This morning I read an article on how some youth are falling away from the Church and Christianity for what is called, “Yeezianity.” Yeezianity is derived from rapper Kanye West’s character “Yeezus.” These young people are not merely extreme groupies of the rapper. No. It runs deeper than that. These youths are gravitating to Yeezianity for more meaningful reasons and the Christian Church for most part has failed to address their questions and concerns. Even though there are a number of churches, pastors, evangelists, theologians, philosophers, and apologists dedicating their lives whole heartily to giving reasons for the Christian faith, yet still there are far too many Christians who are not doing so and as a result we see such tragedies as this happening every single day. Let us see a couple of the reasons why these youth are turning from Christianity to Yeezianity.

The first reason why these young people are turning from Christianity and the Church is because they think they are irrelevant. These youth say that the Church is too ancient and are turned off by church lingo or as I called it, “Christian-eeze”. Further as the article states it, ” Many feel the church is simply old-fashioned. The church has failed to address concerns young people are faced with today (Liberty Voice, www.guardianlv.com).” Here is where the problem lies. The Christian Church for most part is ill-equipped to answer the problems of life, doubt, and truth. Instead of Christians following the biblical command of I Peter 3:15 to “always be ready to give a defense to everyone who ask for a reason for the hope that is in you”, many Christians silently sit on their bibles and act like fideists (those who reject the need for apologetics and just believe by faith) while the youth and others search and get answers from false religions, cults, the occult, and false philosophies. I submit to you then that it is not Christianity and the Church that is irrelevant, it is the uttermost failure of the Church to address the problems that face our youth today. It is no reason it is always the Church that the people hate and barely ever Jesus Himself. Jesus in His earthly ministry never shied away from the issues of His day so why are we doing the complete opposite? I think part of becoming like Jesus is dealing with the issues and giving answers to those who are genuinely seeking them. If we are not doing so, can we honestly say we are becoming more like Christ Jesus our Lord?

The second reason these youth are leaving the Church is due to a lack of understanding about the seriousness of sin and God’s justice. These young people are complaining that the Church “wastes too much time harping on sex.” (Liberty Voice, www.guardianlv.com) The youth feel that “whether it is a sin or not does not concern them as much as other issues which they feel the church overlooks such as education, hunger, homelessness and poverty.” (Liberty Voice, www.guardianlv.com) While it is important to be concerned about these issues raised by the youth, still this is not the main concern. The issue of sin is the main concern and it is articulated as so throughout the bible from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It seems to me that not only has the Church failed to give apologetic answers to the questions of these young people, but also the Church has failed to show why they need salvation by biblically demonstrating why sin is in fact a very serious matter and problem and the consequences which are attached to it. Nobody must have told them that sin is breaking God’s law (I John 3:4) and all a person has to do is sin just once and they are guilty of sin and are condemned by God and separated from Him plus the wrath of God is upon him/her. (James 2:10, Isaiah 64:6, John 3:36) As evangelist Ray Comfort as said time and time again, until a sinner see how serious sin is in God’s eyes, sinners will not see the need for a savior. This is exactly the case here. Until we as Christians begin to give a biblical apologia for the nature of sin, the seriousness of sin, and God’s justice, young people will continue to think just like these “Yeezus” followers do about sin.

In closing we should now see why apologetics is so important. Unlike in the days of DL Moody, Charles Spurgeon, and others who preached in a time when Christianity and the Bible was accepted at face value, we as Christians today are faced with questions about life and its many problems, the evil in our world, the existence of God, and many other critically important questions. We cannot afford to take a long leap into the dark by faith like the fidiests when God has giving us the answers we need; both for ourselves and for others. If the truth truly sets us free as Jesus said it would (John 8:32), why are we not seeking the truth and in turn giving that truth out to those who need it? If we agree with Jesus that God’s word, the Bible, is truth (John 17:17)  then we are absolutely responsible to proclaim that truth in a world of lies and deception. May we go forth in the power of the Holy Spirit and fight the good fight of faith.