Lessons in September on Faith and Science
By George Nielsen
Starting this month, we are teaching from Year Two of the Heartshaper Preteen curriculum, and our lessons are starting at a very good place for our 5th graders – Creation. The lessons for September 7 - 14 - 21 are:
- Made by God
- Dinosaur Dilemma
- Man or Monkey.
Our Memory Verse for this month, Revelation 4:11, also affirms God Almighty as the Creator.
The publishers of the Heartshaper lessons make this statement about the intent behind their lesson planning, development, and content:
Help preteens go beyond right and wrong answers, engaging them in meaningful discussion and encouraging them in their commitment to Christ.
Parents should note that to “go beyond right and wrong answers” is a reference to going from merely content-knowledge on the subject of our lessons, to life transformation and learning to be Young Disciples of Jesus. Lesson content is the starting point, and our lessons are based on the Holy Bible, taken literally.
We teach this material without any compromise or wavering. We hold to a High View of the Scripture, which means we teach the following, about the Holy Bible:
- Inspired by God (human authors, over about a 1,500 year period, wrote the books of the Holy Bible - with direct leading and guidance from Holy Spirit).
- Inerrant (there are no mistakes in the Holy Bible).
- Sufficient (the revelation given in the Holy Bible is complete, for the purpose of understanding the Kingdom of God, the plan of God for people to be part of the family of God, receiving forgiveness and salvation through faith in Jesus, and for living a faithful, committed, Godly life).
Parents should further note that “encouraging them in their commitment to Christ” means that we teach things that are specifically a contradiction to what is taught at Rochester Intermediate School, which is where all but two of our students attend school. So, we are striving to explain and develop their worldview so it is based on the Holy Bible, taken literally. By being confrontational with what they are presented in school, we are teaching them to stand – encouraging them to be committed to the Biblical Christian worldview and to the real King of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ.
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We have taught (on September 7th) that there was not a “bang” of matter out in the nothingness of space, that somehow resulted in the origin of our universe. Also, there was not a spontaneous generation of Life in some green slime, after millions of years, that then evolved over millions more years into fish, frogs, and then land animals – of whom, the apes were able to develop at a higher level and some of them supposedly become people.
We have an additional resource, intended for adults and not used in our class, entitled “Evolution -- The Anti-Science” by Dr. Jason Lisle. Parents can link to a copy of this paper, for further review, by Clicking HERE .
The Holy Bible teaches that there were six evenings and mornings (24-hour days) when the creative power of God was active, through God’s spoken Word and the brooding, hovering presence of Holy Spirit over the earth. God brought forth the universe, then life on the earth, and finally, God’s special creation – mankind.
On September 14th, our lesson focused on Dinosaurs, which is the name we now use to describe several different kinds of animals. We taught that the name Behemoth, found in the Holy Bible (Job 40:15), is used to describe an animal with characteristics like a dinosaur. Behemoth lived during the time of man’s existence on the earth, not millions of years in the past.
In class, we concentrated on the Scripture texts for the lesson, from Genesis 1 and Job 40; we also have a Christian book about Dinosaurs that students looked at after class. We did not have time to go over page one of our Activities paper in class, but students were told to spend some time with that, at home. The page is called “Dino-sized Dilemmas”; it deals with conflicting worldviews, in real-life situations. It has space to write out a Prayer for Help. (This is intended to be in the student’s own words, but parents can always help when your child is given a written assignment).
We feel that this Activity page is important. Parents should work with their child to complete it – if your child was absent, you can see a copy of this page in the next post published in our Blog, or for a color-copy of page one, that you can print, click on this LINK .
Parents – if you want to have a paper copy of the Activities class handout, you can email your request to me at rcc.5gr@gmail.com . A copy can be mailed or you can pick it up in person, after class.
On September 21st, our lesson will be about Man and Monkeys. God spoke, and the animals came into existence, male and female, and they were able to reproduce – after their own kind. This was not the case with mankind. Adam, the first human being, was formed by God who had said mankind was not an animal kind, but instead was made “in the image of God.” This will be another important lesson to establish a Biblical Christian worldview in our students, teaching them to stand against what one Christian teacher calls “The Big Lie” – evolution and the millions of years it supposedly took for evolution to happen.
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