This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program originally aired on 3/17/22.  To listen to the program, please click HERE.

Sam Rohrer:                      Well, talking about the culture, which is what our introducer just said there, changing the culture one heart at a time, which is what we try to do in this program. Today, we’re going to talk about the culture, because the culture, as we know, is becoming more hostile to the truth, and the entire world seems to becoming more anti-Christ, does it not, in its pursuit of lawless globalism and totalitarian thought? And while this happens, the more apparent it becomes that unless a person has chosen to, as we say often on this program, made the choice to pursue the truth, to then embrace the truth, and then from that then to stand in the gap for truth. Well, when that happens, unless that happens, that person will become totally consumed and destroyed by this anti-God, anti-Biblical world view.

We talk about that a lot. And nearly every headline news title that we read, every media story and globalist narrative, presents a hostile premise to life and living as defined by God. So unless a person develops a genuine Biblical world view and learns how to articulate it, they will, as I said earlier, they will be neutralized and ultimately devoured. But if they learn that indeed there are some fundamental survival skills representing clear biblical principles and then adopt them, they can indeed become shining lights in a dark and evil world. And yes, still today, we can raise up young Josephs and Daniels and Esthers, even in our age.

So if that’s what you want for yourself or your children or grandchildren, depending upon your age, depending, then keep listening as today here on Stand In The Gap today and our apologetics focus as Pastor Isaac Crockett and I will talk with Canadian born, 26 year old, young Patricia Engler, who is now a speaker and a writer and a youth outreach coordinator for Answers In Genesis, the Canadian branch.

Now, the title I’ve chosen for today’s focus is this, Survival Skills For A Hostile Culture: A Young Person Speaks. Today in this program we’re going to identify three foundational survival skills. And then in the last segment we’re going to hear from Patricia as we seek to apply these principles and apply them to parents and grandparents and what we can do to help not only ourselves, but the younger generations. And with that, let me welcome to Stand In The Gap today for the first time, Patricia Engler. Patricia, thank you for being with us.

Patricia Engler:                 Thanks so much for having me. It’s great to be with you today.

Sam Rohrer:                      Well, we’re glad that you can, and we do what we call an apologetics focus a time or two a month and we have someone generally from Answers In Genesis and you are new to Answers In Genesis. I want to find just a little bit about your story here in this first segment. So I’d like for you to share just a bit of your story here. One, I’ll just put a few things in so our people can understand. You were born in Canada. You were homeschooled. You were 14 years of age when you heard Ken Ham of Answers In Genesis speak, and as you say, as I’ve read, you said this, “My passion for biblical apologetics was ignited.” I thought that was pretty significant. So here’s my question here. What was it that Ken shared that day when you were 14 that God used to ignite your passion for biblical apologetics?

Patricia Engler:                 Good question. So, yes, like you said, I grew up homeschooling so I was raised in a Christian family. I believed the Bible, but at that point I still didn’t really care that much about apologetics topics and especially defending Genesis. I cared about things like justice and feeding the hungry and advancing the gospel. But then when I heard Ken Ham, he connected the dots by explaining how those concepts that I cared about depended on the truth of God’s word, that every major doctrine in God’s word is founded one way or another on Genesis. So whether that’s answers to questions like why does life matter? Why do humans matter? Where do morals come from? Why does marriage and family matter? All of that is founded ultimately in Genesis One through 11 as the questions about, “Well, why did Jesus die and why is there death and suffering in the world?” So it’s the foundation of the gospels and it’s the foundation of the moral standards and values that stem from a biblical worldview.

The Bible teaches we have a personological God whose character defines morality, and He made a logical universe and made us in His image with faculties for reasoning. So as Christians, we have those concepts for truth and morals, logic, knowledge, science, human value, justice rights, things I cared about, but that attack on Genesis, especially through the teaching of evolution, for instance, in public education and the media, has been undermining that foundation for the past couple hundred years of church history.

