In my book Bearing the Standard, I offer many statistical examples to demonstrate how far the Body of Messiah has moved (and is continuing to move) away from the standard of Scripture. Earlier this month, Steve Cable, speaking at Southern Evangelical Seminary’s 20th annual Christian Apologetics conference in Charlotte, N.C., provided further evidence why we need to take most seriously the issue of bearing the standard of Scripture… because our children hang in the balance.

As reported by the Christian Post,

Cable, who recently published Cultural Captives: The Beliefs and Behavior of American Young Adults, focused the session on what he called “emerging adults,” or young believers between 18-29 years old…. According to Cable, in books such as Souls in Transition and Lost in Transition, Smith identified five disturbing patterns found in emerging adults. The sociologist argued that most emerging adults are morally adrift – their morals are personal and subjective; they are captive to consumerism; they have little civic and political engagement; they believe that sex is not a moral issue, and they engage in intoxication, or fake feeling of happiness.

Cable’s specific statistics are equally as alarming: two thirds of these “emerging adult” believers believe there are other ways to heaven besides Yeshua, only one in three were found to hold a Scriptural worldview, and only one in five were “actively engaged in practicing their faith.”

Of his so-called “Cultural Captives,” Cable perfectly describes the issue I present in Bearing the Standard: “Christians who are going to church or identifying as born-agains but siding with what culture tells them instead of the Bible.” His solution for reaching them?

Interact with them, share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel does not change… They need to learn to accept objective truth, and be aware of cultural traps.

I, of course, would add that that objective truth is found only in the pages of Scripture, and all believers need to be made aware of just how extremely susceptible we are to the hostile influences of tradition, expediency and rationalism, which cause us to set aside the Word of God for our own ideas. Instead we must pledge our lives to upholding the standard of Scripture, and make ourselves accountable to other believers to hold us to that standard.

There is a lot of work to do, and we need to spread the word! What practical steps do you feel you need to take to personally make this commitment to the Scriptures, and then help open the eyes of other believers? How can I and Perfect Word help you to do this? How did my book, Bearing the Standard, help you to see your own shortcomings in this area? Sound off below.