Did you know that reposting or sharing this sort of thing publicly could well end up being a giant step toward you and your family being actively run out of many “good, conservative, Bible-believing Christian churches” in America?
Yep, it’s sad but true.
But should we really be surprised?
We ought to already understand that, as believers who strive by God’s grace to be obedient to Scripture, we will be personally impacted and given the opportunity to deal head-on with many challenging consequences of America’s multi-generational rebellion against the Word of God on children’s education.
While many aspects of our present State-cultivated environment may tempt us to frustration or even anger, we ought not only take a pass on both, but thankfully embrace the mission with which we have been tasked. In these difficult situations, we are blessed with the incredible opportunity to stand and share the whole, undiluted Gospel of Christ, which the only source of truth for every realm in His creation.
Let us pray that persecution, when it comes to us as we take such stands, will inspire the grace and joy combined with boldness and clarity that can only rightly come through the Spirit of God in His obedient people.
The reality in which we live here in 2014 America is one in which the norm of State-controlled “education”, having rolled over and reshaped the culture for generations now, has successfully produced thoroughly trained disciples and placed those folks into every realm of society, including the religious.
So thorough is the pro-Statist programming, in fact, that most of the programmed are unaware of having even been indoctrinated in the first place. (Isn’t that how the best programming tends to work?). One thing that they do know as well-trained disciples of the State-promoted worldview is that they will not submit perspectives acquired through their “education” to the light of Scripture. Their instilled instinct is to bristle against any active application of Gospel light to realms claimed and defined by the State-promoted worldview in question.
If such Gospel-defined light should somehow “slip through” the walls of defense constructed throughout the culture, every State- and culture-imposed inclination will be to avoid serious contemplation of the Word of God. Thus, they will evade the light, they will suppress the light, or they will engage in some combination of the two activities. They will do whatever it takes to separate their worldview from the pure, testing light Gospel application through submission to Scripture in the realm of children’s education.
For these folks, State-controlled children’s education is their “normal”…it’s the very comfortable water in which they are the happy little fish…just as intended by the State under whose care they’ve been purposefully disciple since the age of five.
They cherish this normal.
They adore it.
They idolize it.
As such, it will be vigorously defended through any combination of evasion and suppression necessary. Often times, when evasion fails, suppression will be employed in the form of the open persecution of those who would dare continue to publicly proclaim the Gospel application that they are so desperate to avoid.
Not only will they then persecute obedient believers; they will persecute them in the name of love, unity, and Jesus…as they have come to redefine each of these things in light of their lifelong State-managed “education”.
Feelings will rule the day…well, their feelings, anyway.
Others’ feelings?
Not so much.
Same goes for other things that are truly wonderful and beautiful things – when centered on the nature of Christ as defined in His Word.
Liberty…respect…love…all of these will be held high as banners by those who are out to silence or drive out obedient believers, yet, in their separation from the Word, these once potentially beautiful banners of Christ-centered truth are then perverted into ugly weapons with which to persecute the faithful.
They use these perversions of truth to divide in the name of unity and persecute in the name of love.
They use them to require uniformity of publicly expressed thought in the name of liberty.
They use them to justify trampling the feelings of the persecuted while claiming to honor the feelings of all.
As they use these weapons in these ways, they will also strive to avoid any serious, deep Bible study on the idolized subject as if such study was The Plague.
And they will do all of these things in Jesus’ name.
In other words, they will warp every good thing they claim to be protecting in order to protect the true, guiding object of their affection.
Even so, we are to be gracious and of good cheer as we stand, proclaim, and apply the hated truth of the Gospel to every realm of life.
I’m working to finish a book this year aimed at elaborating on these things in a practically beneficial and God glorifying manner. Lord willing, The Beginning of Learning: Christ as the Essential Core of Children’s Education will be released either late this year or early the next.
In the meantime, I’d like to share the following relevant passage from Fire Breathing Christians
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The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever!
