By John Mason
The lens that we use to view today’s world matters. Every human being alive today has a set of lenses they are using to filter what they are seeing and define reality to the best of their knowledge. For those who profess to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is only one set of lenses that can be used: the lens of Scripture.
The culture as defined in America is overwhelmingly becoming more and more post-truth.
The definition of post-truth is “relating to or existing in an environment in which facts are viewed as irrelevant, or less important than personal beliefs and opinions, and emotional appeals are used to influence public opinion.” (source)
This can be seen in all walks of life, even in the Christian faith and church culture. All the way from mass media to education systems, large corporations, social media networks, government and politics, church denominations, to your neighbor next door. There really is no escaping the ideologies and frameworks that have shaped a new humanism based on appeals to a godless moral standard that is only founded on feelings and public opinions.
The powers that have the greatest influence in our culture today do have a target audience in mind for indoctrination of the most influential humanistic ideologies, and that is children. The next generation. It may have been more hidden in past years, but today it is blatantly obvious that young minds and hearts are the primary targets for continuing the progression of a world without absolute truth or morality.
The question now becomes, what are Christians supposed to do, or better yet, called to do? Christians who claim to have been saved by the way, the TRUTH, and the Life in Jesus Christ. Christians claim to worship the TRUE and living God. Do we truly possess the light that Christ has said we are to have in a dark world or are we simply finding ways to blend in, make little to no impact, and practice good religion?
Every parent that professes to be a follower of Jesus Christ is called to be the primary educator of the children God has blessed them with, leading with their knowledge of God in every aspect of life on to their academic knowledge of the world (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Not answering that call or not prioritizing it is a willful surrendering our kids to the powers and principalities of this world that are instituted in the form of human ideologies and philosophies that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.
Jesus said in John 8:12 that He is the Light of the world and anyone who follows Him will not walk in the darkness but will have the Light of life. The truth of God should shine through every Christian into the lies of this dark world, being a living example of the Kingdom of God, a present life of grace and God’s glory. This can only be accomplished by using the lens of a biblical worldview. All of us should be encouraged to unleash our freedom in Christ to stand firm in educating and discipling our children as the next generation of Kingdom citizens to impact the world for God’s glory!
John Mason is a keynote speaker at both the Allen and the Woodlands 2022 Called to Teach Conventions. He and his wife of ten years to Sher’na have five children together. John strongly believes that discipleship and education of the family is a priority given to Christian parents by God. John and Sher’na founded an online community called God First, Life Second that focuses on prioritizing God in every area of the Christian life through living and promoting a biblical worldview and practicing apologetics.
John also serves as Youth Ministry Director at North Dallas Community Bible Fellowship in Plano, Texas. His primary mission is to teach and promote God’s biblical truth through the foundation of the Gospel to counter the current cultural lies that many Christians have allowed to become their standard.
Want to hear more from John? Come to the 2022 Called to Teach Convention and see him in-person!
