Newsletter 32
Newsletter 32 from Maurice Sweetsur
Contents.
Creation or Evolution. Does it really matter what we believe?
Teaching tip 20 - Creation and Evolution.
Object Lesson 55 - The new birth.
Study finds 'Believers do not train their children' with faith in mind.
Craft 2 - Joined in love.
Creation or Evolution. Does it really matter what we believe?
Many Christians would answer "No" to that question, stating that all that really matters is whether we have put our trust in Christ and been 'born again'. Consequently they would argue that therefore it doesn't really matter what we teach our children about the origins of the Universe and life. In fact I have a Christian friend who refuses to teach on the subject of Creation, stating that it is too controversial.
I can sympathise with my friend's point of view because our children are being brought up in an 'evolutionised' society where it is usually accepted without question that higher life forms evolved from lower ones and that the earth is billions of years old. Therefore to teach children that God made the entire Universe, including all its different life forms, in the space of just six days only a few thousand years ago, is indeed likely to cause confusion in the minds of some.
I should make it clear that I am not talking about Godless evolution, which basically states that everything in the Universe made itself due to a series of chance random processes over billions of years. No, I am talking about theistic evolution, which is the belief that simple life forms did change and evolve into higher ones, but that God directed the process.
Many Christians do believe in theistic evolution, thinking that they have found a way to both keep their faith and accept the most popular 'scientific' views regarding our origins. They argue that God could have created us through a series of evolutionary processes. True, but the real question here is not how God created us, but rather how God said he created us. And a straightforward reading of the Bible tells us that God created each different 'kind' complete and perfect in the space of six days.
Some Christians regard the Biblical account of Creation and the subsequent fall of man as myths. But if the first part of the Bible never really happened, where then do the myths end and real history begin? If people put their own interpretations on the first part of the Bible, where do they stop? If Genesis cannot be trusted, and God didn't really make things as the Bible describes, how do we know for example that all the miracles the Bible talks about really happened? And what about the resurrection of Jesus? Perhaps his body didn't really rise from the dead? Maybe it was just a 'Spiritual' resurrection? Also, if the Bible is open to different interpretations, how do we know which one is the correct one? No. If we don't accept the entire Bible as God's infallible word, we are likely to end up doubting it all.
I believe it is important to teach our children about Biblical creation (See Teaching tip 20 below) and the subsequent "fall of man", because the Gospel doesn't make much sense without it. We need to teach the bad news before we can teach the good news. If there was no original sin and rebellion against God, why do we need a Saviour?
I believe that the general decline in moral standards today can largely be attributed to the widespread teaching and acceptance of various forms of evolution. If we are taught that we are just highly evolved animals, it is hardly surprising that many end up acting like them.
If your pet dog gets old and sick, the best thing to do is get him 'put down'. So if your granny gets old and sick, why not put her down as well?
If a kitten is born deformed, the most humane thing to do would probably be to drown it. So what should we do with a human 'animal' that is born deformed?
If we all descended from the trees, some races have been 'human' longer than others, so aren't we justified in enslaving these 'lesser humans', or even eliminating them if they pose a threat to us?
Why do we need to wear clothes? Animals don't wear clothes, so why should we bother? (The answer of course is in Genesis - to cover up our shame. But if we reinterpret Genesis - - - - - ).
Why is homosexuality and same-sex marriage wrong? We have no reason for condemning such behaviour, if we don't believe a literal interpretation of Genesis.
If there is no Absolute Authority, and the Ten Commandments, for example, are only rules made up by men, why shouldn't we all make up our own personal rules, and live by them instead?
Thus, a society that believes in evolution is likely to allow euthanasia, abortion, racism, pornography, same-sex marriage and become increasingly lawless. A society that accepts the entire Bible as the 'Word of God' will know that every person is made in 'the image of God' and will treat them with the respect, caring and dignity that God demands.
