JACKSON, Tenn. — Sept. 10, 2024 — Most cultural debates today are rooted in an attack on God’s original design for his creation, Shane Pruitt told a group of high school students at Union University Sept. 7.
“At the end of the day, God is the originator, designer and inventor of it all,” said Pruitt, national Next Gen director for the North American Mission Board. “And if God is the original designer, inventor and creator of it all, he also gets to define what things are.
“A lot of cultural agendas and a lot of cultural issues that we’re trying to navigate today are really an attack on God, and it’s mankind wanting to prop itself up as God instead of letting God be the authority, letting God be the definer.”
Pruitt was one of the keynote speakers at the third annual EQUIP Youth Apologetics Conference, jointly sponsored by Union’s School of Theology and Missions and the Tennessee Baptist Mission Board. The conference is designed to help teenagers address their doubts and questions, consider the Bible’s truth claims and witness to biblical truth, with speakers trained in theology, philosophy, apologetics, sociology and youth ministry.
Other speakers included Jay Barbier, youth ministry specialist with the TBMB; Justin Barnard, professor of philosophy at Union; and Phil Davignon, associate professor of sociology at Union.
About 230 attended the event, according to Gregory Poore, the conference organizer and Union’s associate professor of philosophy, apologetics and ethics.
Alex Williams, the high school pastor at Whiteflag Church in St. Louis, Mo., and a 2020 Union graduate, brought a group of six students from his church to the conference.
“The thing they appreciated the most and enjoyed the most from the conference was how much Scripture was used,” Williams said. “It wasn’t just opinion-based or emotionally charged, but every point that somebody had, every thought that somebody had, they backed it up with Scripture.”
In his address, Pruitt answered four basic questions that he said everyone asks: “Where did I come from?” “Why am I here?” “What’s wrong with me?” and “What’s the solution?”
“Everything starts with God,” Pruitt said. “So that means you are not from some primordial ooze. You did not start out as pond scum that began to grow legs. Apes are not your great-uncles and your great-ancestors. You come from a holy, on-purpose, creator God.”
Human beings are either male or female because God said so, and saying that is not hateful, Pruitt said. In fact, he said it’s more unloving to celebrate or affirm that God made a mistake on someone.
If God is the creator and designer of the universe, Pruitt argued, then he also gets to be the definer. The Bible speaks with clarity on issues such as when life begins, what marriage is and who determines sex and gender.
“It’s very arrogant for us as a culture to think we get to redefine what God has already defined,” he said.
The purpose of life is for people to know and worship their creator, Pruitt said, and he told students they would always feel like something in their lives is missing if God himself is missing.
Sin is the universal problem for all of humanity that results in separation from God, but Pruitt said Jesus Christ is the answer to the problem of sin and brokenness that plagues every single person.
“No one is too lost for Jesus to find,” Pruitt said. “No one is too dirty for Jesus to cleanse. No one is too broken for Jesus to fix. No one’s too wounded for Jesus to heal. No one’s too far gone for Jesus to reach. No one’s too guilty for Jesus to forgive. And no one is too sinful for Jesus to save.”
Next year’s EQUIP Youth Apologetics Conference is scheduled for Sept. 6, 2025.