‘Turn to page 104; we are going to study how the atmosphere formed 2000 million years ago!’ This is a typical opening for lessons in Religious Studies, Geography and the Sciences. Most of us have to listen to teachers promoting Evolution or the Big Bang. But how should Christians react when being taught these ‘theories’?
Some Christians remain silent when Evolution is taught as a fact. They are under a lot of pressures from classmates and sometimes teachers if they own up to being a ‘Jesus freak who believes in out of date things like creation and God!’
I have sometimes told people that I do not believe in Evolution but in an all-powerful creating God, and they have laughed at me and labelled me as a ‘Bible basher who has obviously not done any research into this topic’. This can be hard to take. But should we be silent to avoid flack for being a Christian, or should we speak out?
Witnesses
Just before Jesus went back to heaven he commanded his followers to ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’ (Matthew 28:18). This means that we should be witnesses for Jesus, so that people will believe in him and receive him as their Lord and Saviour.
We are not sent out to win arguments, but we should speak out for the idea that there is a designer – God. This is useful as a tool for telling people about Jesus. This can be done by pointing out flaws in the theory of Evolution (there are some excellent books that do this). People may then realise that there is a God, which gives a whole new perspective on life and its purpose.
The best way to handle such conversations is to think, ‘What would Jesus do?’ We should listen to what the other person says before giving our views. We should also be gentle and loving in our response. Whenever Jesus rebuked the disciples he did it gently with love.
We should follow the pattern he set and speak firmly but without being aggressive and argumentative – relying on the Holy Spirit’s help and doing it for God’s glory and in love.