So now with that cracked foundation of Genesis within our churches youth inside the church decide God’s word isn’t relevant to the real world and we’re seeing them walk away. That affects the future of the church, something else I care about. And within society, the cracks of that foundation, well, now we don’t have a consistent foundation for morals and value of human life. We’re seeing moral decline in our culture. We’re seeing human life being devalued. If we evolve without God, and we think we can make up the rules for who counts as a person, what family should look like, what truth itself should be, we’re seeing all these consequences in society. So realizing just how significant Genesis is really made me want to defend Genesis with my life just like Ken Ham was doing as well.

Isaac Crockett:                  So, Patricia, I love what you’re saying. And I remember when I was in middle school and high school going through some of those same things and turning to Answers In Genesis and some other groups like them for help in knowing how to navigate these things. But you took your knowledge there and then went to a very liberal Canadian university and you still had this passion for apologetics, but you studied evolutionary courses and you went through it, I don’t know if you call it propaganda or not, but you went through that system. And I guess I’m wondering why you felt that need to do that if you felt so strongly about Genesis? If you could maybe explain that to us.

Patricia Engler:                 Absolutely. It actually does come down to that calling because I felt so strongly like I needed to defend Genesis against the attack from culture of evolution. So I wanted to understand really well how is evolution being taught? So learning that from a secular perspective at a secular university, you know that you’re learning from the evolutionists themselves so that would help me speak about creation from an informed perspective. But also I wanted to learn how to help other Christian students navigate this hostile environment of secular education without losing their faith. So I figured if I could test drive it basically on myself, then that would give me that personal experience, firsthand experience, to be able to speak to.

And then second, just being in Canada, it’s really, really hard to find an uncompromised Christian college that actually teaches about science from a consistently Biblical worldview. I had a lot of trouble finding a university that would do that in Canada. And at least if you’re going to a secular school, from how I talking about this with my parents, we decided that at least if I was going to a secular school, I would know that the information being presented about evolution and that kind of thing was not coming from a Biblical perspective. Whereas if you’re learning about evolution from a Christian university and your professors are arguing against a literal interpretation of Genesis, that can be way more persuasive because you’re thinking that this is a Christian view that you’re learning. So those were my reasons for attending secular university but I love seeing when Christians don’t have to take that option and can get uncompromised biblical education as well.

Sam Rohrer:                      Absolutely, Patricia. Very interesting lady, and that I hope you’re enjoying already this apologetics update focus today. We’re talking about survival skills for a hostile culture. And we’re hearing from Patricia Engler from Canada, now a youth outreach coordinator for Answers In Genesis. We’ll find out about more of her, actually the first foundation.

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Sam Rohrer:                      Well, if you’re just joining us today on the Stand In The Gap today, Isaac Crockett and I are here with you and our special guest. First time on Stand In The Gap today is Patricia Engler. She is now a speaker and a writer and a youth outreach coordinator for Answers In Genesis Canada. So she’s from Canada. You can tell by her accent. And she’s in that space as a young person, having been moved, as she said, by a presentation by Ken Ham. I think all of you understand, we do partnering on this with people who believe in the authority of scripture, who believe what Genesis says, and who actually embrace a Biblical world view.

We talk about that a lot with George Barna who’s on here regularly. We talk about that with those when we talk about prophecy. We cannot talk about issues of the day without going back, as we say, to Genesis, a Biblical worldview, and from that then give us a perspective.

So that’s what we’re doing today. And we’re learning some things that actually Patricia learned herself as a young person. We’re getting a little bit of her story here.

In the Book of Galatians, Chapter One and Verse Four, the apostle Paul tells the new Galatian believers there that Christ, as he said, “Gave himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world,” culture, “according to the will of God and our Father.” He then told the early Ephesian Christians that, he said there, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

But before even the apostle Paul said that, Jesus reminded his disciples in John 17:14 that, He said He has given us His word, scripture, the authority of scripture and that, and here’s the point, the world hates us because we are not of this world, even as Jesus is not of this world. Yet we’re told that as believers in Jesus Christ we have a new identity, a new home, a new purpose, so we must pray for wisdom and discernment as Proverbs 1:5 says, that “in the fear of God, a wise person will hear the truth, will increase learning about the truth, and will seek wise counsel,” all dealing with truth.