For many years the Church has fought against such things as euthanasia, abortion, homosexuality etc. But, I believe they are fighting merely the symptoms of a sin-sick society. What we should be concentrating our efforts on is upholding the inerrancy, accuracy and integrity of the Bible. The Statement of Faith for most Christian denominations includes something like "We believe that the Bible in its entirety is the inspired and infallible Word of God." But so often many Christians compromise God's Word, and from their conversations it is obvious that they don't really believe it to have been given to us by the Creator, Himself. And if the 'world' thinks that we don't really believe parts of the Bible ourselves, why should they listen to us? If we don't believe it ourselves, how can we expect them to? They think we are just sharing our own opinions. And why should our opinions be any more valid than theirs? Some of the humanistic arguments put forward by Christians in trying, for example, to persuade youngsters to abstain from sex before marriage or not to co-habit, don't sound very convincing to me. No, I believe we will only be able to make real progress in our spiritual battles when we come to the place where we can say "That behaviour is wrong - because God's Word says so!" Period.
I recently read a very challenging book "Revolution in World Missions" by K. P. Yohannan, founder of 'Gospel for Asia'. Dr. Yohannan puts the case for "Preaching the Word" rather than sharing mainly a 'Social Gospel'. Concentrating on sharing the love of God by meeting the social needs of people has very limited success. He cites Thailand as an example. Christian missionaries have been active here for over 150 years. They have played a major role in the modernisation of the country, being largely responsible for its widespread literacy, first printing press, first university, first hospital, first doctor and almost every other benefit of education and science. Yet Christians still only make up about 2% of the population. Ultimately, what has been the value of these modern benefits, if most of the people still die without Christ?
First and foremost we are called to 'Preach the Gospel'. Some of you are probably thinking " I'm a teacher, not a Preacher." But the word 'Preach' simply means 'to make known'. And we can all make Christ known to the children in our classes. So I encourage you, when you teach a Bible account, do not simply teach it as a good story that the children can learn something from, but teach it also for what it is - the Word of God 'that cannot be broken', teach it in context, and teach it as real history.
It is easy to criticise the religious leaders of Jesus' day for their opposition to him, but at least they accepted the Scriptures as God's authoritative Word. In his discourses with these leaders, Jesus would often silence them by quoting scripture - "The scriptures say this, or the scriptures say that." The religious leaders couldn't argue with that because they all accepted the Word of God as absolute truth.
I long for the day when Society as a whole will once again accept God's Word as the final Authority for what we believe, and how we act. But it needs to begin with those who already profess a personal relationship with God.
Teaching tip 20 - Creation and Evolution.
I don't usually mention the theory of evolution in my classes, concentrating instead on just teaching Creation from God's Word. Sometimes, however, an older child may raise the subject. Then I will proceed along the following lines. I explain the basics of special creation by God and evolution, and then state that there are two ways we can test which one is more likely to be true.
1. Ask "Is evolution happening today?" The answer is obviously "No." We never observe one kind of creature changing into a different kind. Thus, cats always give birth to cats, dogs give dogs, potatoes give potatoes and carrots give carrots etc. etc.
2. Is there any evidence to show that evolution ever happened in the past? Again the answer is "No." Fossils are a collection of 'dead things' - creatures and plants that lived and died in the past. But the fossil record shows clearly defined species, with no evidence of one type of creature changing into a different type. If evolution were true, we would expect to find billions of transitional forms. But they are just not there.
There have been a number of claims that 'intermediate' forms have been found (e.g. ape-men), but on further inspection they have proved to be false. So-called ape-men, for example, have subsequently been shown to be really either apes, men, or fraudulent hoaxes (e.g. Pilkdown man).
Science is concerned solely with what is happening in the present. It cannot tell us anything about what happened in the past. So when it comes to the origins of things, we move into the realm of speculation and personal faith. Ultimately, the question is "Who are we going to believe? Fallible men who weren't there in the beginning, or God who is the only one who was there?"
Note. See Teaching tip 4 (Newsletter 18) for ideas on teaching about creation, and object lessons 20 and 43 if you are also going to talk about evolution during your lesson.
Object Lesson 55 - The new birth.
When I have taught on 'new beginnings', I usually included something on Creation (see my Newsletter No. 18). I have also taken in a chrysalis and explained how an ugly caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly.
