NO MORE LIES: The Crisis of Truth - Dave Richardson

You’re invited to this equipping workshop hosted by Firmly Planted Family on Thursday, October 24th at 6pm. Brought to us by Dave Richardson from Assumptions Institute.

Keep reading for a preview of NO MORE LIES: The Crisis of Truth

If you were doing something to unwittingly sabotage your child’s faith in Christ, would you want to know it?

All engaged Christian parents want their children to become a Christ-follower and remain a Christ-follower into their young adult lives.  Interestingly, only 38% of those same parents are confident this will actually happen according to our parent surveys. 

There are two strategic errors that nearly every Christian parent makes in raising their children that sabotages their faith and actually encourages them to leave it. 

Nearly 65% of young people who grew up in Christian homes, churches, schools, and ministries walk away from their faith every year.  Part of that statistic is because of this subtle sabotage on the part of parents, pastors, and teachers.

The first error is exposing children to truth with no explicit training on how to recognize truth as truth.

It is like me walking into your yard with a tiger, but you don’t know what a tiger is.  You might think it’s a beautiful and interesting animal, but that thing could kill and eat you if you try to pet it because you don’t recognize what it is.  We typically assume that discernment – the ability to tell the difference between true and false, good and evil – is an innate skill that everybody has.

It isn’t!

Hebrews 5:14 is clear that “solid food is for the mature who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”  Discernment is not an innate skill, but something that requires training and practice.

Do you know how to quickly and reliably recognize truth regardless of the source?  In our media saturated culture, this is a crucial life skill.

If we are not intentional about teaching children how to recognize anything as true, they will recognize nothing is true.  They will join the nearly two thirds of children who grew up Christian and leave the faith every year claiming “It may be true for my mom and dad, but it isn’t true for me.” 

This “true for you but not for me,” “#MyTruth,” and “I have to speak my truth” attitude is a major problem in our culture today and it stems from the inability to recognize truth as truth. The Cultural Research Center documented that 67% of all Americans are moral and truth relativists.  Shockingly, born-again Christians are no different.

In 2023, 70% of all self-identified born-again Christians did not believe in absolute truth.  It is even worse with Christian parents of elementary aged children.  If moral and truth relativism is a big problem today, who are the relativists?  It’s the Christians!

How could this possibly be?  After 40 years in ministry, two post-graduate degrees in theology and apologetics, and raising 4 kids myself, I am convinced that this crisis of truth is because of a second strategic error – teaching a Christian worldview. 

Nearly all Christians believe that training students in a Christian worldview will insulate them from the relativism of the culture.  Would you believe me if I told you that training people in a Christian worldview trains people to be relativists?

As someone who has been doing apologetics since I was in college, this was a difficult conclusion to come to.  While Christians are convinced that a Christian worldview is true, the framework of worldview itself as used for centuries does not allow for that.

The framework of worldview is inherently relativistic.

The framework of worldview says that every worldview is equally valid and true for the viewer.  It is their view.  I cannot dismiss some else’s view as false because it is their view. 

For me to say that my view is true, and someone else’s is false is not allowed.  Christians use the framework differently than non-Christians.

We have our arguments and reasons for why the “Christian worldview” is true, but when we go outside of Christian circles to advance our message using the framework of worldview, what happens?

We get dismissed with the pejorative “Well, that’s just your worldview.  I’m glad that is true for you.  I have a different worldview, and it is true for me.”

 If every worldview is true for the viewer, then no worldview is true, including the Christian worldview.  How can we effectively communicate the Gospel and the truth in God’s Word using a framework that says nothing is true?

This is what the framework of worldview does.  It trains people to be moral and truth relativists.  And then we are mystified why 65% of young people raised in Christian homes and churches walk away from the faith every year, and our pulpits and pews are full of moral and truth relativists!

 This is why I created Assumptions Institute and our innovative, assumptions-based Learn To Discern critical thinking and discernment training courses for individuals, small groups, Christian schools and home schools.

We can teach teens and adults how to reliably recognize what is and isn’t true in the classroom, the media, and the culture in 30 seconds, and relate truth from God and the Bible to those real-world issues and situations.

We use a system that dismantles the relativism in our culture and helps Christians advance a powerful, life-transforming message that is true for everyone regardless of their view.  

Come learn more and be equipped at the live Crisis of Truth workshop at Firmly Planted Family on Thursday, October 24th at 6pm.