We are engaged today in a battle between worldviews. Ultimately our battle is not against flesh and blood. At stake are the hearts and souls of America’s youth, who are falling away from the faith at an unprecedented rate. This isn’t just a political or cultural battle. It is a spiritual one. To effectively fight spiritual battles, we must understand and defend a biblical worldview in every area of life and impart this worldview to the next generation of leaders.
This is why the mission of Summit Ministries is so important. For more than six decades, Summit Ministries has been battling for the hearts and minds of each rising generation. Here is what we have learned about helping young adults cultivate an unshakeable faith.
Three Philosophies that Take People Captive
The Apostle Paul says, “See to it that no one takes you captive, through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world, rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8). Three philosophies deceive young people, and, I suspect, most adults as well.
The first deceptive philosophy is: No one can say what is right and what is wrong. Over the last 20 years Christian students have begun to ask, “Maybe you think adultery, abortion, and homosexuality are wrong. But who are you to say what is right or wrong for everyone else?” In a poll by Summit Ministries and McLaughlin and Associates we found that 60% of 956 respondents who gave a definitive answer to the question expressed a belief in absolute truth, while 40% said each person determines their own version of the truth. Four percent of the 1,000 survey respondents said they “don’t know.”
When I attended a two-week Summit Ministries program fresh out of high school, the founder, Dr. David Noebel, made sure I was prepared to refute this philosophy on my college campus. When one of my professors proclaimed that “There are no absolute truths,” I asked him, “Professor, are you sure?”
He said, “Yes, I’m sure.”
“Are you absolutely sure?” I queried.
My professor just stared at me, a smile playing on the corner of his lips. He shot back, “You’re a very clever young man. If I say there are no absolutes, then that is an absolute statement. Let me revise my remarks. There is one absolute, which is this: There are no absolutes.”
I found his reply to be witty, but also carelessly illogical. It was a willful refusal to see the truth. This should not surprise Christians, however. Proverbs 4:19 says, “The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not even know what makes them stumble.” Without a moral compass, people cannot think well or make rational decisions about what is right and wrong for themselves or for society.
The second deceptive philosophy is: No one can know anything for sure. My philosophy professor taught this on the first day of class. He asked, “How do you know the sky is blue? Maybe it’s green, but society has conditioned you to call it blue.” After several such examples, he crowed, “My point is that you can’t know anything for sure. You can’t even know that you exist.”
The postmodern mindset has embraced this philosophy with a vengeance. German philosopher Martin Heidegger said, “In the naming, the things named come into their thinging. Thinging they unfold world, in which things abide, and so are abiding ones.” In other words, there
is no such thing as objective reality; reality is what each person creates for themselves.
Imagine you are on a hike. You start to get a bit lost, but you have a compass and a map, so you’re able to navigate back to the trailhead safely. What would happen, however, if you had an enormous magnet strapped to your back. “I am the North Pole,” you’d say. Without a fixed point of reference, you might still be wandering in the wilderness!
The third idea that takes people captive is this: The only meaning in life is what you create for yourself. The end result of saying “no one can say what is right and wrong” and “no one can know anything for sure” is a belief in the sovereign self. Biology can’t guide you. Physical reality can’t guide you. The wisdom of others can’t guide you. You’re on your own. Isn’t that freeing?
Actually, for most people, it is terrifying. Seventy-five percent of young adults say they don’t have a sense of purpose that gives meaning to their lives. More than half regularly struggle with anxiety and depression. Far more than any previous generation measured, Gen Z is likely to say things like, “Sometimes I don’t think I am any good at all.”
Taking Every Thought Captive
These deceptive philosophies are taking young people and adults captive at an astonishing rate. We must reclaim this lost ground by showing how the biblical worldview offers a fact-based compelling story that truly makes sense of the world and our lives. As the Apostle Paul wrote, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought, to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).
The Bible teaches that to take every thought captive, we must first embrace the way, truth, and life of Jesus (John 14:6). The great philosophers of all time have struggled to answer three questions: What is good? What is true? And finally, what is beautiful? Jesus not only displayed the answer. He is the answer.
In Jesus’ day, “the way” referred to a moral course of action. By claiming to be the way, Jesus essentially claimed to be the standard for right and wrong. When He said He was “the truth,” He was claiming that all reality is defined by the nature and character of God, and that He himself was God made flesh. When He claimed to be “the life,” Jesus established himself as the standard for that which would offer flourishing, that which was beautiful.
