Disciples of the State: 10 ways that State-run “education” is (purposefully) killing us.

I love public school kids. Teachers, too.

Some of my favorite memories and most cherished relationships were born in an American public school setting. Most reading this post can probably relate to that sentiment.

While we can and should be thankful for the many good and beautiful things that God allows us to experience in any setting (certainly including public schools), we should always be mindful to test all things, including our most cherished memories, most honored traditions, and most treasured bits of nostalgia, lest they be used to shield areas in desperate need of repentance and reformation from the bright, life-restoring light of the Gospel.

We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted from biblical truth on the critical life- and culture-shaping subject of children’s education due to our infatuation with traditions, nostalgia for days gone by, or a supposed “soft spot” for the people involved in the public school system. If we really love those involved in that system – if we truly love the children and the teachers presently involved in the State-managed system of anti-Christ education modeled on an approach to the pursuit of knowledge lifted directly from the serpent’s tongue in Genesis 3 – then we will lovingly confront and correct them with hard truths in accordance with the Gospel-fueled Great Commission. (See: Redeeming Children’s Education: Confronting Our Satanic Approach to the Pursuit of Knowledge.)

If we don’t love them, then we won’t lovingly (and self-sacrificially) confront and correct them in accordance with the Gospel.

“Protecting” people from the challenge and conviction that comes through application of the Gospel in detail isn’t an act of love toward them. It isn’t an act of kindness. It’s an act of hatred. It’s a demonstration of contempt for their well being.

It really is that simple.

This is Christianity 101.

So when we try to share what we hope and pray are constructive criticisms and warnings regarding the satanic model of children’s education that’s become the norm here in America (and throughout the West), we’re doing so out of love: Love for children, love for teachers, and above all love for Christ who has commanded and equipped His people to confront and correct sin so that there might be true reconciliation and restoration in the land…one supernatural conversion and grace-fueled act of obedience at a time. (See: Jesus Conquers Everything.)

I don’t know about you, but I want to see that kind of reconciliation and restoration in this land! I want to see it for children, teachers, and everyone else, and the only way for it to actually happen is for God’s people by God’s grace to take up His Gospel-fueled Great Commission and faithfully proclaim His lordship over everything in His creation. Only then can education and everything that it touches (which is pretty much everything) really and truly be saved.

The question then for Christians becomes: Do we really want the culture to improve?

Do we really want education to be made right?

Do we really want our children to grow in true knowledge and have true, abundant life?

If we do, then we as Christians must lead and model the path to that place: Obedience to Christ’s life-giving and reality-defining Word.

If we really do want restoration to come, then we must confront and destroy the anti-Christian foundations we’ve been building upon for generations now in America and strive by God’s grace to rebuild foundations upon His Nature as revealed in His Word. We must, as Scripture makes plain, “take every thought captive to Christ” (see: 2 Corinthians 10:5) – meaning every artistic, linguistic, economic, legal, governmental, and educational thought, just to name a handful of comprehensively impacted categories.

This is why the subject of children’s education is something of a theme here. (See: Ten problems with the “salt and light” excuse for feeding children to the State. and Ten answers to those “What about socialization?” questions from public school advocates.)

We hope to regularly share challenging and encouraging thoughts that will provoke, inspire, and move God’s people to return to His Nature as revealed in His Word as the basis upon which we measure and pursue all things in His creation, which cannot help but radically transform our understanding of education itself.

When we understand that all education is theological – that all pursuit and acquisition of knowledge is religious in nature in that it all teaches us something (and/or reveals what we already believe) about God – then we will have a much easier time identifying something like State-run children’s education as a primary means by which the anti-Christ religion and worldview of Statism is conveyed (and expanded) from one generation to the next. (See: Statism 101: State-run “education” makes a State-dependent population.)

When we understand that there is no neutral ground anywhere on any topic in any part of God’s creation, then we can better understand and appreciate the crystal clear biblical command that all children are to be educated in a manner that explicitly places Christ at the center of all things: Art, law, economics, civics, literature, logic, language, and everything else. It’s all about Him. (See: Everything orbits the Son.)

