m talking about supernatural, life-changing salvation. A young person who loves the world is either lost or seriously backslidden. The Bible says he is the enemy of God (James 4:4). In the context of James’ sharp reproof toward those who love the world, we are taught that such a person needs to experience a radical spiritual revival (Jas. 4:7-10). James did not ignore the worldliness of the people he was addressing, and pastors and youth workers must not ignore the worldliness of young people today. We must not accept worldliness as the status quo.

Worldly young people must not be allowed to be comfortable in their sin. They must not be allowed to think that they are right with God. They must not be allowed to serve in a ministry.

Be Serious

Children and youth ministries must be far more serious than they usually are.

Answers in Genesis found that “Sunday school is actually more likely to be detrimental to the spiritual and moral health of our children” (Already Gone, p. 38). They found that students who regularly attend Sunday School are “more likely to become anti-church through the years.” This is because “Sunday school actually didn’t do anything to help them develop a biblical worldview.” The education is typically entertainment-oriented and irrelevant to children’s daily lives.

This was what I experienced as a child in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. I learned a lot of Bible stories but they appeared distant and mythical and didn’t seem to have anything to do with my personal life. When I was confronted by the Bible through a well-equipped believer in 1973 at age 23, I was amazed that the Bible was so practical and actually spoke to the things I was thinking about and doing. That was not the way the Bible was presented when I was in Sunday School, and this is a shame.

Teachers must avoid trivializing the Bible and not connecting the Bible to real life. Children’s ministries can be enjoyable without being silly and without trivializing the things of God.

Many children’s ministries present Bible lessons almost as fairy tales.

For example, Noah’s Ark is often depicted as a silly-looking cartoon thing that could not possibly have held all of the animals or survived the raging storms.

David is depicted as a little boy when he killed Goliath, whereas he was actually a young man.

Jesus is depicted as an effeminate, long-haired individual, whereas He was an ordinary-looking, short-haired Jewish man, a carpenter, a man who chased the money-changers from the temple.

Avoid mindless children’s songs (such as “let the sun shine in, face it with a grin, smiler’s never lose and frowners never win,” or, “This little light of mine...”).

We believe that cartoons should be avoided for the most part, as they tend to trivialize spiritual things by their very character.

Teachers should test everything by the principle of holiness and soberness. They should ask themselves, “Is this helping the children to take Christ and God’s Word seriously?”

Discipling Rather Than Entertaining

The church must disciple the young people, not entertain them.

In the average church, as much as or more time is spent on sports and entertainment than serious Bible training, but there is no authority in God’s Word for churches to entertain the saints. Few people are deficient in entertainment today. Life is too short to do everything, so the churches must focus on the most important thing in life, which is the Word of God. We must redeem the time.

In our youth ministry, we don’t have sports. Other Independent Baptists in our town occupy themselves with sports. But we made a purposeful decision to avoid this in order to keep the focus of our young people on Christ and God’s Word.

Our monthly youth meetings consist of an hour and a half or more of singing and testimonies and Bible teaching, with perhaps 15 minutes for a game, usually a Bible quiz. The preaching and teaching gets down into the daily lives of the young people. We deal with things such as having the right friendships, how to handle social media and modern technology, how to make wise decisions, how to find a mate in God’s will, the importance of right counsel, and Bible principles for measuring entertainment.

Multiple times a year we have three- to four-day conferences during which we teach the Bible for 12 or more hours, and there are usually no games. Yet the vast majority of our young people love these meetings, because they know Christ personally, have surrendered themselves to Him (Romans 12:1), and have been taught to delight in God’s Word.

In these conferences we have taught through Romans and Hebrews. We have taught on the Tabernacle, Dispensationalism, Herod and the Roman Empire, Ur of the Chaldees, Holiness, Evolution, Creation Science, and Archaeology. We memorize verses and give tests on the material.

Effectual Bible Students

We want every one of our young people to become serious Bible students.

We focus on this continually, teaching, exhorting, and rebuking when necessary.

This starts with the children.

The parents and the church should lead them in memorizing Scripture, beginning when they are very small. Children are capable of doing much more than they are typically challenged to do if they have a good teacher. Our oldest daughter memorized 100 verses by age seven, and one of our granddaughters memorized 65 verses by age three.

Make sure that they learn to understand the Scriptures rather than memorizing mindlessly and learning by mere rote.

Train the children to have a daily Bible reading habit. This starts with reading a verse or two daily and then extending the portion as they grow older. We give examples of this in The Mobile Phone and the Christian Home and Church.

As soon as they are able to read well enough, get them their own Bible dictionary and teach them how to use it. We published the Believer’s Bible Dictionary specifically for teens, though it is a serious Bible dictionary for any age. I give my grandchildren this dictionary at age eleven.

As soon as they are able to understand it, which is early teens, we use the Effectual Bible Student course to train the young people. This can be used by saints of any age, but I designed it particularly with young people in mind.

This training program consists of 12 hours of video instruction plus an accompanying printed manual.

It has four major parts.

First, the Effectual Bible Student teaches the spiritual qualifications for effectual Bible study.

Second, the Effectual Bible Student teaches how to have a daily Bible study time. It is absolutely fundamental that the individual establish a time and a place and develop a daily habit of meeting with God. If the individual is not willing to carve out time for God on a daily basis, he will never learn God’s Word and will not make a lot of progress in his Christian life.

