A. Why Do We Believe What We Believe?

1. There Are Many Reasons for Believing

A-2. Reason 1, the example of parents and other family members, can be sure to be a good reason for believing only if those family members are themselves committed to and have practical knowledge of a correct, reliable source of truth. If they do, they will want the children in their family to learn from their good example of walking in the truth. What a marvelous blessing and gift from God it is for a child who grows up in a family where the Bible and the Lord Jesus Christ are the highest sources of truth and a role model for life.

Reason 8, ideas and attitudes we get on TV and other media, should be considered very critically by every Christian. This is because the vast majority of the people who write, produce, or act in TV or write in the print media are either ignorant of real Christianity or are hostile to the Christian faith.

Reason 10, attention to the Word of God through reading and correct teaching and preaching is for Christians the most important basis for determining what we believe. Care must be taken to have the correct understanding of what God has said in the Bible, for there are many misguided teachers and preachers of the Bible.

A-3. Most reliable reasons for believing: Reasons 1, 2 and 10 (with 11). [Note: if God and His Word are truly honored in lives and ministry of parents, teacher and preacher.]

Most unreliable reasons for believing: Reasons 6, 7 and 8.

2. We Need Reliable Standards for Making Judgments, and God Provides Them.

A-4. In a world in which there are so many conflicting opinions and so many kinds of contradictory propaganda battering our minds from all sides, a person is bound to be in a state of confusion unless he has a reliable, constant standard of truth on which to base judgments.

A-5. It should be obvious to every Christian that God alone is the source of reliable, unchanging truth on which we can base our judgments.

A-6. No, Christ must be Lord of every area of life and of all our ideas, thoughts and attitudes. Unless this is true, He is obviously not yet Lord of all to us.

A-7. Jesus Christ is qualified to guide our judgments because He is God our Creator, Saviour and Sustainer. He owns us and our lives by right of creation, redemption, and moment by moment sustenance.

3. By the Bible, God's Word, We Can Test for Truth.

A-8. In order to test ideas for truth, the first thing we need is a solid, practical knowledge of the truth which applies to particular ideas.

A-9. The prime source of truth for Christians is, of course, the Bible.

A-10. The verb, to sanctify, means to set aside and prepare something to be used by God for His holy purposes.

A-11. The first and most important thing which God wants to accomplish in us is to make us holy, i.e., to sanctify us. Only then are we fully usable by Him.

A-12. In using the Bible for any purpose, we must be careful to interpret it correctly, i.e., we must be sure that we correctly understand what God has said.

A-13. In order to apply Bible knowledge in making right judgments and decisions, we must know the facts of a situation and we must interpret them correctly.

4. Correct Interpretation Is Very Important.

A-14. To interpret means to reason from the observed data or facts to determine what they mean.

A-15. If we are to interpret observed data or facts correctly, two important things to remember are that any set of facts can have more than one meaning, and that the interpretation of facts is influenced by the presuppositions of the interpreter.

A-16. The fundamental assumption made by most paleontologists when they interpret fossils is that evolution is a fact.

A-17. No, a Christian paleontologist approaches his work with preconceived assumptions, just as the secular scientist does.

A-18. No, the religious or irreligious belief systems embraced by a scientist does not make him either more or less "scientific."

A-19. Four rules of biblical interpretation are:

a. Literal interpretation unless there is a reason for figurative interpretation.

b. The first choice of meaning of any word is determined by the context.

c. After the immediate context the general use of the word elsewhere in the Scriptures is to be considered.

d. If a verse seems ambiguous, the meaning is decided on the basis of other pertinent scriptures which are unambiguous.

A-20. Some supposed contradictions in the Bible result from wrong interpretation of either the Bible or of the observed facts.

5. The Importance of Being a Critical Thinker

A-21. Several reasons for the importance of being a critical thinker are:

a. Christ admonished us to be wise as serpents.

b. The unbelievers who make things happen are usually thinkers.

c. Christians need to study, do their homework in order to be well informed, to know the facts.

d. But study does not lead to being well informed unless one is always alert and critical about the information which he is studying. God warns us to "test all things" and "test the spirits, whether they are of God."

A-22. Worldlings are walking in darkness because they have closed their hearts and minds to the Lord Jesus.