And then when you put all that together, that view of life, then we’re told that we can indeed live victoriously in this evil and hostile world and be victorious through Him who’s overcome the world, but now through the Holy spirit Lives in us.

So that’s the big picture all put together. There is power in the truth. Okay, Patricia, back to you now, setting that up. During your intense pursuit of, these are your words, “how Christian students could navigate secular courses,” and you embarked on that university education. You explained that in Canada, out of that, you learned certain things. Just one of those things, if you could just pull out one most singular lesson you learned from that purposeful intensive study of sitting through evolutionary teaching with your eyes wide open, to understand how they did it and how a Christian student could survive in this secular time. What did you learn from that experience?

Patricia Engler:                 Absolutely. Well, it ties in well with what you’re just saying about the big picture of walking in truth. So the biggest lesson that I found was that university and the education system in general is the front line of a spiritual battlefield for the hearts and minds of young people because they’re the ones who represent society’s future, the next decision makers and lawmakers and the next workforce. And surviving that battlefield is hard. It’s intense indoctrination that I was sitting under, constantly hearing my beliefs were wrong, nobody believes the Bible. There’s not a single piece of evidence against evolution and scientists are justified and rejecting creation, that’s exactly what they do. All this indoctrination and you feel like you’re alone in that often, like everybody around you believes the same thing. So surviving is hard and you’re not going to make it without God and without foundations. But with God and those foundations, surviving is possible. You can actually come out, not only still with a Biblical worldview, but with an even stronger one.

Isaac Crockett:                  And you did survive and you’ve been able to help teach other students how to survive and how to thrive. But you took on another adventure, I guess I could call it, something that I think I would highly encourage everyone who’s able to get a chance to do this, if you’re able to travel outside of the United States, outside of for you Canada, outside of your home country, I think you learn a lot that way. And you didn’t just travel a little bit. You, when you finished your formal education, you did kind of the Jules Verne book, Around the World in 180 Days, you literally went around the world and I think over a dozen different locations and had your backpack and different things. But you journeyed around the world. Could you maybe tell us why you did that and what you learned in going to all those different places?

Patricia Engler:                 For sure. Yes, so after I graduated, I knew what had helped me survive university and what I had experienced, but I wanted to know how universal is that? So what do other Christian students experience in other cultures at university? How did they keep their faith? What helps them? And I had always wanted to travel and interact with different cultures. I could be away from Canada for six months without any legal hassle. So that’s where the idea came from to try to backpack 360 degrees around the world in 180 days. So I call it 360 in 180. Just going by myself, no fundraising, no organization, just kind of trusting God and going on summer job savings. So many amazing God stories of His provision along the way. But what I did was I interviewed students, pastors, campus ministry leaders, university chaplains, former professors, in what turned out to be 17 countries. I asked what are the challenges of being a Christian student? What’s your advice for another Christian student? And how can churches support students better?

And I found that around the world people experience different challenges of being a Christian student, which makes sense, but what was really exciting was their answers to the last two questions, so what’s your advice for Christian students, how can churches and family support students? Those looked very, very similar across cultures. So that was awesome, because it meant that while the problems of being a student look different around the world, the solutions are very similar. So if churches and families can be focusing on these practical solutions for equipping the next generation of young people that can really have an impact on equipping the future of the church for around the world to keep their strong Biblical worldview. And it all comes down to helping youth develop three types of personal foundations. So your spiritual, intellectual, and interpersonal foundations, which I believe we’re going to talk a little bit more about shortly here.

Sam Rohrer:                      Absolutely.

Patricia Engler:                 That was a big take away.