Third, the Effectual Bible Student teaches how to understand the Bible by means of fundamental principles of interpretation.

Fourth, the Effectual Bible Student teaches how to use the major Bible study tools. We focus on the effectual use of the following study books: Strong’s Concordance, Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, Believer’s Bible Dictionary, and select Bible commentaries. We urge each of our young people to obtain these tools and use them every day. The youngest teenager should be able to learn how to do this at a basic level.

We suggest that the young person develop his Bible study habits first using books rather than electronic programs. Books are less distracting while you learn the fundamentals of Bible study. It is important to unplug at times and to be able to concentrate fully on the Lord and His Word.

After learning the basics of Bible study, the student must go on to learn the background to the Bible and Bible customs and geography.

Our multimedia courses Old Testament History and Geography and Bible Times and Ancient Kingdoms can help the Bible come alive to the serious student.

The Bible is a thrilling book, the most thrilling book on earth. The more you learn how to study it and the more you study it, the more you get out of it, and the more you get out of it the more you enjoy it.

Enjoying the Christian Life

The church must challenge young people to enjoy the Christian life and teach them how.

Young people need to be taught that Jesus Christ and the Bible are the most thrilling things in life. To know Christ is life! There is absolutely nothing boring about the Christian life as God intends it to be lived. God made life to be wonderful, and by redemption we can enjoy the life that was lost through the fall.

Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). The God who made Eden for Adam and Eve has given us richly all things to enjoy (1 Timothy 6:17). The Psalmist says, “... the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psa. 84:11). And, “Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! ... He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee” (Psa. 81:13, 16).

God is the God of bounty to His people. He is the God of corn. One corn seed typically produces a stalk bearing two cobs, each with an average of 500 kernels per cob. Thus, it multiplies itself 1,000 fold and more in one generation. If you replant the 1,000 seeds from one corn stalk and each grows to maturity--each stalk bearing two cobs with an average of 500 kernels per cob (2,000 X 500)--you get one million kernels of corn. That’s just the second generation. And if you plant those one million kernels and each stalk grows to maturity, you get a billion corn seeds in just three generations! This is an example of the blessing with which God has filled the world for man’s benefit. “Such is the tremendous reproductive power of DNA, especially in primary producer plants that must generate sufficient food-web biomass so all consumers--including we humans--can survive” (Kenneth Poppe, Exposing Darwinism’s Weakest Link, p. 33).

The believer has an eternal inheritance that he begins to enjoy in this present life.

The abundant life is not found in worldly things. It is found in walking in intimate fellowship with the Creator and enjoying life with Him at the center of it. He is life. He is the key to life. He is the most interesting part of life. He is the purpose of life.

Consider some things that enrich the life and bring great enjoyment:

Bible Study

We don’t want our young people merely to study the Bible as a religious ritual. We want them to delight in the Bible.

Bible study is the most interesting, thrilling thing in my life, and it has been for the 43 years I have been saved. I was thrilled with Bible study from the first day I was saved, and I am more thrilled with it today than ever.

The church needs to teach the young people that the Bible is the world’s most fascinating and amazing book, and they must seek to gain a thoroughgoing biblical worldview.

What benefits are there to Bible study?

1. In the Bible you see God. That is the first purpose of the Bible. I see Him on every page, in every verse. I continually learn new things about His glorious Person and character: His holiness, His majesty, His omnipotence, His omniscience, His unchangeableness, His infinity, His eternality (He “inhabiteth eternity”), His truthfulness, His grace, His patience, His gentleness, His tender mercies, His meekness and lowliness of heart, His kindness, His goodness, His peace.

2. In the Bible you see God’s glorious salvation for sinners through the cross of Christ, which is the central act of human history.

3. In the Bible you see yourself and come to understand yourself better and better.

4. In the Bible you find the key to understanding all of life (“in thy light we see light,” Ps. 36:9). It gives the right worldview. It shows how the world began, where man comes from, what he is, what his purpose is, why the world is like it is, how marriage originated, why men and women are different, why men are different than animals. The Bible is the key to understanding every discipline: social studies, history, economics, politics, government, psychology, every aspect of science, etc.

5. In the Bible you find God’s will. The Bible contains the mind of Christ (1 Co. 2:16).

6. In the Bible you see the past and understand history from God’s perspective.

7. In the Bible you see the future.

There is no other book that reveals the future. All prophecies outside of the Bible are vague and false. For example, astrological forecasts are typically vague, such as, “You are going to meet someone who will be important in your life.” And if they aren’t vague, they are usually wrong. A famous British astrologer named Naylor, whose predictions appeared in the Sunday Times, said, “In this column, for years, I have constantly laboured these points: Hitler’s horoscope is not a war-horoscope ... there will be no war” (August 27, 1939). Edgar Cayce predicted the arrival of Armageddon in 1999. Jeanne Dixon predicted that Russia would beat the U.S. to the moon, that World War III would begin in 1958, and that there would be a cure for cancer in 1967. The royal astrologer for Nepal’s King Birendra did not see his death in 2001. Instead, the astrologer saw an earthquake for that time, which didn’t occur.

But the Bible’s prophecies are clear and precise, for the most part. They do contain typology but the key to the interpretation of the prophecies is given in Scripture itself.

