OUR YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR SCHOOLS

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OUR YOUNG PEOPLE AND THEIR SCHOOLS

• Part 3 Worldly Philosophies

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Being Aware

• Must examine the philosophies that are a part of
  our childrens education
• Certain worldly philosophies are detrimental to
  godly and moral living must recognize and guard
  against them (1 Tim. 620-21)

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The Importance of Teaching at Home

• The most important Christian education
  institution is not the pulpit or the school,
  important as those institutions are but it is
  the Christian family. And that institution has to
  a very large extent ceased to do its work (J.
  Gresham Machen)

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The Importance of Teaching at Home

• Christian families that assume that the
  education of their children is something that
  occurs exclusively outside the home are making a
  serious mistake. Christians must pay more
  attention to the essential, indispensable role of
  the family in the overall education of their
  children

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• If Christian young people are to be prepared for
  the years ahead, they need to know the objective
  dimension of their faith they should understand
  what they as Christians are supposed to believe.
  Moreover, they should also be introduced to the
  good and sound reasons why Christians believe
  these truths. The children of most Christian
  parents enter college with absolutely no
  preparation for the challenges to their faith
  that they will encounter. They have no idea why
  they believe that God exists or why Jesus is the
  Son of God or why the miracle of Christs
  resurrection occurred. Suddenly, without warning,
  they are confronted by a professor who challenges
  their faith with a problem or question they
  didnt even know existed consequently, they have
  no idea there are answers to these problems. And,
  even worse, if they dare to ask their parents
  what the answer is, the parents are even more
  uninformed than the students (The Closing of the
  American Heart, p. 98, 100)

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Moral Relativism

• All moral judgments are relative and situational
• No such thing as truth or right, but only varying
  beliefs, all justified as only shifting opinions

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Moral Relativism

• Can be encountered in social studies, ethics,
  history, government, child development, sex
  education, etc.
• Begins with toleration of what is considered
  wrong next, acceptance of what was considered
  wrong as an equally valid opinion

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The Elements of Moral Philosophy, James
Rachels In any case, nothing can be morally
right or wrong simply because an authority says
so (p. 47). Right and wrong are not to be
defined in terms of Gods will morality is
matter of reason and conscience, not religious
faith and in any case, religious considerations
do not provide definitive solutions to the
specific moral problems that confront us.
Morality and religion are, in a word,
differentThe arguments we have considered do not
assume that Christianity or any other theological
system is false these arguments merely show that
even if such a system is true, morality remains
an independent matter (p. 62). If we do not
destroy ourselves, moral philosophy, along with
all the other human inquiries, may yet have a
long way to go (p. 202)
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Moral Relativism

• Creates moral confusion when discussing issues
  such as lying, adultery, political violence,
  stealing, drugs, homosexuality, etc.
• Argues that mere existence of disagreement proves
  truth is relative
• Encourages tolerance to other views, acceptance
  of those who are different discourages firm
  beliefs and assessing error in other views

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Moral Relativism

• Godly morals are not relative, but absolute (Eph.
  425-29 1 Cor. 69-10)
• It is never right to do wrong (Rom. 38)

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Values Clarification

• A technique to help a student to form his/her
  values, not by imposing a value system, but
  allowing the student to formulate his own value
  system
• No one can think they have right set of values to
  pass on to children applies to teachers and
  parents!

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Values Clarification, Sidney Simon Leland Howe

• The values-clarification approach does not aim
  to instill any particular set of valuesStudents
  learn to weigh the pros and cons and the
  consequences of the various alternativesonly
  when students begin to make their own choices and
  evaluate the actual consequences, do they develop
  their own values (p. 20)

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Values Clarification, Sidney Simon Leland Howe

• The search for values is facilitated when there
  is a supportive and accepting environment. To
  encourage this kind of climate in the classroom,
  both the teacher and the students must learn to
  respect each others right to hold different
  views and to act in accordance with their
  different convictions. The Values-Focus Game is
  designed to help students be open to, accept and
  understand even if they do not agree with,
  different points of view. The objective of this
  activity is to help students understand more
  effectively another persons point of view,
  rather than to attempt to change the persons
  mind through attack or debate (p. 171).

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Values Clarification

• Has produced people who do what is right in
  their own eyes (Judg. 2125)
• God commands parents to teach godly values to
  children (Deut. 66-7 Prov. 18 31-8 131
  1920 Eph. 64)

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Historical Revisionism

• The rewriting (reinterpretation) of history for
  the purpose of supporting a present-day agenda or
  philosophy
• Historians debate causation and effect of
  historical figures and events, but questioning of
  established facts and details can be detrimental
  to a view of the past and its lessons (ex -
  denial of holocaust, religious views of founding
  fathers)

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Historical Revisionism

• We are to learn the lessons of the past, not
  reinterpret them to fit into a present-day agenda
  to justify our own teaching or action (Rom. 154
  1 Cor. 1011)

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Non-Inspiration of the Bible

• The Bible is of human origin only, and borrows
  much of its imagery and myth from the pagan
  religions of the time
• This is encountered heavily in college (religion
  and philosophy classes)

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Reading the Old Testament, Barry L. Bandstra

• The uncertainties concerning the chronology and
  the very reality of the early figures of biblical
  history inevitably raise the question of the
  Bibles historicity. Readers will want to know if
  the events described in the Torah-and elsewhere
  in the Hebrew Bible for that manner-are fictional
  or true. And if they happened, was it in the way
  described? Our discussion of the written
  traditions of the Torah suggests this is not an
  easy issue (p. 46).

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Reading the Old Testament, Barry L. Bandstra

• Stories such as we find in the early chapters of
  Genesis are mostly myths and sagas. A
  literalistic approach to Genesis 1-11 would
  confuse history with myth and reality with
  symbol (p. 50)

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Reading the Old Testament, Barry L. Bandstra

• Chapters 40-55 of the book of Isaiah most likely
  come from the hand of a prophet who lived in
  Babylonian exile in the sixth century B.C.E.
  Dated sometime within the period 546 to 538
  B.C.E., they do not come from the hand of Isaiah
  of Jerusalem. We know virtually nothing about
  this prophet, not even his name (p. 309).

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Non-Inspiration of the Bible

• Jewish and Christian religions viewed as
  continual evolution of religious thought
• Difference between actual history and religious
  myth (Jesus vs Christ) modernistic and liberal
  theology

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• Be informed and aware
• Lest Satan should take advantage of us for we
  are not ignorant of his devices (2 Corinthians
  211)
• for the sake of our souls and the souls of our
  children!

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