Combating Evolution in Christian Education

By Ken Ham

Can it be that a Christian school movement—which is supposed to be rebuilding the ‘house’ (the Christian structure that’s been collapsing in society)—is actually building a much worse structure…and “great will be the fall of it:” (Matt. 7:27)?

Jesus warned in Matthew 7 about building a house on the rock (which is an illustration of obeying His words) compared to building a house on sand.

In Answers In Genesis’ (AiG) literature, we have alerted you that the foundation of nations like England and America has changed, from trusting in the authority of the Word of God (a foundation of ‘rock’), to one trusting in man’s fallible theories (evolution).

When I first came to the U.S. in 1981, I was amazed and thrilled to see a large Christian school movement.  It appeared that much of it was responding to the evolutionary humanism so rampant in the public schools.  I saw the Christian education movement as rebuilding a biblical foundation for children.

But things have changed, and we can’t remain quiet, as a part of this school movement is laying a foundation that will ultimately destroy the very structure it believes it is supposedly trying to reestablish.

A Christian school teacher recently wrote us, distraught that the Christian text she was using (produced by Christian Schools International - CSI) taught students to believe in millions of years and other evolutionary ideas. On its website, CSI describes itself as ‘a dynamic and growing organization of Reformed Christian schools throughout North America and beyond.’

When she wrote, the teacher also shared CSI’s ‘position paper’ with us, where we learned that the philosophy behind the CSI materials presents evolutionary ideas (including millions of years) as fact to students, such as: 

* “Based on astronomical observations, the geologic record, the fossil record, and molecular evidence, most scientists believe that the universe began with a big bang, that the Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old,….”

* “…evolution accounts for the diversity of the organisms that live today.”

* “Many of these [creationist] arguments are based on a misunderstanding of the current theory of evolution, so it wouldn’t be right to include them in our series” [i.e. they don’t agree with us, so students won’t hear our arguments!].

In the context of attacking literal creationists, a CSI author says that one of the textbook chapters “begins by explaining that people once believed that God created a perfectly smooth Earth with no mountains or valleys [that’s a strange comment: the Bible says there were high hills before the Flood] and that Noah’s flood scarred the world—and that today we know that over time God uses natural processes to wear away mountains and carve out deep valleys and canyons.”

Sadly, America’s churches, most of its Christian colleges and parts of the Christian school movements are similarly compromising God’s Word in Genesis.  We believe AiG has been raised up to confront the Church, including the Christian education movement, to rebuild the right foundation.

I was so encouraged to learn how God had used AiG in the life of Joan in Delaware who had been indoctrinated with evolution in a secular school: “I was greatly influenced by evolutionary thought, and majored in biology in college. Carl Sagan’s [evolutionary] book Cosmos was my Bible. I started to doubt if there was a God. My middle son asked me one day, ‘Mom, where are dinosaurs in the Bible?’  I started reading the Bible, [and] realized that [our church] contradicted God’s Word. Through God’s grace, we understood the true gospel, but I couldn’t yet believe in a six-day Creation. Then I heard on the radio about an AiG seminar at the University of Delaware.  We met Ken Ham and purchased many books…I understood just how bad sin is, and rejoiced that God had covered me in Christ’s shed blood.  Now I understand the gospel in a much deeper way.”

If, in addition to your prayer support, you are willing and able to give to Answers in Genesis as the Lord leads, please go to our Support page on our website (www.answersingenesis.org) and choose the option that best suits you. Your gift to AiG will be used to confront compromise in Christian education (including its websites and textbooks) and churches, so more people will be equipped to trust the Bible from its very first verse—and lives will be changed.

There are other Christian school organizations (ACSI, AACS, etc.) in which many member schools support the AiG message.  We encourage you to find out what your local Christian school specifically teaches about Genesis.

Ken Ham is the president and co-founder of Answers in Genesis (AiG), an apologetics (i.e., Bible defending) ministry upholding the authority of the Bible from the first verse. He is also a best-selling author, popular speaker and host of a daily radio featured on 1,000 stations. Visit AiG’s website at www.answersingenesis.org.