In this simple statement, Jesus revealed himself to be the answer to the philosopher’s quest. It is my experience that there is only one pursuit in all of life that yields unending satisfaction: a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
The second way to take every thought captive is to see the conflicts of our age as a battle between competing views of God. One says that God created us, and that His existence and plan give us purpose. Since we are made in his image, we ought to reflect His nature and character in every sphere of life, including politics.
Secular elites, however, embrace the idea that human beings invented the idea of God to help them cope with life in a “meaningless” universe. This view holds that all religious beliefs are based in fantasy and are thus irrational.
The chasm between these two views is unbridgeable. Those who hold that belief in God is inherently irrational are deeply offended when Christians try to make political, educational, or economic decisions based on their beliefs. They scoff, “Who do these Christians think they are to impose their irrational ideas about some make-believe ‘god’ on us?”
To take every thought captive in our current cultural context, we must be committed to live differently, to live according to a biblical worldview.
God’s truth must be the aroma we leave everywhere we go.
A biblical worldview is not just a view of the world, however. It is a view for the world. The apostle Paul said, “Those who oppose him [the Christian], he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will lead them to repentance” (2 Timothy 2:25-26). Our strategy is to know what we believe, be articulate in explaining it, and graciously persuade others of the beauty, goodness, and truth of Christianity.
Time to Persevere
Francis Scott Key, the man who penned the words to The Star Spangled Banner, was also a defender of the Christian faith. He once wrote, “I do not believe there are any new objections to be raised to the truth of Christianity. Men may argue ingeniously against our faith, but what can they say in defense of their own?”
One great way to challenge those with whom we disagree is to ask them questions so they will have the opportunity to defend what they believe. When I speak at Summit, I offer students four simple questions they can use to take every thought captive. Here they are, along with examples.
Question #1: What do you mean by that?
If someone says, “We should be tolerant of all beliefs,” simply ask, “What do you mean by tolerance?” Most people have never considered this question or its implications (i.e. we have to be tolerant of someone’s belief that gender is a social construct.).
Tolerance is a shallow philosophical concept which glosses over the realities of evil and injustice and the need to strive for truth. Asking for a definition of the term will get the person to reconsider whether it is a good idea.
Question #2: How do you know that is true?
Next time someone makes a truth claim such as “There is no God,” throw them a curve ball by asking, “How do you know that is true?”
If you are up against a non-believer who is accustomed to mocking Christianity without having to defend his own beliefs, this question will stop him cold. By the way, it is important never to use this question in an arrogant manner—the idea is to dismantle the idea, not the person.
Question #3: How did you arrive at that conclusion?
If someone says “I can not believe in God because of all the evil and injustice in the world,” ask why that is their question. Say something like “It sounds like there is a story behind that. Would you be willing to share it with me?”
Just by asking questions out of a heart of curiosity, you can get a conversation started.
Question #4: What happens if you are wrong?
A professor once told me that all cultural practices should be tolerated. I challenged this by giving examples of cannibalism, Nazism, Suttee’ (burning a man’s wife alive on his funeral pyre) and several other unspeakably evil cultural practices. I ended our conversation by asking, “What happens if you are wrong? Millions of people suffer pain, torture and death and you can not stop it because you cannot decide what is right and wrong.”
For Such a Time as This
The Bible tells of a young woman named Esther who was forced to marry a pagan king. Her relative Mordecai discovered that this king had been tricked into a plot to kill Esther’s people, the Jews. Mordecai pleaded with Esther to appeal to the king by saying, “Who knows but that you have come to a royal position for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14). This is how we must view our mission today. Rather than fear the world of ideas, we should learn to engage it by operating from a Christian worldview that applies to every area of life.
When Dr. David Noebel first began his work, this idea of cultural engagement was almost unheard of.
For over sixty years, Summit Ministries has been on a mission to equip the rising generation to embrace God’s truth and champion a biblical worldview.
At our Summit Conferences, students ages 16 to 22 engage with today’s top Christian thought leaders and their peers as they discuss and share their faith. They learn from experts in theology, apologetics, and worldview formation. They worship together and praise God as they learn about a biblical worldview. They better understand the true story of reality as told in God’s Word. They develop a hunger for its truth. Finally, they develop life-long community with like-minded young Christians who take their faith seriously and want to see the world transformed for Jesus. Summit’s Conferences create spaces for the rising generation to develop tactics to defend their faith and have the courage to engage with people they disagree with.
As a parent, you would move heaven and earth to give your child the opportunity to own their faith in these transformative ways. At Summit Ministries, we partner with you to make that happen. Join us in making a difference in your teenager’s life and setting them on a path to a strong and enduring faith. Explore dates and locations on our website.