This Survival Kit is designed to be a teaching tool for parents to use in arming their children for dealing with the enemies of their Christian faith. It is both defensive and offensive in character. First, it prepares the minds of students to fend off attacks against their faith by giving them knowledge and techniques useful in exposing the error of anti-Christian ideas. Second, it opens the way to putting the biblical Christian truth into competition with error in the battle for the minds of believers and unbelievers. It is suggested that parents first read the closing part of the Survival Kit entitled "Conclusions."

The kit is divided into several sections, the first being general and the others dealing with specific subjects areas. For each section and subsection the Study Questions provide a few questions which help the students to keep alert for major ideas and facts they should learn. Finally, a few test questions are provided for each section which should be administered as quizzes to measure how well the students are retaining and understanding what they have learned.

It might be complained that the Kit puts a negative slant on the world which students face as they proceed with their education. But this is in agreement with what the Scriptures tell us about the world system which Adam's rebellious race has erected. Is it wise to send young Christians out into a world filled with perils for our souls without advance knowledge and means of defense? The Apostle John warned us:

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever. ...We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one." I John 2:15-17, 5:19

Another complaint might be that the kit makes Christian young people aware of falsehoods contrary to the Christian faith, that these ideas may disturb their faith in the Bible, and that they really do not need to know about these anti-Christian ideas. We would answer that it is even worse for them, perilous to their souls, to send them into educational institutions which teach anti-Christian error as truth without giving them advance warning and some means of self-defense. Nor is it reasonable to push them out into the market place of ideas without some instruction on how to put the Christian answers to great problems into intelligent competition in the market place of ideas.

The Need for this Survival Kit

Christian parents and their young people are becoming increasingly aware of the fact that the world in which they live is filled with danger for their souls. We are, according to God's Word, actually for a little while traveling through a foreign land, occupying enemy territory. While many children of Christian families are attending private Christian schools where the enemy agents and propaganda are largely excluded(though not entirely!), the majority are attending public schools along with the children of unbelievers. But, sad to say, the public schools are for the most part totally dominated by the enemy. Almost everything that is taught is in some way at odds with the biblical Christian world view. Thus Christian children and young people are confronted in their classrooms with falsehood being taught as truth. Falsehood disguised as truth is the ammunition which Satan, the enemy of God, uses to mislead the minds and wound the souls of believers. There is frightful danger here. Is it right to place Christian children in such a dangerous environment without preparing them with proper training and armor? The answer to this is surely NO. So the purpose of this Survival Kit is to provide parents and their children with training and some defensive and offensive equipment with which to deal with the enemy's campaign against their Christian faith and against their God and Redeemer.

The public schools are, however, not the only danger zones for Christians. Many private Christian schools use textbooks which teach error as truth, for example, secular science books which teach evolution as fact. Also, many Christian teachers in such schools are not well prepared to counter the anti-Christian propaganda which they find in some of their curriculum materials. And then there are the torrents of anti-Christian error which flood the television screens, movie theaters, newspapers and magazines. Consequently, all Christian young people and their parents desperately need the kind of information and instruction which this Survival Kit is designed to provide.

The Goals and Objectives of the Survival Kit

Let us use a military metaphor to describe the goals and objectives of the Survival Kit. The first goal is to train and organize Christian families as combat teams, each member of which is personally committed to our Commander, the Lord Jesus Christ, and clearly understands the great truths of His gospel of grace to sinners. The second goal is to put on the battlefield student-soldiers who (a) understand the enemy and his tactics and strategy, (b) know and are ready and willing to use the truth weapons for defense and offense against the enemy, and (c) are always working as team members in close communication with the team (family) headquarters.

The objectives which lead to the goals are the following:

(1) to have clear understanding of Whom and what we believe and why,

(2) to come to personal commitment to Christ, our Saviour and Commander,

(3) to learn how to think critically and to do the homework necessary to to be able consistently to do so,

(4) to know the Christian perspective in the major fields of knowledge,

(5) to know something of the secular(anti-Christian) perspective in those fields of knowledge (i.e., to know something about the enemy before meeting him on the battlefield),

(6) to have some specific field tactics to use in the classroom, both to defend and promote Christian truth in competition with anti-Christian error, and

(7) to be motivated to glorify God before a watching world by actually putting the tactics into action when God provides the opportunity.

The Value of this Survival Kit

Many beneficial effects can accrue to Christian families who put this Survival Kit into practice. The unity of parents and children in like precious faith will be strengthened. Evangelistic outreach by Christian families and by their young people will be enhanced and extended into a social area where it seldom is achieved, that is, into the tax-funded classrooms. Christian youth will learn important tools for gaining a sound education in a world where education is so often tainted with error and folly. And children and young people will be confronted with Christian truth in what is now often a wilderness area given over almost entirely to anti-Christian ideas. Even unbelieving teachers can be influenced for Christ by students who apply in the classroom the information and tactics supplied in the Survival Kit. And in some cases Christian teachers can be strengthened who have not previously realized the freedom they have in a secular classroom to teach in a way which pleases the Lord.

It should be obvious that this Survival Kit is not designed to change the tax-funded schools directly. Rather, its first concern is preparing Christians to live more effectively for Christ in the arena of education. But it can prove an effective means of introducing constructive change into the secular schools. We have emphasized in the concluding section of the Kit that Christians need not adopt a negative attitude toward the unsaved people and institutions with whom they interact in this world. Unbelievers can be open minded and actually people of good will, so living openly as a Christian is not always a cause of conflict. However, if conflict for the cause of truth becomes necessary, this Survival Kit should help Christian students to stand up for Christ and the gospel in an intelligent, constructive and effective manner which glorifies Him who loved us and gave Himself for us.

"And David said, 'What Have I done now? Is there not a cause?'"
(I Samuel 17:29)