The RenewaNation Review 2017 Volume 9 Issue 1 | Page 25

SIX MAJOR DEFICITS STUDENTS ATTEND- ING SECULAR SCHOOLS MUST OVERCOME TO DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW: 1. The authority and teachings of the Bible At no point in public education is the authority of Scripture taught in a positive way. Yes, a Christian teacher may at times allude to their belief in the Bible, but they are not allowed to teach it in any serious way. At every turn, the authority of God’s Word is challenged, questioned, and outright denied. In fact, the Bible was on the top ten list of most challenged books in America’s schools and libraries in 2015. 5 Students have even been shamed for choosing to read the Bible as their choice of book in free reading time. 6 Once a child begins to question the validity and authority of the Word of God, their whole faith is in grave jeopardy.   In a Christian school, the authority of Scripture is upheld at every turn. This alone should be enough to help parents realize the tremendous value of Christian education. However, many Christian parents have been so secularized, they don’t believe in the authority of Scripture as they should. The Bible is a good book to them, but not the ultimate source of truth.   If you question my assumption on how the Bible is looked at in public education, consider how it is looked at in society. If a scientist declares he believes the Bible to be literally true, he is considered a quack. The secularization of our society through education is rapidly approaching completion. 2. The truth about God The theory and practice of secular education is clear and simple: God does not exist and is irrelevant to life. How can we consider education whole when it never considers the source of truth in the universe? How does a child apply meaning to what they are taught when they don’t know who created us and why we are here?   We’ve heard it said that the school teaches neutral facts while the church and parents teach faith. This divides life into the sacred and the secular and rejects the fact that public schools teach their own set of beliefs. Kids go to church and hear stories about David and Goliath and then go to school and learn “real” facts about how the earth came to be, etc. This sacred/secular divide has been a scourge on Christian- ity and has resulted in the loss of millions of children and adults from the faith.   In Christian education, we teach our students that God reigns over every square inch of this universe. He is the creator of every algebraic formula and every reality of chem- istry. As we study this amazing world, we catch a glimpse of the majesty and brilliance of our Creator God. We show kids God’s written revelation of Himself, the Bible, so they can see His majesty, authority, and kingship. If we truly believe God exists and is the ruler of this universe, how can we possibly educate kids in a system that never mentions His name or His influence on this world? “The theory and practice of secular education is clear and simple: God does not exist and is irrelevant to life.” 3. The origin of the world (creation/evolution) Public education has been so effective in this area that many Christian universities now believe evolution is the best answer for how we got here. They say they believe God created the world, but He used evolution to do it. This creates a host of issues with biblical authority and concerns with things like whether or not Adam and Eve were real people who fell into sin and when death entered the world, etc.   Since secular educators do not believe the Bible, they do not believe God created the world in six days. Evolution is their explanation for how we got here. Layers and layers of false assumptions and theories have become facts in current culture. For example, these words are directly taken from a public school textbook (talking about the Big Bang): “According to this theory, nothing existed before the big bang. There was no time or space. But out of this nothingness came the vast system of space, time, matter, and energy that now makes up the universe. The explosion released all of the matter and energy that still exist in the universe today.”  7   About half of current religious “nones” who were raised in a religion (49%) indicate that a lack of belief led them to move away from religion. This includes many respondents who mention science as the reason they do not believe in religious teachings, including one who said: “I’m a scientist now, and I don’t believe in miracles.” Others reference “common sense, logic or a lack of evidence” or simply say they do not believe in God. 8 25