When teaching about Nicodemus (the new birth), I get the children to make models out of modelling clay (Play-doh). I then explain that good as all the completed models are, not one of them is perfect. If there was a 'Master' sculptor present, and he made a model with just one small mistake, he would squash it up, and keep remaking it until it was perfect.That is God's plan for us. Because of sin, we are all born faulty on the inside, but God wants to remake us so we are new and perfect on the inside.
Study Finds 'Believers Do Not Train Their Children' With Faith in Mind
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The faith commitment of born-again parents made surprisingly little difference in how their children were raised. That's the conclusion by The Barna Group (TBG) in its latest study, which looked at the outcomes parents are most eager to achieve in their children, the qualities they believe are most important for parents to have in order to be effective, and some of the critical choices and tradeoffs they make in their child-rearing efforts.
Released Monday, the survey of 707 adults who are parents discovered that "having a significant faith commitment and an identifiable set of religious beliefs was mentioned by just one out of every five parents as an ingredient required for parental success."
According to the poll, the most important outcomes parents are devoted to helping their children experience was getting a good education, with four out of every 10 parents (39 percent) listing that as their top priority. Helping the child to feel loved was the second most frequently mentioned outcome (24 percent), followed by enabling them to have a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ (22 percent).
"Only three out of 10 born-again parents included the salvation of their child in the list of critical parental emphases," TBG president George Barna noted. "For that emphasis to not be on the radar screen of most Christian parents is a significant reason why most Americans never embrace Jesus Christ as their savior. The fact that most Christian parents overlook this critical responsibility is one of the biggest challenges to the Christian church."
TBG said one of the most "eye-opening portions" of the research related to the choices that parents make in various situations. Forty-three percent of the parents polled said they teach their children that there are some moral absolutes, and 45 percent said they teach that there are no such absolutes.
"Born-again parents were twice as likely as others to teach their children that there are certain moral absolutes they should obey," Barna pointed out. "However, even on that matter, less than six out of 10 born-again parents took such a position."
Concerning a child's media exposure, the study found that a majority of parents (56 percent) said they gave their youngsters general guidelines about the amount and quality of media they were allowed to access and then let the children regulate their media intake by themselves. Only one-third of all parents (36 percent) strictly limited the amount and quality of TV, music and other media the children were allowed to access.
"You might expect that parents who are born-again Christians would take a different approach to raising their children than did parents who have not committed their life to Christ -- but that was rarely the case," the California-based researcher explained. "... For years, we have reported research findings showing that born-again adults think and behave very much like everyone else. It often seems that their faith makes very little difference in their life. This new study helps explain why that is: believers do not train their children to think or act any differently."
Craft 2 - Joined in love.
The following craft is suitable for children about eight years of age and older. The purpose is to demonstrate God's desire for people to be joined in love (or unity) - by making a string of paper people joined together with 'hearts' between each of them.
Give each child a strip of thin paper, about 24 ins. long by 4 ins. wide. Get them to crease the paper in the centre. Then, fold both the right hand and left hand edges to the centre. Repeat the procedure twice. Finally, fold the two edges together, leaving a rectangular shape about 4 ins. by a little under 1.5 ins.
You now need the children to draw 'half a man' on their rectangular shapes. It is best to draw this yourself on a large rectangle as an example for them to follow (Email me on mnmsweetsur@xtra.co.nz for a Diagram). Ensure that you use the full length and width of your paper. Thus, from top to bottom you will have, half a head, an arm in the centre - stretching all the way to the left edge, with the lower arm line sloping slightly downwards as this will eventually form part of a 'heart', and a leg, running down to the bottom left hand corner.
After each child has drawn their man, get them to cut him out. You will note that three separate areas of the rectangle need to be cut away (the shaded areas in the Diagram). As the folded 'men' are then opened up, they will reveal strings of people joined in love, as depicted by 'hearts' between each of them. The strings of people will be just long enough to be made into paper hats (By taping the two edges together) if desired.
Maurice Sweetsur
mnmsweetsur@xtra.co.nz
All Newsletters - http://mauricesweetsur.blogspot.com/
Object lessons - http://objectlessons.blogspot.com/
Teaching tips - http://teachinglessons.blogspot.com/
Contents.
