Spoiled Kids Gone to Devil — E.A. Johnston

A Generation That Does Not Know the Lord

In the book of Judges, in chapter 2, in verse 10, we read,. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers, and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel.

I look around me, and I look at all the church kids that I knew when they were little, and now they're grown up, and a good number of them are living in sin, having babies out of wedlock, or announcing publicly they are engaged to their gay lover.

Churches That Chose Entertainment Over Truth

I weep over the train wrecks of these ruined lives. When Southern Baptists loosened the buckle on the Bible belt, our families went to hell. We bent over backwards for our kids at church, and we did our best to keep them happy and entertained.

We gave them pizza nights, and movie nights, and catered to their every whim. We changed the music in our church to accommodate them. We even changed the way we dressed to be more casual for them. We changed our message so it wouldn't offend them, and we gave the kids what they wanted, instead of giving them what they needed.

Hiding Sin and Broadening the Way of Salvation

They needed to know what sin was, and why it needed to be avoided. But we threw a rug on sin, and covered up hell with a fluffy comforter, and just told the kids to accept our Jesus. And we made it easy for the kids to come to Christ, because we broadened the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did.

The Failure of Christian Upbringing

So our kids grew up in church, and attended vacation Bible school, and went to either private Christian school, or were homeschooled. And now the kids are college age, and everyone has gone their own way, and gone to the devil.

And the parents are supportive and okay with their kids' sinful and godless lifestyle. We continue to spoil them by not telling them the truth, because we're too afraid to admit we dropped the ball years ago, and failed to pray for our kids like we should have.

Neglecting Prayer, Family Devotions, and Moral Instruction

We failed to have family devotions regularly with our kids like we should have. We failed to call sin black and hell hot like we should have. And we catered to our little darlings. We gave them every desire like we shouldn't have.

False Assurance and Hypocritical Examples

So we spoiled them rotten early on, and then we told them they were saved, when they never had true conversion to begin with. The kids grew up in a home where the parents were one way at church, and another way at home.

And they were raised by a do-as-I-say mentality, instead of a do-as-I-do godly example. The kids saw no reality of God in the lives of their parents, and they saw right through all the hypocrisy.

Reaping the Consequences of Turning from God

And when they got old enough where they weren't forced to attend church anymore, they turned their back on church because they'd turned their back on God a long time ago. And we are reaping what we have sown all these long years.

And the harvest is a young generation with no moral compass, no shame for sin, no fear of God, and no belief in the God of the Bible. They are living like the devil, and the parents are still indulging in supporting their sinful lifestyle.

And this is the face of us Southern Baptists today, and it's a crying shame.