Editorials
on young people leaving the church
The fact that fewer young people are joining the Church these days is cause
for concern for all who love the Church and believe its continuing existence
is vital to the spiritual health and well-being of the world. But the situation
is especially sad for those who see their own children and grandchildren
failing to connect with an institution which has been such a strong source of
inspiration, meaning and joy for them in their lives.
Chief among the various kinds of happiness we wish for our children is
a spiritual life, based on the truths of the Lord’s Word. “I have told you these
things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete,” the Lord
said. (John 15:11) And He established the Church to preserve and teach and
help us live by the things He has told us.
The truths the Lord teaches in His Word constitute the “formula” for a
happy life. No other plan of life works as well as the blueprint the Lord has
given us in His Word. And no other agency is as successful in implementing
that plan as the one the Lord Himself founded upon that Rock of Truth, that
is, the Church.
The whole history of the human race demonstrates the truth of that
proposition. Again and again people fall for the notion that we’ve outgrown
the need for the Ten Commandments, the seeds of all human wisdom, only
to find that we haven’t. Then, after much hardship and sorrow, they are
“rediscovered.” It’s an old, old story.
But does living by the Ten Commandments necessarily require a church?
It’s a big question, but in a word: yes. Civil law and social custom support the
order of human existence from without, but apart from the spiritual influence
of Divine truth from within, the outer order will be artificial, brittle, sterile
and joyless.
The Church is a community of people who acknowledge the importance
of the Commandments and are striving to understand and live by them,
and support each other in this way of living. The presence of that spiritual
community in society is essential to the spiritual health of the whole society.
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