College Freshmen Christian Defense

How to Maintain Your Faith Despite Your Professors' Anti-Christian Aggression

today’s special is for college freshmen and their parents and pastors, being the time of year when young folks get out on their own most likely for the first time - that also applies to graduating H.S seniors who are not going to college, but are going out into the working world

- let’s start with the Apostle Paul’s advice to a young man who was being sent out; graduating from Paul’s mentorship:

“²⁰ Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, ²¹ which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith.” 1Tim.6:20-21

Most first year college students that were brought up in the Christian Faith aren’t prepared for the persecution they’ll encounter if they make their views known out in the world.

recommendation: “The Creation Survival Guide, How to Graduate With Your Faith Intact” by Paul Price and Gary Bates, Creation Book Publishers, 800-616-1264 - I purchase these little booklets 10 at a time, from CMI (Creation Ministries International) to give away

10 excellent suggestions including how to be aware of bias, learn how to evaluate evidence, stay grounded in scripture, and still be respectful to your teachers. “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good” 1 Thessalonians 5:21

a few quotes from the intro..

“…there are many surveys highlighting the catastrophe of students walking away from their faith after attending college - even after just one year. The figures show that up to 88% of young ones from evangelical homes walk away never to return. Even those who do make it through college with their faith intact bear testimony to the open discrimination and ridicule that they and other Christian students endured…”

…”To be blunt, most of the falling away is due to ignorance about what to expect from the secular education system and the secular world in general. Students are going to be taught humanism, evolution, and a whole host of other anti-Christian things.” It’s not just the hostility they’ll face; even the ‘nice’ professors teach reasonable sounding secular doctrine on things like evolution as if it were fact. If you’ve been taken in by that secular viewpoint, please take a look at the other side. For example, an earlier post titled “Everything is a Living Fossil”.

“Today, education has largely been taken over by those who do not hold a Christian worldview, and non-Christian points of view are flowing down to the students. Please note that professors and teachers aren’t always consciously attempting to indoctrinate their students - the lack of a Christian underpinning means that non-Christian philosophies are given equal, or in many cases greater, status. Young minds cannot help but be affected by these pluralistic attitudes.”

I can vouch for that. When I was in college, even 60 years ago (!!) I had to take a philosophy course on humanism. I was clueless and didn’t understand it, but now I realize that the basic idea was that man can perfect himself. That sounded pretty nice. I didn’t even connect the dots or realize how that undermines the Gospel - that we are sinners and desperately need a Savior, and we cannot save ourselves.

majority opinion is not always right - in fact, history is a record of the many times it was wrong

I’ll plan on publishing something like this every summer before H.S. graduates go to college or into the work force, to encourage them to keep the faith. I waited too long this year, but better late than never.