With these things noted, let’s now consider ten ways in which State-run children’s “education” is (purposefully) killing us:

1. State-run children’s “education” inherently teaches that State-run children’s “education” is normal and good. Children sent off to the State for “education” are discipled by both the State and those sending them to the State to believe that it is perfectly normal and good to send children off to the State for “education”. This point is both so obvious that it’s easy to miss and so critical that we dare not allow it to slip by unexamined.
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   One of the most telling statements I’ve heard made (many times) from professing Christians attempting to defend the legitimacy of State-run children’s education as an option for Christians is that since they went through the public school system themselves and they feel just fine about it, it must be okay. Again and again and again some version of “but I went through public schools, and it didn’t ruin me” seems to pop out of State-programmed (meaning State-discipled) mouths in defense of State-run children’s education.
   .
   This is where Pastors are acutely responsible for the manner in which they have modeled support for the State-run children’s education within the professing church. By allowing (and often personally engaging in) this approach to defending an openly satanic model of children’s education, Pastors (and others) have modeled an approach that can easily be ‘ported over to any “pet sin” or area of rebellion against God that they want to protect from the Gospel by making the “but [insert sinful behavior here] didn’t kill me or mess me up, so it’s no big deal” available to all of them.
   ..
2. State-run children’s “education” centers everything on the fear (meaning respect or reverence) of the world while utterly dismissing what Scripture thematically proclaims as the essential fear (again: respect or reverence) of the Lord as the means by which we are to pursue and apply knowledge. This is about as fundamental as it gets, people.
   
   The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge . . .
   ~ Proverbs 1:7 .The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom . . .
   ~ Psalm 111:10
3. State-run children’s “education” promotes a man-driven view of history over the unbreakable, unshakeable, God-ordained plan for history as a certain means by which He has chosen to accomplish His purposes, reveal His attributes, and bring Himself glory. This too is fundamental.
   .And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
   ~ Romans 8:28-31What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
   ~ Romans 9:14-17

   The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD;
   he turns it wherever he will.
   ~ Proverbs 21:1

4. State-run children’s “education” promotes State dependence as a default understanding. In American State-controlled children’s “education”, the American State will, not surprisingly, present itself as the ultimate source of security, hope, progress, peace, and prosperity. State supremacy over every area of life is explicitly and implicitly presented in a consistent, comprehensive manner to the point that the State as God in practice becomes the unconsciously assumed “reality” by which the State-“educated” understand and live life.
   .
   The combination of a “fear of the world” mindset (described in point #2) with the State understood to be the source for solutions to the problems of life or protection from the things we are encouraged to fear will render State-“educated” masses vulnerable to the effortless manipulation of others. The State (and its owners) will be able to move the masses anywhere it wants over time through the use of this purposefully instilled fear-of-the-world/State-dependence mindset.
   .
   How far from God’s Word have we had to travel to find this bondage?
   .
   How long will we languish in the self-forged chains of State-dependence until we believe and trust in the Lord for everything?“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
   ~ Matthew 6:25-33
5. State-run children’s “education” promotes parental laziness. This one should be fairly obvious, even to a garden variety Pagan. When the State steps in to “help” us by taking over our God-given responsibility to personally ensure the Christ-centered education of our children, the State only succeeds in “helping” us further into the bondage of State-dependence and deeper into self-serving (and further State-empowering) laziness.

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   This rejection of God’s command to educate our children in a particular manner all works out just great, of course…for The State.
   .
   For us and our families?
   .
   Not so much.

   You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
   ~Deuteronomy 6:5-7

6. State-run children’s “education” promotes the State as father (and God in practice). In accordance with points #4 and #5, the State “educates” its disciples to embrace it as both father (earthly provider) and God (arbiter of all truth, law, justice, etc.) in practice. This is why things like American public schools are advocated in The Communist Manifesto.
   .
7. State-run children’s “education” promotes biblical illiteracy. When one presumes to pursue knowledge in everything from art, economics, law, civics, science, history, and the like apart from the Nature of God as revealed in His Word as the basis upon which any and all of those things are to be understood, one is advocating an openly satanic, anti-Christian approach to reality. By modeling a disdainful, dismissive view of Scripture as the standard by which all things are to be tested and understood, State-run children’s education makes Scripture utterly unnecessary to life in what it pretends to be (and encourages others to believe is) “the real world”. 
   All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
   ~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17but test everything; hold fast what is good. . .
   ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:21

