Stand to Reason’s Reality Apologetics Conference

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A few of my children have attended Stand to Reason’s Reality Student Apologetics Conference for middle and high school students and it has been extremely valuable to strengthen their faith.

Stand to Reason offers an unmatched student conference that equips young people to understand and defend their faith from some of the biggest challenges today. Stand to Reason has conferences in California, Washington, Minnesota, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. If you live near one of these locations and have children or grandchildren in this age range, you should consider attending. 

Our church, Grace Church of Eden Prairie, will be hosting the Minnesota gathering on November 12-13. Here is a short description of the event.

Whether we realize it or not, everyone has a worldview. It’s your set of beliefs about the way world the world actually is. It’s your picture of reality. And this belief system helps you answer the big questions of life: Where did I come from? What’s wrong with the world? Is there a solution? Why am I here?

Christianity is a worldview, but its not the only worldview. It has competition. So how do we know which worldview, if any, is actually true? The answer isn’t complicated: check to see if it matches up with reality.

At STR’s Reality Conference, we show students that Christianity matches up with the way the world really is–with reality. It makes sense of the origin and design of the universe and life; the existence of objective truth and morality; the purpose, meaning, and value of human experience; the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; and the existential longing of every human heart. In other words, we have reality on our side. 

Unfortunately, many students are under the impression that Christianity is make-believe for grown-ups. At Reality, we’re changing that by using our greatest ally: reality. Christianity isn’t a made up story divorced from reality; it’s the true story of reality. 

 

Latest Edition of The Review Magazine Now Available

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The Review is a full-color magazine filled with insightful articles that present and defend biblical worldview and the importance of training the next generation to know, love, and serve Christ.

This issue features:

  • How to Help Children Understand and Defend Their Faith
  • Foundational Principles of Biblical Earth Stewardship
  • Navigating the Digital Landscape: How to Help Our Children Handle Screen Time Wisely
  • What Is Justice?

Bulk orders are available to churches and schools at no charge (only pay shipping). Click here for bulk ordering. Individual copies are available for $2.50. Click here for individual orders. 

Young people will not remain faithful to a faith they do not understand and cannot defend. In a post-Christian culture, it is more critical than ever for young people to be prepared to defend themselves from attacks on their faith. Our feature article, How to Help Children Understand and Defend Their Faith, gives real-life tips to help children detect errors and discern truth.

Discover purposeful actions to communicate gospel truths to our children and grandchildren in Swimming Against the Current of Our Culture.

Navigating the Digital Landscape: How to Help Our Children Handle Screen Time Wisely details practical ideas to help families confront the swiftly changing digital world.

Read how the church can play a significant role in discipling children through education in Every Church an Educational Center.

Also in this issue

What Is Justice? A biblical overview of justice, how to recognize counterfeit justice, and biblical applications to do justice.

Solzhenitsyn’s Prophecy. At the heart of moral confusion and collapse is a loss of faith and the virtue of courage.

Foundational Principles of Biblical Earth Stewardship. Exploring what human dominion over the earth means according to the Bible.

Praying for Our Young People. Praying Paul’s prayer for believers in Ephesians 3:14-21 for our young people.

The University System Is the Progressives’ Seminary. What’s happening at colleges isn’t education; it’s indoctrination.

The Power of Biblical Worldview Immersion. Biblical modeling and an immersive environment promotes transformational learning.

Ten Ways the Free Enterprise Economic Model Aligns with Scripture

50 Things Every Child Needs to Know Before Leaving Home

2021: A Pivot Year for Charitable Giving

The Future of Christian Marriage

Breaking the Fallow Ground

Two Vacations With a Purpose

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If you are looking for an idea for a future family vacation, why not do something that is fun and purposeful at the same time? There are lots of options, but this post is going to highlight two ideas that are impactful and enjoyable. 

