The Worldview Battle
I love that the readers of our blog and listeners to our podcast, represent all sectors of education. We have parents whose kids are homeschooled, in public school, and in private school. My children go to public schools and my wife teaches there. Therefore, our kids are exposed to multiple worldviews. In our home, we filter life through Scripture—we live by a biblical worldview and parent our children accordingly. In school, as well as just in life, all of our kids are exposed to different worldviews. Even if you completely control the curriculum for your children, they will be exposed to other viewpoints. There’s a worldview battle we’re all in. So, parents, here are four tips for the worldview battle.
The Age of the Earth, for Example
There are many fronts on which these worldviews collide, one of the greatest areas within education is on the age of the earth.
Even within Christianity there is a battle between young earthers and old earthers. There’s not even a complete consensus within a Christian worldview. The young earth view that creation was six literal days, and the earth is only around 6,000 years old seems to be the dominate view within evangelical circles.
I’m not going to solve the debate, but I do have a couple tips on how to communicate the age of the earth to your children to lead them to a biblical worldview or at least keep them from departing one.
Four Tips for the Age of the Earth Worldview Battle
These four tips aren’t just for parents but is even more so for teachers in schools where the curriculum gives a contrasting view. The age of the earth dating isn’t just a science issue but appears in nearly every subject especially world history.
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Lay a Biblical worldview foundation.
Regardless of what type of school your child goes to, every child will be exposed to different worldviews. Even if you’re homeschooling or your child is in a Christian private school, they will hear other views somewhere. Beginning as early as possible you need to lay a biblical worldview. This isn’t so much directly teaching what that is but modeling it.
We can model by reading the Bible and expressing the uniqueness of it.
We can make our decisions based on Biblical principles which will convey a Biblical worldview.
When we talk about matters of science and history, we need to connect the Bible. If our children don’t have a biblical worldview, they are going to accept whatever worldview the world offers them. Therefore, we must lay a foundation of a Biblical worldview.
If our children don’t have a biblical worldview, they are going to accept whatever worldview the world offers them. Share on X-
Warn there are opposing worldviews.
Unfortunately, one day our children will have to make their faith their own; we can’t do it for them. We can do all we can, but they must decide to stick with we’ve presented to them. The same is with worldviews. Unfortunately, many Christian children don’t see there is a clash of worldviews. We need to lay the foundation of the clashing views so that they can be aware of what they are facing. We can’t shelter them completely from nonbiblical worldviews, but we can help them navigate through them.
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Remind them there isn’t a consensus to the age of the earth even among scientists and historians. There’re only theories.
This is more of a tip on how to navigate the subject in following up with children after they have been taught another worldview. It’s also helpful to public school teachers. Curriculums tend to present only one date on the age of the earth and between curriculums the dates are different. Even within an evolutionary dating of the earth there isn’t a consensus of dates. If you don’t believe me, google it real fast!
This past week my daughter brought home three different pieces of schoolwork and all three had a different age to the earth. One was 300 million, another was a billion something, and the other was another billion something. Even within the science community and historians the age of the earth is different.
As you are debriefing your child, it’s great to point out that there are different opinions or theories. This allows them to realize the Biblical based age of the earth you have taught them could be true because even scientists and historians don’t know—they’re just theorizing. Teachers, this is a loophole you can exploit, too. Your curriculum may present an age of the earth that doesn’t align with your Biblical worldview. You have to say it, but you can present it as just one of the theories. You can even list different ones such as the Biblical view you hold.
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Communicate human history is only 6,000 years old.
When it comes to a Biblical worldview of the earth though I lean nearly to a young earth, I can see room based off the language in Genesis and in astronomy of an older earth, but I do not see any room for a human history beyond 6,000 years. Within the genealogies in Genesis 5 and beyond, we have a timeline from Adam on. Scriptural I don’t see another way around this.
Coincidently, science and history also reveal more of a consensus on this. Now they may not say that human history is only 6,000 years old, but they will say written history doesn’t go beyond that period. The oldest civilizations we study in world history don’t go past 6,000 years. This may be seen most evidently in looking at human population throughout history. While in the “Origins” exhibit of the Smithsonian, I saw a large timeline of human population that blew me away. Of course, they started it millions of years ago, but until just 6,000 years ago the human population was flatlined.
Taking this into account, I think we can double-down with our kids on the period of human history. So, even if we say there may not be a consensus on the age of the earth, we can add to it human history is 6,000 years old.
Parents, please lean into these tips, and most of all let’s give our kids a biblical worldview. In interviewing Ken Ham of Answers in Genesis, he shared the importance of this. Please check out that interview.
Executive Director of Stand Firm and lead pastor of Epic Church NWA in Springdale, AR and multiple award-winning author, Jake has a B.A. in Bible and Pastoral Studies from Central Baptist College, and an Advanced Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Former regular contributor to the Baptist Press and WND News with popular conservative voices such as Pat Buchanan, Ann Coulter, Ben Carson, Chuck Norris, Greg Laurie, Ben Schapiro, Joel Richardson, and others. He now is a weekly contributor for Israel, Islam, and the End Times and Armageddon News. He has authored books such as the, award-winning Spiritual Prepper from WND Books. Award-winning devotional books, Invincibleand For Uncertain Times, he authored the ground-breaking children’s book, Jesus and His White Horse from CrossLink Publishing. He is also a regular guest on national and international radio and streaming web shows, along with hosting his weekly live streaming program Talking Stand Firm and weekly podcast Stand Firm Parents.
