My father-in-law was a lifeguard throughout college, he loved to swim among the turtles of Kaanapali Beach, Hawaii, and he was an incredibly strong 6'5" 33 year old, which was about when he threw my then 7 year old wife into the deep end. Sink or swim was his philosophy. She did a bit of both, but a key to her learning was that her expert-swimmer father was there to help her.
In less than a year many of our seniors will be impressionable freshmen, swimming among not turtles but sharks, swimming not in the deep end of a pool but in a merciless ocean with a deceptive riptide and without mom and dad or excellent ICS teachers close by.
Over the years I've had several parents and students who wonder why we have a Biblical Worldview class during the senior year. "Is it, after all, even a Bible class?" they often ask. Why are we explaining "alternative" worldviews to our students?
Why are we giving them arguments against the existence of God? In essence, we are throwing them in the deep end of the pool while we are right there, standing by to assist, to give rebuttals, to challenge them to think beyond what they believe are their limits.
Better to learn to swim in chlorinated water, without waves, with life preservers close at hand and caring instructors standing by, experienced and trained to recognize dangers, than to get pulled by the deceptive riptide or swallowed by a Great White in the great blue sea.
They may not be Michael Phelps, or, um, Joseph Schooling, when they graduate, but they do know the signs of a riptide. They won't be so easily duped by a professor who argues against a creator, who fires away at "proofs" that there is no God, and does so with the fervency of a country preacher and the intellect of an Ivy League scholar. ICS is not just an academic institution, but it is a training ground for a life well lived. Biblical Worldview is a boot camp of sorts, getting them ready to soldier-on in a world of worldviews.
Listen here to college president and professor, Michael Kruger, who found himself swimming with the sharks at a highly regarded "beach", U. North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He explains better than I can why we offer Biblical Worldview to our seniors, and how the church prepares students morally and socially, but not intellectually.
In the words of another famous swimmer, just keep swimming swimming swimming.
