God Has No Grandchildren

 According to a recent Pew Research Center report, the religious landscape in America has experienced a sizeable shift in recent decades.  As recently as 1990, 90% of Americans identified themselves as Christian. The United States, as a whole, viewed itself as a “Christian nation.”  Today, only about two thirds of Americans identify themselves as Christian.  The shift has not been between religions, or even denominations. The huge shift reflects a rapidly growing number of Americans who see themselves as “unaffiliated.”  They may not consider themselves atheists, but they do not identify themselves with any particular religion. Since 1990, an entire generation has grown up. Those born in 1990 are now in their 30s and many of those are giving birth to the next generation.

 How should we view this startling, and apparently continuing shift in American faith?  We should be reminded that the Christian faith is always only one generation away from extinction.  As someone once said, “God has no grandchildren.”  We do not inherit faith like we inherit eye color or ethnicity.  Faith comes through a personal decision, one-person-at-a time. 

 This is abundantly clear in the Bible, especially the Old Testament.  For hundreds of years the Jewish people vacillated between obedient faith in God and disobedient rejection.  We are no different.  Every generation, and every person, must decide for themselves whether they will place their trust in God.

 To Moses’ generation God said, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days,” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

 When crowds of Jews sought out John the baptizer, he said to them, “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid to the root of the trees, so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:8-9). We cannot depend upon the faith of our fathers.  We must choose for ourselves. 

 Years ago I went to the Metrodome in Minneapolis to hear Billy Graham preach.  Few, if any, of the younger generation would know or remember Dr. Graham. In the last half of the twentieth century, he preached to packed stadiums around the world with crowds often exceeding 100,000.  That night, the Metrodome was packed.  At the end of his message, he said to the crowd, “Many of you were baptized as infants by your mothers and fathers.  They did that for you because they loved you.  But you must come to faith in Jesus Christ yourself.” Hundreds of people filled the aisles and made their way to the stadium floor to make a faith commitment to Christ.   The faith of our mothers and fathers will not save us.  Each one of us must find our own faith in God through Jesus Christ.