The days are getting shorter and the nights longer as we move towards winter. I really don’t like winter. Too much darkness and too much cold. With the time change two weeks ago it is now dark when I go home from work. Even now at 4:00 in the afternoon, with the clouds and rain, it is looks dark and ominous outside.
Sometimes the darkness gets to me, but then I am reminded that no matter how dark it gets, there is a light to show me the way. Speaking of Jesus as well as His witness John the Baptist, the apostle John wrote:
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. John 1:4-9.
Jesus is light for all to see. But just as a flashlight that is not turned on or a lamp that is hidden in a closet does not help one see, if Jesus is not believed and trusted He cannot help one see. The darkness of men and women has not, and will never, overcome the light of Christ in the hearts of believers. But today darkness still remains because some people refuse to accept the light God has provided. After saying that He had come to save the world because of God’s love for mankind, Jesus said:
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. John 3:19-21.
In the book I am reading, Tortured for Christ by Richard Wurmbrand, the darkness and evil of men who have been deceived by communism and atheism is evident. The communists in Romania, Russia, China, and other countries have tried not only to avoid the light of Christ, but to crush and destroy it. They have not succeeded. They clung to the atheistic belief that there is no God, and they imprisoned, beat, and tortured those who believed God exists and that He loves us, those who live in the light. And still the light was not extinguished.
Wurmbrand writes that the communists were content to allow the old people to cling to their belief in God, but that they violently opposed teaching the Christian faith to children and teenagers. In school, children were taught the communist party line that atheism is the truth. If the Christians tried to teach them otherwise, they were punished for their “crime.” Nonetheless, “Parents were also encouraged to give a Christian education to their children as an antidote against the atheism with which they were poisoned in the communist schools.” Tortured for Christ pg. 124. And parents who loved their children heeded this encouragement, and so the light shone on.
As I read this, I thought about the teaching in our own public schools here in the U.S. My son began this year in sophomore English with a lesson on creation myths, beginning with Genesis. I suspect that any suggestion by a student that the creation story of Genesis is not a myth would be discouraged because people of other faiths or no faith at all might be offended. In biology class, a large part of the curriculum for this year is on the Theory of Evolution. I suspect that any suggestion by a student that Evolution on the macro-level (meaning humans evolved over time starting with a single-celled organism) is not true and that the Theory of Intelligent Design makes more sense would be laughed at, and any test answers to that effect would certainly not result in a good grade.
It seems to me that in our current environment, parents should be encouraged to give a good Christian education to their children as an antidote to the subtle atheism and godlessness with which they are poisoned in our public schools. As darkness sets in, we must work to keep the light burning. We cannot sit back and hope the younger generation understands that faith in Christ is grounded in reason, that the scriptures we rely on have a firm foundation for accuracy, and that God is real and loves them with a love so divine it transcends all understanding. We must teach them these truths. We must show them the light.