Whose Philosophy?

On my first day of Introduction to Philosophy class, we were asked what a presupposition was, but nobody answered. It was a critical question. Simply put, presuppositions are things you hold true, usually without thinking about them; a synonym of “assumptions”. An example of a presupposition would be that we believe the sun will rise in the East tomorrow morning. You don’t spend a lot of time thinking about this, you just take it for granted. A whole system of apologetics for evangelism is based on a presuppositional approach.

If we look at much of the discussion in North America right now, we see the fruit of the secular public school system and liberal Christianity. A few years ago, people would not have entertained the question “What is a woman?” But we didn’t get here in a vacuum; there was an attack on Christian philosophy. It’s like a drip of water that continually beats down on a rock, you won’t see any change from 10 or 20 drips, but it’s the 100 million drips that you weren’t watching that slowly break down the rock.

What did we think would fill the void as Christianity was taken out of public schools?

If we compare the curriculum of 50 years ago to today, what kind of changes would we notice? Those changes did not happen in one fell swoop but slowly, over time. As humans, we are the most impressionable during our childhood years as our brains develop patterns in how we think. For those children attending schools, more waking hours are spent at school than at home throughout the year, resulting in schools having a very large influence in the lives of children. With the ongoing demise of secular schools in the west, we see the results of this slow change seeping into our culture.

If the church itself doesn’t stand on God’s Word as inerrant and the only way to salvation, why would we be surprised when people look elsewhere for a way to save themselves? When one philosophy and its set of presuppositions are taken away, something will always replace it. The Devil is banking on this with the demise of Western culture and attacks on Christian thought. He wants the way we think as Christians to be unacceptable in our culture.

We often neglect to recognize the power of what is taught to children. That is why we need to be reminded of Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” What you are teaching your children matters. Education is also an important facet in the work of Word & Deed, resulting in much of our energy being directed toward Christian schools and afterschool programs in the developing world. In recent years, we have also emphasized the distribution of Christian literature; we are providing pastors with good Reformed theology books and equipping partners who are training pastors and church leaders from a biblical, Reformed perspective. Several examples of our focus on education can be found in this magazine in the articles about educating church leaders in Kenya and young children at Musawenkosi Christian Academy in South Africa. Please pray that these efforts would be fruitful in the education of many generations. W&D

Dave Vander Meer works for Word & Deed in the Public Relations and Projects departments.

Spring 2023

Editor Rick Postma

Assistant Editor Scott Koopman

Graphic Design

Knor Graphic Design Solutions

Copy Editors

Shelly Crites, Hanna

Korvemaker, Kara Luiting, Bethany Post, Susan Trentacosti

Word & Deed North America is an evangelical and Reformed humanitarian relief and development organization. Our aim is to help meet the physical and spiritual needs of people in the developing world in accordance with biblical principles for the glory of God. With cooperating offices in St. Thomas, Ontario, and Hudsonville, Michigan, Word & Deed partners with Christian agencies in Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, Kenya, Myanmar, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, Malawi, South Africa, and South Sudan.

Director of Projects

John Otten

Director of Public Relations

Rick Postma

Director Heidi Pronk

Support Staff

Scott Dekorte, Scott Koopman, John Kottelenberg, Kara

Luiting, Dave Vander Meer

Canadian Board of Directors

Chairman – Corney Les

Vice-Chairman –John Vangameren

Secretary – Harold Leyenhorst

Treasurer – Henry de Waal

Wilf Bout, Dr Arjan de Visser, John Jagersma, Bert Mulder, James Neven, Paul Wagenaar, Dave Wielinga

USA Board of Directors

President – Paul Beezhold

Vice President - Jay Van Voorst

Secretary – Harry Kooistra

Treasurer – Karen Vander Sloot

Eric Brandt, Pastor Adrian

Dieleman, Eric Greendyk, Paul

Laman, Pete Vander Stel

Advisory Committee

Mr. Jim Beeke –

International Educational Consultant

Dr. Gerald M. Bilkes –

Old & New Testament, Puritan Reformed

Theological Seminary

Pastor Richard Bout –

URCNA Missions Coordinator

Pastor Danny Hyde –

Oceanside United Reformed Church

Pastor Mark Vander Hart –

Associate Professor of

Old Testament Studies, Mid-America

Reformed Seminary

Pastor Frank Van Dalen –

Former Executive Director of the Foreign Missions

Board of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Canada Office PO

BY PASTOR JUSTIN NOBEL >