Consider Christ’s first coming. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, his life was written in Scripture. His birthplace of Bethlehem was named (Mi. 5:2). His rejection by the Jewish nation was foretold (Isa. 53). Every detail of His death was foretold, including the beating, the mocking, the piercing of His hands and feet, His experience of dying, the words He spoke from the cross (Ps. 22) and His burial in a rich man’s tomb (Isa. 53:9).

Bible prophecy is a wonderful, important part of the Christian life and an important part of youth discipleship.

Bible prophecy is interesting. Even lukewarm believers like to study Bible prophecy.

Bible prophecy strengthens the faith of young people that the Bible is God’s Word. It is one of the great evidences of the Bible’s divine inspiration.

Bible prophecy enables young people to see the future and to have a “long view” of life rather than a short-sighted view. By prophecy, young people can “seek those things that are above” (Colossians 3:1-4), and this is a life-changing thing.

Bible prophecy enables the believer to see his eternal inheritance. Paul prayed that the saints would understand “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” (Eph. 1:18). A large portion of the Bible describes Christ’s millennial kingdom and the believer’s eternal inheritance in the new heaven and new earth. Dozens of entire chapters of Scripture are devoted to this. God wants His people to know the future. The more we focus our attention on this, the less worldly-minded we will be.

Bible prophecy prepares the believer for his future in Christ’s kingdom as a part of Christ’s bride. We teach our young people that the Christian life and service in the church are the preparation for the future. It really matters how we live and what choices we make. By pursuing diligent Christian growth, the believer prepares for his entrance into Christ’s kingdom (2 Peter 1:5-11). By being rich in good works, the believer lays up treasures “against the time to come” (1 Timothy 6:17-19). By faithful service and obedience to Christ, the believer earns the privilege of ruling with Him (Revelation 2:26-27; 3:21).

Good music (Eph. 5:19)

Note that sacred music is associated with Spirit control. It has the power to change the mood and attitude as it did Saul’s (1 Sa. 16:16).

Music is powerful, either for evil or for good. What music do you love? What music do you have on your phone? What music do you share with your friends?

I enjoy a wide variety of wholesome music, not only Christian music, but good classical, semi-classical, marches, etc. It enriches my life. God has given us all good things to enjoy (1 Ti. 6:17).

The report “Suggested Sacred Music Recordings” can help the young person find good Christian music.
www.wayoflife.org/database/sacred-music-sources.html

Good sermons

A Bible college student recently told me, “I don’t listen to music much but I listen to a lot of sermons on my cell phone.” There are thousands of sermons on SermonAudio, including many dozens of sermons published by Way of Life.

Good videos

Video is a powerful technology that can be used for good or evil, and there are countless wholesome movies and videos that can be used for recreation, education, and edification.

We have published dozens of multi-media Bible teaching videos, including Music for Good or Evil; Biblical Separation; Israel: Past, Present, and Future; The Glorious History of the English Bible; The Emerging Church; The New Age; The Effectual Bible Student; The Trojan Horse.

I have personally benefited greatly from creation science videos. In the report “Creation Science Videos” at the Way of Life web site we describe many excellent and helpful titles.
www.wayoflife.org/fbns/creationscience-videos.html

Recently my son finished editing a new video by Dr. Shem Dharampaul about Raymond Damadian, M.D., the inventor of the MRI, and his faith in Christ and rejection of evolution. Behind the MRI: Dr. Raymond Damadian can be viewed and downloaded at the following site:
http://mrimovie.ca/

I have benefited from and enjoyed many educational and historical documentaries. Nature series by BBC, such as Planet Earth, The Blue Planet, African Wildlife, Nature’s Great Events, and The Frozen Planet, are powerfully entertaining and educational, even though the producers are evolutionists and some evolutionary nonsense creeps into the series.

God made nature as a revelation of Himself and as object lessons for mankind, and there is great benefit in studying it. See 1 Ki. 4:33; Job 12:7-9; Ps. 8:3; 19:1-4; Pr. 6:6; 30:24-28; Isa. 40:26; Ro. 1:20. One reason I love photography is that it allows me to capture little slices of God’s creation. It helps me to look at things more thoughtfully.

Good conversation with the right friends (“with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart,” 2 Ti. 2:22)

Young people need to pray that the Lord will give them good friends. This is what I did as a new Christian. My old friends left me because of my zeal for Christ and the Bible, and I asked the Lord for new ones. The first one was a young man named Richard who had come to Christ about a year before I did. He was a diligent Bible student and helped me greatly the first year of my Christian life. We talked some about the world or our past lives, but we talked a lot about the thrilling things we were learning in Christ. I plainly recall, for example, the night he showed me some of the wonders of Psalm 119.

Since then, God has answered my prayer for good Christian friends a thousand times over.

Pray for friends, and God will answer that prayer if He knows that you will spend your time with them pursuing edifying things rather than worldly or vain things.

Reading and Learning

Churches should challenge the young people to be studious, to be students of the Bible, first, and then students of life in general as God made it.

Everything you learn can enrich your life, marriage, and ministry.

God made man’s amazing mind, and He did not make it to waste on laziness and vanity.

Youth is the best time to learn. Your mind is sharper and your memory better than it will ever be. As you get older, you will gradually lose the mental powers of your youth.

