When I was a young mother, expecting my third child, I heard Josh MacDowell from Campus Crusade Ministries on the radio. He said that everything we teach our children should be based on the character of God because one day, "Mom says so," will not be a good enough reason for them to do something. From that day on, I sought to look at everything in terms of God's view of it, so I could teach my children the truth.
On one of our first dates, my husband asked me if I believed in evolution, and I didn't even understand the question because, even though I had been brought up in church, the idea that there might be an alternative to evolution had never been suggested. He got me thinking about the truth of the Bible and, after he shared a Henry Morris article with me, I was sold. From then on, it was just about getting as much understanding and as many of the details that I could find that explained Creation as the Bible informs us.
Since then, I have collected a library of creationist literature and DVDs, and have attended hours worth of lectures on the creation/evolution debate. And, while I have spoken and written on many different subjects while raising my children and mentoring other mothers, I have come to the conclusion that teaching the truth of the Bible and specifically as it applies to Creation is the most important thing I can teach. It is the foundation for everything we believe as Christians and if that is compromised, then everything we base our lives on in this world and the next may crumble.
In the process of getting a certificate in Creation Apologetics, I have realized some very important things. First, the Bible is the Christian's foundation, not men's ideas of how the world is organized. Even for the unbeliever, everything that he is basing his ideas on -- laws of logic, morality and uniformity of nature -- is something that only comes about from an intelligent Orderer, not by chance. And, for the many devout Christians out there who believe everything about the Bible is true -- except Creation! -- they need to know the science, the real science, that supports the Bible.
For many years I have been seeking God's direction as to what I should focus my writing and speaking ministry on. While I have been studying the creation/evolution debate for almost thirty years, I have understandably been more involved as a Christian homeschool mom and wife on a daily basis more intensively. However, as the children moved out, my understanding of how important the Cr/Evo issue is has increased. So, at a conference where we were asked to think of a dream that we hoped to realize by the end of our lives, I knew that being a Creation speaker was really where my heart was.
The reason that focusing on the Creation/Evolution debate was so important to me was that I have seen that many people, both Christians and unbelievers, have noticed that, if you don't read Genesis 1-11 as history, you have no cause for human sin, death and suffering and, thus, no need for a Savior. There is also no hope for a better life beyond this one. We are nothing but walking protoplasm.
Is a belief in a literal 6-day week of Creation necessary for salvation? No. And, for those of us who have grown up with a Christian worldview, we can play fast and loose with the interpretation of the first chapters of Genesis and go tooling along just fine as believers. But, if we teach young believers or unbelievers that a literal Genesis is not necessary, then where does it stop? What is true and what is not? Do we get to throw out the parts we don't like? What happened to "Thy Word is truth?" (John 17:17)
Many Christian parents do not teach their children about Creation because they were not taught about it and don't know how science as presented in museums, documentaries, public schools and nature centers works with the Bible. They are often intimidated by the evolutionary scientific consensus and prefer to leave the subject alone. But, that is very likely to result in the accusation of hypocrisy by their children as they grow up, which would be very accurate. To say we believe the Bible is God's Word -- except for what the scientific community tells us is wrong -- is hypocritical. It is one of the great reasons that young people give for leaving the church.
So, my ministry verse popped out at me as I was reading through the Bible. It's harsh, just what you would expect from a prophet who was commanded to marry a prostitute, but important. -- Hosea 4:6
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children."
So, that has become my purpose in life: to introduce families to the truth of God's Word and to show them that science -- real science -- supports what God knew all along.
No comments:
Post a Comment