#STRask - What Questions Do We Need to Answer to Help Keep Our Youth in the Faith?

Episode Date: April 20, 2026

Question about the questions we need to answer for our youth to help keep them from walking away from the faith.   What questions do we need to answer for our youth to help keep them from walking away from the faith?

All right. In our last episode, we were talking about the question that a professor was receiving most from his students. Yeah, about whatever it was. I wasn't going to say because I was going to have people go back and listen. So if you heard it, you know what question we're talking about. I didn't disappoint you. But here's a question that goes along with that. And this one comes from Tim. what are the questions that youth need answering to help keep them from walking away from the faith? Well, a couple things that come quickly to mind. The first one is, and you might have noticed this in past realities. We do six a year now and have done that for the last four or five years. And you're the Bible answer person, so to speak, asked the apologist. And that's your main task there, which you do a great job. And I know it's exhaust. But for a while there, it just seemed like everything was about transgenderism and homosexuality. And that was that evidence so much pressure they were getting culturally in their communities that their schools in particular, the pushback.

And so we were dealing with that. But I think that has quieted down quite a bit. I don't know what your reflection is on that from your experience. But my general sense is that's quieted down. I think there's some more durable, more long-term concerns. I think the problem of evil is always a problem, but it takes different forms. I just got a question in Minneapolis two days ago, three days ago, Saturday. Dallas?

No, this is in Minneapolis. Dallas is the week before. Oh, you're talking about not at a reality. Not at a reality. I'm sorry. Okay. Yeah, that's right. So, but it had to do with, and the person was asking it, because he's been challenged about this,

and he said, how could you say God is a loving father? If I were a father to my children and all this stuff started happening, I'd step in and I wouldn't do this or that, or the other thing, the kind of thing that God allegedly does to his so-called children in the Bible. Okay. So this is an element to the problem of evil. It's an angle on the problem of evil. I won't answer that right now, the challenge, but it just, it just is an element to the problem of evil.

the challenge, but it just came up. And I think more and more people are wondering, well, if this is in the category of even if there is a God, if he's the kind of God that you believe in, then he's not good. And they're using a personal, largely a personal subject of measure. Oh, he won't let me do whatever I want, have sex with whoever I want, however I want, or your God is going to throw people into hell forever and torture them forever, etc., etc. These all are related to, in a sense, I think, the problem of evil and the goodness of God. So that's one. I think another one, huge challenges more recently, intensely, on the biblical record.

It's not so much what are the, here are the contradiction in Scripture, whatever, but they look at particular things in Scripture like slavery, the issue of slavery, and the issue of, here's the way they would put it, slavery and genocide. And I don't think there is genocide in the Bible. A lot of people die, but genocide is something different and for a different reason. In any event, they look at things in Scripture, particularly in the Old Testament, and also the concept of hell as just over the top. they can't believe in a book that seems to legitimize these kinds of things.

And there are there things in the law that seem bizarre? Like if a woman gets raped, the rapist has to marry the rapist. Now, there's a whole historical or cultural thing behind that. And that's not how it puts it. I think you just put it the way they did it. That's right. This is the way they say it and everything else. But in any event, what they do is they look at Scripture.

They don't understand what it means. They miscited sometimes mischaracterize it. People are saying, your Bible says this, and it actually doesn't say it quite like that. But I think this is a big category of objection that people have to deal with, these particulars in Scripture that just seem hard to answer. And some of them are hard to answer in the sense that sometimes challenges require. a thoughtful analysis of the scripture to find out what it actually says or of the cultural context to find out, well, why is this the way it is in light of the culture? And when you see it in those terms, it really changes things significantly. However, people don't have

the patience for that, especially if they're critics, they are not looking to understand. They are looking to criticize, and that's it. They want to get their, you know, their mic-drop moment, hammer the Christian, and then move on. They were not really looking for answers. How do I understand this? Help me out with that kind of thing. So the biblical issues and the sexual issues are still big. The biblical issues seem to be looming more larger, looming larger, and it's more important because they're more foundational to the authority of the text, which is our source of truth about God. So anyway, those are the two things that come to mind right now, and maybe just in your experience at realities as the Ask the Apologist person, maybe you have more you can add to the

list. Well, I will say in the last three reality conferences, student conferences, I had one question about LGBT things. Really? Collectively? Collectively. And I think I'm not sure what that means. I'm not sure if that means they've worked it out in their minds or it means they've given into it

and they've bought into it. They're not fighting it anymore. I really don't know. I think time will tell what that means. Maybe it means they're having less pressure. I don't, I really don't know. But you're absolutely right. It's the problem of evil that is almost every single question, some form of, is God good, or why does God allow evil, or how did evil come into the world, or the Bible is evil because it says that it's all, that's almost every single question I get. So that is