Creation Museum Guide

We have been to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter a couple of times as a family. You will need a couple days, ideally one day for the Ark and one for the Creation Museum. A half a day was perfect for our children, but all families are different. The movies, music, displays, and book store are all fantastic. The apologetic material that we purchased for our children have been read again and again. The staff at the Creation Museum created an educational guide that is worth purchasing and will help you bring some intentionality and talking points to the different displays. They have created different guides for several grade levels, K-2nd, 3rd-6th, and 7th-adult.  There are both student guides and leader guides. Individual copies cost $1.99. We have added one extra element that has really hammered home the truth that our children experience at the Creation Museum. On our drive home we also stop at a natural history museum and discuss the naturalistic, evolutionary beliefs in the displays. On our last trip, my children had a wonderful discussion with the tour guide at the natural history museum about the fallacies behind evolution. We’ve done this trip twice with our children and they recently requested that we do it again. I guess they enjoyed it!

Washington D.C.

We have family that lives in Washington D.C. so visit every few years. There is no shortage of museums and sites to see in Washington D.C. Stephen McDowell, the founder of the Providence Foundation, created a helpful tool that can be used on a self-guided tour of many of the most popular sites in Washington D.C. including the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court, the Capitol Building, the National Archives, the Washington Monument, the White House, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial. For a brief overview, click on this link. For $16.99, you can purchase this book. This unique book will guide you through famous historical sites, recounting important providential events, and tell the Christian history of the people who founded this nation and who are honored with monuments, memorials, and statues. Includes: Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Mt. Vernon, Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown, Monticello, and more. Presents biographical sketches of many Founders, highlighting their personal faith: Washington, Jefferson, William Penn, Madison, Patrick Henry, and more. From the paintings in the Capitol to the story of the Liberty Bell, learn how our national buildings, monuments, and heroes declare that America was a nation birthed with a firm reliance on Almighty God. 

Biblical Worldview is Available as an Audiobook

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A few months ago I was contacted by Charles Markert, who had just finished reading my book Biblical Worldview. He was impacted by the message of the book and convinced that it needed to become an audiobook so it could be listened to as well as read. Charles believed this so deeply that he offered to record and master the audio. The 6 hours and 29 minute audiobook is now available at Amazon, Audible and iTunes. Thank you Charles for your excellent work on this audiobook!

George Barna’s research suggests that extremely low numbers of children have a biblical worldview. His research suggests that less than 10% of children think, act, and live according to biblical principles. If true, that is a troubling statistic that should concern all parents, grandparents, and pastors. This book was written to help children develop a biblical worldview through the influence of family, church, and school. Here is a summary of the book.

In this brief book, you’ll discover what a biblical worldview is, why it matters, and how to establish this foundation in the life of a child. Filled with practical tools and ideas, Biblical Worldview will help you lead children to lifelong faith in Jesus and a fruitful ministry serving him in the world. It’s a helpful resource for parents, grandparents, teachers, and church leaders – anyone that leads children in their spiritual development. 

There is a battle being fought for the hearts and minds of children, and much is at stake. The world is working diligently to assimilate young people to its way of thinking. The beliefs our children develop inevitably shape their decisions and determine their eternal destiny. In a word, worldview is about beliefs. This book will equip you to help young people develop a strong biblical foundation and doctrinal framework for a biblical worldview. Biblical worldview is built on the foundation of the authority, inerrancy, and sufficiency of the bible. This book will help you establish this foundation in the hearts and minds of young people so that they trust the bible, think about life from a Christian perspective, and live according to biblical principles. 

Our worldview is developed as we establish beliefs about four critical topics: 

  1. Creation: How did I get here? What is my purpose? 
  2. Rebellion: What went wrong? Why is there evil and suffering? 
  3. Salvation: What is the solution? Where do I find hope? 
  4. Restoration: What happens in the future? How do we transform lives and change the world? 

These four pillars create the framework for a person’s worldview. It is critical that all four pillars of faith are firmly established and that deep-down convictions are developed around these biblical truths. Biblical Worldview is a serious call to shape the next generation’s beliefs with the bible. The aim of Biblical Worldview is embracing gospel truth for godly living. This book is a short introduction to biblical worldview and will equip you to help children develop a biblically-based view of life that will transform their homes, communities, and nations.

Two Curriculum Resources for Your Family, Church, or School

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Here are two resources that may be helpful for your family, children’s ministry, homeschool co-op, or Christian school.

