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Four Questions Students Should Ask Their Teachers

  • Dr. Ray Pritchard
    Dr. Ray Pritchard is the president of Keep Believing Ministries, an Internet-based ministry serving Christians in 225 countries. He is the author of 29 books, including Stealth Attack, Fire and Rain,… More
  • Published Jul 03, 2004

 

John Morris wrote an  article with the provocative title "Can  Christian High School Students Survive Public School Education?" The answer is, of course they can. Each year hundreds of thousands of Christian students enter public high schools across America. What they receive varies from school to school, city to city, and state to state. Nevertheless, the concern is real. As Elton Trueblood observed at the end of World War II, America has become a "cut-flower" society where the bloom of Christian values has been cut off from its roots in the absolute standard of God’s Word. One hundred years ago the Bible was required reading in America’s classrooms. Today you can be arrested in some schools for bringing a Bible on campus.

Public schools mirror the changes and diversification of American society. In an age that values multicultural pluralism above all else, Christian students know that sometimes they will face ideas diametrically opposed to what they are taught at home and at church. How will they stand up under the pressure? What will they do when they hear evolutionary mythology taught as accepted truth? What should they say when they are told that "all truth is relative?" What will they say when told that abortion does not kill a human life? Or that homosexuality is "natural" and "normal"?

John Morris offers four questions that Christian high school students should bring with them into the classroom:

           1. What do you mean by that?

          2. How do you know that to be true?         

          3. What difference does it make?

          4. What happens if you’re wrong?

These questions, when asked respectfully and not in a confrontational or disruptive manner, allow Christian students the opportunity to lay bare the ungodly worldview behind much contemporary thinking.

Rarely will a student have to go beyond the second question. So much that passes for accepted truth is "accepted" simply because enough people have naively "accepted" it. But we as Christians do not determine our view of the world by reading the latest Gallup Poll or by silently acquiescing to the views of what the majority currently happens to hold. As a matter of fact, the majority has usually been wrong throughout history, especially on matters of morality and spiritual truth.

Josh McDowell tells Christian teenagers: "Don’t check your brains at the door." Right on!  I would to add to that: "Don’t check your faith at the door either." Take your Christianity with you when you go to Advanced Biology, English Literature, and World History. The next time you hear something that sounds strange, smile, raise your hand and politely say, "Excuse me, I have a question."

 


 

To sign up for Pastor Ray's free weekly sermon email list, click  here .You can find his daily weblog, online sermons, travel schedule, and other resources at www.keepbelieving.com. You can write Pastor Ray at raypritchard@calvarymemorial.com.

 


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