The Generation Gap

Art by Chloe Ajala, age 14

By Chayo Perez

I believe there is a strategy from the enemy against our young generation.

That strategy is to get the younger generation to reject the morals, principles, standards, and values of the older generation.

Proverbs 30:11-12 says, “There is a generation coming that curses its father and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness.”

In these verses, the Bible is describing a generation that will break its link to the previous generation. Yes, it is normal for young people rebel. It is part of how God designed them to grow into independence away from their parents. There is a time when that independence is being asserted.

But eventually, the younger generation comes full circle to embrace their parents’ morals, principles, and values. They grow into maturity. They get jobs. They get married. They pay bills.

They become responsible adults.

But the generation that our text is talking about will disconnect completely from the previous generation. Verse 11 says that they will want nothing to do with Mom and Dad’s morals, values, and principles.

Verse 14 describes them as a heartless and ruthless generation.

Psalm 2:1-3 says, “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’”

Here we find that these people are saying, “We don’t want Mom and Dad’s beliefs; We don’t want their values and morals.”

Paul tells the church in II Thessalonians 2:3, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there comes a falling away first, and then the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition.”

The antichrist has been waiting for the generation that ushers in the great falling away, because that’s the generation that will prepare the way for the antichrist to take the world stage.

Some time ago, I saw an article titled “Rise of the Nones.” The Nones were highlighted as a rapidly growing group of young Americans under age 30 that does not identify with any religion.

When filling out forms and asked about their religious affiliation, they simply put “none.” These are young Americans who don’t feel a need for church or religion. They have broken that link.

Let’s think back to older days, when a father would teach his son how to work, and a mother would teach her daughter to abstain from sensual activity until she got married. These are values seemingly no longer held in the United States. Today’s culture views this as old fashion thinking.

Proverbs 30:12 says, “There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, yet not washed from its filthiness.”I n our current society and culture, filth has become the new clean.

“The World War II generation fought to preserve their families and their children,” someone wrote “but this generation fights to abort their children and desert their families.”

How can this terrible state of affairs be fixed? Who can address it? The answer is found in the Church.

The Church is the only institution left on the planet that is still trying to instill into our young people the tried and true values, morals, and principles. The Church is the only institution that is trying to fix the broken link and keep the antichrist at bay.

And as the Church, we are the ones who have the power of God to bring about that change.

It is vitally important that we succeed at this great task. Look around you. All these young people could be tomorrow’s pastors and pastors’ wives; tomorrow’s evangelists and evangelists’ wives.

It is the great responsibility of every older saint to reach out and teach our younger generation God’s Word. It is the great responsibility of every young person to take heed to the advice and counsel of the older saints and the direction in God’s Word… and to find their own walk with God.

God will help us, but we must take action. The difference between a prophet and a scribe is that the scribe has read and heard, but the prophet has seen and experienced.

Today’s church culture is being overrun with scribes – people who have read and heard about revival.

We are so fortunate to have among us those older saints in the prophet category. They have seen and experienced revival. They grew up in it. Now they are poised to pass it on to us and to our children.

May God help us as we learn from them, gain our own experience, take up the torch, and pass it on to the next generation.

“Write the vision and make it plain… that he may runs who reads it” (Habakkuk 2:2).