The first resource is brand new from Elizabeth Urbanowicz of Foundation Worldview called Careful Thinking Curriculum. This curriculum was developed to equip 10-14 year olds with the basic skills they need to evaluate the truthfulness of ideas and set the stage for critical thinking in every area of life. As children learn basic skills in careful thinking, they quickly begin to recognize faulty ideas in the world around them. As parents, caregivers and educators, equipping our children to think well is a foundational part of discipleship. If you want to learn more about this curriculum you can click here.

The second resource is from Kids4Truth that focuses on teaching apologetics, biblical doctrine, and systematic theology to children. Available for pre-school aged children through 6th grade and comes with workbooks, teacher books, song books and other resources. These resources help children memorize God’s Word, understand what it means, and understand what they believe and why they believe it. If you would like to learn more about this curriculum you can click here.

What is Justice?

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We all desire justice. If someone gets away with something wrong, it bothers us. One of the most common phrases in the human language may be, “It’s not fair.” But if we were asked to define justice, could we do that? Justice is a confusing, foggy topic for many right now. We need clarity because counterfeit versions of justice are everywhere. What exactly is justice? 

What is Justice?

In the most basic sense, justice is receiving what we are owed. Justice is the result of the correct ordering of things in alignment with God’s design and commands. To understand biblical justice, I want you to look at this picture of Lady Justice. The statue of Lady Justice reveals the biblical principles of justice that our nation was founded upon. Notice four things about justice from the picture:

  • She is standing on the Bible. God’s Word, his righteousness, is the foundation for justice. The pursuit of justice requires a standard. When we lose a sense of right and wrong, we cannot determine what is just. Notice what Psalm 89:14 says, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.” God wants both righteousness and justice. Righteousness is the moral standard of right and wrong to which God holds humans accountable based on His divine standard. Justice is the fair and impartial application of God’s moral law in society. When there is no standard for right or wrong, it leads to partiality, unfairness, and injustice.

  • Blindfolded, she practices no bias, never showing favoritism or partiality based on wealth, skin color, or sex. Lady Justice is blindfolded because she does not favor rich or poor, elite or lowly, black or white, male or female. Everyone stands on the same standard. 

  • Scales in her hand, her judgment is grounded in objective truth so that there can be fairness. Justice requires a level playing field rather than crooked scales so that both sides of a story can be heard and it requires uprightness, a ”straight” standard so that we can deal with people equally. When facts are presented, Lady justice applies the standard impartially, without favoritism or rigging the scales.

  • A sword in her hand reminds us of the necessity of authority manifested in law and law enforcement. When the law is broken, justice requires that the guilty person is punished. We cannot have justice where there is not truth or law. The unrighteous will naturally fight back against the enforcement of justice through the rule of law. We are seeing this manifested in the push to defund the police and in Antifa, a group that wants no law so that every person can live as he or she wants. 

Biblically, God deals with us fairly and according to a standard. God instructs us to deal with each other in the same way, without favoritism or partiality. Applied to all of life, a biblical view of justice means equal, fair, and impartial treatment for everyone according to God’s law.

How to Help a Child Understand and Defend Their Faith

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You have helped train your children or grandchildren in the Christian faith. They are familiar with key Bible characters and stories, even memorized Scripture passages. You’ve explained the Gospel. They know that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and rose again. They have even had some significant experiences that have profoundly shaped them. They should be safe, right?

What will they do when someone makes a claim and provide “evidence” that the resurrection never happened? Or that the Bible is full of errors? Or that Christianity is guilty of horrible evils in history? Suddenly, “because mom or dad, grandma or grandpa said so” doesn’t work. Even as early as grade school, children are hearing other voices that seek to undermine everything that you and other spiritual authorities taught them.

