There is a major world crisis unfolding before us, but few seem to notice. Maybe that’s because it feels like it’s happening in slow motion. 

The France 24 news service recently posted a headline: “Has the world gone mad?” 

Those kinds of headlines are usually understood as analogies or exaggerations. They are used for shock effect. But France 24 meant it literally. 

The article stated: “Mental health disorders are on the rise in every country in the world and could cost the global economy up to $16 trillion between 2010 and 2030.” 

Let’s put that number into perspective. $16 trillion is four times the entire annual budget of the United States! 

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirms the crisis. 

WHO says that approximately 300 million people now suffer from depression; 50 million from dementia; 23 million from schizophrenia; and 60 million from bi-polar disorder. 

The situation is even worse among the young. 

WHO found that one-third of the world’s college freshmen screened positive for a mental disorder. The American Psychological Association found that one-third of all US college students had difficulty functioning in the last 12 months because of depression. 

Almost daily in the news, we read stories about how America’s cities are experiencing dramatic increases in the numbers of mentally ill homeless people living on the streets. It is reaching crisis proportions in San Francisco. 

But there’s an even more disturbing indicator of our society’s mental health emergency: pre-teen suicides. 

Suicide in this age group was once almost unheard-of. Not anymore. Between 2007 and 2014, suicide among 10 to 14-year-olds doubled. 

I believe that some of this, if not most of it, is caused by “gender confusion” being promoted by the LGBT community and echoed by the politically correct mainstream media, entertainment, academia, and establishment politicians. 

In August, a 9-year-old boy in Denver killed himself. He had decided that he was homosexual and his mother “supported” his decision. She blames his death on bullying by some of his fourth-grade classmates after he “came out.” 

It is undeniable that “sexual identity” issues are a major factor in the growing youth suicide crisis. 

CBN News reports, “In the UK, young people referred for ‘gender treatment’ increased… over 4,000% in 10 years…. The issue is so big that UK officials have launched an investigation into the increase in children seeking to transition to the opposite sex.” 

Jane Robbins writes in The Federalist, “Some physicians in the United States are performing double mastectomies on healthy 13-year-old girls.” She continued, “The justification is gender dysphoria (‘transgenderism’)…. Often, little or no psychological evaluation is done to determine the underlying cause of the teenager’s desire to mutilate her body. But these doctors are willing to give her what she thinks she wants.” 

Even though WHO argues that being transgender is not a mental health disorder, something is clearly wrong when a boy thinks he’s a girl or a girl thinks she’s a boy. The science is clear. A male has an XY chromosome. A female has an XX chromosome. 

Nature has a solution to this dilemma. It’s called puberty. Just as the child’s body is growing, developing, maturing, and going through enormous, sometimes excruciating, changes, so is his or her psyche, spirit, emotions, and intellect. 

Let’s face it. What 13-year-old really knows what he or she wants to be, do, or become in life? Much less a 9-year-old. That’s what “growing up” is all about. 

But because the scientific, medical, and academic communities can’t argue with the science, some of them are now referring to the problem in spiritual terms. They speak of a person who is “spiritually” a male, but trapped in the body of a female. Or vice versa. 

That’s not science! It’s a bizarre application of false spirituality. And it is leaving our young people confused and wounded. 

Is it any wonder, then, that self-murder among the young is exploding? Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among American teenagers. 

There is an answer to many of the problems presented by the mental health crisis in America and around the world. For some of us, it’s obvious: Take your kids to church; read the Bible with them; pray with them; and spend time with them. 

Maybe you expect me to say something like that. Don’t be so hasty to dismiss these ideas. 

The fact is that numerous secular studies agree. 

The American Journal of Epidemiology recently published a study on the subject. Forbes magazine reported it. 

According to Forbes, “Those who attended religious services at least once a week as children or teens were 18% more likely to report being happier in their 20s than those who never attended services. They were also 30% more likely to do volunteer work and 33% less likely to use drugs in their 20s, as well.” 

That study wasn’t specific to evangelical Christianity. If it had been, I’m convinced the numbers would have been even more positive. 

But the Bible gives us a warning. Just because one generation honors God, it does not mean that the next one will. 

That’s why we must renew our determination, and our efforts, to share the riches of God’s Word with our children and our young men and women. In a world that has turned its back on God and any semblance of moral certitude, they are crying out for someone — anyone — to show them the way to something solid and dependable. 

And if we don’t show them the way to Jesus Christ and the love, peace, happiness, and hope that He offers, then someone else will show them the way to their own destruction. It’s that simple. 

Bob Dylan once sang this immortal truth in his inimitable style: “You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes, you’re gonna have to serve somebody. Well, it may be the devil or it may be the lord, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.” 

Joshua put it as simply as it can be put: “…choose you this day whom you will serve…. as for me AND MY HOUSE, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 KJV) 

If you don’t lead your family toward God, and plant within them the truth and values that Christianity imparts, then chances are that no one will. 

Can you live with that? 

I can’t. 

Don’t miss this week’s Report on TBN, CPM Network, various local stations,www.hallindsey.com or www.hischannel.com. Please check your local listings. 

PROGRAMMING NOTE: This week’s Report will not air on Daystar Television Network. Daystar is presenting its Fall 2018 “Heart for the World” series of broadcasts. The Hal Lindsey Report will return to Daystar on November 4.

God Bless,

Hal Lindsey