absolutely true. So when I'm thinking about questions that the youth need to answer to keep them from walking away from the faith, I think if you go to the point of pressure from the culture that's happening right now, there are a few things they're going to have to work out. And some of them might be unexpected. But the first one is exactly what you said, Greg, is God good? They have to know that God is good. They have to be convinced of that. And as you mentioned, there are all sorts of attacks right now that atheists are putting out there against good, not just atheists. Our whole culture is putting out against the goodness of the Christian God. And to work those out, you do have to know some things. You do have to think about them

carefully. It's a lot easier to go along with what the culture is saying. So in order to know if God is good, before you even get into all of these other issues, I think the best thing you can do is look at where God has objectively proven his goodness, and that is the cross. I might not understand this or that law in the Old Testament yet, but I can say, but Jesus came and died for his enemies and suffered for us so that God could show his justice. He showed, he proved his goodness, he proved his grace, he proved his loved, he proved his justice objectively on the cross. And remember, this is the case whether or not Christianity is true. And by that I mean, if an atheist is going to criticize the God of Christianity, you have to take into account the God of Christianity. Exactly. I'm so glad you brought this up because I was waiting for a pause. I was going to make this exact point. So go ahead. This is great.

Because remember, when atheists are arguing in this way, I don't even want to say anything. When anyone's arguing against Christianity in this way. The system side of it. They're arguing against the system whether or not it's true. Or good. Or good. But I'm just saying if. If you're evaluating Christianity in itself, you have to take the cross into account. Right. And the cross objectively proves that the Christian God is loving and just and good. Now, once you have that in place, then as you look at all of these different things in the Bible, you have to make sense of them in light of that.

So you're starting from a place that can help you to at least know this doesn't make sense to me, but I will put some time into it and I will find an answer. maybe I don't have an answer for a while, but I can trust because Jesus died on the cross, I can trust that there is an answer that I will be able to make sense of us. Yeah, this is so important. I want to just underscore the point you were making so it's not missed. People might say when we describe these things or answer, well, I don't believe all that stuff about Jesus on the cross and the resurrection. I don't believe it.

He said, that's not the point. The point is your criticism is a criticism of the God of our system. And so you're looking at one little piece of the picture, and if you're going to understand who this God is in our system, you have to look much further. And what we see is a God who is a sacrificial God who pays an unbelievable price for us when we didn't deserve it. He rescued us. That's good. He is a good God. Or he may be provided for a rescue when we did deserve it.

greater love has no man than this than he lay down his life for his friend. And even while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So this is Jesus of the Gospels and then Paul and Romans. And so that's the God we're talking about in this system. So in this system, this God that we're asking you to consider, he is the one responsible for these other things. So maybe we should take a closer look at some of these things that you don't like. And see, maybe this good God had a good reason for doing the things that he did there.

And maybe you ought to read more carefully to find out exactly what was going on so we don't mischaracterize it. And remember, we're especially talking right now about what Christian students have to have solid in their own minds. So this is something they need to have in their own minds. But what people are doing when they make these kinds of arguments, they're trying to rule him out before they even does. discuss whether or not he actually exists. That's the first thing they're doing. And the second thing I think they're doing is trying to cause you to doubt his goodness, because if you can't convince you, if you believe he exists and they can't convince you

otherwise, the next best thing they can do is convince you not to trust him. So that's what's going on. So you need to know that God is good. the next question is, does he really love us? And once again, knowing this from the cross, then you can look at the laws that he's given and the moral standard he's given and know that he's given it to us because he loves us.

Why? For our good. For our good, because he's proved on the cross that he gave his own son, as Roman says, if he didn't withhold his own son, he's not going to withhold something else from us that that would be for our good. So obviously, he's not going to send Jesus to die for our sins and then turn around and tell us things to ruin our lives. That's not how it works. So does he really love us?

We have to have that. You have to really trust that if you're going to follow his commandments and trust that he's given you good commandments. Next, you have to know what is love. And we talked about this a lot in the last episode. So I refer people back to there. What is biblical love? It's not the culture's view of love. So students have to be very clear on what real love is. What kind of love seeking, what it means to seek the good of the people around you, what that looks like. Because God has defined that for us. And the culture has a different view. So that's the next thing they have to think about. Now, the next question I think students have to be clear on is, can the culture be wrong? And this is something that you have to think explicitly about. And I think the way you do this is you learn from history.

You go back and you look at the people, the Christians who stood up against their culture, and what that meant and how they persevered, but also that it's possible because it is very hard, harder for some people than others, but it's very hard to go against the culture. Because everything is telling you every movie you see, every TV show you watch, every coworker you have, they're all telling you one thing, and God's telling you something else, And it's very hard to go against the culture. So the more you can steal yourself against giving into that and convincing yourself that culture can be wrong. It can be the case that 90% of people can be wrong if that's how much it is because we're fallen.

And we've proven that over and over in history. So looking back over history, I think you can kind of develop that idea so that people will be more willing to go against the culture. It's interesting being countercultural. That was a big deal back when I was a high schooler and subsequent to that. And it's a theme that continues. The irony is that those who are so-called countercultural own the culture now and won't let anybody, you know, buck the trend, as it were. And so the thing for the Christian is always to be their own person. Don't be the culture's person, be God's person.

And that is always going to be countercultural. Mm-hmm. And then the last question, I think this one is probably the most important question that they're going to have to answer for themselves. And it's this, is God worth suffering for? Mm-hmm. And the way you answer this question is you have to get to know him. This is a – notice, these are theological questions. I don't even think the biggest questions that Christians have to work out right now is whether or not God.

I think these theological questions are the ones that they have to wrestle with the most. Is God worth suffering for? You have to know who he is. You have to be reading the Bible. You have to understand theology. You have to be reflecting on the gospel. You have to be memorizing scripture, so it changes who you are and you see God as he is. You have to be resisting sin because the more we sin, the harder it is for us to see the truth.

And this is just a fact. because as soon as you give into sin, you're going to start justifying it. Right, right. This is a big danger. I think this is something any apologist has to be really careful about because our sin can affect our ability to see truth. So as we're fighting sin, as we're learning who God is, as we're reflecting on him and thinking about him and praying and learning to trust him and seeing how he's worked in history, this is how we learn that God is worth suffering for. And if I recall correctly, I think this is one of the things. things, Richard Wormbrand, who is a pastor in Romania under the communists.

Tortured for Christ was his book. Yes. I think this is what he was telling his students. You know, you have to decide here and now. Yeah. Is God worth suffering for? Is he worth more than all of these other things you have? If he is, then you will be willing to stand up against the culture and endure the losses

that you will endure, losses of jobs or friends or whatever it is. but you have to know that he's worth it. I actually saw him speak once, and he gave his entire presentation sitting in a chair because his body had been so brutalized by the torturers that his body wasn't functioning well, but he pressed on, obviously. And I recall one other thing from his book, I think it's from Warren Brand's book, where the torturer, in this case, was celebrating the fact that because there's no God, he can live out every passion, evil passion, in the torturing that he wanted to its fullest.

And, of course, that follows. I know that atheists don't like that characterization. I'm not bad like that. That doesn't mean I, every atheist has got to be bad. And the point that I would make is that, no, it doesn't mean you have to be. It's you're allowed to be. You're allowed to be on the atheistic worldview because, and if not, then tell me the principal moral view that restrains that behavior, which view is native to atheism.

You may have your personal morality. Fine, you're welcome to it. Good. You're going to do nice things. But that doesn't mean the other person has to have your morality on your view. If atheism is true, then there's no distinguishing morally between these behaviors because there are no moral distinctions possible if atheism is true, which, by the way, brings me to one other point of this broader picture about God being good. If God isn't good, and maybe part of

the question is, well, maybe there is a God that's different than the biblical God. Okay, for the time being, I get that. But in general, if there isn't a good God, then there isn't any goodness of any kind at all. It's the only option for grounding morality in a substantive way. People can say, well, I just do what I think is best. Okay, that's relativistic. But anybody can do whatever they want on that view. Well, what's good or bad is obvious. Well, it may be obvious, but that doesn't answer the question of where did the laws come from. I know the speed of the minute. I can look at the sign, but that doesn't mean I'm obliged to obey the sign. The sign is. The sign is. is only good if it's an expression of an appropriate authority there. So if there are no

appropriate authorities, then there are no appropriate signs, speed limit signs, and therefore it's anything goes, essentially. And there can be no objective foundation for goodness. And now you're stuck in a world. If God isn't good, that means there is no goodness. And now you've got to solve the problem how there can be evil in the world if there is no God. And that's the And how can they be good in the world if there is no God? Yeah, that's a great argument for his goodness. And one last thing on this idea, since you brought up the idea of Wormbrand having to sit down, as I was looking at all of these historical people like Corey Ten Boom and Richard Wormbrand and other people,

I wanted to know how they endured and how they kept going. and it came down to this last thing I said, they thought God was worth suffering for. It was absolutely the key thing I found that was a common denominator in all of them. They loved Jesus. I mean, that's what it came down to. So whatever we can do to cultivate that love in your youth group, do it. Don't get caught up too much. I mean, obviously, Apologetics has a lot to do with Exhibit.

distance of God and all these intellectual ideas. That's obviously important. But do not forget why we're doing this. We want people to know God. We want people to love Jesus. And you need to develop an understanding among them of his character, who he is and why we're doing this and have them cultivate their relationships with him. Because ultimately, that is what will enable them to persevere. So maybe to sum that up, it's not just that he is, but but who he is. Yes, definitely. All right, Tim, thank you for such a great question.

Took up the whole show. Such a good question. And hopefully you have a question. We'd love to hear from you. You can send that on X with the hashtag STR-Ask, or you can always just go to our website. And that is at STR.org. And just find our hashtag STR-Sk podcast page,

and you'll see a link there. And we would love to hear your question. Thank you so much for listening. This is Amy Hall, Greg Cookell for a stand to reason.