We teach our young people that everything you learn that is wholesome can enrich your life, ministry, and marriage.

Parents and pastors and teachers should have a passion for learning so they can impart this to the youth.

The English reader has access to the greatest wealth of literature that’s ever been available at any time in history.

Young people need to learn to read and to enjoy reading. It’s been said that the man who does not read is no better than the man who cannot read. I read the equivalent of a couple hundred books a year, and it is an enriching thing both to my personal life and to my family and ministry.

Even secular society recognizes the benefits of reading. For example, the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy works to “help parents and children build brighter futures through literacy.” Dorothy Bush Koch, daughter of U.S. President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara, says,

“When I was growing up, my mother, Barbara Bush, read to me every night. I remember reaching out to turn the pages when I was very small, caught up in the wonder of each story and the vivid pictures that filled my imagination. I was so fortunate to be raised in a household filled with books and—as you might imagine to be the case in the Bush home—plenty of conversation. By filling my days with loving words and ending each one with a bedtime story, my mother not only helped me form wonderful childhood memories, but also cultivated vital language and literacy skills that prepared me for success in school—and in life” (Dorothy Bush Koch, “What my mother Barbara Bush taught me about learning,” Fox News, Jan. 18, 2017).

Parents reading to children is so important to intelligence development that the American Academy of Pediatrics urges doctors and nurses to use pediatric visits to discuss with mothers the importance of reading.

A recent article by Charles Chu, “The Simple Truth Behind Reading 200 Books a Year” on betterhumans.coach.me, gives the following advice:

“Somebody once asked Warren Buffett about his secret to success. Buffett pointed to a stack of books and said, ‘Read 500 pages like this every day. That’s how knowledge works. It builds up, like compound interest. All of you can do it, but I guarantee not many of you will...’ ... [I]n these last two years I’ve read over 400 books cover to cover. That decision to start reading was one of the most important decisions in my life. ... Reading 200 books a year isn’t hard at all. ... The average American reads 200-400 words per minute. Typical non-fiction books have 50,000 words. ... 200 books [requires] 417 hours. ... a single American spends 608 hours on social media and 1642 hours on TV. That’s 2250 hours a year on TRASH. If those hours were spent reading instead, you could be reading over 1,000 books a year! ... If you want to read, make sure (1) you remove all distractions from your environment and (2) you make books as easy to access as possible. ... If your goal is to read more, you can’t be picky about where you read or what mediums you use. I read paper books. I read on my phone. I listen to audiobooks. And I do these things everywhere -- on park benches, in buses, in the toilet. Wherever I can. Make your reading opportunistic. If you have a chance, take it. If you don’t have a chance, find one.”

Young people need to learn to capture what they read by reading thoughtfully, underlining or highlighting important things, and jotting down thoughts.

Of course, the fundamental thing in learning is know the Bible, God’s Word, well and to test everything by it (1 Th. 5:21). This is the heart of a proper worldview (Heb. 5:14). It is the opposite of the simple person who is gullible and easily misled (Pr. 14:12).

The child of God must use the Word of God to resist the world’s wrong thinking and wrong ways in every area of his life. He must cast down every wrong imagination (2 Co. 10:4-5). He must refuse to allow the world to mold him into its image (Ro. 12:2).

A child or youth who loves to read and is left to his own choices and devices without a good knowledge of God’s Word and a thorough-going biblical worldview is a sheep among wolves.

Once you have the key to learning, which is the Bible, and once you know the Bible well enough to see everything through its lens, then you can learn to study with discrimination.

Parents and churches must teach young people how to choose the right things to study.

Wise Christian parents will carefully oversee their young people’s reading matter to weed out anything that would be a detriment to their spiritual and moral health and will help the young people to develop their own ability to discriminate. We live in a fallen world, and reading and learning is not without its very real dangers.

Of course, God requires that His people separate from every evil thing and keep themselves unspotted from the world (Jas. 1:27; 1 John 2:15-16). It is not spiritually profitable to read unwholesome literature and watch unwholesome videos and engage in any type of unwholesome endeavor.

Magic is something that is clearly off bounds (De. 18:10-12), yet many of the most popular juvenile books today delve into magic. These include Harry Potter, The Finkleton series, Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Tales of Magic, The Dark Is Rising, and Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Science fiction is another danger-filled genre. It was created in the late 19th and early 20th century as a product of an evolutionary worldview that denies the Almighty Creator. Science fiction takes the reader into a cold, strange world without God. Oh, there might be “a god,” a “force,” but it is definitely not the God of the Bible, and the prominent names in this field are Darwinists and Atheists. Science fiction and the superhero genre have grown ever darker, stranger, more sensual and godless, and many people are living a dark fantasy world because their minds and hearts have been captured by unsound authors. (See the report “Beware of Science Fiction” at www.wayoflife.org.)

In guiding children and young people in their reading, it is important to guide in the way of substance and value.

Fiction, even wholesome fiction, is rarely the best choice. I see at least three problems with fiction. First, it is addictive. Second, rarely is it intellectually challenging. Third, it rarely provides anything of godly, real substance for one’s life. Living on a diet of fiction is like living on junk food, at best. As a child, I devoured countless works of fiction, such as the Hardy Boys, the Bobbsey Twins, and Nancy Drew, but it was the reading equivalent of a mindless video game. At the time when my mind and memory were the sharpest, I wasted countless hours on the literary equivalent of marshmallows. A couple of marshmallows are OK; a diet of marshmallows is foolishness.

