Learn to Discern: Not all ‘Christian’ textbooks give a truly Biblical worldview
Published by tramsek July 21st, 2006 in UpdatesAs Christians we want to teach our children a Biblical worldview through teaching the Lordship of Christ in the sciences, in reading, in writing, in history, etc. But when it comes to the actual textbook there is a wide variety of choices. Why teach reading through texts like ââ?¬Å?If Johnny has 5 apples and his sister takes 3 away, how many apples does Johnny haveââ?¬?? Why not teach children a God honoring worldview through values like ââ?¬Å?If Johnny has 5 apples and shares 3 apples with his sister, how many apples does Johnny have?ââ?¬? Do you see the difference? The first is subtly teaching children that to take things from others is normative, if not downright a good idea. The second is subtly teaching children that to share with others is normative, if not downright a good idea. Thatââ?¬â?¢s a small example, but when you have 6 hours a day 5 days a week working through texts like that, it starts to make a difference in how the child thinks and behaves.
My wife and I reviewed a curriculum published by a Christian publishing company that had a dedication that said this book was ââ?¬Å?to the glory of Godââ?¬?, but then inside the curriculum, made almost no mention of God whatsoever. It was like a secular textbook, but with a Christian cover. In picking out curriculum for our children we have come across tons of ââ?¬Ë?Christianââ?¬â?¢ books like this. It makes me think of a previous post on this blog where I said the only thing a Christian who is a public school teacher has to do to become a secular humanist in the classroom is simply keep silent about God. Even if that person is a Christian outside the government schools, inside he has become a pawn of the humanist agenda. In the same way these so called ââ?¬Ë?Christianââ?¬â?¢ books have no God honoring value in them.
There is no such thing as a neutral education or textbook. If you leave God out, you�re building a secular worldview that dishonors God. All of our life should be an acknowledgement of God and His glory. Christian books should be giving glory to God in whatever subject they are teaching. Literature, even fiction, should be honoring to the Lord. We need to be proactively training up our children in the fear of the Lord, not simply teaching them Bible stories on Sundays. We ought to give them a worldview that sees God working in all of life, when we sit in our houses, when we walk by the way and as we lie down and rise up.
Something that has me stumped about ââ?¬Å?Classical Christianââ?¬? education is that it has children reading the so called ââ?¬Ë?greatââ?¬â?¢ ââ?¬Ë?classicââ?¬â?¢ books. But according to whose standard are they ââ?¬Ë?greatââ?¬â?¢? Who has determined they are ââ?¬Ë?classicsââ?¬â?¢? Well, it looks like it is the world that has deemed these books classics. But what does God think about them? The question is ââ?¬Å?What does the Scripture say?ââ?¬? about these ââ?¬Ë?greatââ?¬â?¢ books. Do they honor the God of the Bible? Do they bring glory to Jesus Christ? Do they give children a Biblical worldview? Now donââ?¬â?¢t get me wrong, Iââ?¬â?¢m sure there is a lot of positives about following a ââ?¬Å?Classicalââ?¬? Christian education model, but on this point of having my children read Greek mythology, Roman pagan poems and the like simply because they are deemed ââ?¬Ë?classicsââ?¬â?¢ by the world, I just donââ?¬â?¢t understand.
Many ‘Christian’ science textbooks would teach ‘millions of years’ and some would even teach evolution outright. But believing in ‘millions of years’ is devasting to building a Biblical worldview. If a Christian science textbook were to not even mention God as the Creator of the universe, we would be appalled. In the same way, if an English textbook doesn’t mention glorifying God as the goal of our language, we ought to be appalled. We need to be very discerning in our curriculum purchases and not judge a book by its cover, so to speak. Carefully look through the lessons and see if the attitudes and actions portrayed are the ones you would like your children to imitate. See if Jesus Christ is named and given the rightful place of glory in the lessons. I’m not talking about Bible stories here, I’m talking about the real world of science, history, language, etc. where Jesus Christ is Lord.
