It’s an Epidemic

I really believe it is an epidemic—an epidemic in many Christian institutions today. And it’s an epidemic that is devastating current generations of young people, many of whom are leaving the church.

I recently blogged about a professor at a Christian university who was proudly teaching his students evolution and doing academic studies on how to more effectively encourage them to compromise their faith in the Bible’s account of creation. (You can read the original post.) Well, sadly, here’s another example of that same kind of mindset—this time from a professor in Canada.

Dr. Dennis Venema works with the theistic evolutionist group BioLogos and teaches biology at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia. He’s written an article called “The Sorrows and Joys of Teaching Evolution at an Evangelical Christian University” (available at this link).

Now, Trinity Western University is a Christian university whose goal is “to transform lives through Christ-centred higher education.” And yet, Dr. Venema is teaching evolution and millions of years as fact in his courses—ideas that undermine the creation account that Christ Himself affirmed!

Dr. Venema writes, “let me acknowledge and affirm that the pain that many (yes, most) evangelical students go through as they learn about evolution is substantial and real. … I have seen students struggle withtheir faith, close their minds to the scientific evidence, and even resolutely declare that no amount of evidence would ever be enough to convince them that evolution is real.” What this professor has done is paint any student who stands firmly on the authority of God’s Word and believes Genesis is literal history (as they should) as closed-minded and unwilling to believe the supposed “evidence” for evolution.

Just like the professor in my other blog post on this topic (see link above), Dr. Venema justifies teaching students that it’s okay to mesh evolutionary ideas with Scripture and to use role models: “The ability to learn what can be faith-shaking material in a setting surrounded by professors committed to the academic and spiritual growth of their students can make all the difference.” If evolution and millions of years are so “faith shaking,” it is because they so obviously contradict what Scripture has to say about the origin of the universe. Sadly, this professor (like the other one) seems to relish seeing students have a crisis of faith because of this. How sad!

Once again, we’re seeing students being influenced by people who are calling themselves role models for theistic evolution. And if our young people aren’t prepared to meet the “faith-shaking” challenges these professors are going to throw at them (and according to our research in the book Already Gone, they likely aren’t ready for these evolutionist profs), they will crumble under the pressure to accept man’s word over God’s.

This again is a reminder of the following:

1. We need to teach our children creation and general Bible apologetics so they will be able to defend their faith and stand uncompromisingly on the authority of God’s Word.
2. We should be so careful about the college we send our children to. Again I encourage you to see AiG’s list of creation colleges.

AiG seeks to help families who are looking for a good Christian college for their young people. We encourage them to attend next November's College Expo at the Creation Museum—for more information go to the event page.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken