Why Is My Son an Atheist?

I had a compromised Christian who called up the ministry and was transferred to me—he never even gave me his name. One of the first things he told me was that he didn’t agree with AiG’s stance about the age of the earth or that Genesis was literal history. Then he told me that he had been urged to call anyway because of his situation. So I kindly asked what was going on.

He said that his son refused to accept Jesus Christ and just told him he was an atheist and would never trust the Bible. Yet he insisted that he taught his son about Christ and has taken him to church for years.

Then I asked if the church taught Genesis as literal history or as allegory/metaphor. He promptly said that both he and the church agree that it was not literal history and was not meant to be taken as it was written and they wouldn’t dare teach their children anything else.

I said, “So you taught your son that the Bible wasn’t really trustworthy when it speaks in Genesis but you also told him that it is trustworthy when it speaks about Christ?”

He sounded like he was “squirming” on the phone. I said, “You realize that your son is actually a pretty smart kid.” I continued, “Since you made it clear to him that one part of the Bible wasn’t worth trusting, then he applied this to the rest of the Bible.”

At this point, the man I spoke with realized where I was coming from. I continued with a mini-relevance talk to explain the problem of death before sin and interpretation of Genesis.

Though he still didn’t agree with us, he understood that he was partly to blame for his son not accepting what the Bible teaches about Christ, and I encouraged him to re-evaluate Genesis’ plain reading, and then speak with his son. We discussed this a bit further and ended the conversation in a kind, Christ-like manner.

We have been clear that one can still be a Christian and be an evolutionist; however, this stance is inconsistent. This is one reason the church is losing its children to atheism.

As long as the church or parents tell their children not to believe what God says in Genesis, the children—logically—apply that stance to the whole Bible, including the gospel. And these children refuse to believe in Christ because they don’t trust the Bible in Genesis.

If parents want their children to take the gospel message seriously, then they need to set an example that the Bible can be trusted in all areas that it addresses, rather than teaching that only parts of the Bible can be trusted. Children are perceptive and this explains why they see many Christian role models, many times their own parents, as hypocritical.

The point, then, is yes, one can be compromised to the point of accepting evolution and it won’t affect their salvation, but it does affect the next generation and those who are witnessed to. Please pray that the church as a whole will return to the plain reading of the Bible and get properly rooted in Genesis, the foundation of the gospel.

Bodie Hodge, AiG–USA