Sam Rohrer:                      Yeah, absolutely, we are, Patricia, and you went right into those, and that’s what I’d like to do now out between the balance of this segment and the next one. Survival skills. When I came up with the idea of survival skills, actually three survival skills, foundations as you identified them. Let’s go right to that first one here right now. That first foundation that you just identified as the spiritual foundation. What’s a part of that? And why from your experience, as you traveled the world and your own self, do you start there?

Patricia Engler:                 Good question. So your spiritual foundations I describe as just having a close, personal walk with God. So that’s the idea that to keep your faith in university, you have to have your own faith in the first place. You just can’t be riding on your parents’ coattails, believing something just because you grew up in church or that kind of idea. So you have to know God yourself and then pursue an active relationship with God. How do we build any close relationship? Well, through consistent communication. So just encouraging students to spend time in God’s word, starting from that foundation of Biblical authority, reading the Bible, studying it, learning it for themselves, pursuing a close walk with God through prayer, setting apart their own time to pray as well as practicing that attitude of ongoing prayer throughout the day, turning our thoughts and feelings towards God and our concerns to Him, like Paul talked about, praying without ceasing, worshiping.

I remember as a student just using worship music to basically detox my mind after a rough lecture that was full of un-Biblical messages. Seeking wisdom. Jesus told His disciples to be wise as serpents and gentle as doves because He was sending them out like sheep among wolves. So I encourage students to read Proverbs and pursue mentorship with wise, godly adults around them and to read books by wise Christians before them, to ask God for wisdom. Also to base their identity in the fact that they belong to Jesus rather than in anything transient, like relationships, or what school they go to, what career they’re pursuing. Those things can all change, but Jesus does not.

And then finally they need to think about the challenges that they’re going to face spiritually, things that might compromise their relationship with God, compromise their consistency spending time in the word and in prayer, and then draw Biblical boundaries ahead of time so that say, when temptations, when challenges, come up, they will already have an action plan for how to respond to those. So those are some things that I found useful, things that from talking to Christian students around the world they found useful. And if you look at research from multiple major studies of what helps young teens keep their faith strong into young adulthood, it also often comes down to one of the big factors is having this close ongoing relationship with God through scripture and prayer for themselves.

Sam Rohrer:                      We have just less than a minute here left before we go into a break, Patricia. But let me ask you this. We know from all of the statistics that 80% or more of students who go, even at Christian education, go to a secular school, will walk away from the faith. When you went to this school, you went there with a design. You knew what you were getting into, but did you find that you learned some of these principles there? Or did you already go into that setting with principals developed that you perhaps then put into practice?

Patricia Engler:                 I’d say probably the latter more so, because when you’re in school you don’t have a lot of time, if you haven’t already built your foundations, to begin building them there. So you already need to go in with strong habits. But I have seen Christian students who became stronger Christians at university because of, for instance, the campus ministries they were able to plug into. So it’s a both and thing, but definitely you need to have good foundations going in if you expect to survive.

Sam Rohrer:                      Absolutely. And I would agree with you on that and that’s my been experience over time as well.

When you come back, we’re going to continue, ladies and gentlemen. We’ve identified the first foundation, that of the spiritual foundation. When we come back in the next segment will have Patricia tell us about the intellectual foundation and why she identified that as common around the world, and then the interpersonal foundation.

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Sam Rohrer:                      Well, welcome back here to Stand In The Gap today. Again, this is our apologetics update focus here for the month and we’re looking at survivals skills for a hostile culture. And we’re hearing really a little bit of personal testimony to some degree, certainly, but again these principles that you’re hearing are principles we talk about regularly on this program because they are Biblical principles. But our guest is Patricia Engler. She’s 26 years old, so you know where she is, age wise, generationally. She’s a speaker and a writer and a youth outreach coordinator for Answers In Genesis. She’s Canadian, and that’s why she sounds a little Canadian. And that’s a good thing. I actually like Canadians. And if you like Ken Ham, he sounds very Australian. A lot of people like to listen to him because he is from Australia.

