There are several reasons why I write things on this blog. One reason is completely selfish: when I write out things I am learning, it helps me to remember. I can put my random thoughts together about what I am learning, hopefully in a meaningful manner. In most cases, it doesn't even really matter if anyone else ever reads it. I really don't know who all reads the things on this blog. Hopefully, if there is anyone reading it, that it's helpful or encouraging... but even if there isn't, it's helpful for me to transfer the thoughts out of my head and onto the computer via the keypad. In some cases it's to get things off my chest. This blog posting is just for that purpose. It is usually never my intent to have a critical spirit. When I sound critical, it just may be that it is myself I am criticizing... but today, I need to criticize someone else - without mentioning any names. This involves contending for the truth as we are instructed to do in the book of Jude.
My wife and I considered sending our homeschooled son to a different Christian school than he'd gone to in the past. It appeared their academics were outstanding... languages, science labs, technology. Their claimed goal was to train up leaders by teaching them from a 'Christian Worldview'. Christian Worldview is a term that sounds nice, but it needs to be precisely defined. Their claim was that they were committed to the 'truth'. It all sounded so good.
So I decided to find out exactly what the Christian Worldview and precisely how committed they were to the 'truth' by asking one simple question: "What do you teach regarding the literal six-day creation?"
The response was astounding but very indicative of the sad condition of Christianity today: "Well we don't go into controversial topics like that... some people believe in literal days, some people believe a day could be a thousand years... so we just skim over it and if there are any questions we let the parents teach their children so there is no divisiveness...".
To have a proper Christian worldview and to have a correct grasp of the truth, we must rightly divide the Word of Truth from the very beginning. The belief in a literal six-day creation is the cornerstone to understanding the rest of scripture, including the gospel message. When we allow all kinds of interpretations about what a 'day' really is, we are really asking the same thing the serpent asked Eve, 'Did God really say...' God has told us in His Word how long it took to make everything. This has been made into a controversy needlessly - especially in Christian circles among professing Bible-believing people. A plain reading of the creation passages, with no presuppositions, clearly tells us of the six-day creative process. Even other passages support the literal interpretion of a 'day', including Exodus 20 when we read of the fourth commandment. The passage 'one day is as a thousand years', is often used to support the day-age theory, but that is a misuse of the intent of that verse. That verse is simply using language to explain the timeless nature of God... not to explain what a 'day' means. There are many things to say in defense of the six-day literal creation, but the one verse that clearly dismisses any possibility of a day being 'ages' is found in Romans 5:12. "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin". If the days were long periods of time, thousands or millions of years, then there would be death before sin... which would make Romans 5:12 false.
So a proper Christian worldview means that we teach our children the TRUTH about creation. Instead of leaving them out on a limb to discover this truth on their own, we should be heralding the creation account as it is told to us in the Bible. If we want to create effective Christian leaders, the Bible must be made clear to them starting from Genesis chapter one.
We cannot say we are committed to the truth and then waffle on something as foundational as creation. Labeling the creation truths as controversial, and then glossing over this part of the Bible is a weak, watered-down and ultimately damaging position. It sets the stage for the questioning of other fundamental truths of the Bible. Was Mary really a virgin? Did Jesus really die? Is He really the only way? Am I really secure in my salvation? Did God really say...
This issue is much more than 'is a day really a day'. It comes down to what our view of scripture is. We have a Bible where God has communicated to us certain things in language that we can understand.
Granted, there are tough theological concepts to grasp, but creation is not one of them. It couldn't be any more crystal clear than it is stated in the first chapters of the Bible. If a day isn't a day, then maybe Adam is figurative. If the first Adam is figurative, maybe the second Adam is too? And so there is this slippery slope that began when we tried to explain that a 'day' is something other than a 'day'.
It is vitally important for Christians to develop positions on the issues that define our faith through careful and proper study of God's Word. And while parents are the primary molders of a child's faith, certainly a Christian school has a hearty influence. So a wrong position or lack of a position runs contrary to what we are trying to do with our children. Shame on any school, pastor, teacher or any self-professing Bible-believing person for not teaching the truth about creation.
In the end, our son went back to the Christian school that he'd been a part of since kindergarten. They, like other schools, are not without their own set of weaknesses or problems. But one thing they do not equivocate on - the TRUTH about creation as we learn it in the scriptures. And so they have our highest degree of respect.
No comments:
Post a Comment