QUESTION #1:

In about a month, I'll be heading off to college, but I'm kind of nervous about it. When I come under ungodly influence, what can I do to make sure I don't waiver in my convictions? I know that college itself can be a mission field, but I'm still nervous.

PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS REPLIES:

Your nervousness about whether your faith will be enough to sustain you is natural. Be reassured. It isn't your own strength, but the power of God that sustains. Faith is your trusting response so that He can do in you, and with you, as He pleases. I do have a suggestion: Remember that there is no such thing as a solitary Christian. God has not left you by yourself. He has provided the Church. When you get to college, seek out your partners in faith right away. You see, peer pressure is good if it's the right kind of pressure from the right kind of peers. Your peer group is the fellowship of the saints, the household of God. The next time you pray about these things, read Romans 8:35-39.

Grace and peace,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS

QUESTION #2:

I'll be a freshman this year, but I'm not sure whether or not this is God's will for my life. Everyone says, "Pray about it" or "You'll know", but I really don't know, and I am not hearing anything clear from Him. Thank you for listening to my confusion.

PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS REPLIES:

I'm thinking about your remark, "I am not hearing anything clear from Him." Let me suggest that you broaden your view of how God guides us. Although it's true that He sometimes "speaks" directly to us, that doesn't seem to be His usual method. He prefers to make Himself so completely at home within us that our minds and hearts are transformed. As that begins to happen, we gradually acquire godly wisdom, so that our careful, prayerful reasoning becomes an increasingly reliable way of knowing what He wants us to do.

In turn, the way to have a transformed mind and heart is, first, to pray for them, second, to stay in fellowship with Christians who lead holy lives, and third, to lead a holy life yourself — keeping up the disciplines of prayer, Bible study, worship, acts of mercy and so on, obediently doing everything you 'already know' God wants you to do. If you obey Him in what you 'know' He wants you to do, He'll make His will for you increasingly clear. Be patient.

Grace and peace,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS

QUESTION #3:

Sometimes I wonder about how so many of my college friends can ignore the immoral habits that have crept into their life. People don't seem to realize that what they are doing is contrary to God's design. Observing my own conscience, it seems that first God shows me what is wrong, and only later do I learn why it is wrong. Do nonbelievers lack such a conscience? Or is it just that they ignore it, becoming calloused to its influence? How can I learn to listen to my conscience better?

PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS REPLIES:

People use the expression "conscience" for several different things. Sometimes they mean the moral influence of the Holy Spirit; sometimes they mean the influence of the good habits and principles they have learned from others. These are important, but in its proper meaning the term "conscience" refers to something else — to the moral knowledge Paul says is "written on the heart" (Romans 2:14-15). Not everyone is open to the Holy Spirit, and not everyone has been well brought-up, but everyone has a conscience. In other words, at some level everyone knows about the reality of God and the most elementary of His moral requirements.

Alas, we might know something from conscience and at the same time pretend to ourselves that we don't. To put the problem in psychological language, we can be "in denial." Paul emphasizes this problem in Romans 1:18-21, explaining that obstinate persistence in sin darkens our conscious awareness of things we continue to know deeper down. That's why, in my opinion, good pre-evangelism looks for ways to bring to the surface the moral knowledge that people already have, but suppress. Once they are aware of the Bad News, they may be more receptive to the Good News.

Be careful not to trust your heart too much. Yes, there is a law indelibly written on it — but at the same time, it tries to evade its own inscription, arguing against itself in conflicting voices (Romans 2:15 again, as well as Jeremiah 17:9). That's one of the reasons why it's so important to be obedient to the Word of God, and in fellowship with other Christians who can hold you accountable. Do those things, and God will purify your heart so that it becomes more reliable.

Grace and peace,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS

QUESTION #4

My liberal political science teacher claims that children should be raised not by their parents, but by the government. He asks, "Why should society allow parents to teach their kids, when the children would be much more educated and inspired if the government taught them? Why not enroll all children in a structured learning environment from birth? Wouldn't this eliminate the problems which result from uneducated people who bring down our society?" Using the bible, I argue that God established the family and gave the job of raising children to the parents. Unfortunately, he doesn't believe in God and rejects all biblical arguments without even hearing them. If I can't use the Bible, then how can I argue with him?

PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS REPLIES:

Your teacher is quite an elitist, isn't he? Of course the Bible does teach that God intends for children to be raised by the family. However, don't hurl Bible verses at your professor and classmates. Instead, follow the example of Paul. When he was with his fellow Jews, he quoted the Scriptures, because they knew and believed them; but when he was with pagans, who didn't know about the Scriptures, he began with things they knew about already. Your teacher is a social scientist, so try reading him the following quotation from two of the leading sociologists of the family, Sara McLanahan and Gary Sandefur.

"If we were asked to design a system for making sure that children's basic needs were met, we would probably come up with something quite similar to the two-parent ideal. Such a design, in theory, would not only ensure that children had access to the time and money of two adults, it also would provide a system of checks and balances that promoted quality parenting. The fact that both parents have a biological connection to the child would increase the likelihood that the parents would identify with the child and be willing to sacrifice for that child, and it would reduce the likelihood that either parent would abuse the child."--Growing Up with a Single Parent: What Hurts, What Helps (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), p. 38.

These observations are actually quite ancient. Even the pagan thinker Aristotle recognized that parents can give individualized attention to children which schools cannot, and that a child holds his family's word in higher esteem than he holds the words of his teachers and the law (see the last book of his Ethics). Not only that, we are clearly made for families. Children long for mommies and daddies! The sociologist Ren' K"nig makes the following observation about orphanages:

"Care is commonly taken to give such institutions a homelike character; nevertheless, it seems to be clear that the younger children in particular thrive less in these homes, even when they are better organized in every respect (hygienically, medically, psychologically, pedagogically) than in an average family." — "Sociological Introduction," International Encyclopedia of Comparative Law, Vol. IV, No. 1 (1974), pp. 42-43.

A few decades ago, many sociologists thought that marriages and two-parent families were obsolete. Many of the same sociologists are now admitting that they were wrong, and instead recommending ways for families to be strengthened. This should give you some ammunition.

Grace and peace,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS

QUESTION #5:

Since you teach at Post-Everything State University, I'm sure you're exposed to fraternity life. Do you think a student can belong to a fraternity and still fulfill god's will for his life?

PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS REPLIES:

Your question calls not for the application of rules, but for the exercise of wisdom. There isn't any Biblical rule against belonging to a social organization. However, the Bible does warn us not to hang around with people of corrupt morals or expose ourselves to unnecessary temptation, so if that's what joining a fraternity would mean, then of course you shouldn't.

If you're looking for people to be close companions and lifelong friends, consider this too. You certainly can have friends outside the faith, but for your deepest comrades you should look to your brothers and sisters in Christ. What's the big deal about fraternities?

Grace and peace,
PROFESSOR THEOPHILUS