A-23. A lazy-minded Christian will not likely be a logical thinker because he has not been doing his homework and practicing the art of thinking critically.

6. Summary and conclusions: The Truth Test for What We Believe

A-24. A Christian can learn to think critically because the Lord Jesus has promised to give His children light and wisdom in this world. However, to enjoy this promise requires mental discipline and experience in practical application.

B. Critical Thinking About What We Learn in School

A-25. Christian students may attend a secular school in which God and the Christian perspective have no place, a Christian school which centers all education in Christ, or a Christian school in which some of the teaching is pretty much secular and not centered in Christ.

A-26. Critical thinking is required to discern different possible answers to a question and in order to distinguish and be aware of the presuppositions which are involved in the different interpretations of the observed facts.

A-27. Christian students can put Matthew 5:14-16 into practice in the classroom by (1) first of all, knowing what they believe, (2) becoming a competent student, (3) listening and reading critically, (4) asking in the class intelligent questions which reveal the errors in the secular position or which at show that the Christian perspective is intellectually respectable, and (5) choosing topics for assigned papers with a view to presenting an apologetic for the Christian perspective in the course subject area.

C. Testing Important Areas of Knowledge by the Word of God

1. Testing Science and Science Courses by the Word of God

A-28. If a Christian whose knowledge of science is quite limited is confronted by claims of scientists or teachers of science which seem to contradict the clear teaching of the Scriptures, his first responsibility is to, the appropriate time, to put the biblical teaching in contrast with the secular one. If any evidence in support of the biblical teaching is available, it may be possible to put it to use in such a situation.

 

a. Jesus Christ Is Lord of Science

A-29. Since Jesus Christ is Lord of all, He is our Lord and is worthy of our confidence and our obedience as in this world we face ideas which contradict the Word of God. So we take courage to let His truth be known in an appropriate way whenever truth is at stake.

A-30. Yes, Jesus in John 5:45-47 put the writings of His prophet Moses on the same level as His own words. Both are the Word of God. And Moses in Genesis wrote about the creation of all things by God, an idea which thousands of scientists are busily trying to disprove.

A-31. John 5:45-47, to Christians, means that Jesus, who is Lord of all things including science, has told us that He authenticates what Moses wrote about creation. Therefore, Christian students studying science are justified in rejecting the secular concept of an evolutionary world in which God had and has no part.

A-32. As Christians our decision to believe Moses rather than secular science is grounded in our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Since neither scientists nor Moses were present to observe God's work of creation, Moses has the advantage, because he on God's authority as God's prophet received divinely revealed truth about the beginning. Scientists who reject the Bible do have this favor, for by their own choice they are blinded to the truth.

 

b. Summary: Christians, Believers in Christ and the Bible, Walk by Faith.

A-33. Christians should believe in creation, first of all, because of their faith in Jesus Christ and in the Bible as the Word of God.

A-34. Scientific evidence which can be interpreted in support of biblical creation is a gift from God to His people to strengthen their faith and to provide them with means of persuading sinners to turn to the Lord.

A-35. No, in this life we must continue to walk by faith, for God has ordained it so (II Cor. 5:7). It is only in heaven that we will know even as we are known, and be able to walk by sight.

A-36. Some "facts of faith" which encourage Christians to stand against error are our faith in Jesus Christ which saved us from our sins, the knowledge we have of the Scriptures and our experience that they speak the truth, and the daily reality of the new life which Christ has given His people.

 

c. What Does Genesis Teach About Creation and Evolution?

A-37. The first chapter of Genesis is a chronology because it reports in order the history of the six days of creation.

A-38. The four different perspective from which Moses reports the historical events of chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis are: the entire created universe, the earth in the solar system, the earth's surface, and man on God's earth in his relationship to God.

A-39. Teachings of Genesis 1 and 2 include God's creation of all things, ex nihilo, by divine fiat, in the space of six days, all very good, the kinds separate and designed to reproduce each after its own kind, man in the image of God, Eve formed from Adam's side, and the fall of Adam and Eve into an estate of sin.

A-40. No, the evolution origin of man is precluded by the facts related in Genesis 2 that Adam was "alone" and that Eve was formed from Adam's side.