Creation or Evolution. Does it really matter what we believe?
Teaching tip 20 - Creation and Evolution.
Object Lesson 55 - The new birth.
Study finds 'Believers do not train their children' with faith in mind.
Craft 2 - Joined in love.
Creation or Evolution. Does it really matter what we believe?
Many Christians would answer "No" to that question, stating that all that really matters is whether we have put our trust in Christ and been 'born again'. Consequently they would argue that therefore it doesn't really matter what we teach our children about the origins of the Universe and life. In fact I have a Christian friend who refuses to teach on the subject of Creation, stating that it is too controversial.
I can sympathise with my friend's point of view because our children are being brought up in an 'evolutionised' society where it is usually accepted without question that higher life forms evolved from lower ones and that the earth is billions of years old. Therefore to teach children that God made the entire Universe, including all its different life forms, in the space of just six days only a few thousand years ago, is indeed likely to cause confusion in the minds of some.
I should make it clear that I am not talking about Godless evolution, which basically states that everything in the Universe made itself due to a series of chance random processes over billions of years. No, I am talking about theistic evolution, which is the belief that simple life forms did change and evolve into higher ones, but that God directed the process.
Many Christians do believe in theistic evolution, thinking that they have found a way to both keep their faith and accept the most popular 'scientific' views regarding our origins. They argue that God could have created us through a series of evolutionary processes. True, but the real question here is not how God created us, but rather how God said he created us. And a straightforward reading of the Bible tells us that God created each different 'kind' complete and perfect in the space of six days.
Some Christians regard the Biblical account of Creation and the subsequent fall of man as myths. But if the first part of the Bible never really happened, where then do the myths end and real history begin? If people put their own interpretations on the first part of the Bible, where do they stop? If Genesis cannot be trusted, and God didn't really make things as the Bible describes, how do we know for example that all the miracles the Bible talks about really happened? And what about the resurrection of Jesus? Perhaps his body didn't really rise from the dead? Maybe it was just a 'Spiritual' resurrection? Also, if the Bible is open to different interpretations, how do we know which one is the correct one? No. If we don't accept the entire Bible as God's infallible word, we are likely to end up doubting it all.
I believe it is important to teach our children about Biblical creation (See Teaching tip 20 below) and the subsequent "fall of man", because the Gospel doesn't make much sense without it. We need to teach the bad news before we can teach the good news. If there was no original sin and rebellion against God, why do we need a Saviour?
I believe that the general decline in moral standards today can largely be attributed to the widespread teaching and acceptance of various forms of evolution. If we are taught that we are just highly evolved animals, it is hardly surprising that many end up acting like them.
If your pet dog gets old and sick, the best thing to do is get him 'put down'. So if your granny gets old and sick, why not put her down as well?
If a kitten is born deformed, the most humane thing to do would probably be to drown it. So what should we do with a human 'animal' that is born deformed?
If we all descended from the trees, some races have been 'human' longer than others, so aren't we justified in enslaving these 'lesser humans', or even eliminating them if they pose a threat to us?
Why do we need to wear clothes? Animals don't wear clothes, so why should we bother? (The answer of course is in Genesis - to cover up our shame. But if we reinterpret Genesis - - - - - ).
Why is homosexuality and same-sex marriage wrong? We have no reason for condemning such behaviour, if we don't believe a literal interpretation of Genesis.
If there is no Absolute Authority, and the Ten Commandments, for example, are only rules made up by men, why shouldn't we all make up our own personal rules, and live by them instead?
Thus, a society that believes in evolution is likely to allow euthanasia, abortion, racism, pornography, same-sex marriage and become increasingly lawless. A society that accepts the entire Bible as the 'Word of God' will know that every person is made in 'the image of God' and will treat them with the respect, caring and dignity that God demands.
