All the way through this article, I ask you to be thinking this: “It only takes one generation.”

This article is going to be a bit different. I’m going to start by quoting two US presidents, an atheist, a dictator, and a Christian researcher! And of course, I will be quoting God’s Word.

Prior to his presidency, in his gubernatorial inaugural address in 1967, Ronald Reagan stated:

Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.

In responding to mob violence in the country in 1838, President Abraham Lincoln stated:

How, then, shall we perform it? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction were our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.

While delivering a speech in Australia, in August 2014, atheist Lawrence Krauss stated:

Change is always one generation away . . . So if we can plant the seeds of doubt in our children, religion will go away in a generation, or at least largely go away—and that’s what I think we have an obligation to do.

In 1935, Nazi Germany’s dictator, Hitler, was reported as stating:

He alone, who owns the youth, gains the Future!

(The quote was translated from German into English in 1946 during the Nuremburg trials.)

In the book of Judges, we read: “And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, that he did for Israel.”

Then we are told Joshua and the generation with him who saw the great work of the Lord (e.g., the crossing of the Jordan River) died.

Judges 2:10-12 KJV – “And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim: And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger.”

They lost the spiritual legacy they had in one generation.

In January 2018, Christian researcher George Barna stated that Generation Z (born between 1999–2015) is the first truly “post-Christian” generation. In fact, statistics show Generation Z is twice as likely to be atheist as any previous generation.

It’s well known that a culture, a family, or an organization (e.g., church, Christian college, etc.) can change dramatically in one generation. Now many of you may have read my book Will They Stand: Parenting Kids to Face the Giants or heard me speak on the family. In that book and in my presentation, I emphasize that the family is the first and most fundamental of all human institutions. The family is the backbone of the culture, and the family is the educational unit God set up to pass on a spiritual legacy to the next generation and impact the world for him in each generation. It only takes one generation to lose the spiritual legacy, and the devil knows this. That’s why the family has come under incredible attack.

The devil knows that to destroy the family is to destroy the culture and stop a godly legacy from being passed to the next generation so it can impact people’s lives. As President Lincoln detailed, it’s the attacks from within that will destroy.

If you think about it, the evil issues permeating our culture right now are all ultimately an attack on the family to destroy the culture from within.

The devil has also attacked the family in the church. More attacks from within! There’s been a generational loss from the church, and now we are seeing church attendance figures for Millennials and Generation Z down to less than 9%. Much of the church has given up (compromised/ignored) the authority of God’s Word in Genesis, thus undermining the foundation of all doctrine and a biblical worldview. Much of the church is lukewarm, not raising up generations to boldly stand on God’s Word.

Sadly, we are now in a situation where generations of kids have been taught through the education system, media, internet, and movies that the Bible is a book of mythology, man is just an animal, and morality is relative.

Proverbs 29:18 states, “Where there is no prophetic vision the people cast off restraint.” Now this literally means that where there is no revelation (e.g., prophetic vision, word from the Lord), there is no restraint.

Notice that this verse finishes with “but blessed is he who keeps the law.” People will not be happy until they are obeying God’s law. We do live in a time where we see this happening. The younger generations are casting off restraint as purpose and meaning in life is whatever they can get out of it right now. And in their rebellion against God, they will do whatever they can to justify doing whatever they want to do (especially with sex).

HD Editor’s Note:

Answers In Genesis is dedicated to helping “parents, churches, and schools in raising up godly generations, equipped to stand in this very secularized, anti-Christian culture.” They offer a powerful VBS program, Sunday school curriculum, and other resources to help Biblically educate children —— Learn More Here