Cedarville Magazine Fall 2019

32 | Cedarville Magazine Cedarville Magazine 251 N. Main St., Cedarville, OH 45314 1-888-CEDARVILLE | magazine@cedarville.edu cedarville.edu/magazine In his anti-God best-seller, The God Delusion , famed atheist Richard Dawkins quotes the Jesuit creed, “Give me the child for his first seven years and I’ll give you the man.” Dawkins apparently shares this commitment as he has targeted his writing in recent years toward children. While the years a child s pends i n t he home a r e foundational, the transition to college ushers in new opportunities and challenges. This new chapter can either strengthen or undermine the student’s convictions. Wherever a student chooses to study will have a significant impact for good or ill. Several years ago, Bill Savage, English professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, made this point saliently. In lamenting the fact that conservative families have more children than their liberal counterparts, Savage expressed hope in the fact that traditional families are sending their students to universities that can challenge and, as Savage certainly hopes, change their worldview commitments. So, if these uptight parents have more offspring, we can win through higher education, he suggests. Once mom and dad drop their kids off for classes, Savage says he is able to begin debunking their old-fashioned upbringing. “And then they’re all mine,” he said. And he’s right. The university years are just that formative. In Proverbs, we find the wonderful principle that if children are raised in the fear of the Lord, when they are older they will not depart from it (Prov. 22:6 ). Christian parents rightly care about the kind of instruction and care their child will receive after they graduate high school and leave the home. That’s why at Cedarville University, we seek to partner with families to continue this training in the fear of the Lord. Our faculty members don’t share the conviction “and then they’re all mine,” but rather, “they’re all His.” We consider every student on our campus a stewardship from the Lord and the loved ones who sent them. Our commitment at Cedarville for the 1,000 days students spend on our campus over the four years they’re here is to encourage, support, and strengthen their faith for the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Our faculty, staff, curriculum, student life, chapel services, ministry teams, missions trips, discipleship groups, and campus culture are all dedicated to this end. We aim to see students know, love, and follow Jesus. We seek to prepare them in their chosen career path, not to simply earn a degree or land a job, but to become all that God wants them to become so that they might do all that God has prepared for them to do (Eph. 2:10 ). In the 1,000 days students spend on our campus here in the middle of these Ohio cornfields, we will do all that we can to equip them to love God, love others, live with integrity, and pursue excellence in all they do. This is our mission. This is our heart. This is Cedarville. Dan DeWitt is Director of the Center for Biblical Apologetics and Public Christianity and Associate Professor of Applied Theology and Apologetics. He earned his Ph.D. in academic leadership from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. THEY’RE ALL HIS IN CLOSING