For many years the Church has fought against such things as euthanasia, abortion, homosexuality etc. But, I believe they are fighting merely the symptoms of a sin-sick society. What we should be concentrating our efforts on is upholding the inerrancy, accuracy and integrity of the Bible. The Statement of Faith for most Christian denominations includes something like "We believe that the Bible in its entirety is the inspired and infallible Word of God." But so often many Christians compromise God's Word, and from their conversations it is obvious that they don't really believe it to have been given to us by the Creator, Himself. And if the 'world' thinks that we don't really believe parts of the Bible ourselves, why should they listen to us? If we don't believe it ourselves, how can we expect them to? They think we are just sharing our own opinions. And why should our opinions be any more valid than theirs? Some of the humanistic arguments put forward by Christians in trying, for example, to persuade youngsters to abstain from sex before marriage or not to co-habit, don't sound very convincing to me. No, I believe we will only be able to make real progress in our spiritual battles when we come to the place where we can say "That behaviour is wrong - because God's Word says so!" Period.
I recently read a very challenging book "Revolution in World Missions" by K. P. Yohannan, founder of 'Gospel for Asia'. Dr. Yohannan puts the case for "Preaching the Word" rather than sharing mainly a 'Social Gospel'. Concentrating on sharing the love of God by meeting the social needs of people has very limited success. He cites Thailand as an example. Christian missionaries have been active here for over 150 years. They have played a major role in the modernisation of the country, being largely responsible for its widespread literacy, first printing press, first university, first hospital, first doctor and almost every other benefit of education and science. Yet Christians still only make up about 2% of the population. Ultimately, what has been the value of these modern benefits, if most of the people still die without Christ?
First and foremost we are called to 'Preach the Gospel'. Some of you are probably thinking " I'm a teacher, not a Preacher." But the word 'Preach' simply means 'to make known'. And we can all make Christ known to the children in our classes. So I encourage you, when you teach a Bible account, do not simply teach it as a good story that the children can learn something from, but teach it also for what it is - the Word of God 'that cannot be broken', teach it in context, and teach it as real history.
It is easy to criticise the religious leaders of Jesus' day for their opposition to him, but at least they accepted the Scriptures as God's authoritative Word. In his discourses with these leaders, Jesus would often silence them by quoting scripture - "The scriptures say this, or the scriptures say that." The religious leaders couldn't argue with that because they all accepted the Word of God as absolute truth.
I long for the day when Society as a whole will once again accept God's Word as the final Authority for what we believe, and how we act. But it needs to begin with those who already profess a personal relationship with God.
Teaching tip 20 - Creation and Evolution.
I don't usually mention the theory of evolution in my classes, concentrating instead on just teaching Creation from God's Word. Sometimes, however, an older child may raise the subject. Then I will proceed along the following lines. I explain the basics of special creation by God and evolution, and then state that there are two ways we can test which one is more likely to be true.
1. Ask "Is evolution happening today?" The answer is obviously "No." We never observe one kind of creature changing into a different kind. Thus, cats always give birth to cats, dogs give dogs, potatoes give potatoes and carrots give carrots etc. etc.
2. Is there any evidence to show that evolution ever happened in the past? Again the answer is "No." Fossils are a collection of 'dead things' - creatures and plants that lived and died in the past. But the fossil record shows clearly defined species, with no evidence of one type of creature changing into a different type. If evolution were true, we would expect to find billions of transitional forms. But they are just not there.
There have been a number of claims that 'intermediate' forms have been found (e.g. ape-men), but on further inspection they have proved to be false. So-called ape-men, for example, have subsequently been shown to be really either apes, men, or fraudulent hoaxes (e.g. Pilkdown man).
Science is concerned solely with what is happening in the present. It cannot tell us anything about what happened in the past. So when it comes to the origins of things, we move into the realm of speculation and personal faith. Ultimately, the question is "Who are we going to believe? Fallible men who weren't there in the beginning, or God who is the only one who was there?"
Note. See Teaching tip 4 (Newsletter 18) for ideas on teaching about creation, and object lessons 20 and 43 if you are also going to talk about evolution during your lesson.
Object Lesson 55 - The new birth.
When I have taught on 'new beginnings', I usually included something on Creation (see my Newsletter No. 18). I have also taken in a chrysalis and explained how an ugly caterpillar turns into a beautiful butterfly.
