H
OW CAREFUL SHOULD parents and pastors be
in selecting teachers and leaders for their children?
Would you consider going to the campus of a state univer-
sity and randomly recruiting the first people you encoun-
ter as your children’s teachers? Would it matter if they were
Christian believers with moral character and a strong faith?
Would it matter what they believe about the authority of
Scripture, basic biblical doctrines such as creation, sin, and
redemption or issues such as abortion, marriage, and sexual
orientation? Bear in mind the warning Jesus gave in Luke
6:39-40: “The student is not above the teacher, but every-
one who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” Since our
children will “be like their teachers,” we must
take great care in choosing those who teach
them. But do we?
We are very familiar with the influence on
children’s beliefs by “teachers” such as tele-
vision, video games, and sport and movie
celebrities, but there is another influential
group who teach our children every day—
their textbooks. Nine out of ten American
K–12th grade children attend a public school
in which the textbooks, by law, must be free
of any teaching about God. When compared
with the teachings of Scripture, these text-
book lessons run the spectrum from neutral
at best to totally antithetical at worst. This is
most egregious in the sciences and biology in
particular, where any discussion of the origins
of the universe and life is almost certain to be
in direct conflict with a literal interpretation
of the biblical record found in Genesis. Since
biology is a required subject taken by 96% of high school
graduates, 1 nearly every high school student will be taught
this unbiblical worldview of origins. If students learn from
their textbooks that Genesis is inaccurate and unreliable,
they begin to doubt the rest of God’s Word as well. Not
surprisingly, many youths, exposed to unbiblical teachings
in high school and college, leave the church and their faith
behind, some permanently and others for a season.
• “Evolution takes a long time. ... Radioactive dating indi-
cates that Earth is about 4.5 billion years old—plenty of
time for evolution by natural selection to take place.” 2
• “Geologists estimate that Earth formed between 4.6 and
4.5 billion years ago. ... It was some 600 million years or
more before the earliest life evolved.” 3
• “How might life have arisen from nonliving matter? ...
Biologists have conducted many experiments that simu-
late the conditions on early Earth ... [and] have confirmed
that the formation of complex organic molecules under
such conditions is possible, even probable.” 4
“Can the blind lead the blind?
Will they not both fall into a pit?
The student is not above the teacher,
but everyone who is fully trained
will be like their teacher.”
A few excerpts from three popular biology textbooks
used in American schools indicate what students are
learning from these textbook teachers.
The Age of the Earth
According to most modern textbooks, the universe and
earth are billions of years old, and life on earth originat-
ed from nonliving materials about 3.8 billion years ago.
Compare this teaching with that of the first two chapters
of Genesis where God says He created the world and all
life in six days.
Jesus, Luke 6:39-40
Evolution Taught as Fact
Biology texts treat evolution as fact and as the single unify-
ing basis for all of biological study. Textbooks take consider-
able pains to cite proof and evidence that evolution actually
occurred. Evolution is referenced throughout most texts as
the explanation for many different features of living things.
• “Evolution is a fact. ... Theodosius Dobzhansky once
wrote that ‘nothing in biology makes sense except in the
light of evolution.’ Dobzhansky was emphasizing the need
to include an evolutionary perspective and approach in
all aspects of biological study. Everything in biology is a
product of evolution, and biologists need a perspective
of change and adaptation to fully understand biological
systems.” 5
Descent from Common Ancestry and
the Evolution of New Organisms
Textbooks teach that all life, from amoebas to man, are
descended from a common ancestor, an original first cell.
Over eons of time gradual, incremental, accumulating
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