Psalm 111:10
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The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7
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“In the state of California, if I had a child there, I wouldn’t put the youngster in a public school…. I think it’s time to get our kids out. And I’m going to get hit for [saying] that.” These words were spoken by Dr. James Dobson during the March 28, 2002 broadcast of his Focus on the Family radio show. This statement, coming from one of the nation’s most influential evangelical Christians, served to up the ante in a long-simmering dispute within American Christendom.
Marshall Fritz, President of the Alliance for the Separation of School & State, subsequently expressed support: “For years, Dr. Dobson has supported three options for Christians: Public schools, Christian schools, and home schooling. With today’s courageous and insightful statement, Dr. Dobson joins the millions of Americans who have already discovered that the public schools have become government indoctrination centers which are no place to train new generations of freedom loving Americans.”
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Our Embrace of Christ-less Education
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“By law, you are no more allowed to teach religious values and religious views in our public schools than you are in the schools of Russia tonight…as far as all religious teaching (except the religion of Humanism, which is a different kind of a thing) it is just as banned by law from our schools, and our schools are just as secular as the schools in Soviet Russia—just exactly! Not ten years from now. Tonight!”
Francis A. Schaeffer (from a 1982 speech atCoral Ridge Presbyterian Church)
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“…the American school system is inferior in terms of academics, bankrupt in terms of morality, and corrosive in terms of spirituality and religion. In short, the government education system is no place for the children of people who claim allegiance to the King of Kings.”
Voddie Baucham
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We love a good lie. This is our nature.
Just ask Bernie Madoff. Or Joe Isuzu. Or Barry Obama. Or…well…you get the picture.
One of the greatest of delusions willfully pursued, captured, and cherished by the vast majority of professing Christians in recent American history is the notion that Christ can be removed as the clear, ever-present center of education in all areas, and that anything better than an unending series of completely catastrophic consequences will emerge as a result.
Before we dive into any detail, just think of it. It’s such a simple thing. This question, as all others of significance, finds its every good and true answer in one place: Christ.
The Jesus Christ of biblical Christianity is either the required centerpiece of a Christian understanding where education is concerned or He is nothing at all. He is God over all or He is a relatively trivial accessory. In biblical Christianity, there is never, in any area of life, an optional Jesus. If there is a single place where a Christian would consider his Christ as optional, then he is not dealing rightly with the Lord of Scripture.
Jesus defines and claims ownership over everything in the life of the Common Believer. And “everything” certainly must include education, every bit as much as it covers sexuality, spirituality, sobriety, entertainment, and business practices. Therefore, education, once separated from Christ at any time and for any reason, inherently and automatically pollutes any subject under its influence or authority. It accomplishes this inevitable result by transferring its own Christ-less nature to anything with which it comes in contact. Once Jesus was nudged oh-so-politely to the side where education was concerned, everything covered under its umbrella of authority was shifted into the very same “Christ optional” category.
This seems like such a stark, obvious sort of thing, yet I have no trouble recalling how I, as a teenager at Mountain Home High School, in a small, rural Arkansan Bible Belt setting, was convinced that my being in the public school system was no problem at all. I was a professing Christian and my presence there was completely natural.
As I said, the comfortable fit of a good lie does come quite naturally.
It was so easy to go there. And I’m sure that it was easy to be sent. I certainly hold no animosity towards Gram, the angel God used to save me from so much and for so long, for shipping me off to school. She had little idea as to what was going on there and, as many a professing American Christian in those days as well as our own, she simply didn’t know what the Bible had to say about education. She was going along with a crowd that had long abandoned the virtues it frequently professed with its lips. In a secular cultural context, my going to public school was the natural thing to do.
Even Gram was not familiar with the serious Christianity that accompanied the birth of this nation. She was drifting along with the cultural tide along with most everybody else. Again, this was natural. Most of her spiritual growth and biblical knowledge came long after I had finished doing my time at MHHS. Fortunately for Gram, for you, and for me, we are not doomed to the future prepared by the mistakes of our past.
You see, God has a perfect plan. And He simply will not let us wreck it.
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.Removal of the Lord is the End of Wisdom
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“…the government school system is a foe to be defeated, not a friend to be reformed. Government education is one of the most corrosive influences in the history of the United States. It has served as an incubator for ideologies like Darwinian evolution, Gramscian Marxism, feminism, progressivism, and the radical homosexual agenda (to name just a few).”
