The Next Generation Might Be More Faithful

It is, to some degree, the vanity of older Christians to always decry the next generation of young Christians as empty-headed, shallow youth, filled with drifters and defectors, and spellers-of-doom for American Christianity. We should remember, from the book of Numbers, that it was the elder generation who rebelled at Kadesh-Barnea, the elder generation that refused to repent during their forty-year pilgrimage, and it was only as that elder generation died off that Israel began to win. In the 19th century, it was the preachers who forced Charles H. Spurgeon out of the Baptist Union. In the 20th century, it was members of our grandparents' generation who turned over the UMC, the PC-USA, and the Episcopal Church to the agents of apostasy. We should thank God for those members of the previous generation who stayed faithful, but remember that age is no guarantee of spiritual wisdom or fortitude. In terms of the Christian Church, it may fall to our children, and grand-children, to repair damage caused by our own foolishness. Faith is not attached to age; it exists wherever we might find it.