But with that in common, we’re going to bring back in Patricia right now. You just identified, Patricia, the first foundation, that of spiritual relationship. But in setting it up for the second one here, I was thinking through what scripture says and scripture speaks expressly that a person can indeed live successfully even in an evil world. And even though we know from scripture that that way of living, the Biblical way of living is, well, the Lord calls it narrow way. That way to eternal life is narrow. There are few that are on that road, the Bible says. We also know that sadly most are on that broad way that leads to death and Proverbs 14:12 kind of confirms that, where that verse says there, that ‘There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are of the ways of death.” There is a way that this world moves, but it’s not to heaven.

And those who embrace the ways of God find themselves on a narrow road. That’s just not what we feel. It’s what the Bible says. Yet God, He does give us a blueprint for a sure foundation, established first where you went first, a spiritual foundation reflected in a Biblical worldview established on Jesus Christ. You had mentioned certain things, authority of scripture, as the apostle Paul talks about there. He says, “for no one can lay a foundation,” a foundation that will endure, “other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” And because of that, He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” So we’re back to truth, the authority of scripture, all the way through. Any concluding thoughts or any additional thoughts that you want to add to the spiritual foundation, Patricia, comments that you made before we move into the next one?

Patricia Engler:                 I think we covered most of the bases. So, yes, just keeping in mind that’s your relationship with God and that’s what you want to protect and recognizing that you will be tempted to give up those foundations. That’s how smooth con artists operate and we know that’s the kind of enemy we have, always with justification like, “Oh, let’s just maybe read scripture less because you’ve got a big exam coming up,” but just keeping in mind, no, this is your spiritual health needs to be your highest priority.

Isaac Crockett:                  Hmm. That’s such a good reminder for all of us because we get busy in our day and it’s not just young people who need to have that reminder that we need that time in the word, we need that personal time of worship with the Lord. Some people call like a family altar where a family comes together or just personal worship time and even listening to songs that help put us in a worshipful attitude. Thank you for that. I just encourage all of our listeners to find time, take time with the Lord in prayer and Bible study.

But Patricia, there’s a kind of a second foundation then that you go into, this idea of intellectual foundation. So once you have that spiritual, your faith is strong, you have that spiritual foundation with the Lord, this intellectual part that goes into something that ironically we don’t even realize, and that’s our thoughts. And I think we don’t think about what we think about our thoughts. We just kind of act out of our worldview. And so sometimes just bringing that up to people kind of puts everything in a whole new light. Could you kind of talk to us about how thinking critically is so important in having the correct foundations for life?

Patricia Engler:                 Definitely. So yes, those are those intellectual foundations were the second thing I found Christian students around the world need to keep a strong world view in university. So I say that there’s two components to intellectual foundations and that’s, number one, apologetics knowledge, and, number two, those critical thinking skills you identified. So for apologetics, of course that’s being able to defend your faith rationally. Why do we believe the Bible? How do we know it’s true? And that involves just learning some basic answers to worldview questions, like how can we trust the Bible? Hasn’t science disproved it? What about evolution in apemen and millions of years? How does Christianity compare to other belief systems? Great, I absolutely encourage students to start learning, building those apologetics foundations. But here’s the thing, is no matter how many answers to apologetics questions you memorize ahead of time, whether you’re in university or just scrolling social media or engaging with culture, no matter where you’re at, at some point you are going to have new questions. And then what do you do, especially if there’s not already an apologetics answer written about it.

Well, you need to be able to think like an apologist yourself and arrive at a biblical logical conclusion yourself to those questions. And that’s where those biblical critical thinking skills come in. So critical thinking is just about evaluating messages to see if they’re worth believing. So as Christians, the first step for that is, of course, checking scripture. What does the Bible have to say about this topic? And then from that point, there are six other checks I walk students through, so making seven whole checks of critical thinking. That’s a framework I share often in teaching at answersingenesis.org. I might be able to brief people on them if we have time at some point today, but otherwise I’d encourage people to just go to answersingenesis.org and look up tools for critical thinking and you’ll find a free article there that’ll outline those for you as well.

