EDUCATION IS NOT NEUTRAL: IT INSTILLS A WORLDVIEW

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Education is a matter of eternal consequence, and the stakes are too high to take the issue lightly. We need more universities like The Masters University that seeks to teach the lordship of Christ.

“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” 2 Corinthians 5:10

An education that honours the Lord should prepare us for all that He will hold us accountable to when we stand before Him. We must learn how to discern all of life under the lordship of Christ.

This assumes an absolute commitment to Christ and Scripture. Without this, education will teach the wrong worldview and will fail to equip one to please Christ or make an eternal difference. Any erosion to Christ and Scripture causes education to fall dangerously short of its intended purpose.

One way to think about this commitment is through the phrase “Christ in all things,” derived from Ephesians 1:23. This emphasizes that Christ is not only lord over some things but everything. Every assertion within any subject or discipline must be taken captive to the lordship of Christ.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

What does this mean for The Master’s University?

It demands that we take everything on campus, put it under the microscope, and see how Scripture determines every single thing be defined and done as an act of worship to Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 10:31).

There is a reason that the symbol of The Master’s University is a shield. The church is the pillar and grounds of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15) — and at TMU, we believe our role is to shield this sacred trust by faithfully educating the next generation of the church, ensuring that the truth is not distorted but upheld as the authoritative definer of all things (cf. Gal. 2:5; 2 Cor. 10:3-5).

Have we been perfect in our endeavor? No. But we know and pursue the standard we must hold ourselves to.

We know we cannot just teach a variety of subjects with Christ on the side.

We know we cannot just have certain things look Christian on our campus.

We know we cannot use human observations to define Christ and Scripture.

Rather, the standard is nothing less than Christ in all things. This is what makes for a true education — one that gives the whole truth and true wisdom, one that prepares for all of life, one that makes an eternal difference, and one that pleases the God who ordained it (Prov. 8:22; Col. 1:9-11; 2:8). That has been our commitment for almost 100 years, and we pray that by God’s good grace, it will be our resolve for many more.

BOY, 5, TEACHES US HOW TO ADMINISTER GOD’S GRACE

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Moment of grace ... Josiah Duncan says a blessing with the unnamed man. Picture: WSFA

Moment of grace … Josiah Duncan says a blessing with the unnamed man. Picture: WSFA Source: Supplied

A BOY of five brought the customers at a fast food restaurant to tears when he said grace with a homeless man he had just got dinner for.

Josiah Duncan’s act of kindness came after his mum, Ava Faulk, had taken him to eat at the Waffle House in Prattville, Alabama.

He saw the homeless man standing outside with his bike and was so troubled by his appearance he began asking his mum about him. When his mum explained the man had no home or food Josiah urged her to buy him dinner. She did just that.

“He came in and sat down, and nobody really waited on him,” Ms Faulk told local network WSFA 12. “So Josiah jumped up and asked him if he needed a menu because you can’t order without one.”

Proud mum ... Eva Faulk with her son Josiah. Picture: WSFA 12

Proud mum … Eva Faulk with her son Josiah. Picture: WSFA 12 Source: Supplied

The unidentified man was at first shy and ordered only a cheap hamburger but after Ms Faulk told him he could get anything he wanted he got the works.

Before the man began eating Josiah insisted on saying grace with him, bringing the other 11 diners in the restaurant to tears.

“The man cried. I cried. Everybody cried,” Ms Faulk said.

“You never know who the angel on Earth is, and when the opportunity comes you should never walk away from it,” she added. “Watching my son touch the 11 people in that Waffle House tonight will be forever one of the greatest accomplishments as a parent I’ll ever get to witness.

PHYSICS POINTS TO GOD’S GLORY

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Chad-RodekohrDr Chad Family-Grand-Canyon

Dr Chad Rodekohr                                              Chad with his family

Chad Rodekohr earned a B.S. in Aviation Management, an M.S. in Physics, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, all from Auburn University (Alabama). He is an Associate Professor of Physics at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, where he and his wife are raising their five children.

As a mechanical engineer and a physics professor, Dr Chad Rodekohr is passionate about the scientific method. Some might be surprised to find that he is also a biblical creationist. But he says that his career actually helps confirm the amazing design in the world.

“Physics is the study of our real physical surroundings. Since all physical things were created and are now sustained by God, it is easy to point to God’s glory while studying physics.”