A-41. Words are robbed of their meaning if Genesis is forced into an evolutionary mold. Furthermore, the authority of the Bible is dealt a mortal blow. If the words of Genesis become like putty to be bent to human notions, so does the rest of the Scriptures.

d. Christians Have an Advantage Over Unbelievers.

A-42. It is the faith of Christians, by which they have knowledge of the biblical world view, and thus are able to see see what fact mean in relation to God's eternal plan.

A-43. Christians in science have an advantage over unbelieving scientists, because they have received from God certain truths about the world which the unbelievers reject out of hand. Thus the Christians do not waste their time pursuing some of the false ideas about the world which seduce unbelievers.

A-44. Some secular scientists try to explain the supposed spontaneous origin of life (abiogenesis), because they have faith in an uncreated, materialistic world which continually transforms itself by evolution.

A-45. Christians are not interested in explaining abiogenesis, because God has told them in the Scriptures that abiogenesis did not occur.

A-46. A Christian researcher in genetics would be interested in the molecular biology of embryonic development, and in discovering genetic evidence of separateness of the kinds, genetic mechanisms which keep the kinds separate, the limits of variation within the boundaries of the kinds, or the identification of the created kinds.

e. The Requirements for Being a Good Scientist

A-47. Yes, a person who believes in evolution and rejects creation can be a good scientist, provided that he or she abides by the rules of the method of research.

A-48. Yes, a persons who believes in creation and rejects evolution can be a good scientist, provided that he or she abides by the rules of the method of research.

A-49. Yes, a scientist who believe in "little green men from Mars" can be a good scientist, just as can believers in creation or evolution. His work would be good science if the results of their experiments can be reproduced by other scientists, and if their conclusions survive rigorous criticism and experimental testing.

f. Science: What It Is, Its Limitations, Its Relation to Faith

1) What is Science?

A-50. Science is human experience systematically extended (by intent, methodology, and instruments) for the purpose of learning more about the natural world and for the critical testing of all ideas and theories about the natural world.

A-51. Yes, we learn some scientific facts through our experience with our environment in every day life. For example, by playing baseball we learn something about Newton's laws of motion. We find out by experience that a force can accelerate a baseball in the direction of the applied force.

A-52. The "natural world" encompasses everything in the universe which can be observed and measured with the natural senses and instruments.

A-53. In the course of ordinary life we experience through our natural senses--feeling, taste, smell, vision, hearing, heat and cold, etc.

A-54. In science human experience is extended by the fact that there is a reasoned intent to study nature, by designing effective methods to carry on that study, and by the use of instruments which increase the scope and accuracy of our natural senses.

A-55. Possible motivations for scientific investigation include simple curiosity, the desire to understand the causes of things, and the desire to solve a practical problem.

A-56. A scientific hypothesis is an explanation of the relation of certain observed data with other observed data and accepted laws and theories.

A-57. The central policy of the scientific method is the requirement that all hypotheses must be capable of being tested experimentally and possibly falsified.

A-58. No, science obviously does not discover absolute truth, because everything in science is open to reevaluation in the light of new knowledge and thus may change. Absolution truth does not change.

A-59. Science aims to increase the breadth, depth and accuracy of our knowledge of the natural world.

A-60. Science is self-correcting because no scientist's experimental results or conclusions are immune to criticism and experimental testing by his peers.

 

2) What Are the Limitations of Science?

a) Science Cannot Investigate Anything Immaterial.

A-61. Science cannot investigate anything that is immaterial, because any such entity cannot be detected or observed by the material instruments of science.

 

b) Science Is Neutral to Ethical, Moral and Spiritual Issues.

A-62. Science is neutral to ethical, moral and spiritual issues, because these exist in the realm of immaterial thought and ideas and have no relation to the system of natural law within which science must function.

A-63. No, a correct definition of science is philosophically neutral and thus can have nothing to say about what scientists believe. This is because philosophical and religious beliefs can be neither proved nor disproved by means of the scientific method. Thus, to insert the requirement for or prohibition of any such belief into the definition of science would be practicing the logical fallacy of begging the question(i.e., assuming in advance that which is to be proved.)

A-64. Therefore, anybody should be free to participate in science who is willing to work in accord with the rules of the method of research.

 

3) Authority in Science

A-65. The final authority in science is the reproducible data which can be mustered in support of any concept, law or theory.

A-66. Whenever a statement made in a science book or classroom involves faith, students have the right to ask for supporting scientific evidence.

 

4) Quality and Equality for Christians in Science

A-67. Christians should enjoy equality of opportunity to participate in science, to suffer no discrimination or penalty based upon their beliefs, and to be judged solely on the basis of the quality of their work.

A-68. Christians have the responsibility to strive to be professionally competent, and to promote equality of opportunity and freedom from discrimination for all "believers" and "unbelievers" in the scientific enterprise. By these and other qualities of their professional life they should make a statement concerning the value of what they believe.

A-69. The answer to this question is a short essay.

2. Testing History Courses by the Word of God

A-70. One of the unique characteristics of biblical Christianity is that it is based upon sovereign divine interventions into human history.

A-71. Anti-Christian textbook authors have studiously deleted from history books any adequate treatment of the influence in history of God and of Christianity in particular and religion in general, and have otherwise attempted to make Christianity appear evil or ridiculous.

A-72. By doing this the authors of history texts have robbed many generations of youth of any adequate or correct knowledge of the Christian foundations of western civilization and of our free America, and have even sowed in millions of young minds despite and hatred for the Christian founders of our nation. They have thus obliterated from the modern American mind the correct knowledge of our national roots and reason for existence as a nation.

a. What Is History?

A-73. History is a chronological record of human events, with explanations of causes and relationships.

A-74. Two principal kinds of historical data are numerous kinds of written reports of human events based on eye witness accounts, and many kinds of artifacts produced by human activities.

b. What Is the Christian Perspective on History?

A-75. The initial fact of history at which the Christian perspective and the secular perspective on history differ is the divine special creation of the human race.

A-76. Five principal themes of history in the Christian perspective are: (1) The special creation of man separate from the animals, (2) the fall of man because of the sin of disobedience into an estate of sin and misery, (3) the redemptive work of God to bring fallen mankind back into fellowship with their Creator, (4) the divine election of the patriarchs, of the nation of Israel from among the nations, and of the Church from among the peoples, all to fulfill the sovereign will of God, and (5) the final consummation of all things, the day of judgment, and the gather together of all things in Jesus Christ.

c. What Is the Secular(non-Christian) Perspective on History?

A-77. Principal themes of history in the secular perspective include: (1) the assumption of a purely naturalistic history of man, with God totally excluded, (2) the evolutionary rise of man from apish ancestors, (3) cultural evolution, including the evolution of language, (4) a materialistic, amoral view of man and history, and (5) degeneration of western civilization in general and of America and its Christian heritage in particular.

 

d. Neutralizing the Secular Approach to History

1) Do Your Homework

A-78. Christian students in a secular school need to know well what they believe and how their faith relates to the leading concerns in modern society. This requires extra study.

 

a) The Basic Framework of Biblical History

A-79. A Christian student in a secular history class needs to know biblical history in order to be able to make case against errors in the secular view of history.

 

b) The Basics of Archaeological Support for Biblical History

A-80. Some basic knowledge of archaeological evidence which confirms the historicity of the biblical record is valuable in refuting attacks against the veracity of the biblical history.

 

c) Knowledge of Christianity in American, British and European History

A-81. We hope so.

A-82. John Wyckliff served God and England by translating the Bible into the current English idiom and disseminating it to the common people.

A-83. The Roman Catholic Church burned Jan Huss of Czechoslovakia at the stake because he exposed the corruption and errors of the Church and preached biblical doctrines which Rome hated.

A-84. Martin Luther struck the spark which initiated the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

A-85. William Tyndale spent his adult life as a refugee in Europe, so that he could translate the Bible into English and have it smuggled into England for the common people to read.

A-86. The Pilgrims and Puritans relied upon the law of God in the Scriptures as their fundamental source for civil and criminal law in the New England colonies.

A-87. Yes, the least we Christians in America today is to stand up publicly for the great truths of the Christian faith and put them into open competition with the failed secular ideas.

d) The Importance of Reading, Listening and Thinking Critically

A-88. We hope so.