Sam Rohrer:                      Patricia, do this. We have time here right now. Can you at least just run through those six and identify them without going into detail, just to get those established here?

Patricia Engler:                 Yep. So with the first one, it makes seven altogether. So the first one is check scripture. So ask what does the Bible have to say about this topic? Second you want to check the challenge. So ask basically zoom in a little bit and ask, “Okay, so what is this actually challenging? Does it challenge my faith? Does it challenge some sort of non-negotiable doctrinal issue or a negotiable side issue, like maybe my opinions about worship styles or something like that? So just ask does this message actually contradict a clear teaching from scripture? And if so you want to move on to check three, check the source. So who’s sharing this message? What’s the source’s credibility and their worldview? Especially because even experts can make mistakes and be biased by the wrong worldview. How did they arrive at their information? Is the information being reported accurately?

Next, check four, is check the definitions. So to find keywords in a message, make sure their meanings aren’t changing. Number five is check for propaganda. So that’s anything that persuades by trying to appeal to something other than logic. So ask why does this sound true? For instance, is it true because many people think so or it’s communicated eloquently or any of those things? No. So you filter out the propaganda. Then next is check the interpretations of the facts there. So basically at that point you want to separate what parts of this message are facts we can observe in the present and what parts are assumptions or interpretations or guesses about the past or other guesses that are being presented as facts. And then what’s another way to explain the real observational facts from a Biblical perspective? And then finally, just your last check of the logic, ask are there other errors in this message and the reasoning that should make me think twice before believing it? So that’s a quick overview of those seven checks that you can use to break down any message.

Sam Rohrer:                      That is fantastic. You did a great job on that. And I think anybody listening would say, “Wow, that’s something I got to think through.” Which is exactly what you’re talking about. There is a approach to thinking critically. Your checklist there, and you said you could find it at the website, give it again right now, and you call them tools for critical thinking?

Patricia Engler:                 That’s right. There’s an article, Tools for Critical Thinking at answersingenesis.org. It was originally in our magazine, but you can access it for free online.

:                                            Okay. All right. Now that’ll set us right, just go right into this, and identify now your third survival skill foundation, that other third leg that you found common around the world for all of those who were Christian students or others, in maintaining integrity in what they thought? You are referring to this as the interpersonal foundation. What is that?

Patricia Engler:                 That’s right. So this is a huge one, and basically your interpersonal foundations is having a strong Christian support network of other believers around you who can help you build your other foundations and remind you that you’re not alone in your Biblical beliefs. So this includes having ideally Christian family that you can lean on, Christian peers, so a campus ministry, for instance, if it’s uncompromised, if there’s not doctrinal issues within the leadership and so on. Third, it’s so important for students to have a local church as part of their interpersonal foundations. Plug into a church that believes and teaches the Bible and don’t stop attending. I didn’t hear one student say that how they kept their faith in university was going to a church that had really great music and flashy lights and good coffee and all that. They said, ?What helped me was going to a church with Biblical teaching and they answered my questions and they rallied around me and supported me. They prayed for me.”

So local church, and then finally huge one all over the world was the importance of godly older mentors. So people outside your age groups, adults who have walked with God. They’re not perfect, but they know God is, and they’re familiar with His word. So a mentor’s just someone who’s willing to personally share valuable wisdom, experience, and knowledge to benefit someone else, especially someone younger. And that can just be as simple as having an older friend at church. So I call those types of people allies, people who lend informal support, as well as maybe people you meet for regular discipleship, people that you can contact if you have a question or need prayer or any of those sorts of things. So that’s all part of your interpersonal foundations. And, again, those remind you’re not alone as a Christian and that helps combat the isolation conditions that can really contribute to basically the brainwashing environment that youth experience on campus.

