In an increasingly secular and hostile age, the Standing for Freedom Center at Liberty University is taking its stand to uphold the Christian faith and preserve life, liberty, and truth for the next generation. Our aim is to inform, equip, and mobilize faithful men and women to preserve and defend the biblical foundations of freedom in our country. Our faith and freedom are inextricably linked.
The revolt against God began when the lies of the deceiver hissed into the ears of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. “Hath God said?” became the rejection of God’s absolute spoken Word and the basis of a new subjectivism that sought to redefine truth by humanistic relativism. That same relative belief system is prevalent in postmodernity and currently has a strong pull in Christian circles toward what is commonly known as deconstruction today.
The Pew Research Center has noted that young adult evangelicals are moving toward unbiblical, progressive ideologies, and 66 percent of young adults in America have left the church between the ages of 18 and 22, according to Lifeway Research. A 2021 study by The Barna Group showed that approximately 54 percent of U.S. adults believe that our country would be worse off without the Word of God. Barna has also found that from the years 2000 to 2020, the number of practicing Christians in America dropped from 45 percent to 25 percent.
But at the Standing for Freedom Center, we are committed to biblical truth — God’s truth. We exist to inform students and adults alike across the country concerning truth, and we equip others to influence the culture for Christ, engage in the public arena as representatives of Him, and stand firm in our faith. It requires a serious commitment to the Gospel and an honest assessment of engaging an increasingly post-Christian society.
Throughout the year, we host engaging summits with today’s most outspoken and recognizable Christian leaders to spur young people to reclaim biblical truth and take it into their communities. We engage culture through the digital medium of social media videos, podcasts, and web articles as the center provokes necessary conversations to spark change. We confront compromises made by members of the Church with multiple platforms to refute bad theology and heretical teaching in order to uphold the sacred Scripture’s inerrancy and authority.
Writer and theologian G.K. Chesterton said, “The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.” As an academic institution, we must understand that students, and by extension staff and faculty, have a hunger for learning. We also must remain cognizant of the fact that the enemy, who is no fool, will capitalize on this desire by feeding us lies — and he will do so with stealth. We must engage polarized issues and topics intentionally to address positions that we disagree with and know the substance of that disagreement. That is the purpose of education. We do this because our goal at Liberty is to Train Champions for Christ. The title of champion is never earned without facing opposition, without training or testing, or without pursuing a greater understanding of our purpose in Christ. At Liberty University, we prepare our students to contend earnestly for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. There is no higher calling.
Our focus and priority is the Kingdom of God. We are called to build that Kingdom here on earth, which cannot happen without significant prayer. As our founder Dr. Jerry Falwell said, “Nothing of eternal significance ever happens apart from prayer.” I encourage you to join Liberty University and the Freedom Center in prayer. Pray that we pursue Christ humbly, train our students biblically, and seek the glory of
God faithfully.
Ryan Helfenbein is the Executive Director of the Standing for Freedom Center and Senior Vice President of Communications & Public Engagement at Liberty University. Visit the Standing for Freedom Center website at StandingForFreedom.com.