2) Some Important Tactics for Christian Students

a) Recognizing, Identifying the Secular Errors

A-89. Secular errors for which Christian students should be on the alert include errors of fact, logical inconsistencies, unprovable assumptions of fact and philosophy, and biases and prejudices.

b) Asking Intelligent, Probing Questions

A-90. Certainly not. No competent teacher can rightly complain if students ask intelligent, probing questions and demand factual support for assumptions and interpretations.

A-91. No competent teacher can rightly complain if students intelligently question the validity of the teacher's opinions and conclusions.

A-92. In both history and science the final ground for correct understanding of the subject is the pertinent teachings of the Scriptures, correctly interpreted and applied to secular conclusions which conflict with biblical principles.

 

c) Demanding Evidence, Proof

A-93. A statement unsupported with suitable factual evidence can properly be labeled as opinion.

A-94. One student who asks intelligent questions can thereby help other students to start thinking for themselves and realize that there are other possibilities than what is taught by the textbook or the teacher.

3. Testing Social Studies by the Word of God

a) Sociology

A-95. The terms "pluralism" or "pluralistic society" refer to a society in which a broad range of life styles and ethnic, religious, political viewpoints have equal status, influence and acceptance.

A-96. Often the advocates of pluralism are actively anti-Christian. For them pluralism really means "pluralism minus one."

A-97. The reason pluralism is often applied so as to restrain the influence of in society of biblical Christianity is that the natural man is offended by the unique and exclusive claims of Jesus Christ upon every person.

A-98. The term "separation of church and state" does not appear in the Constitution. It was uttered by Thomas Jefferson, who was no friend of biblical Christianity.

A-99. The First Amendment does not forbid the influence of Christians and the Christian faith in government and public affairs.

A-100. The First Amendment in the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause forbids the federal government from establishing, supporting or controlling any religious sect, and from forbidding or otherwise hindering the lawful practices of any religious sect.

A-101. The Christians were in trouble in the Roman Empire because they insisted that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the only personal revelation of God, and the only Saviour offered to a sinful race. They therefore refused to practice the legally required emperor worship along with their Christian faith.

A-102. Prime questions to ask would be: (1) Why should Christianity be denied any place of influence in public policy? (2) Was the First Amendment originally intended to protect the State from the Church or the Church from the State? (3) Why, then, are New Age concepts and Eastern religious ideas and practices being taught in some public schools? Is this to be accepted as constitutionally permitted? If so, why?

b) Psychology

A-103. The common fundamental assumption of most psychology books is that man is an evolved animal, a part of the natural world, devoid of an immaterial spiritual nature.

A-104. This logical sequence is outlined in the text. It is effective and worthy of being memorized and put into practice, either with individuals or in classroom situations.

A-105. If there is no divine, universal moral law, then the ultimate moral and ethical authority is superior physical force.

c) Sex Education and Family Life Courses

A-106. The common and crucial flaw in sex education and family life courses is that sexuality is discussed in an entirely amoral context in which there is considered to be no moral right and wrong, other than some responsibility to avoid infection and "unwanted pregnancies."

A-107. The term "situation ethics" refers the idea that, since there is no absolute and universal moral law, right and wrong must be decided by each individual on the basis of the factors in each situation and what the individual decides is right and wrong.

A-108. Student preparation to counterattack immoral teachings in a sex education or family life course must begin with knowledge of what the Bible specifically teaches, accompanied by prayer for wisdom and courage to make the right applications in the classroom situation.

A-109. Valuable questions are listed in the text.

d) Comparative World Religions and Bible Literature

A-110. Textbooks used in comparative religion and Bible literature courses are commonly biased against the traditional biblical Christian faith.

A-111. The majority of the mainline Protestant denominations have gone over to theologies called "modernism" or "theological liberalism," which deny the fundamental doctrines of biblical Christianity.

A-112. These theologies can be characterized as "baptized humanism," because they deny the truthfulness and authority of the Scriptures and the sovereignty of God over His creatures. This leaves the human intellect and assorted human preferences as the final authorities in life, and this viewpoint is the essence of humanism.

