Title: Winning The War Over Our Culture's Secular Mind
1WINNING THE
WAR
OVER
OUR CULTURES SECULAR MIND
by Steven J. Wallace www.RevelationAndCreation
.com
22 CORINTHIANS 103-6
3 For though we walk in the flesh,we do not war
according to theflesh. 4 For the weapons of our
warfareare not carnal but mighty in God for
pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down
arguments and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God, bringing every
thought into captivity to the obedience of
Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all
disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
3YET OUR CULTURE HAS MOVED AWAY FROM BIBLICAL
PRINCIPLES!
- AMERICA
- LARGEST NUMBER OF CHURCHES
- LARGEST NUMBER OF BIBLE COLLEGES
- LARGEST NUMBER OF CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORES
- LARGEST NUMBER OF CHRISTIAN TV AND RADIO
PROGRAMS
4When asked to estimate the likelihood that they
will continue to participate in church life once
they are living on their own, levels dip
precipitously, to only about one out of every
three teens. Placed in context, that stands as
the lowest level of expected participation among
teens recorded by Barna Research in more than a
decade. . . . The relative lack of interest in
maintaining church ties in the future reflects
their experience with churches to date.
Specifically, they do not perceive churches to be
particularly helpful.
Teenagers Embrace Religion but Are Not Excited
About Christianity, January 10, 2000,
www.barna.org
5W R O
SOMETHING
I
NG
S
6Most teens are desperately striving to determine
a valid and compelling purpose for life. Most of
them want to have influence and impact. The
Church has an opportunity to address such matters
and thus to position itself as a place of
valuable insight and assistance. Barna stated
that young people will give the Church a chance.
But to become an accepted partner in their
maturation process, the Church must earn the time
and attention of teens and that means becoming
a provider of value well before their high school
graduation. The failure to do so virtually
guarantees that the Church will continue to see
massive dropout rates among college students,
with relatively few of those young people
returning to the church immediately after
college.
Teenagers Embrace Religion but Are Not Excited
About Christianity, January 10, 2000,
www.barna.org
7WHY?
PERHAPS WE CAN DIAGNOSE A REASON FOR THIS SHIFT
AWAY FROM THE BIBLE
1) The church is not touching our culture our
culture is infiltrating the church!
8THE CHURCH IS THE GREATEST INSTITUTION TO EDUCATE
THE WORLD IN WHAT IS RIGHT
And He said to them, "Go into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature (Mk. 1615)
. . .the church of the living God, the pillar
and ground of the truth (1 Tim. 315)
9THE CHURCH IS THE GREATEST INSTITUTION TO EDUCATE
THE WORLD IN WHAT IS RIGHT
But when they did not find them, they dragged
Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the
city, crying out, These who have turned the
world upside down have come here too (Acts
176)
10WHY?
PERHAPS WE CAN DIAGNOSE A REASON FOR THIS SHIFT
AWAY FROM THE BIBLE
2) Churches Not Regularly Teaching on Salvation
11ARE SOME ASHAMED?
- IS SALVATION PRESSED HARD WHERE YOU GO?
- IS IT ONLY TAUGHT IN PASSING?
- IS SALVATION DEFINED WHERE YOU GO?
- IS IT ONLY TAUGHT IN PASSING?
- IS SALVATION DEFENDED WHERE YOU GO?
- IS IT ONLY TAUGHT IN PASSING?
12IF SALVATION IS ONLY TAUGHT IN PASSING, THE
YOUTH WILL PASS IT BY
- Mark 1616"He who believes and is baptized will
be saved but he who does not believe will be
condemned.
13WHY?
PERHAPS WE CAN DIAGNOSE A REASON FOR THIS SHIFT
AWAY FROM THE BIBLE
3) Christians Compartmentalizing Their Faith
14THECompartmental Christian
- Goes to Church on Sunday
- Goes to Work on Monday
- Goes to Bank on Friday
- Goes to Party on Saturday
HYPOCRISY TURNS CHILDREN OFF RATHER THAN ONE
GOING TO CHURCH WHY NOT LIVE AS PART OF THE
CHURCH. . .AS SAVED?
15The Compartmental Christian
- WILL NOT TRAIN UP HIS CHILDREN IN THE WAY THEY
SHOULD GO
Pr 226, Train up a child in the way he should
go, And when he is old he will not depart from
it.
WHY DO YOU THINK SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE FALL AWAY?
16WHY?
PERHAPS WE CAN DIAGNOSE A REASON FOR THIS SHIFT
AWAY FROM THE BIBLE
4) The bible is taught as a book of stories
rather than REAL HISTORY
17WHY?
PERHAPS WE CAN DIAGNOSE A REASON FOR THIS SHIFT
AWAY FROM THE BIBLE
5) ACCEPTANCE OF EVOLUTION
18EVOLUTION
- MAKES IMMORALITY RESPECTABLE
- DECAYS A SOCIETY
- DESTROYS ANY REAL PURPOSE FOR AN INDIVIDUALS
LIFE - most teens want to know the purpose of life
19HISTORYS EXAMPLE
20The philosopher who had the greatest influence on
Hitler was Nietzsche. In his parable, Thus Spake
Zarathustra, he claimed that God is dead and
that humankind was an evolutionary intermediate
between beast and a superman Man is a rope,
stretched between the animal and the Supermana
rope over an abyssYe have made your way from the
worm to man, and much within you is still worm.
Once were ye apes, and even yet man is more of an
ape than any of the apes Thomas Common,
translator The Philosophy of Niietzche, (New
York Random House, n.d.) 28-29.
21Today, many medical doctorstrained at their
museumsare in a sense more hypocritical, at
least inconsistent, than Hitler. On one hand,
most say survival of the fittest got us here, and
on the other, instead of killing off those who
are weak or sickly, they actually help
themkeeping them alive to reproduce with all
sorts of diseases and deficiencies, thus
hindering humanitys evolution.
Geoff Stevens, A Tale of Two Museums
http//www.answersingenesis.org/us/newsletters/050
1lead.asp
22WHAT IS TYPICALLY TAUGHT TO CHILDREN BY SECULAR
MUSEUMS
LOOKING FOR MIRACLES THE MYTH OF A GLOBAL FLOOD
BEGAN OVER 5000 YEARS AGO PERHAPS AS A STORY TO
EXPLAIN THE PRESENCE OF FOSSIL SEA SHELLS ON
MOUNTAIN SIDES AROUND THE MEDITERRANEAN. IT HAS
LED TO CENTURIES OF DEBATE CENTERED AROUND THE
BIBLICAL STORY OF NOAH AND THE FLOOD
23DANGER!
WHEN THE CHURCH TOLERATES A BOMBED OUT BIBLE,
THEY LOSE THE BATTLE OVER OUR CULTURES SECULAR
MIND!
GENESIS
24DOES THE BIBLE GIVE A FRAMEWORK FOR
?
- GEOLOGY
- BIOLOGY
- ANTHROPOLOGY
- ASTRONOMY
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2611 In the six hundredth year of Noahs life,
in the second month, the seventeenth day of the
month, on that day all the fountains of the great
deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven
were opened.
BIBLE GEOLOGY
GENESIS 711
27MANY SUGGEST
- WORLD WIDE FLOOD IS MYTH
- NO EVIDENCE FOR A WORLD FLOOD
- NOAHS FLOOD WAS ONLY LOCAL
YET. . .
28Q 506 Dead things
29Grand Canyon Photo
GRAND CANYON
a little amount of water over millions of years
a lot of water over a short period of time
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31THIS CANYON WHICH NOW ONLY HOUSES LAKES FOR
RECREATION USED TO BE FILLED WITH FAST FLOWING
DEEP WATER
A LOT OF WATER OR A LITTLE? A LOT OF TIME OR A
LITTLE?
32DRY FALLS once the largest in the world. Here is
where the waters once flowed and the falls fell
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36RAPID CANYON FORMATION _at_ MT. SAINT HELENS
37Burlingame Canyon Touchet, WA
(formed in 6 days)
38BRG Grand Canyon
39After His Kind
FIXITY OF KINDS
According to its kind According to their kind
GENESIS 1
10 TIMES
40After His Kind
FIXITY OF KINDS
According to its kind According to their kind
GENESIS 1
10 TIMES
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421
ADAM
(1 Cor. 1545)
BLOOD
Sons Daughters
(Gen. 54)
NOAH
(Gen. 91, 19ff)
BABEL
ACTS 1726
(Gen. 118, 9)
DIFFERENT PEOPLE GROUPS
43After His Kind
ALL HUMANS RELATED
And He has made from one blood every nation of
men
ACTS 1726
44After His Kind
ALL HUMANS RELATED
And He has made from one blood every nation of
men
ACTS 1726
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4614 Then God said, "Let there be lights in
thefirmament of the heavens to divide the day
from thenight and let them be forsigns and
seasons, and for days and years 15 "and let
them be for lights in the firmament of the
heavens to give light on the earth" and it was
so. 16 Then God made two great lights the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser
light to rule the night. He made the stars also.
-GENESIS 114-15
BIBLE ASTRONOMY
47JOHN 546, 47
46"For if you believed Moses, you would believe
Me for he wrote about Me. 47 "But if you do not
believe his writings, how will you believe My
words?"
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54CONNECTED TO HISTORY!
- THE CHRIST
- THE GOSPEL/DOCTRINE
- THE CHURCH
55CONNECTED
JESUS
ABRAHAM
Matt. 11
Lk. 132
1 Cor. 1522
DAVID
ADAM
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57THE BIBLE IS NOT A TEXTBOOK OF SCIENCE IT DOES
NOT GIVE US ALL THE DETAILS OF GEOLOGY, BIOLOGY,
ETC., BUT IT GIVES US THE BIG PICTURE OF
HISTORY, OF GEOLOGY, OF BIOLOGY, ETC. SO THAT WE
CAN CONNECT THE PAST TO THE PRESENT!
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631ST
PROBLEM
64CHURCH REDUCED TO TEACHING BIBLE AS A BOOK OF
STORIES
Bible Stories
652nd
PROBLEM
66SEGREGATE BIBLICAL EVENTS FROM REAL HISTORY
67And Elijah came to all the people, and said, "How
long will you falter between two opinions? If the
LORD is God, follow Him but if Baal, follow
him." But the people answered him not a word. 1
Kings 1821
RELIGIOUS
INDECISION
JEHOVAH??
BAAL??
CREATION??
EVOLUTION??
683rd
PROBLEM
69THE CHURCH TOLERATES/ACCEPTS SECULAR HISTORY
70THE RESULT AS DISPLAYED. . .
An Actual Church Sign
CHURCH OF THE FOOTHILLS TAKING THE BIBLE
SERIOUSLY BUT NOT LITERALLY
19211 DODGE, SANTA ANA, CA 92705
711 PETER 315
But sanctify theLord God in yourhearts, and
always beready to give a defense to everyone
who asks you a reason for the hope that is in
you, with meekness and fear
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74- WHEN REPEATED AND OBSERVATIONAL
- NOT WHEN SPECULATIVE ABOUT THE PAST
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784th
PROBLEM
THE CHURCH TRIES TO ATTACK WORLDLY MORALS WITH NO
HISTORICAL FRAMEWORK
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81They used to hang the whole thing on one hook
If you dont do these things, if you dont act
morally, youre going to burn in hell.
Unfortunately, with what we know about science,
anyone who thinks at all probably doesnt believe
in fire and brimstone anymore. So organized
religion has lost that voice to hold up their
moral hand. And the media is dragging us
headlong toward the downfall of civilization.
Bruce Willis, USA weekend magazine, Cincinnati
Enquirer, Feb. 11-13, 2000, Pg. 7.
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84THE
MORALITY
OF THE NEW TESTAMENT STANDS WITH THE
REALITY
OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!
85JESUS ANSWERED MORAL ISSUES AUTHORITATIVELY WITH
O.T. HISTORY!
864 And He answered and said to them, "Have you
not read that He who made them at the beginning
made them male and female, 5 "and said, For
this reason a man shall leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and the two
shall become one flesh? 6 "So then, they are no
longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has
joined together, let not man separate." 7 They
said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give
a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" 8
He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness
of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your
wives, but from the beginning it was not
so. MATTHEW 194-8
87IF BIBLE HISTORY IS TRUE, THEN ALL OTHER KINDS OF
UNIONS ARE WRONG
ONE MAN ONE WOMAN
88IF EVOLUTION HISTORY IS TRUE, THEN ALL OTHER
KINDS OF UNIONS ARE SIMPLY ONES JUSTIFIABLE
OPINION
1 MAN 2 WOMEN 1 MAN 1 MAN
OPINIONS
89Why not JANE JILL and JACK BILL? WHY
JACK AND JILL in MARRIAGE?
90ADAM
MARRIAGE HAS MEANING!
IN
HISTORY
916 "But from the beginning of the creation, God
made them male and female. 7 For this reason
a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife (MARK 106, 7)
92IF YOU CAN HAVE MALE MALE MARRIAGE 1) MALE
FEMALE FEMALE FEMALE 2) MALE MALE
FEMALE 3) MALE CHILD 4) MALE PET
WHY NOT?
93APE
HISTORY
IN
94Morality is not yet a problem, wrote Nietzsche
in 1888. But it would become a problem, he
predicted, when the people discovered that
without religion there is no morality. The
English flatheads . . . thought it possible to
get rid of the Christian God while retaining
Christian morality. They did not realize that
when one gives up the Christian faith, one pulls
the right to Christian morality out from under
ones feet.
Gertrude Himmelfarb, The San Diego Union-Tribune
95THE CRUX OF THE PROBLEM
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98BIG PROBLEMS WHEN ADDED TO SCRIPTURE!
99PAIN
DISEASE
100Paleopathologist Bruce Rothschild hasdiagnosed
his first saurian tumor. The 110-million-year-old
six-inch-wide ten-pound fossil of what appears
to be a vertebral fragmentharbors the earliest
known tumors ever recorded
Discover, Saurian Sore, October 1998, Pg. 26.
101The find, he adds, gives us a unique look at the
developmentor lack thereofof disease over the
ages. Diseases look the same through time, he
says. It makes no difference whether this is
now or a hundred million years ago.
Discover, Saurian Sore, October 1998, Pg. 26.
102PAIN
DISEASE
DECAY
THORNS
103BIBLE Man Curse Thorns
Psilophyton Crenulatum 408-360 million years old
Cursed is the ground for your sake . . . Both
thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you
(Gen. 317, 18)
Why are thorns said to be hundreds of millions of
years old if God created thorns as a result of
the curse?
www.cartage.org
104PAIN
DISEASE
DECAY
THORNS
DISTRESS
DEATH
105Genesis 216-17
16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying,
"Of every tree of the garden you may freely
eat 17 "but of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day
that you eat of it you shall surely die."
106Genesis 321
Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made
tunics of skin, and clothed them.
BLOODSHED PATTERN
107Hebrews 922
And according to the law almost all things are
purified with blood, and without shedding of
blood there is no remission.
108Leviticus 814, 15
14 And he brought the bull for the sin offering.
Then Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the
head of the bull for the sin offering, 15 and
Moses killed it. Then he took the blood, and put
some on the horns of the altar all around with
his finger, and purified the altar. And he poured
the blood at the base of the altar, and
consecrated it, to make atonement for it
109Leviticus 1711
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I
have given it to you upon the altar to make
atonement for your souls for it is the blood
that makes atonement for the soul.
110THE LORDS SACRIFICE FOLLOWS THIS PATTERN AS A
PROPITIATION
24 being justified freely by His grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom
God set forth as a propitiation by His blood,
through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness,
because in His forbearance God had passed over
the sins that were previously committed ROMANS
324, 25
111THE LORDS SACRIFICE FOLLOWS THIS PATTERN AS A
PROPITIATION
Much more then, having now been justified by His
blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
Him ROMANS 59 in whom we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins
COLOSSIANS 114
112THE LORDS SACRIFICE FOLLOWS THIS PATTERN AS A
PROPITIATION
and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself,
by Him, whether things on earth or things in
heaven, having made peace through the blood of
His cross COLOSSIANS 120
113THE LORDS SACRIFICE IS APPLIED AND MADE REAL IN
BAPTISM
3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His
death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him
through baptism into death, that just as Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life. ROMANS 63, 4
114Then God saw everything that He had made, and
indeed it was very good. So the evening and the
morning were the sixth day (GEN. 131)
PAIN
DISEASE
DECAY
MILLIONS OF YEARS
THORNS
DISTRESS
DEATH
115WOULDTHIS BE CONSIDERED
- DEATH
- PAIN
- DISEASE
- STRUGGLE
- DECAY
VERY GOOD?
MILLIONS OF YEARS
116For we know that the whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now (ROM.
822, ASV)
BUT
IN THE GARDEN THERE WAS NO GROANING, TRAVAILING
AND PAIN BEFORE SIN!
117ATTEMPTED REBUTTALS
- WOULD ANIMALS HAVE TO EAT OF THE TREE OF LIFE TO
BE SUSTAINED? - NO. . .
- TREE OF LIFE WAS GIVEN FOR MAN
- ANIMALS CANNOT SIN (EVEN IF THEY WOULD HAVE EATEN
OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE) - ADAM, AS FEDERAL HEAD, BROUGHT JUDGMENT UPON ALL
THAT HE WAS OVER WHEN HE SINNED For as in Adam
all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive (1 COR. 1522)
118WHAT ABOUT THE DEATH OF PLANTS BEFORE THE FALL?
DEATH IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD TO THE
Nephesh (Man Animals)
NOT PLANTS
119WHEN GOD UPHOLDS, DEATH, SIN, WEARING OUT ARE
NOT OPTIONS!
120Deuteronomy 84
Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did
your foot swell these forty years.
121Deuteronomy 295
And I have led you forty years in the wilderness.
Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your
sandals have not worn out on your feet.
122Nehemiah 921
Forty years You sustained them in the wilderness,
They lacked nothing Their clothes did not wear
out And their feet did not swell.
123Daniel 326b-27
Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego came from
the midst of the fire. And the satraps,
administrators, governors, and the kings
counselors gathered together, and they saw these
men on whose bodies the fire had no power the
hair of their head was not singed nor were their
garments affected, and the smell of fire was not
on them.
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131UNINTELLIGENT QUOTES FROM INTELLIGENT PEOPLE
- BLINDED BY A millions of years
- BIAS!
- SHALLOW VIEW OF GOD
- IGNORANCE REGARDING DEATH
132If God is omnipotent and omniscient, why didnt
he start the universe out in the first place so
it would come out the way that he wants? Why is
he constantly repairing and complaining? No,
theres one thing the Bible makes clear The
biblical God is a sloppy manufacturer. Hes not
good at design, hes not good at execution. Hed
be out of business if there was any competition.
Contact, Carl Sagan. 1985. Pocket Books (Simon
Schuster, Inc.), New York, NY, ed., Pg. 285.
133Whatever the God implied by evolutionary theory
and the data of natural history may be like, He
is not the Protestant God of waste not, want not.
He is also not a loving God who cares about His
productions. He is not even the awful God
portrayed in the book of Job. The God of the
Galapagos is careless, wasteful, indifferent,
almost diabolical. He is certainly not the sort
of God to whom anyone would be inclined to pray.
David L. Hull, The God of the Galapagos,
Nature, Vol. 352, (Aug. 8, 1992), p. 486.
134I personally cannot discern a shred of evidence
for a benign, cosmic presence. I look at
evolution and I see indifference and
capriciousness. What kind of God works with a
99.9 percent extinction rate?
Irven DeVore, Harvard University anthropologist,
Times-News Weekender, Astronomy might be
refashioning images of God, Religion section,
May 1, 1999, Pg. 9A.
135I say that evolution, in my view, is not only NOT
anti-Christian, but the idea of special design,
which many fundamentalists adhere to, might be
because it teaches the view of God that is
blasphemous. The Special-Design-God is a God who
messes up. Think about all the backaches,
infected wisdom teeth and painful childbirth that
exist because we humans evolved incompletely!
"Do you think God is absent-minded?" I ask them.
Dr. Francisco J. Ayala, New York Times, April 27,
1999.
136You simply cant any longer say as traditional
Christians that death was Gods punishment for
sin. Death was around long before human beings.
Death is a necessary aspect of an evolutionary
worldOne generation has to die for new
generations to come into being. In a way, it is
more satisfyingthan to see it as a sort of
arbitrary punishment that God imposed on our
primeval paradise.
Ian Barbour, professor emeritus at Carleton
College Scientist/Recipient of the 1999
Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, Dayton
Daily News, Saturday March 13, 1999.
137To adopt the explanation of design, we are forced
to attribute a host of flaws and imperfections to
the designerWe would also have to attribute
every plague, pestilence, and parasite to the
intentional actions of our master designer. Not
exactly a legacy calculated to inspire love and
reverenceFinally, whatever ones view of such a
designers motivation, there is one conclusion
that drops cleanly out of the data. He was
incompetent.
Kenneth R. Miller, (Catholic, cell biologist,
professor of biology at Brown University),
Finding Darwins God, Cliff Street Books, imprint
of Harper Collins Publishers, 1999, Pages 101-102.
138Annies cruel death destroyed Charless tatters
of beliefs in a moral, just universe. Later he
would say that this period chimed the final
death-knell for his Christianity, St. Charles now
took his stand as an unbeliever.
A. Desmond and J. Moore, Darwin The Life of a
Tormented Evolutionist, W.W. Norton Company,
New York, 1991, page 387.
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144Ps 113, If the foundations are destroyed,
What can the righteous do?
TO REACH THE WORLDS ISSUES WE MUST ASSAULT THOSE
ISSUES ON A FOUNDATIONAL LEVEL, ESTABLISHING THE
TRUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD AND CONVEYING THE
MEANING OF ORIGINS (MARRIAGE, LIFE, DEATH, ETC.)
145Those from among you Shall build the old waste
places You shall raise up the foundations of
many generations And you shall be called the
Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets
to Dwell In.
Isaiah 5812
146THE BIBLES STRONG INFLUENCE FOR THE GOOD OF
CHILDREN
A recent study by Christianity Today and Campus
Life shows that     72 of U.S. teenagers had
used alcohol during the past 12 months compared
to 15 of teens who claimed to be
Christians. Â Â Â Â 36 of teenagers had smoked
marijuana compared to 4 who are
Christians. Â Â Â Â 66 of all teenagers had been
involved in sexual intercourse compared to 9 who
are Christians. Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â