Not long ago I wrote the following to a grandmother who was discussing gifts for her grandchildren:

I like to focus on non-fiction. Truth is as interesting as fiction, and truth is better for kids, I believe. It is easy to get addicted to fiction. Following are some of the things I have gotten for my grandkids:

Christian Heroes four sets
Heroes of History (Janet and Geoff Benge, age 8 and up) 5 sets of 5 
DK Readers - Thomas Edison
DK Readers - Wright Brothers
DK Readers - George Washington
Moonwalk: First Trip to the Moon (Step 5)
The Titanic (Step 4)
Lives and Signers of the Declaration of Independence
To the Top: Climbing the World’s Highest Mountain (Step 5)
Hellen Keller (Step 4)
Volcanoes (Step 4)
Hungry Plants (Step 4)
Quakes (Step 5)
Michael Faraday by Charles Ludwig (age 12-15)
Sower Series (age 9 and up)
Galileo and the Magic Numbers by Sidney Rosen (12 and up)
Galen and the Gateway to Medicine by Jeanne Bendick (9 and up)
The Story of the Romans illustrated by Helen Guerber (11 and up)
Heroes of the Revolution
Exploring the World of Biology
Building Blocks of Life Science (Gary Parker)
Tools of the Ancient Romans
Complete Book of Maps and Geography
Pioneers Go West (Landmark Books)
Meet Abraham Lincoln (Landmark Books)
Landing of the Pilgrims (Landmark Books)
The Story of Thomas Edison (Landmark Books)
Louise Braille (Margaret Davidson)
Helen Keller (Margaret Davidson)
Wright Brothers (Quentin Reynolds)
Secrets of the Woods (William Long)
Moonwalk: First Trip to the Moon (Step 5)
American History by Noah Webster

The following two titles are historical fiction but they recreate the times pretty well -
The Beggars’s Bible by Louise Vernon (age 9 and up)
The Bible Smuggler by Vernon Will (age 9 and up)

Also the following from Creation Moments:
Bugs Big & Small God Made Them All 
God Made the World & Me-Preschool 
Dinosaur Activity Book
Science Activities for Illustrating Bible Lessons
Creation Curriculum Lessons Grades 1-4 
God’s Design for Life: The World of Plants 
Animals of the Bible
Noah’s Ark-Preschool Activity Book
Mineral Book
Q & A about Weather and the Bible 
Guide to Animals 
Astronomy Book 

When you have a good Bible foundation and have learned to avoid evil and to read and study with spiritual discrimination, then you can wisely and safely study life and learn from every part of life.

The KJV translators were great scholars because they were great students. John Bois could read the whole Bible in Hebrew at age five. His godly father and mother taught him to love education. His mother Mirable read the Bible 12 times and the unabridged Foxes Book of Martyrs twice. As a student at Oxford, Bois studied in the library from 4am to 8pm. In the pursuit of perfecting his linguistic skills, he read 60 grammars. He studied in his horse cart on the daily trips from Boxworth to Cambridge, letting his horse find the way. Even in old age, John Bois spent eight hours a day in study.

Carolus Linnaeus, who classified living things, was so poor as a young man that he had to stuff paper in his shoes when they wore out, but when he won a scholarship, he spent the money on lectures rather than clothes.

Michael Faraday, one of the fathers of modern physics and a strong Christian, was totally self-educated. He had a passion for learning, so his boss let him use his personal library, and Michael would read into the night after working all day. This is a reminder that we must learn how to find answers to questions and not depend on others. Once when I sent out an ad for my book on the house church, a man emailed me and asked what is a house church. He wanted me to find someone who would give him a private summary instead of making the effort to read the book and study for himself, even though the eBook was free.

In learning to be studious, young people need to take their school studies seriously.

Don’t be intimated by the ignorant crowd. Use this important time of your life wisely instead of following empty people. I have often regretted how that I wasted my youth, and a large reason that I did so was peer pressure from the foolish crowd that I ran with who encouraged me not to excel. Dumb was cool!

But go beyond your required studies. Use your youthful mind to learn good things that will enrich your personal life, your ministry to others, and your service to Christ. Recently I talked with a young man who told me that he took nearly every optional course he could take in high school beyond the required courses, because he enjoyed learning. As a result, he is an unusually well-informed young man who can hold an intelligent conversation on many subjects.

The hours that most young people waste on video games or empty talk or vain social media pastimes should be used instead to learn and perfect skills on one or more musical instruments or any number of other profitable things.

One adult gave the following testimony about why he ordered a children’s textbook The Geography Book: Activities for Exploring, Mapping, and Enjoying Your World: “As a life-long learner, when I want to learn a new subject I begin with children’s books because they assume no prior knowledge of the subject. I will enjoy working my way through the activities as a base for this new subject of study.” This comment was posted at Amazon’s web site, and it is a good example of how to pursue learning throughout one’s life.

