By: Hannah Austin
As a Christian liberal arts institution, Milligan College not only exists to serve students by teaching them about the Bible but also by providing them an academic education in other areas such as in the mathematics, the humanities, and the sciences. The Bible supports the search and study of knowledge, outside of the Bible, so that Christians can understand God and his Earth more thoroughly through discipline and self- study. In the book of Proverbs, written by one of the wisest men of all time King Solomon, the theme of knowledge is key.
Proverbs 12:1 (NIV) “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid.”
Proverbs 18:15 (NIV) “The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge; the ears of the wise seek it out.”
To whomever Milligan student may be reading this article, I imagine that it has never occurred to you that convents and monasteries had any basis for being so academically stringent. Actually, the above verses may have supported the early Roman Catholic Church’s conviction for academic search. Even the Jesuits, a group of Roman Catholic evangelists that evangelized the Americas, used schools for evangelistic purposes in the “New World” to educate and convert native peoples instantaneously.
Although I believe that it is good to send missionaries to Africa and employ people as pastors and youth ministers in the church, I want to question if the church is really doing enough with knowledge and academics to use it as an evangelism tool. Atheism is a significant trend around the world, and I believe the only way to evangelize and open ourselves to educated atheists is to honor principles of academic achievement and enhance the intellectual element of Christianity. We need to prove that one can be scholarly and still be submissive to God. We need to stress that Christianity is for all people and is not just a default religion for the poor and uneducated people in developing countries.
According to atheistsscholar.org, “The education level attained by atheists and agnostics is usually to the 16th or the 18th year in the educational system, which would mean most of them have a basic college education or higher.” As Christians, we obviously need to honor education as well so that we can better relate to the large majority of educated non-believers.
Next time when you’re studying extensively for a test or researching for a project, I hope you remember that God supports, and actually created, your desire for academic endeavors. I also hope that those of you who are gifted intellectually find a conviction to study and maybe befriend and testify to those who are atheists in the academic world.
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