 

(1) Higher Criticism of the Bible and the JEDP Hypothesis

A-113. The fundamental assumptions of higher criticism are: (1) all references to the supernatural and the miraculous in the Bible are false, (2) religion began with polytheism which evolved into the monotheism of the Jews, and (3) books of the Old Testament were not written by the people and at the times indicated in the Scriptures.

A-114. The primary evidence the higher critics used to support their notion that Moses did not write the books of the Pentateuch was the fact that two names for God, Jehovah and Elohim, are used in the Pentateuch.

A-115. This theory is know as the "JEDP Hypothesis" because it was proposed that four different parties wrote various parts of the Pentateuch, people who used the name Jehovah(J) for God, people who used the name Elohim(E) for God, people who promoted the law and wrote the book of Deuteronomy(D), and priests who promoted the authority of the priesthood(P).

A-116. This theory is also known as the "Documentary Hypothesis" because there supposedly were original documents written by the J, E, D and P parties, which documents were finally put together by "redactors" to produce the Pentateuch.

A-117. The main problem with term, documentary, in "Documentary Hypothesis" is the fact that no such documents have ever been found, nor is there any evidence that they ever existed.

A-118. To get evidence for their alleged "documents," the higher critics cut up the text of the Pentateuch into little pieces and arrange them into four stacks labeled "J," "E," "D" and "P." In other words, the evidence for their theory is manufactured.

(2) Getting Rid of a God Who Knows and Predicts the Future

A-119. The higher critics divide Isaiah into two or perhaps three Isaiahs, Isaiahs I, II and III. And Isaiah II is allowed to write only some time after about 540 B.C.

A-120. Supposedly Isaiah I wrote chapters 1-39 and Isaiah II chapters 40 and following. This is because the historical Isaiah(Isaiah I) died about 690 B.C., and Isaiah 44 and 45 prophesy the coming of King Cyrus around 150 years later who commanded the Jews to return and rebuild the temple and the city of Jerusalem. But the higher critics do not believe in a God who can prophesy the future, so they could not allow the historical Isaiah(Isaiah I) to write chapters 44 and 45 of the Book of Isaiah. Therefore, they created Isaiah II to report rather than prophesy about Cyrus. The principal reason the higher critics had for creating the imaginary Isaiah II was that they had to rid themselves of a God who could, through His prophet Isaiah, predict the name and the acts of an emperor a century before he was born.

A-121. The critics have no historical evidence whatsoever for the existence of an Isaiah II or an Isaiah III.

A-122. The higher critics make Daniel's prophecy a forgery written by some unknown person over a century after Daniel died

A-123. The critics fabricated an imaginary forger of the prophecy of Daniel in order to invalidate his remarkable predictions of Middle Eastern history a century and more in advance, for example, the conquests of Alexander the Great.

A-124. There exists absolutely no historical evidence for a forger of Daniel's prophecy, nor is there valid evidence that this book of the Old Testament was written later than the time of historical Daniel.

A-125. The Lord Jesus Christ placed His approval on the prophecies of Isaiah and Daniel by honoring and quoting from them as being the divinely inspired Word of God.

(3) Critics Attack the New Testament Also.

A-126. Supposedly, most of the reported acts and sayings of Jesus were dreamed up by pastors, evangelists and teachers in the early church, circulated orally, and then written down in many fragments.

A-127. The critics have absolutely no ancient documents or scraps of documents to prove that the gospels were produced by gathering together many scraps written by many people.

A-128. Assumptions of the New Testament critics include: (1) The writers of the four gospels were limited to purely human sources for their information, (2) Jesus did not have any consciousness of His being the Messiah.

A-129. The critics of the new Testament (and the Old Testament) beg the question. In the New Testament case they assume a priori that the miraculous events in the life of Jesus are not historical and could not have happened.

(4) Neutralizing Attacks on Biblical Christianity in Comparative Religion and Biblical Literature Courses

A-130. The questions are in the Kit.

Conclusions

A-131. No, the Bible requires that Christians be ready at all times to give a defense for the faith of Christ. Furthermore, a competent student has the responsibility to raise questions about any teaching which he or she perceives to be erroneous. How else can a Christian student better fulfill his or her duty to Christ and to the educational community than by asking intelligent questions and readily defending the truth when the Spirit of God gives opportunity.