Be Prepared for Some Teachers to Attack Your Faith

Realize teachers and professors are often wrong

(This Bible study is adapted from Defeating Temptation: Biblical Secrets to Self-Control.)

If you are a student in a high school, college or university, don’t be surprised to hear seemingly sophisticated attacks on the Bible from teachers of psychology, history, sociology or almost any other field. Respect your teachers and/or professors, yet be prepared for assaults on your faith.

Many teachers are balanced and fair, and a number are sincere Christians. Yet many teachers and professors hold anti-Christian beliefs and will make a concerted effort to influence you.

When my wife Skeeter and I attended the University of California at Davis, she took an English class in which she was told to read the Gospel of John and write an essay identifying and analyzing John’s main message. Although not a Christian at the time, she quickly grasped that John was writing about Jesus Christ and his offer of salvation through faith in him.

However, she also saw that the professor rejected this message and was looking for a different answer. Although she knew she wasn’t being true to what John wrote, she wrote an essay on “love” and received an “A.”

Since experiencing this distortion of the Gospel of John, Skeeter and I have become aware that although many college professors and high school teachers are evenhanded, a vast number of them attack the Bible and Christianity from numerous directions, sometimes subtly and sometimes blatantly.

Be prepared to hear any of these common false statements

Students are often told untrue things such as:

• The Bible is a myth.
• Paul’s letters contradict Jesus’ message of love.
• The male gender is responsible for the world’s problems.
• Current translations of the Bible are not accurate.
• There are no absolute truths.
• The Bible is full of inaccuracies and/or inconsistencies.
• Tolerance means accepting all lifestyles as valid.
• Human beings were not created by God.
• Christians are responsible for the earth’s pollution.
• You are hateful if you disagree with current liberal or “progressive” ideas.
• Christians are bigots.
• All religions say the same thing.

Don’t be surprised by attacks

It shouldn’t be surprising to hear things like this, for thousands of years ago the Bible said that people would call evil good and good evil.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. (Isaiah 5:20)

You have wearied the LORD with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. By saying, “All who do evil are good in the eyes of the LORD, and he is pleased with them.” (Malachi 2:17)

If people don’t know the truth, or if they have rejected the truth, they will create their own world views and try to influence you to adopt their ideas.

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (1 Corinthians 1:18-20)

We preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. (1 Corinthians 1:23-25)

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1 Corinthians 2:14)

Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit. (2 Corinthians 7:1)

Don’t be swayed by hollow and deceptive philosophy

Teachers or professors who attack Christianity have had a lot of time to develop their arguments and counter-arguments. But God’s truths are infinitely deeper and truer than what they have to offer.

Prepare for the battle! Read the Bible. Get to know it intimately.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

Also read books such as:

• “The Case for Christ” by Lee Strobel
• “The Case for Faith” by Lee Strobel
• “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis
• “How Shall We Reach Them?” by Michael Green and Alister McGrath
• “The New Evidence that Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell
• “A Ready Defense” by Josh McDowell and Bill Wilson
• “The Universe Next Door” by James Sire

Personal application

Have you been negatively influenced by teachers or professors? Yes ___ No ___

If so, who were they? What was their agenda?