Young people will not remain faithful to a faith they do not understand and cannot defend. In a post-Christian culture, it is more critical than ever for young people to know what they believe, why they believe it, and are prepared to defend themselves from attacks to their faith. Throughout church history this has been known as apologetics. Apologetics is the defense of the Christian faith. Peter states that Christians are to be prepared, “to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you” (1 Peter 3:15). A portion of Paul’s ministry included a defense of the Gospel, “I am appointed for a defense of the gospel” (Phil. 1:16). Apologists are individuals who defend Christian beliefs and practices against attacks, provide arguments for the truthfulness of Christianity over other worldviews, and refute unbiblical ideas or theories. The goal of apologetics is to persuade belief by presenting a rational basis for Christianity, to defend the truth by answering questions or the objections of unbelief, and to reveal the foolishness of false ideas so they do not capture the heart and mind of our children. Apologetics is an important aspect of your discipleship ministry to your children or grandchildren and can be divided into the following four categories:

  • Prove. Develop a case for Christianity utilizing biblical, scientific, historical, archeological, and personal testimony to establish the truthfulness of the Christian worldview. Show that Christianity is true, credible, reliable, and aligns with the real world. 

  • Defend. In every generation there are many attacks against Christianity and children need to be introduced to these distorted ideas, learn to test them against God’s Word, and be able to identify truth from error. The two primary areas of attack: The Son of God and the Word of God. 

  • Refute. Compare and contrast with other religions and belief systems to verify the Christian faith and dismantle false and erroneous views. Refute arguments made in support of different beliefs by showing they are unreliable, irrational, unverifiable, or simply do not make sense with what we see in real life.

  • Persuade. Work to clarify biblical truths, answer objections, address criticisms, provide answers and eliminate any intellectual difficulties that stand in the way of coming to faith in Christ. The goal is to encourage alignment with God’s Word, apply the truth of God’s Word to life, and establish a lifelong commitment to the Gospel. Apologetics is a partner of evangelism where we seek to convince children to accept truth claims about Christianity and trust Christ. Give your child every reason possible to embrace the Christian faith and reject counterfeit beliefs. 

7 Tips to help children understand and defend their faith:

  • Utilize questions to grow the faith of future generations. Your goal is twofold: become an askable parent or grandparent and become skilled at the art of asking good questions. Use questions to create serious spiritual dialogue, to encourage critical thinking, and discover what children believe.

  • Take objections from a child seriously. Do not mock an objection or dismiss a question. Spend as much time and energy as needed to fully explore a topic with a child. 

  • Anticipate attacks and arguments that a child will face in the teen and adult years. After teaching a biblical truth to a child or grandchild, present the faulty argument, prove why it is false, give reading material that establishes the truth, and continue to point out in conversation over the years the erroneous arguments. 

  • Built an apologetics library for each child. These make great gifts. Suggested books include Cold-Case Christianity by J. Warner Wallace, Tactics by Gregory Koukl, Answers Vol. 1-4 by Answers in Genesis, Quick Answers to Social Questions by Bryan Osborne, Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions by Ken Ham, Debunking Evolution by Daniel Biddle, True For You But Not For Me by Paul Copan, and The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel

  • Expose children to the truth in real life experiences. Allow older children to see a live ultrasound so they learn the horrors of abortion, or visit the creation museum to teach the truth of creation and then visit a natural history museum to show the error of evolution.

  • Look for examples of false beliefs or erroneous messages in movies, music, books, and television. Point them out, ask questions, and discuss why something is problematic. Always point back to Scripture so that it is not your opinion, but based on the authority of God’s Word.

  • Utilize the Truth Method. The truth method is intended to teach a biblical truth, identify a message from the world, and analyze it to determine the good and reject the bad using five steps.
    1. Teach a biblical truth through instruction and discussion. What biblical truths do your grandchildren need to be taught to stand strong in their faith?
    2. Recognize the idea or concept the world is communicating. What lies or half truths threaten their faith today?
    3. Understand the claim by analyzing it. What is actually being said?
    4. Test the idea according to the Bible. What does the Bible say about the topic?
    5. Hold fast to what is good and reject what is bad. What should be rejected and why?

Rise up parents and grandparents. The battle of ideas is real and it’s taking no prisoners. We are in a battle for the hearts and minds of our children and grandchildren. Helping a child detect errors and discern truth in the age of fake news, social media, and conspiracy theories is critical and you are uniquely positioned for such a time as this.