Your children will live in a very different world than the one that greeted you when you were twenty-one. It is a world that views public opinion as its moral compass. The media interprets the changing winds of the public polls. Personal fulfillment (read lust) is the engine that drives the culture you children will inhabit.
Biblical Christianity is equated with hatred in this world. While God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, the Bible, and church are easily dismissed, Jesus Christ, the Savior, is a real problem in your children’s world. The very person of Christ means that redemption is necessary and yet, it beyond our reach.
Some embrace the theme of the Linkin Park hit, “What I’ve done.” Redemption is said to come from within. So, you just forgive yourself for what you have done. Others don’t see the need for soul-searching. Since we live in a world determined by evolutionary currents, there is nothing left but to go with the flow. In contrast, Jesus Christ means we are guilty and there is not a thing any human can do about it apart from the grace of God.
Thus, your children will enter a world that has no room for Christ. It is fine for Jesus to be a baby as long as he doesn’t grow up. It is fine for Jesus to be a man as long as he is not God. It is fine for Jesus to die as long as he remains an example. This new world is okay with what does not condemn. But as Jesus said, “Don’t think I come to bring peace but a sword.”
Help your children see the significance of Christ. Teach them not to be intimidated by those who have contempt for Jesus. For several decades, Religion 101 classes have been effective in portraying Christ as a nobel yet pathetic man with delusions grandeur who is the product of a deeply flawed set of writings called the New Testament.
But the truth is that man does need a Savior and he can’t redeem himself. The reality is that when Christ the Savior is denied, all hope is denied as well. Spend the time to help your children confidently respond to attacks on Christ and Christianity.
When your children hear the person of Jesus challenged they can and should respond with a question: “Why is it that you insist on forcing me to believe as you believe.”
You see the Christians are not the ones who lack tolerance. This world that your children will inhabit will tolerate anything but Christ. Help your children to be able to ask questions that will expose intolerance for what it is. Help them to reach out to those who are blinded and weak from trusting themselves.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life!