Chad points out that: “Those who deal in the historical sciences desire the authority of having used the scientific method. In reality they are peddling a false worldview about history disguised as science and claimed as fact. I think that this is why the scientific method is not taught to most students anymore. Although students all act like they know the scientific method, when pinned down, most can’t actually differentiate between hypothesis, theory, law, or fact. It is no wonder they don’t distinguish between repeatable science and claims about history.”

He was asked to explain how he handled disclosing his creationist views in the classroom as a student, and how he would advise students to handle it themselves.

“What I did may or may not have been the best way to handle it, and is probably not what I would do now if I could do it all over. The primary way I handled the issue was to select carefully the classes that I took. I simply didn’t select courses which were historical in nature—knowing full well what the theme of the class would be. But even in operational science courses, the issue would occasionally come up. In those situations I would only steer into the creation discussion when it was in a personal setting with my fellow students.”

We need to bring academia back to the Lordship of Christ—gently and respectfully, being prepared at every step.

“How would I handle it now? What if I didn’t have the luxury of simply not taking historical science courses? Peter gives us clear teaching on this—1) Honour Christ as Lord by bringing such conversations back to Him—the Creator and Redeemer, 2) Be prepared—understand the scientific issues so you can ‘give an answer’, and 3) be gentle and respectful (1 Peter 3:15). If you are treading into unfamiliar waters, it is easiest to accomplish this with a series of questions leading back to the faulty foundational assumptions on which evolutionary teaching is always based. From there it can be contrasted with the solid biblical witness of our holy Creator, Christ the Lord.”

To students who are considering pursuing a scientific career, Chad says: “Please continue! Please persevere! Please investigate fully! Please teach truth!”

Extract from interview with Lita Cosner on http://www.creation.com

 

Professor’s atheistic pulpit—his classroom

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David-Barash

Professor David Barash

Biology Professor David P. Barash from the University of Washington now thinks that his biology class is the proper forum for explicitly attacking his students’ religious convictions, as he shamelessly announced in his recent New York Times op-ed.1

Barash says, in a class on animal behaviour, Evolution proves that (a) living things were not designed, (b) humans are not exceptional, and (c) God cannot be both all-powerful and all-good.

This religion-bashing seminar is a severe abuse of power. As a public university professor, Barash’s role should not be to proselytize, but to educate—fairly informing students about all sides of legitimate academic disputes. Sadly, however, Barash’s approach to education is nothing more than a prejudicial, intellectually dishonest attempt to indoctrinate students into his own anti-Christian worldview.

If Barash’s New York Times summary is truly representative of his teaching, he hardly even acknowledges, much less addresses, arguments that challenge evolution or support biblical creation. Instead of dealing with the best creationist arguments, he presents caricatures that informed creationists are careful to avoid (e.g., denigrating evolution because it is called a ‘theory’).

Instead of allowing students to hear from all sides of the controversy, Barash tells them evolution is beyond question. He insists, “Teaching biology without evolution would be like teaching chemistry without molecules.”1 His statement would clearly have been news to leading chemist and member of the National Academy of Sciences, Philip Skell (1918–2010), the ‘father of carbene [CH2] chemistry’, who pointed out: ‘Certainly, my own research with antibiotics during World War II received no guidance from insights provided by Darwinian evolution. Nor for that matter did Alexander Fleming’s discovery of bacterial inhibition by penicillin’.

Furthermore, are Barash’s students prompted to consider how men like Linnaeus, Pasteur, and Mendel founded sub-disciplines of biology without any help from Darwin? Are they told that Dr Marc Kirschner, founding chair of the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School, has admitted, “Molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, have not taken evolution into account at all”? Have they heard how evolutionary assumptions have often hindered scientific investigations, encouraging scientists to write off so-called ‘vestigial organs’, and ‘junk DNA’, for example, as non-functional by-products of the evolutionary process? Perhaps Barash himself would do well to learn about how creationists accept rapid adaptation and even speciation, and yet recognize why these types of changes are precisely the wrong sort of change needed to turn microbes into men.

In the centres of intellectual power today, creationists and other Darwin dissenters have a hard time maintaining their positions even when keeping their heads down, and they often get expelled anyway. But an evolutionary professor can openly proclaim that his lectures will argue against basic truths of Christianity, and there is hardly a public outcry.

If creation is disqualified from public education because it is too ‘religious’, then why isn’t Barash called on the carpet, for getting too ‘religious’ as well?

  1. Barash, D.P., God, Darwin, and My Biology Class,New York Times, 27 September 2014; nytimes.com.

Abbreviated article, “Darwinist Professor David Barash gets ‘theological’ in the classroom” by Keaton Halley and Jonathan Sarfati on http://www.creation.com