Guarding Against Spiritual Amnesia By Michael Youssef, Ph.D.

Just as generations of Israelites in that era repeatedly fell away from God’s commandments, our generation is falling away from its Biblical foundation. As a culture, we have ceased to look for answers from the Word of God. Our schools and universities – many of which were founded as institutions of Christian instruction – no longer take the Bible seriously.

Churches that once proclaimed the essence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ – namely, that Jesus alone saves – are now a dwindling minority. How can a person claim to be an evangelical Christian while denying the Lord’s own claim (in John 14:6) to be the only way to God the Father? If Jesus is not the only way to God, then why did He have to die on the cross?

That’s why the book of Judges is so instructive for us today. It’s a warning to us whether we are single or married, whether we are parents or grandparents or have no children of our own. If we fail to transmit our faith and values to the next generation, our culture and our nation will suffer the same fate as ancient Israel. God calls us to teach the next generation, equip the next generation, and above all, pray for the next generation. This is the only cure for what I call “mass spiritual amnesia” – a culture-wide memory loss. One of Satan’s key tactics in his spiritual war against us is the attempt to erase the memory of God’s Truth from the minds of our children.

If the book of Judges teaches us anything, it teaches that we must never give an inch to false religions, we must never settle for partial victories over sin, we must never give up our spiritual birthright, and we must never forget our spiritual heritage. We must always contend for every soul and pray intensely for our children and our children’s children. We must stand firm for future generations so they will never fall prey to spiritual amnesia.

“‘Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds . . . Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deuteronomy 11:18-19).