Learn to study subjects correctly as opposed to the shallow way of the Internet age. It has encouraged “bits and pieces” research, just reading a few bits and pieces of information rather than entire books or at least entire reports. That’s like reading a few verses of the Bible instead of reading by chapter and book. By this habit, it is impossible to understand the information in context. The Internet age has encouraged haste and shallowness, just glancing quickly at Wikipedia or the top ten Google returns instead of pursuing serious research.

Photography

Photography is a great tool for your personal life, for your family, and for your ministry. It is challenging and technical. It is educational. It is art. It is fun. It is capturing slices of God’s glorious creation. It helps you to study life more carefully and thoughtfully.

Our book Good Photography Made Simple can help anyone become a better photographer.

Anything wholesome in God’s will

Pastor Buddy Smith is a master wood carver and uses his skills to make money for his own needs and ministry, to finance God’s work (he helped fund a church building), and to produce gifts to encourage the hearts of people.

Geologist Bill Kitchens studies agates and has a web site GodMadeAgates.com that features studies about agates and beautiful photos of them. He says, “Agates are treasures of God’s grace that, through natural processes, fill voids in rocks around us for people to find, wonder at, and use. ... The appreciation of beauty and the desire to create beauty, and to understand it, are parts of the ‘image of God’ built into mankind ‘in the beginning.’”

Young people must learn to use electronic technology and devices for godly and wise learning rather than for sin and worldliness and vanity.

Delighting in God (Ps. 37:4)

Above all, the wise young person will study God. The creation is fascinating, but the Creator is far more so. If you are trying to enjoy God’s creation without putting Him first in your heart and life and without looking beyond the creation to God Himself, you are an idolater.

At the heart of life must be God Himself. True Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. It is the most intimate relationship imaginable with the living God. “dear child” (Eph. 5:1), loved (Eph. 5:2), “Christ liveth in me” (Ga. 2:20); the believer is part of Christ’s bride (Eph. 5:25-26), a member of His very body (Eph. 5:30).

As a child of God, I can enjoy everything wholesome, but I must love only God. Anything else is idolatry.

The greatest thing man can think of is God Himself. It is good to learn from all of life, but everything was created to point man to God and to teach man about God.

Finding God’s Will

The church must teach the young people how to find God’s will. This is a thrilling thing because it involves finding the very purpose for which you were created.

Romans 12 is a key passage that contains the four fundamental elements of knowing God’s will:

First, personal surrender to God and His will (v. 1).
Second, separation from the evil things of and the wrong ways of the world (v. 2).
Third, renewal of the mind through God’s Word (v. 2). This requires effectual Bible study and is absolutely foundational. It requires time (Eph. 5:16 “redeeming the time”). And it requires training.
Fourth, service (vv. 3-8).

We teach these principles continually and weave these principles throughout our ministry to youth.

To train young people in knowing God’s will we use the One Year Discipleship Course, which is very practical and gets down to where the young people live. The 52 lessons deal with such things as repentance, daily Bible study methods, seeking wise counsel, wise use of money, dress, and tests of entertainment.

Separation from the World

Separation from the world must be emphasized continually. The world’s pop culture is devouring multitudes of young people in the churches. It is capturing their hearts. The church must deal effectually with the world’s music, social media, video games, dress fashions, friendships, attitude.

Even if you are saved and are studying the Bible and seeking His will, there are still powerful enemies within and without, and victory requires keen vigilance (Eph. 5:15; 1 Pet. 5:8) and strict separation (1 Jn. 2:15-17). David, the “sweet Psalmist of Israel,” was a passionate seeker of God, but we know what happened to him when he ceased being vigilant.

Christ warned that the things of the world can choke the Word in the believer’s life so that he doesn’t bear spiritual fruit (Mk. 4:19; Lk. 8:14). Jeremiah warned about sowing among thorns (Jer. 4:3). This refers to trying to serve the Lord without separating from sin, which is exactly what multitudes of professing Christians are doing in fundamental Baptist churches. Their daily lives are filled with worldly lusts and pleasures by the definition of 1 John 2:15-16, such as sensual music, immodest dress, and worldly entertainment, but they profess Christ and attend church and perhaps even read the Bible and pray. This was the condition of Israel of old. “.. this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart from me...” (Isa. 29:13). It is not possible to love God and also to love the wicked world. To love the wicked things of the world is to be the enemy of God (Jam. 4:4).

Young people who want to know and do God’s will must separate from the world.

Note the strictness of biblical separation: “all uncleanness” (Eph. 5:3), “no fellowship” (Eph. 5:11).

Separation from the world is strongly emphasized throughout Scripture. See Deuteronomy 7:26; Psalm 101:3; Proverbs 4:14-15, 23-27; 6:25-26; 7:6-10; Romans 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:33; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 1 Peter 5:8; James 4:4; 1 John 2:15-17.

Some of the Greatest Worldly Dangers Today

The mobile phone itself

The mobile phone has brought the world into people’s lives in the most intimate way. It connects to the Internet, where moral dangers and false teaching are only a click or a tap away.

If a young person wants to serve the Lord and know His will, he must be extremely cautious about modern communication tools.

It is wise to remove all temptations from one’s phone. Examples are wrong music, wrong apps, even the web browser if necessary. One young man wrote, “Before I got saved, I listened to rock music, copying it to my memory cards. After I get saved, for some time I couldn’t delete the songs. I used to say that I would be able not to listen to them, but I was easily tempted to listen to the things that were already in my phone. I was making provision for the flesh while promising not to fulfil the lusts thereof (Ro. 13:14). So one day I decided to delete them totally from my memory card and from my computer too. I thank the Lord, I have never regretted that decision.”