Sam Rohrer:                      Wow, Patricia, you are doing a tremendous job. I compliment you on articulating, you’re demonstrating the ability for a younger person, 26, you’re younger. I can say that, my youngest son’s about 26, but to take these profound thoughts and articulate them precisely and quickly and putting them together. This is, ladies and gentlemen, this is effective apologetics. And it is in fact what any person who’s going to live victoriously in this evil world must be able to do, to be, and to think, and that’s what it’s all about. And when we come back, we’re going to talk about, all right, what do you do now? If you want to actually put this into place, you have to know this, but then what do you do?  And moms and grandparents as well. We’ll talk to you.

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Sam Rohrer:                      Okay, Patricia, we’re going to now in the last segment make some application. We try to do that on all the programs where we bring up a thought or a theme like we have today, that matter of apologetics, survival skills in a hostile culture is what we’re talking about. And you sharing your story that began when you were young as a homeschool student, being the Lord using a presentation by Ken Ham on Genesis that transformed your thinking and as you said, “ignited your passion for apologetics.” And you traveled the world trying to find out what were the common success factors in those individual across the world, students in particular, and others who were being confronted by a hostile culture where they live, slightly different, but often very similar and what were they were doing. And you said that there were very common things that you found in all of those 17 countries, I think you said that you visited.

And so I’m summarizing here as we just make some application. You identified having the spiritual foundation, vertical relationship with God through Jesus Christ established first, giving us identity, understanding of Biblical authority and so forth. And then the intellectual foundation, how to think, how to consider that which we hear and we’re confronted with, and how to know what’s the truth and not the truth? And then how to operate according to that. You gave seven of those, those checkpoints that you used, which were excellent. And then you completed with the interpersonal foundation that no person is able to survive on our own without utilizing those structures that God has intended for our benefit, the family and the home and older folks who can be mentors and guide us. You were right on the money. I’m identifying that as a grandfather and saying, “Yeah, you’ve really gotten some really fantastic things established because they’re all Biblical.”

But let’s go to the application here now. People are listening and they’re saying, “You know what? I really like the organization with which Patricia put it together, and so right on point.” Let me ask you this, for the individual, let’s go there first, for the individual that may be listening right now, and maybe particularly the young person who’s listening, what should they do with this information? It’s nice to know that there is an approach that you’ve found. It’s nice to know these things. But how does one take this information that you’ve shared and actually put it into practice?

Patricia Engler:                 Absolutely. That’s the most important part. So first of all, yes, the amount of information out there can seem overwhelming, but just a reminder that these are actually really simple, practical things that can really make a difference. You’re building those foundations. It’s like if you’re a building a house, it’s one brick at a time. So just little steps you can take to be building these foundations. For instance, spiritual foundations. When I was a teenager one thing that really inspired me to want to build stronger spiritual foundations and spend more time with God was reading biographies of strong Christians before me and people in the persecuted church and missionaries who went on extraordinary adventures with God and seeing how they walked with God made me want to know God more myself and that encouraged me to just even be taking a few minutes a day to pray more, to get deeper into the word.

So taking steps that can inspire you that way to build your faith and then actually doing it. They’re called spiritual disciplines because they do require some discipline, but just want to encourage you to actively prioritize building those spiritual foundations. Set aside time with God, pray, read the Bible, things that we know to do, but maybe we find excuses not to, but the great thing is the more you get to know God, the more you want to communicate with Him and the more you want to spend time with Him. And then the more you do that, the more you want to get to continue to know more about God and spend more time with Him. And it’s this cycle. Some people call it falling in love. So just take those steps to pursue those spiritual foundations.

For intellectual foundations. There’s so many great free apologetic resources out there. I have a ton of free resources as well to help you build the critical thinking skills, we talked about that. You can access those on answersingenesis.org, answers.tv, our social media channels for Answer In Genesis and Answers in Genesis Canada. So even taking a few minutes a day to build up your apologetics muscles, so to speak, to learn some answers. Even if you learn an answer to a new apologetics question just once a day over the summer, by the time the school year hits, you will have armed yourself with almost 100 questions and answers to those questions. So just again, taking steps to build those intellectual foundations, hone your critical thinking skills.