   We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. . .
   ~ 2 Corinthians 10:5

8. State-run children’s “education” purposefully promotes moral relativism and a materialist mindset. When education becomes centered on things like potential future income and the acquisition of stuff and/or personal status rather than being centered on the glory of God and the advance of His Kingdom, it is again very easy for the State (and its owners) to then use these radically perverted, selfish motives to manipulate and control the masses.
   .
   Again, this is anything but accidental. It’s all about control. It’s all about bondage. It’s all about teaching us to love and desire their control and our bondage by rejecting Christ as King in favor of the State as god in practice.
   ..
9. State-run children’s “education” promotes a “cog in the Corporate/State machine” mindset over and above the concept of man as an image bearer of God. The religion and worldview of Statism centers on promoting the notion of man as a “human resource” to be managed for the benefit of the collective by the powers atop that collective (the State), rather than as an image bearer of God who ought to strive out of love for his Creator to use all that he’s been given by God to bring glory to God.
   .
   In direct contrast and opposition to the biblical description of the nature and purpose of man (and in conjunction with point #8 above), American Statism encourages its disciples to view themselves as both cogs in the collective machine and loyal consumers of the products produced by that machine above and apart from any biblical presentation of the identity and purpose of mankind.
   .
   By dismissing Christ as the basis for all knowledge and His glory as the reason for all pursuit of knowledge, the Statist is left with a great vacuum to fill. American Statism fills that vacuum with the pursuit of more (fiat) money and all the joy that it can supposedly give us through more stuff, bigger houses, better vacations, and the like.
   .
   (It should be noted here that there’s nothing inherently wrong with wealth or the honest pursuit of wealth. There is also nothing inherently wrong with having or desiring to have what might be called “finer things”.
   .
   Money is not “the problem”, so to speak. It is the love of money (above an obedience-inspiring love for God) that is the root of all manner of evil. As Christians, we are to be content and thankful in all circumstances, eager to use all that we’ve been given – whatever that is – for the glory of God and the advance of His Kingdom.)
   .
10. State-run children’s “education” models rebellion against God at every level on every subject of consideration. This is a concept that we elaborated on earlier in 10 Reasons Christians Should Not Teach In Public Schools, so I will refer interested readers on to that article if they’re wanting a more thorough description of what this “modeling of rebellion” looks like.

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

~ Luke 6:40

I hope that this has been challenging, convicting when necessary, and above all encouraging. (See: God Is Fixing This (On *His* Terms).)

God has us exactly where He wants us.

Is there a lot of work to do?

Sure.

But, by His grace, it will be done…all for His glory and all to our benefit. (See: Man up, buttercup. Rome wasn’t conquered in a day.)

So hang in there!

Keep fighting the good fight.

Stay vigilant.

Stay diligent.

Be personally gracious and humble. (See: Never forget that apart from God’s grace you and I are complete morons.)

And count on the assured victory that Christ has secured for His people.

He is King.

He is even now reconciling all things unto Himself by the work of the cross and the power of the Gospel.

Now there’s something to build a philosophy of education around..

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You can also help support the Fire Breathing Christian mission by checking out these books:

Stupid Elephant Tricks – The Other Progressive Party’s War on Christianity takes a painful but much needed look at how Christ-less “conservatism” has captivated Christians and co-opted them into helping march the culture ever deeper into darkness:

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The Beginning of Knowledge: Christ as Truth in Apologetics is an approachable, easy to read introduction to Christ-centered apologetics:

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Apathetic Christianity: The Zombie Religion of American Churchianity explores the tragic true horror story of all-American dead religion masquerading as Christianity:

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On Education is a compilation of some of the most provocative and compelling Fire Breathing Christian articles on the subject of children’s education:

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There Is No “God-Given Right” To Worship False Gods is a compilation of some of the most provocative Fire Breathing Christian articles on the subject of America’s embrace of a satanic approach to religious liberty:

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Fire Breathing Christians – The Common Believer’s Call to Reformation, Revival, and Revolution is the book that first presented the FBC mission to apply the Gospel-fueled Great Commission in every realm of God’s creation:

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And especially this one: Never forget that apart from God’s grace you and I are complete morons.