When teaching about Nicodemus (the new birth), I get the children to make models out of modelling clay (Play-doh). I then explain that good as all the completed models are, not one of them is perfect. If there was a 'Master' sculptor present, and he made a model with just one small mistake, he would squash it up, and keep remaking it until it was perfect.That is God's plan for us. Because of sin, we are all born faulty on the inside, but God wants to remake us so we are new and perfect on the inside.
Study Finds 'Believers Do Not Train Their Children' With Faith in Mind
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The faith commitment of born-again parents made surprisingly little difference in how their children were raised. That's the conclusion by The Barna Group (TBG) in its latest study, which looked at the outcomes parents are most eager to achieve in their children, the qualities they believe are most important for parents to have in order to be effective, and some of the critical choices and tradeoffs they make in their child-rearing efforts.
Released Monday, the survey of 707 adults who are parents discovered that "having a significant faith commitment and an identifiable set of religious beliefs was mentioned by just one out of every five parents as an ingredient required for parental success."
According to the poll, the most important outcomes parents are devoted to helping their children experience was getting a good education, with four out of every 10 parents (39 percent) listing that as their top priority. Helping the child to feel loved was the second most frequently mentioned outcome (24 percent), followed by enabling them to have a meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ (22 percent).
"Only three out of 10 born-again parents included the salvation of their child in the list of critical parental emphases," TBG president George Barna noted. "For that emphasis to not be on the radar screen of most Christian parents is a significant reason why most Americans never embrace Jesus Christ as their savior. The fact that most Christian parents overlook this critical responsibility is one of the biggest challenges to the Christian church."
TBG said one of the most "eye-opening portions" of the research related to the choices that parents make in various situations. Forty-three percent of the parents polled said they teach their children that there are some moral absolutes, and 45 percent said they teach that there are no such absolutes.
"Born-again parents were twice as likely as others to teach their children that there are certain moral absolutes they should obey," Barna pointed out. "However, even on that matter, less than six out of 10 born-again parents took such a position."
Concerning a child's media exposure, the study found that a majority of parents (56 percent) said they gave their youngsters general guidelines about the amount and quality of media they were allowed to access and then let the children regulate their media intake by themselves. Only one-third of all parents (36 percent) strictly limited the amount and quality of TV, music and other media the children were allowed to access.
"You might expect that parents who are born-again Christians would take a different approach to raising their children than did parents who have not committed their life to Christ -- but that was rarely the case," the California-based researcher explained. "... For years, we have reported research findings showing that born-again adults think and behave very much like everyone else. It often seems that their faith makes very little difference in their life. This new study helps explain why that is: believers do not train their children to think or act any differently."
Craft 2 - Joined in love.
The following craft is suitable for children about eight years of age and older. The purpose is to demonstrate God's desire for people to be joined in love (or unity) - by making a string of paper people joined together with 'hearts' between each of them.
Give each child a strip of thin paper, about 24 ins. long by 4 ins. wide. Get them to crease the paper in the centre. Then, fold both the right hand and left hand edges to the centre. Repeat the procedure twice. Finally, fold the two edges together, leaving a rectangular shape about 4 ins. by a little under 1.5 ins.
You now need the children to draw 'half a man' on their rectangular shapes. It is best to draw this yourself on a large rectangle as an example for them to follow (Email me on mnmsweetsur@xtra.co.nz for a Diagram). Ensure that you use the full length and width of your paper. Thus, from top to bottom you will have, half a head, an arm in the centre - stretching all the way to the left edge, with the lower arm line sloping slightly downwards as this will eventually form part of a 'heart', and a leg, running down to the bottom left hand corner.
After each child has drawn their man, get them to cut him out. You will note that three separate areas of the rectangle need to be cut away (the shaded areas in the Diagram). As the folded 'men' are then opened up, they will reveal strings of people joined in love, as depicted by 'hearts' between each of them. The strings of people will be just long enough to be made into paper hats (By taping the two edges together) if desired.
Maurice Sweetsur
mnmsweetsur@xtra.co.nz
All Newsletters - http://mauricesweetsur.blogspot.com/
Object lessons - http://objectlessons.blogspot.com/
Teaching tips - http://teachinglessons.blogspot.com/
posted by Maurice Sweetsur @ 12:48 AM
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