Let me encourage all of us as Christians to do all that we can to give our children a Biblical worldview. As far as it depends on us, let us teach and demonstrate to our children that God is active in all of the affairs of men. Let use resolve to honor God in all areas of our lives (for example, leisure or recreation) so that our children will know that we are wholly devoted to our Lord and Savior. At the same time, let us not be deceived into thinking that we can convert our children to Jesus Christ. Only the Holy Spirit of God can regenerate our children�s hearts, but He does that through His truth and we can be conduits for the Truth of His word. Educating our children is a tremendous responsibility and privilege, let us never lose sight that our children are a stewardship from God and we ought to train them up to have a desire for and love for the word of God.
he question is ââ?¬Å?What does the Scripture say?ââ?¬? about these ââ?¬Ë?greatââ?¬â?¢ books. Do they honor the God of the Bible? Do they bring glory to Jesus Christ? Do they give children a Biblical worldview?
Now� How does that differ from what the Taliban taught in Afghanistan? I know you�re not advocating people be stoned to death for reading Huck Finn or anything like that, please don�t get me wrong. But the whole idea that everything written, everything sung, everything man does shold be done in the service to God� that�s what led them to ban music, books, art.
You should understand why this sort of rhetoric is so chilling to people like me. We can�t help but wonder whether, if Christians had the ability, they would resort to strong-arm tactics to see their beliefs enforced. I mean, it�s all in the service of God, right? So it must be ok, right�?
Paul,
Think about what you just said. Do you really mean nobody should select what they want to use as textbooks? Everybody is going to choose what they think is best. Evolutionists want to force their beliefs on the kids in school (By “evolutionists” I don’t mean scientists, I mean teachers and others including yourself — as you have admitted — whose knowledge of science is pop-science level at best).
Oh, Paul, finding C-14 in coal all over the world is not an anomaly, but rather is the rule; it “proves” the earth can’t be more than 50,000 years old if you accept extrapolation into the past, which I don’t, of course.
And creationists have had considerable influence on science, from Newton to Pasteur and on into the present day. Creationists advocated catastrophism even after the great falling away of the “enlightenment”. Now, geologists seem to have abandoned uniformitarianism as having a significant role in the formation of fossils and have capitulated to the creationists (without giving creationists the credit, of course). Radiometric dating methods are now extremely suspect, and those formerly considered totally reliable are now believed to give false results on occasion. Radiometric dating methods cannot survive double blind studies; they are highly contextual, (the date depends on the fossil layer in which the rocks are found) and thus, complicated. Applying Occam’s Razor, we have to say that they are just not reliable.
Mathematicians seem to have given up on mutation model studies.
The whole “modern synthesis” seems to have been rejected by the leading lights in mutational research. Some, such as Gould, have pointed to the lack of intermediates in the fossil record to support their pet theories of evolution. Using an analogy, they reject the church, but keep the religion and form their own new church.
Let’s face it: Evolution is just a big warm-fuzzy belief that is gradually losing adherents, especially among scientists and those trained in science. Pretty soon the only people who still believe in it will be the science teachers and other pop-science types.
Oh Tom, Tom… Tom!
I love the way you guys fall back on scientists from hundreds of years ago to prove that “many great scientists are creationists”. Name one scientist who is having any success in his field today advancing a creationist viewpoint. I don’t mean a creationist who writes a paper on electricity, I mean one who writes an influential paper on Biology or Geology from a creationist viewpoint. And I mean influential in the field, not just in the creation science niche of the field. There are none, because their “science” is recognized by their peers as bunk.
Look… I see they’re closing down this blog — probably because of people like me — so we probably won’t get to interact this way much longer. So if this is the end of our conversation, then let me say that you need to face this: You guys are fighting a losing battle. I know you all know that, that’s why your fight has become so frantic and shrill in recent years. But you know that, as people become more educated, they fall away from religion, they abandon it for the superstition it is. Europe is close to being an atheist union, with the northern europeans — the most highly educated — proclaiming nearly unanamous atheism. England is headed that way too. The northern states of the U.S. have moved away from religion in droves in the past 100 years, with only the less-educated south retaining anything near its former faith. Religion thrives in the least educated parts of the globe — the Arab countries, Africa, Southern Asia — and wherever education is effective and widespread, religion falls away, to be replaced by logic, and by science.
You know it’s coming, Tom. You can’t stop the people from becoming educated, and once they’re educated, you can’t stop them from seeing the truth.
Ok, tell ya what — Let’s stop all this billions versus 6000 foolishness, because you know what? I don’t need to prove billions of years. All I need to do is prove the earth is 7000 years old, and your entire premist — theliteral truth of Genesis — crumbles. A mere 7000 years. And that’s easy, there are a hundred ways to prove 7000 years. How about annual layers in glaciers, annual layers in lake bottom sediment — in both of which we can count back 1000 layers and match a layer of ash with a witnessed and recorded account of a volcanic explosion 1000 years ago, count back another 1500 layers and do the same, the chemical content of the ash matches the chemical content of the ash in the lake bottom 1000 layers down which matches the chemical content of the ash on the actual mountain which matches the report in the Chinese court journal of the eruption. Keep counting back 2000 years, 3000, 4000…
How about actual trees alive today that are more than 7000 years old — count the rings.. We know they make one a year, we can watch them make them, every year, year after year, we can match a thin ring 200 years back to a witnessed and recorded drought that year, match another ring 1000 years back to a “year without a summer” due to volcanic ash in the sky from that eruption that the Chinese recorded…
How about the old “distant light” argument… Our own galaxy is 100,000 light years across, and I’m not sure, but I think start at 7000 light years out are close enough to guage distance by triangulation from the Earth’s summer and winter positions…
On and on. Indisputable. I don’t need billions. All I need is 7000, and your argument crumbles.
How about
That should have read “…but I think stars at 7000 light years out are close enough to guage distance by triangulation from the Earthââ?¬â?¢s summer and winter positionsââ?¬Â¦”
Nope, must correct myself — parallax is only good up to about 100 light years. All the same, with our own galaxy 100,000 light years across, and billions and billions of observable galaxies beyond that… there is no way for light evenfrom the edges of our own galaxy to reach here in 6000 years.
oh well… talking to myself
(not the first time lol)
lets look at all this bull. first theology is the study of religious ideas, beliefs and practices. it is THEORY, not fact. there is no fact of any god. no fact of the earth being 6000 years old, these are THORIES! the speed of light is a fact not a theory. this all leads me to my point of keeping the bible/religen out of PUBLIC schools! we all are standing in a pool of blood up to our necks that has been spilled from people giving there lives so we dont’ have any one person or group pushing there RELIGIOUS beliefs on me or my kids!!! keep the religious thories in the church and home where they belong. and stop asking for money all the time, god made all we see but forgot to print some cash???
the truth is that the three most popular religions all kill each other in the name of GOD, Jews hate muslims, muslims hate christains and all three have been killing each other for the past 1200-1300 years. and yet this god has not come to stop this carzyness why is that??
so keep these religious theories out of the PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
if not we are then going to keep this insane RELIGIOUS WAR going, do you want your childern to hate a person over there belief in there own god? and then kill them over the fact they will not belive in your god??? all wars have been waged in the word of someones GOD. the time to STOP is now, as a race of humans we will never move forward untill these religious ideas are put to rest. let scientific discovory and fact answer the questions and lead the way, not this FEAR OF GOD bull and folk lure and religious hatred that show us how to kill each other in the NAME OF GOD!!!
If you read and understand God’s account of his creation and believe that he is omnipotent, which I do, then you might understand that light was created before its source. If the conceived distance to far away light sources is 100,000 plus light years and you believe that light has a constant speed, you might form the opinion that the universe is old. But if you understand that all things decay, even light is no exception. Anyone that aspires to be a whiz at science and math might find a scientific definition for “impossible” say one chance in 10 to the 75th power, or whatever the new expanded number is to cover up foolish theories, and apply the definition to the fulfilled prophesies written before Christ about Christ and form a conclusion based on those findings. It can be proved that the writings precede Christ. The earth keeps getting older in the minds of the nonbeliever to facilitate time for a ludicrous explanation of our existence; it will not work no matter how old you make the earth. God created time, God created you, God loves his creations, God loves you. Connect your mind to your heart and rethink the possibilities!