And then for interpersonal foundations, being intentional and proactive about making friends outside your age group. And I can share a little bit more about that as we talk a little bit later on, but just being open to, for instance, asking older Christians to pray for you, to looking for, asking God to connect you to the right people, looking for Christians that you want to be like and asking if they’d be willing to meet, consistently attending a biblical intergenerational church and maybe sticking around a little longer after the service and chatting with some of the seniors there, asking about their life stories and their experiences of walking with God. Those are just a few practical ideas that you can be using to build these foundations for university and beyond.

Isaac Crockett:                  Patricia, I like how you said that, for university and beyond. And what you’re talking about is so helpful for young people in grade school, young people in university, and for every one of us, no matter what walk of life we’re in, but real quickly here as we finish up. I’m a father and my oldest is in middle school. He’s going through some of these things, figuring these things out. Sam is a grandfather. What would you say to parents and grandparents that might be listening? What can they do to try to help encourage their children or their grandchildren? Maybe it’s somebody listening and it’s another younger person in their church that they’ve been mentoring or something. What can they do to help encourage, help equip that next generation?

Patricia Engler:                 For sure. A great definition of a mentor that I heard in Holland was anyone who has a story of God’s faithfulness that they can share. So even just sharing your own life story of how you’ve seen God, you’ve seen promises from His word play out in everyday life. And so that’s just one practical way to be a mentor. Also just the importance of teaching young people the Bible. I heard so many campus ministers in different countries say they often see young people who grew up going to church, but then who get to campus and don’t actually know what the Bible teaches. They don’t know the big picture of the gospel or how to read the Bible for themselves. So teach the Bible. That’s the important thing, not entertainment. Sometimes churches can almost prioritize entertainment over discipleship thinking that’s what’s going to help young people stay in the church, but that’s actually the opposite of what young people need.

Similarly being open to ask and answering Christian students tough questions. So youth have big questions. They’re thinking about deep issues. They’re not just concerned about video games and all that, but maybe they don’t feel confident to voice those questions. It might kind of scare potential mentors a little bit, like, “What if I don’t have the answer?” It’s okay if you don’t have the answer. Just being willing to help the student track down the answer, to pray about it with them, and I mean, remembering that as Christians, we won’t understand everything, or as humans rather, we won’t understand everything, we’re not all knowing. But God has the answer. We can trust Him with that. We can ask Him for it. So being willing to walk alongside students in those things and helping them connect to mentors. When I was a student, or actually just in high school homeschooling, my mom encouraged me when she saw me interested in apologetics to call up the founder of our local creation science organization.

And she was a PhD biologist, Dr. Margaret Helder. My mom was like, “Why don’t you just email her and see if you can go to her house and ask her some questions?” So I did. And actually Dr. Helder has continued mentoring me all throughout university and into my apologetics career. So those are, again, just a few practical ways that you as a parent or a grandparent or a pastor or mentor can be encouraging students. And I do have a whole book about that, both for students and mentors. So there’s lots more information where all this is coming from as well.

Sam Rohrer:                      Patricia, I’m going to have to have you back. You just did a very, very, fine, fine job. I like what was said there, parents and grandparents. A couple things, share your testimony, teach the Bible, don’t entertain, ask students tough questions. And don’t think you have to have all the answers because none of us ever will. That’s why we go to the word of God, but He does have all the answers. Patricia Engler, Answers In Genesis youth coordinator. Thank you so much for being with us today. Excellent information. God bless you.

And ladies and gentlemen, thank you for being with us today. Just take and apply one of these things, just one of these things you apply today, could make all the difference. God bless you. We’ll see you back here tomorrow, 23 hours from now.