It is wise to use a web browser filter like CleanInternet.

It is wise to have an accountability partner.

Some use Covenant Eyes for accountability. It monitors the individual’s Internet usage and emails reports to selected people for accountability. The accountability report lists web sites visited, Internet searches, and the times of day when the Internet is used. It also features a score that ranks the individual’s level of objectionable Internet usage. Covenant Eyes also has a filtering service that can be used in combination with the accountability service. Another service of this type is X3 Watch. It provides accountability on computers, cell phones, and tablets. While I have not used this personally, it has been recommended by friends.

Others use a church leader or mature Christian friend as an accountability partner. One single young adult wrote: “I have a friend in Bible college who has the restriction codes to my phone. I cannot access the App Store, I cannot access the browser. I personally deleted every game I had off the phone, deleted Facebook and anything else that I felt ‘drawing’ my mind away in ways that I thought were a hindrance to my walk with God. A great example of this is FoxNews. The App shows a lot of news, to be sure. The space directly below it has a lot of entertainment news, which was basically nothing but soft porn. I got sick and tired of seeing this and deleted that app as well. If SnapChat or other items are a hindrance, the partner can block those as well by restricting it. Remember that browsers can be downloaded through the App Store, so even if Safari or the base browser is blocked, there are ways around it.”

Pop music

Twenty-nine of the thirty most popular YouTube videos in 2015 were music videos, and most are filthy. The total views of the 29 videos was 26 BILLION!

Psy “Gangnam Style” (2.3 billion views)
Justin Bieber “Baby” (1.2 billion)
Katy Perry “Dark Horse” (1 billion)
Taylor Swift “Blank Space” (1 billion)
LMFAO “Party Rock Anthem” (906 million)
Eminem “Love the Way You Lie” (896 million)
Shakira “Waka Waka” (889 million)
Jennifer Lopez “On the Floor” (846 million)
Miley Cyrus “Wrecking Ball” (784 million)

Rock is intimately associated with illicit sex and always has been. Even a mere glance at iTunes proves this. The covers of the albums and the lyrics are filthy, and a child of God seeking purity will not touch the unclean thing (2 Co. 6:17).

Consider the following testimonies by rock & rollers:

“That’s what rock is all about--sex with a 100 megaton bomb, THE BEAT!” (Gene Simmons of the rock group KISS, interview, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, Dec. 10, 1987).
“Rock ‘n’ roll is 99% sex” (John Oates of the rock duo Hall & Oates, Circus, Jan. 31, 1976).
“Rock ‘n’ roll is pagan and primitive, and very jungle, and that’s how it should be! … the true meaning of rock … is sex, subversion and style” (Malcolm McLaren, punk rock manager, Rock, August 1983, p. 60).
“The THROBBING BEAT of rock provides a vital sexual release for adolescent audiences” (Jan Berry of Jan and Dean, cited by Ken Blanchard, Pop Goes the Gospel).
“The great strength of rock ‘n’ roll lies in ITS BEAT ... it is a music which is basically sexual, un-Puritan ... and a threat to established patterns and values” (Irwin Silber, Marxist, Sing Out, May 1965).
“Everyone takes it for granted that rock and roll is synonymous with sex” (Chris Stein, lead guitarist for Blondie, People, May 21, 1979).
“Rock and roll is fun, it’s full of energy ... It’s naughty” (Tina Turner, cited in Rock Facts, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum).
“Pop music revolves around sexuality. I believe that if there is anarchy, let’s make it sexual anarchy rather than political” (Adam Ant, From Rock to Rock, p. 93).
“The sex is definitely in the music, and sex is in ALL ASPECTS in the music” (Luke Campbell of 2 Live Crew).

Pop music and rap will steal your heart for the world. At best you will have a divided heart.

Pastor Dave Sorenson tells how that as a teen his heart was captured by rock music that he listened to in his bedroom via a transistor radio that his pastor father let him have.

I was captured by rock music via 45-rpm records at a friend’s garage. He was a deacon’s son.

Videos

YouTube, music videos, X-rated movies, parents used to keep MTV out of the home, but now MTV and much worse is on the kids’ phones!

Video Games

“See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Eph. 5:15-17).

Video games are very addictive and they are great time wasters. Also many of them have very wicked content. Even the more innocent games use rock music as a background, thus addicting young people to the sensual rock rhythms.

If young people are allowed to play video games, they must be carefully chosen and the play time must be strictly limited by the parents.

Video games and addiction

“The more we looked into it the more we found that gaming was taking over the lives of kids.”

“Some studies suggest that gaming is absolutely taking over the minds of children all together.”

“Virtual life becomes more appealing than real life.”

Beware of role playing games. Nothing takes over young people’s hearts and minds more than these. They are called MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing games).

