The Polls Have It

According to Relevant Magazine, 80% of single, evangelical Christians ages 18-29 are no longer virgins. Take that abstinence education!

Stories like these are disturbing for multiple reasons. They are disturbing because they cast such a dreary light on modern Christians. There isn't very much in life that is as clear in Scripture as the sinfulness of sex outside of marriage. You'll find debates on whether or not lying is a sin or even whether or not the passages that say that homosexual behavior is a sin are genuine, but almost no one can argue that sex outside of marriage is, biblically, a violation of God's clear commands. The best we can do, then, as devout followers of Christ, pursuers of a relationship with the Almighty, genuine disciples of our Lord and Savior, is ... fail miserably. 20%. That's it? Really?

They are disturbing because some of it is a lie. In this story, for instance, the category is "single, evangelical Christians ages 18-29." Who determines that they are "evangelical Christians"? Well, apparently they are "self-identifying". Excuse me, but has anyone looked at the disarray of the group once known as "evangelical Christians"? It used to mean something. Not so much these days. That term has little meaning anymore. Add to that the muddled voices of self-identified "Christians" who are shouting exactly that God's Word is no longer relevant and the Bible is an outdated book and really, how much of it can you really trust anyway? So loud are some of these voices that it is not uncommon to hear that "Christian scholars do not believe that the Bible is relevant or reliable." Really? Some studies have found that when factors like genuine Christian living and genuine biblical values produce genuinely different results in these polls. But Christ is still going to get the black eye for this assault on His character as reflected in His followers.

They are disturbing because of the biblical conclusions. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, the difference between the two is that some are sheep and some are goats. The demonstration that they're different is in what they did or didn't do. If there is no difference between the sinful lives of 80% of the "single, evangelical Christians ages 18-29" and the rest of the world, are they sheep or are they goats. James says that faith produces works. "Faith," he says, "if it has no works is dead, being alone" (James 2:17). Are we to conclude that this 80% is operating on dead faith? No, I wouldn't say that. A sin does not indicate dead faith. On the other hand, if it is true that "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God" (1 John 3:9), it is a reasonable question for those of the 80% who defend their sin and continue in it.

They are disturbing because the statistic prompts Relevant Magazine (and others by extension) to say, "God's picture of sex and marriage is certainly a beautiful one, but itʼs also ... old. Biblical times were a lot different than current times. Is such a picture still relevant?" That's the question. Is God's picture of sex and marriage relevant? We allow sin and circumstances to dictate God's reality? We abandon God's commands and expect God to come around to our way of thinking?

They are disturbing because of the variety of causes. Marriage in the Bible was intended for the young. Our society has all but banned it for the young. We've pushed the "acceptable" marriage age out to somewhere around 30 and then wonder why there's such pressure to sin. It was not for nothing that Paul wrote, "Because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband" (1 Cor 7:2). Not us. We know better. Don't marry too soon. Sin! Much, much better. Beyond that, we've allowed the redefinition of marriage to exclude procreation and center around self-service. We've devalued marriage first by allowing "no fault divorce" (an oxymoron) and then failing to define marriage at all until now it means "people who want to be together" and not much more, and then we wonder why the younger generation isn't much concerned about marriage. We've bought the lie that "finding myself" and "settling into a fulfilling career" are much more important than obedience. We've pushed away genuine discipline and child rearing in favor of "encouraging individuality". The result is that the current generation of children aren't getting married until later because they aren't adults until later. They've never been taught personal responsibility, self-control, delayed gratification, self-sacrifice, even basic financial responsibility. And, let's face it, we're raising kids in a hyper-sexualized environment where every commercial is about how to improve your sex life (implicitly or explicitly) and every TV show is about who's having sex with whom (built neatly around a theme -- cops, doctors, lawyers, friends, whatever. Shows on "family" TV include series on pregnant teenagers and despicable, controlling high school girls. It almost looks as if the only way to fix this is to withdraw from society and return to biblical living. We have caused this, and then we moan about the results of our choices.

Look, I'm not ready to say that only 20% of those who self-identify as evangelical Christians are genuine Christians. Everyone sins. And I'm not suggesting that because 80% (or whatever the real number is) have had sex that we're headed for the end of the Church Age. It does call to mind Jesus's words, "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8). Note that the warning in the context of that verse is "Will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night? Will He delay long over them? I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily" (Luke 18:7-8). That ought to give pause. And I would hope that stories like these would call on us not to alter our faith in Christ and His Word, but to reevaluate our own approach and positions. The question should rarely be "Am I holding too closely to the Word of God?" The question most often would be "Have I slipped from God's way without knowing it?" I'd say, in fact, that it's often a given.