In 1995 I participated as a teacher in a pastors’ conference hosted by Ukrainian Baptists in Kiev. My two weeks there was my first experience interacting and teaching through a translator.
Helen was one of our most dedicated translators. She was a young lady, twenty-something at the time, who had grown up at the conclusion of the Soviet occupation of her homeland. She was smart, engaging, and aspired to work in international politics.
And she was a well-respected translator, known for her skill with the Russian language. Ukrainian pastors admired her nearly flawless Russian and her impressive ability to comprehend theological truth and translate it between languages.
And by becoming acquainted with Helen, I also came to gradually, truly, grasp a reality that governments and God have known for centuries.
See, Helen was skilled in Russian. But she didn’t speak Ukrainian, the language of her homeland. The last person in Helen’s family to actually speak Ukrainian was her grandmother. Like her peers, Helen’s first language was Russian, and her second language was English.
Why? Because that’s what the Soviets required Ukrainian children to learn in their schools. The Soviets applied a method that had been successfully practiced by occupying powers for thousands of years, stretching all the way back to Alexander the Great, the Macedonian conqueror who transformed the ancient world by spreading Greek culture (356-323 BC).
They indoctrinated the children through the schools, so the children would adopt whatever the Soviets wanted them to believe. Because they knew that once you have the children—you have the culture.
It’s an effective strategy
Secularists have used this strategy in American schools since the early 20th century. All of us, Christians included, complied, and our nation adopted secularism’s compartmentalization of education. They successfully trained Americans to separate faith and reason. Faith was kept at church. Feel free to teach what you like in Sunday School. But all other education became the domain of “reason” and, therefore, the property of the public schools.
Eventually education yielded to indoctrination. The strategy has continued unabated. Sexuality, morality, democracy, and marriage are all being reshaped through curricula in our public schools.
But it seems to have become even more aggressive in the 21st century. Why is that? Because throughout much of the 20th century modernism still held sway in public schools and universities. Though rejecting faith as a viable avenue of knowledge, modernists still believed in some concept of objective truth. Science depended on it. Truth was something that could be discovered.
Modernism is ending. In the 21st century, postmodernism rules, and teachers educated in public universities are taught that truth is a personal preference, and they now bring that into the classroom in public schools. For that reason, the two anchors for objective truth in American culture—Christianity and modern science—are both under attack, dismissed and discarded as relics. Feelings and opinions now rule the day.
So why does this matter to you?
That means that now, more than ever, Christian parents must be intentional about shaping a biblical worldview in the lives of their children. Don’t take it for granted and don’t leave it to the churches. Start at home.
But this is no surprise. God had already told us to be careful to teach his truth at home. The best way to protect kids against false worldviews is to teach them the truth (Ps. 34:11).
The children of Israel were not indoctrinated by the educational system of the Greco-Roman culture because the parents were teaching and preserving their faith at home. God had commanded them to teach their children His truth:
Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
Deut. 6:4-9
That is, saturate your family with the truth. So they did.
Be proactive in helping your children cultivate a biblical worldview. Here’s how:
- Cultivate your own worldview (Luke 6:40).
Dads, you can only take your kids as far as you have gone. Do your children know that you “love the Lord” with your whole life? Do they see it reflected in your habits, choices, and even your words? Is the word of God “on your heart” and your children know you love God’s truth, God’s church, and God’s people?
How can you tutor your kids in a Christian worldview if you don’t know what that means?
How can you “repeat” to your children the truth of God if you don’t know it yourself?
- Make it your business (1 John 4:1).
Take yourself to school. Learn the truth about Critical Race Theory and its influence on your children. Don’t foster the hysteria on each side of an issue, but seek biblical answers to the LGBTQ agenda, Marxism, materialism, and the host of other unbiblical worldviews your children face. And teach your kids to respond to questions about their faith with kind and confident responses (2 Tim. 2:24).
Excellent resources are available to help parents cultivate a biblical worldview in their children. One example is Natasha Crain. Check out her books here.
- Be intentional and take nothing for granted (2 Tim. 2:2, Acts 17:11).
Our culture has taught parents to be passive in the education of their children. Professional educators handle that, right? But the fact is, being passive in the education of your children is one of the worst things you can do.
Assuming that a couple of hours in Sunday School and youth group will be enough to offset eight hours a day of indoctrination in a secular system is naïve at best and dangerous at worst. And passing off your responsibility to disciple your children in a biblical worldview is plainly unbiblical.
Parents, teach your children God’s truth. It’s not just a religious notion. It’s a matter of the survival of their faith (Prov. 22:6).
- Support good teachers and Christian educators (Prov. 9:9).
Not all public-school teachers or college professors are bent on indoctrinating your children in unbiblical postmodern worldviews. Teaching children is a high calling and a stewardship (James 3:1, Rom. 12:7). Remember that many are solid Christians, fighting the same battle from inside the education system. Find them and support them.
But always remember, the more intentional you are to pass along to your children a biblical worldview, the more equipped they will be to face falsehood in the world. Helen came to Christ when she was 17, and she was baptized in the first public baptism that was held in her town following the Soviet occupation. So where did she learn the Gospel? From her parents, of course.
Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Eph. 6:4
More on helping your kids cultivate a biblical worldview: Homeschooling, Halle Berry, and how parents can handle the stress and teach biblical values