Consider some of the greatest issues for young adults according to surveys.
B1 First list (Most common problems)
C1 Acceptance
C2 Stress
C3 Depression and anxiety
C4 Self-harm
C5 Bullying
C6 Desensitization
C7 Sex
C8 Disrespect
C9 Trust
C10 Motivation
B2 Second list (Most feared)
C1 Peer pressure/not fitting in
C2 Sex
C3 Failure
C4 Climate change
C5 Money (Poverty)
C6 The future
C7 Bullying/Cyberbullying
C8 Lost identity
C9 Safety
C10 Embarrassment
B3 Third list
C1 Single Parent Households
C2 Drug/Alcohol Abuse
C3 Growing up too fast
C4 Violence in Schools
C5 Materialism
C6 Obesity
C7 Education disparity
C8 Shifting economy
C9 Poverty
C10 Erosion of national pride/identity
B4 Fourth list (Christian youth)
C1 Personalizing and living out their faith
C2 Living in an anti-Christian culture
C3 Sexual purity in a society where pressure and temptation exist
C4 Personal identity and self-image issues
C5 Divorce and family issues
C6 Busyness (Always involved in something)
C7 Absence of father figure
C8 Negative media influence
C9 Lack of discipline
C10 Materialism
Sources
10 MOST COMMON PROBLEMS TEENS FACE IN 2021
10 THINGS TEENS FEAR MOST IN 2021
Top 10 Issues Facing Our Youth Today
10 Challenges Facing Christian Youth
A common problem points to intellectual skepticism and wanting pleasures. There is also the pain of physical and/or emotional and/or spiritual safety. There are society pressures, brain washing, lack of commitment, truth, and other issues.
There are answers.
B1 Be skeptical. Don’t just believe someone. Study it out. It is reasonable? Does it have multiple confirmations from various sources?
B2 Be wary of philosophical arguments that appear of the surface to be unanswerable. Philosophy, logic, statistics, etc. can be manipulated. Follow the money if you can.
B3 Research answers. Research both sides.
B4 You (all of us do) face challenges, seemingly unanswerable logic, and the authority of the professor. Don’t accept someone’s person just because they are the “expert.”
B5 Don’t be fearful of studying evolution.
B6 1 Thessalonians 5:21-22 NLT but test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. 22 Stay away from every kind of evil.
An example is creation. I didn’t include evolution, which is a longer topic. Evolution has problems. See here.
B1 Passage: Genesis 1
B2 The problem—calendar day or age day?
C1 Young earth
D1 Versions
E1 Literal calendar day—each day in Genesis 1 is a 24-hour day like we live in today.
E2 Omphalos hypothesis—the idea that time is circular and acts as if there is history when it is only imaginary. Gosse’s failure was unfortunately to invent the unbiblical idea that time moved in a circle, which God interrupted when He created. The time of real history since creation he called ‘diachronic’, while ‘before’ creation, the cycling time was unreal, ‘virtual’ time he called ‘prochronic’. Thus Adam and Eve would have been created with a navel to reflect a prochronic history of growing from a mother’s womb, even though there was no real ‘diachronic’ history of such a thing. (Source)
D2 Calendar day
C2 Old earth—many forms as
D1 Versions
E1 Gap—the days are calendar days but there are long periods of time between each day.
E2 Progressive—God creates various forms over long periods of time.
E3 Framework—there is a pattern. There is no information given regarding the time involved.
E4 Day age—the idea that the days represent long periods of time of millions of years each.
E5 Theistic evolution—God gave the spark, plan, and nature worked this plan though evolution.
D2 Age day.
B3 Interpretation
C1 What it SAYS.
D1 This is different than what it means.
D2 I’m a skeptical person, so I need to examine both sides.
D3 Why I am a Christian starts with, it is reasonable to most reasonable that a man named “Jesus” existed about 2,000 years ago and progress from there. So, to me it is reasonable that what the Bible says is correct in the plain, normal sense, taking note of grammar, history, the culture of the people addressed lived in, and forms of speech, etc. Thus, I find it most reasonable that God (Yahweh) cannot lie.
D4 When I read Genesis 1, I see familiar words that I can relate to as earth, darkness, light, day, night, evening, morning, water, land (earth), herbs, plants, seed, years, birds, cattle, things that live in water, humans, fish, fruit, trees, etc. These are understood by most as literal. It seems reasonable that the word “day” would mean day, as in 24-hour day.
D5 So it is reasonable that the whole universe and everything in it was completed in 6, 24-hour, calendar day.
C2 What it MEANS.
D1 Being skeptical, I find no reason to having any meaning except all this physical universe was started and finished in 6 calendar days.
D2 Understanding the word “day” to mean years or indefinite time seems unreasonable to me.
E1 It is the only word that is in dispute.
E2 Meaning must give priority to the immediate context.
E3 Most arguments offered for “day” meaning long periods of time come from the use of the word “day” outside any meaningful context of the words and sentences in Genesis 1.
D3 It is easy to explore via any search engine those apologists who believe “day” means everything on earth except “day.”
D4 It seems reasonable to me (though most would disagree) that those who accept “long” days have a higher authority than the Bible. It is always “science says so, all scientists agree, the Church Fathers believed in many different interpretations, highly educated Christians believe in a long day,” etc. so it seems to this skeptical person who cares.
To summarize
B1 Your Christian faith will be challenged.
B2 Doubt is not loss of faith.
B3 There are reasonable answers.
B4 Be skeptical. Don’t believe anyone who claims to be an expert without an open mind that they might be wrong.
B5 Research pro and con.
B6 Concentrate if what is said and/or taught is reasonable or not.
B7 Regarding Bible passages, examine what it SAYS before determining what it MEANS.
B8 Exercise proper Bible interpretation rules.
B9 Pray
B10 Ask questions.
B11 Don’t reject belief without examining all possible explanations (or at least many explanations).
Let us not be found having this passage quoted to us on Judgment Day. Matthew 22:29 NIrV Jesus replied, “You are mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures. And you do not know the power of God.
Proverbs 18:17 GW The first to state his case seems right until his neighbor comes to cross-examine him.
1 Thessalonians 5:21 NIrV Put everything to the test. Hold on to what is good.
Graduation, Doubt, Questions, Faith, Reasons, Challenges to faith