Teach Truth

I love to do secular radio.

It is a great opportunity to speak to the un-churched, or miss-churched masses.  In no other place can you so clearly speak the Truth to so many, without being preachy.  If we are well-informed, we can allow the Spirit to “guide them unto all Truth.” (John 16:13)

Most Christians in today’s culture are not equipped to defend the Truth.  Oh they can give you end-time prophecy, the prosperity gospel, 7 steps to a better life, and why tithing is Biblical, but when it comes to engaging on the great moral issues of the day, they come up emptier than a drug-addict’s bank account.  It is not that they don’t want to stand for Truth, it is just that they have never been shown how.  No one will enter into a debate if he is not sure that he knows enough about the subject to win the debate.

Sadly, most churches no long teach cultural apologetics.  That’s why I love appearing on secular radio.  I tell the listeners that I am their worst nightmare.  I know what the Bible says, I believe it, and most importantly, I can defend it.

But believing and defending the Bible is not enough.  What do you do after you have made a great Biblical argument with someone and they answer with the deadly statement,

“That’s fine for you, but I don’t believe the Bible.”  We must learn to win the secular mind as well.

Last week on a secular show out of Portland, Maine I was discussing the condition of the public school system.  The phone lines really lit up because there is great frustration in America over the lousy return taxpayers are receiving on their “investment”.  However, there is an amazing dynamic at work.  The average Joe knows the schools aren’t working, but he somehow thinks the school his children are going to is doing fine.  I can’t tell you how many times I have heard callers say “Our school is doing a great job”.  Sort of like congress.  Everyone hates government, but thinks their congressman is honest.

One such caller dialed the phones on Saturday.  A paraphrase of her argument went something like this;

“Coach, it bothers me that you are saying such bad things about our schools.  Our family is Catholic, we have our children in church and we send them to our local public schools.  I know many of the teachers there and they are wonderful, caring people.  I don’t know why you are so down on schools.  Our schools do a good job.”

Years of practice on radio had prepared me for the response.  My natural inclination was to begin to feed her all of the things I knew about the public education, the NEA, they system’s moral bankruptcy, the religion of secular humanism being taught, and the dumbing down of our children, but I resisted the urge.  I have learned that the best way to teach is to ask questions.  This exposes a listener’s belief system, and provides an opportunity to lead them to Truth.  So, instead of whacking her on the head with my Bible, or showing her how smart I was, I simply asked her this question:

“Julie, could your children recite the first 10 amendments to the Constitution?”

“Probably not”, came her sheepish reply.  “I’m not sure I could”

“Well Julie, do you think they should be able to?  Don’t you think that is more important than learning how to put on a condom?”

It was as if all Maine suddenly gone silent.  Nothing more needed to be said.  Everyone listening had to answer that question…and the subsequent un-spoken question that followed.  “Yeah!  Why don’t they know the Bill of Rights?” 

Good schools, huh?  Compared to what?  “Well the teachers are so nice….”

Christians are confused.  A generation of values clarification and moral relativism, has overwhelmed the church’s one-hour-a-week Sunday school approach.  John Dewey, the Father of American Education, created an educational system that indoctrinated Christian beliefs out of our children.  The American government-education system has become the salt of the church.  Make no mistake about it, your children think like little humanists, not like little Christians.

And the parents are no different.

How can a Christian parent, and even worse, Christian pastors, support an educational system that teaches the direct opposite of everything that they teach in Church?  Think I’m crazy?  I guess it is time for a few questions.

• Do you believe God created you? What does your school teach?
• Do you believe in abstinence?  What does your school teach?
• Do you believe that homosexuality is normal?  What does your school teach?
• Do you believe all families are equal?   What does you school teach?
• Do you believe in absolute Truth?  What does your school teach?
• Do you believe our rights come from government?  What does your school teach?
• Do you believe the environment is more important than an unborn child?  What does your school teach?
• Do you believe that God is the ultimate authority?  What does your school teach?

Why do you allow your “good school” to teach your children things you don’t believe?  Ooops, sorry.  Why do you PAY them to teach lies?

Sooooo, let’s stop blaming the schools, and start blaming the Churches.  “Judgment begins in the house of God” ( I Peter 4:17)  It is time we got our act together, and “trained up or children in the way they should go,” (Prov. 22:6) 

The world has gone mad because the Church has lost her way.  Instead of being the salt, we have become the sugar.   God’s love hurts, but only the Truth brings healing.

So let me turn the question around.  Let’s replay the Julie-in-Maine call with a little twist.

“Coach, it bothers me that you are saying such bad things about our churches.  Our family is Catholic, we have our children in school and we send them to our local church.  I know many of the pastors there and they are wonderful, caring people.  I don’t know why you are so down on churches.  Our churches do a good job.”

Let me ask you a question Julie.  Can your children recite the 10 commandments?”  Do you think they should be able to?  Isn’t learning the 10 Commandments more important than learning to tolerate sin?

Here is a short test for you.  When your child comes home tonight, ask him/her this question:  Should abortion be legal, and why or why not?  My bet is they will respond like good little humanists, “I would never have one, but who am I to say what is right for someone else?”  There it is, you see.  What is right for me, may not be right for you.  Moral relativism, no absolute Truth, “everyone doing what is right in His own eyes.” (Judges 17:6)

As harsh as this may sound into today’s Dr. Phil-America, it really doesn’t matter what you think.  What matters is what God thinks.

It is time our churches lead the return to the teaching of Truth.  Truth is not an opinion, and it is time that Christians said so. 

Let’s get away from the youth-group model that is shaped by the world.  Let’s stop trying so hard to entertain.  Let’s start training.  If it is true that most of the Gospel-sharing is done one on one, isn’t it time we equipped our kids to do some real evangelism?

Do our kids know what God thinks?  Do they know why some things are right and some things are wrong?  Do they know that the Gospel requires more than “being nice”?

Truth has fallen and we must raise the standard once again.

Enough of the fluff.  It is time to teach Truth.

“But Coach we are supposed to be nice...”

By Coach Dave Daubenmire Email: coach@ptsalt.com Click here for bio and archived articles