We believe that the Bible is important, but you would never know it from the education most of our students get in church. On the other hand, the Enemy knows just how important it is and how to use students' ignorance to his advantage.
Attacks against Scripture are nothing new, but today there are creative new twists to contend with. Conspiracy theories are the flavor of the day. Power hungry church leaders suppressed the true Biblical documents; Paul recreated Jesus to fit his agenda; the early church councils decided to make Jesus into a God while suppressing Jesus' Hindu teachings on reincarnation. These are just a few of the teachings students are presented on campus and in the media. While some of these ideas are certainly creative, they lack any real support. Yet, they have great power when students have not been armed with the truth.
A couple of years ago The Di Vinci Code made quite a splash. I was asked to do evangelistic talks on the book around the country. I was shocked by what I learned from my audiences. First, most preChristians were unaffected by the book. Most understood it as fiction and did not take it any more seriously than Raiders Of The Ark. Those that were already opposed to God, used it as ammunition for their disbelief (no surprise there). The surprise was the students who were most effected by the book: Christian students.
I met a large number of Christians who were shaken to their core by The Di Vinci Code. Why? They knew nothing about where the New Testament came from and so they were susceptible to Dan Brown's abysmal scholarship. A quick search through Wikipedia would have corrected all of Dan Brown's mistakes, but a little historical knowledge from their home church would have done wonders.
In many cases we have taken education out of Christian education. Students need more than merely an emotional commitment to the truth. They actually need the truth. It is disingenuous for us to complain about the effect of our culture's lies on students if we have not first supplied them with the truth.
A couple of weeks ago, we had an extended Chi Alpha meeting on campus. Some of our students were taking a class on the Bible that argued it did not reflect Jesus' life and teachings at all. Since this professor was an authority figure presenting "evidence," our students were confused and questioning the validity of their faith. They brought their questions, and we went through them all. It was a great time. None of the challenges were especially difficult and there were many assumptions (as opposed to facts) that had to be dealt with. The truth is powerful, and it trumped the authority of the professor. More to the point, these students are now able to successfully navigate this challenge to their faith. They are stronger now.
Students need to have the origins of the New Testament presented to them several times during their middle school and high school years. If not, they will most likely fall to the world's attacks, and it will be our fault. They need to know who wrote what books when. They need to know what happened in the early church councils since these are often distorted and used to undermine the gospel. Most of this information can be found in a good Bible handbook and in encyclopedias. Two very helpful books are The New Testament Documents Are They Reliable? by F. F. Bruce and How to Read The Bible Book By Book, by Gordon Fee. The best book I have found on the authority of Scripture is N. T. Wright's, The Last Word.
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