The most addictive games in 2015 are the following: Madden, Dota 2, Grand Theft Auto, Tetris, Candy Crush Saga (the company is valued at $7.5 billion), Minecraft, EverQuest (called “never rest” and “ever crack”), The Sims (player has omnipotent control over people), World of Warcraft (called World of War Crack), Call of Duty (the last two are played by more than 100 million players), Halo 3 (called Halodiction), Total War, Pong, Civilization, Diablo 3, Super Meat Boy, Team Fortress 2, Dark Souls 2, Counter Strike, Starcraft 2, Persona 4 Golden, Monster Hunter 3, Elder Scrolls, Angry Birds, Faster Than Light, Peggle, League of Legends, Civilization V, Pokemon.

Even in remote places like Nepal, gaming competition is becoming popular. A report on Nepali gamers in the Kathmandu Post (Aug. 29, 2015) was entitled “By Their Bootstraps.” Gaming started in Nepal in internet cafes in 2010. The 2015 Colors E-sports Carnival at the Civil Mall had 500 participants competing at Defense of the Ancients (DOTA), a multi-online battle game.

Video games and violence

Beware of violent games. One of the most popular is Grand Theft Auto. Players assume the role of lawless, destructive criminals who kill innocent bystanders, policemen, and military personnel, “while dealing with only temporary consequences.” It has been called a cop-killing training machine. Some of the versions require the player to torture people in brutal ways to advance to new levels. Sexual elements include hiring and killing prostitutes (by means of the player’s choice of fist, machete, bat, or gun). Real life murders have been committed by people who were obsessive players of Grand Theft Auto and have even admitted to being inspired by the game.

Video games and the occult

Many of the video games are occultic. Consider the current craze, Pokémon Go. Almost overnight it has become the most popular mobile game in American history, increasing the stock market value of part owner Nintendo more than 50%. “Pokémon Go, the newest iteration of the nearly 20-year-old Pokémon franchise, engages players in an ‘augmented reality’ where they try to find and capture Pokémons hidden throughout the real world. The Australian Business Review has suggested that it may be a ‘watershed moment’ in the development of virtual reality” (“Pokémon Go craze drawing gamers to church,” Baptist Press News, July 15, 2016). The game “uses the mobile phone’s camera to create the perception that the Pokémon characters are actually in front of the players.” It is so engaging and addictive that people have crashed their automobiles and walked into dangerous situations. Two men recently fell off a cliff near San Diego while engaged in the game.

Pastor David Brown, First Baptist Church of Oak Creek, Wisconsin, who made the effort to investigate Pokémon and apply the test of God’s Word to it in 1999, says, “The name Pokémon is derived from POCKEt MONster. ... One of the first things I did was to find out who produced the Trading Card Game. Here is an exact quote right from the Web page of the producer - ‘The Pokémon Trading Card Game is a new collectable Card Game that is made and distributed by Wizards of the Coast. The same company that made the best-selling game ... Magic: The Gathering.’ Wizards of the Coast also owns TSR, the producers of Dungeons & Dragons. When I discovered who owned the American Pokémon Trading Card Game rights, I knew it was not just an innocent card game for elementary school children. [The Pokémon rap mantra says]: ‘I will travel across the land/ Searching far and wide/ Each Pokémon to understand/ The power that’s inside/ Gotta catch them all.’ ... To be sure it is a game, but a game that does not glorify God! When God says something is wrong, it is wrong regardless of what form it is in. Not only that, but many of the kids who play this game are seduced into believing the principles that the game subtly teaches” (Dave Brown, “The Problem with Pokémon”).

In the official literature, the main characters of the game are described as headstrong, stubborn, quibbling, hormonal, having a fascination with and trying to “score” with the opposite sex, self-centered, vindictive, obnoxious, and prone to cross-dressing!

Pokémon promotes the search for occultic power. The cards are called “energy cards.” Players engage in “pretend” occultic warfare. Currently there are 729 species of Pokémon monsters, and 151 of them are sought by Pokémon Go players. Two of them are named Abra and Kadabra, long associated with magic. The Abra card promotes the ability to read minds. The Kadabra character has a pentagram on his forehead. What an incredibly dangerous, wicked influence for children! Nintendolife says there are poison types, psychic types, dark types, fairy types, dragon types, and ghost types.

There is nothing innocent about Pokémon. It is a clever attempt at demonic mind-control. For more about the dangers of Pokémon see “The Problem with Pokémon” by David Brown, http://logosresourcepages.org/Occult/more.htm

Even the more innocent games use rock music as a background, thus addicting young people to the sensual rock rhythms.

Video games and wasting time

“How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man” (Prov. 6:9-11).

The average gamer spends eight hours per week playing video games. This equates to 416 hours per year.

Last year, a teen told me he wanted to learn to study the Bible on his phone, but when I asked to look at his phone, I found that it was filled with games. I challenged him to get rid of them and to spend that time on Bible study and other profitable things. I told him that until he was willing to put aside wasteful things, he wouldn’t make much progress in his spiritual life.

One young Christian lady we know became concerned about how much time she was spending on video games, and she decided to figure it up. She concluded that she was spending three months out of a year playing games! She deleted the games from her iPad and is spending that time memorizing Scripture and other profitable things.

Young people who want to find God’s will must learn to be careful about time. “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). We deal with this in the section of the course on “The Youth.”

Pornography

“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Mat. 5:28).

“I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1).

“For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life: To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?” (Prov. 6:23-28).

“Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death” (Prov. 7:24-27).

Consider some frightful facts about pornography and the Internet: