Study: Only 4% of Millennials Have a Biblical Worldview

Only 16% of their grandparents and just 7% of their parents can be said to have a biblical worldview.

It should come as no surprise that Millennials are less likely than any other generation to have a biblical worldview and are very secularized in their thinking. After all, only 16% of their grandparents and just 7% of their parents can be said to have a biblical worldview. As I’ve said many times before when reporting on sad statistics like this, instead of the church going out and influencing the culture, the culture has greatly influenced the church. In fact, many in the church don’t think much differently from those outside the church! And, of course, keep in mind that 90% of kids from church homes in the United States are sent to the secular education system where our tax dollars are used to impose the religion of atheism on their thinking a number of hours per day.

This new report on Millennials’ beliefs included these saddening US statistics, among others:

• One out of every three older adults (33%) is a born-again Christian, stating that they will experience eternity in Heaven with God after their death on earth only because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Far fewer Millennials (20%) share that expectation
• Less than two out of every ten adults 30 or older (18%) claims to be in the atheist-agnostic-none faith preference category. Nearly three out of every ten Millennials embrace that category (28%)
• A minority of adults 30 or older (43%) supports same-sex “marriage.” However, nearly two-thirds of those under 30 (65%) support it.

Commenting on this study, George Barna the executive director of the American Culture and Faith Institute which authored the study, wrote,

Remember, a person’s worldview is typically developed between the ages of about 18 months and 13 years. . . . There is usually very little movement in a worldview after that point. You could say with confidence that the worldview a person possesses at age 13 is probably the worldview they will die with. Unless pre-existing patterns radically change, we are not likely to ever see the Millennial generation reach even ten percent who have a biblical worldview. . . .

Parents are one of the most important influences on the worldview of their children, and Millennials are entering their prime childbearing years. But because 24 of every 25 Millennials lack a biblical worldview today, the probability of them transmitting such to their children is extremely low. You cannot give what you don’t have. In other words, if today’s children are going to eventually embrace a biblical worldview, people with such a perspective must exert substantial influence on the nation’s children to supply what their parents are unable to give them.

Parents, I cannot urge you strongly enough to be intentional about imparting a biblical worldview to your children, as the Bible instructs. The influence you have on your children cannot be replaced by anyone else—they are looking to you and your example. Are you using the time you have with them to teach them to love God’s Word and to start their thinking in all areas from Scripture? If not, consider these Scripture passages:

Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4)

But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:14–17)

Education begins in the home—right from when a child is born.

Pastors and other Christian leaders—you need to be equipping parents and young people with the tools they need to think biblically. You can’t avoid important topics like gay “marriage,” transgender issues, abortion, creation vs. evolution, or the exclusivity of Christ. You need to preach and teach on these issues to help those under your influence to think biblically and turn to God’s Word—not our culture—for answers!

Our online store is full of resources to help equip believers to think biblically. I especially encourage you to check out Answers Bible Curriculum (ABC). It’s a four-year Sunday school (or homeschool or family study) curriculum that features a chronological walk through the Bible, synchronized across ages so parents and their children are learning the same thing each week. It’s full of apologetics and biblical worldview content, and there’s nothing else quite like it out there.

I encourage you to check it out at AnswersinGenesis.org/sunday-school/.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.