Voddie Baucham
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The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil.
Proverbs 8:13
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The point here is not to rail against those who might have been even more “in the know” than Gram as they sent their little treasures off to Caesar for Christ-less programming. We have all played a role in propping up this God-hating system—even those of us with no children at all. We are so completely on board with the Christ-less education program that its support has become our default setting; it is automatic…we automatically finance it through our taxes, we automatically advocate it through our votes and we even automatically defend it, as if, by sheer volume or raw numbers of forced participation, we might somehow validate our open rebellion against God through blind fidelity en masse to this Christ-less system of indoctrination.
My hope would be that we would set aside our pride and ego long enough to repent, submit to Christ’s expressed will in this, as all other areas of our lives, and begin to seriously approach the challenging and difficult path that we face where the reclamation of education is concerned. We’ve dug a deep hole, indeed. Yet He is faithful. He has provided us with every answer and every tool that we need to effectively apply that answer in each of our lives.
While there are many wonderful works dedicated to exploring the subject of Christ-centered education in detail, my aim here is much more humble and simple. What I hope to formalize here is an agreed upon starting point—a necessary centerpiece—for all of education.
The Word of God is not vague or hazy on this subject.
If genuine knowledge and wisdom have no beginning outside of Christ, why would we send our impressionable children to a Christ-less system for the purpose of acquiring its version of knowledge and wisdom as their own?
If the fear of the LORD really is the beginning of wisdom…if it is the beginning of knowledge…if we actually believe these things, then how is it possible that we would even entertain for an instant the thought of sending any child of ours to an overtly Christ-less institution for the purpose of receiving formative instruction in life?
Is this tricky? Of course it’s not.
Am I annoying? Surely.
But trickiness or nuisances are not vital concerns here. All that matters is: Is what I am saying true?
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Removal of the Lord is the End of Knowledge
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“There is no doubt that we are in the midst of a great battle and the government schools in many ways represent the front lines. As such, it is important that we have well-trained, well-equipped men and women (not children) engaging in warfare there when possible. Unfortunately, few Christian teachers understand this. As a result, the vast majority of Christian teachers (ignorant of the battle raging all around them) are merely serving as willing accomplices. Of course, they will argue that the mere fact that they are Christians makes all the difference, but this is a farce. Other Christian teachers see themselves as ‘missionaries’ working to save souls on a sinking ship. This, while admirable, is ultimately a band-aid on a cancer. This is the equivalent of teaching slaves ‘inner freedom’ without rejecting or opposing slavery.” ~ Voddie Baucham[1]
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It has been said that were an identifiable foreign power to have done to our children what the modern public education system has “accomplished” in America over recent years, we would certainly consider it to be an act of war. And this view comes from a secular perspective.
We, as Common Believers, should know all too well that there is a well-defined opposing power that has indeed committed an act of war upon our children. This has been done deliberately and as a part of a meticulously planned and ongoing assault upon biblical Christianity in an effort to transform and conform our civilization to a progressive mold. We must also confront the painful reality that we have been willing allies in the very same atrocity committed against the little boys and little girls entrusted to our care. While we may be tempted to look backwards in unproductive ways, the path to restoration not only lies ahead, but it is well lit.
The good part is that this well lit path has been made so clear by the Lord we serve. The bad part is that this well lit path has been made so clear by the Lord we serve. As I mentioned…be careful what you wish (and pray) for.
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Embracing Christ-Centered Education as Essential
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For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth.
3 John 3–4
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A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.
Luke 6:40
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How far do you think “progressive Christianity” would have ever advanced in America if every professing Christian in the land embraced the biblically mandated, Christ-centered approach to education?
Do you think that “progressive morality” would have ever had a chance of gaining traction in such an environment? Without the success of counterfeit of religion and morality, the progressive political movement would exist as an utterly impotent, extreme fringe movement, if at all.
Every progressive triumph of the past sixty years has been aided more by the Christian abandonment of Christ-centered education than by any other single decision or force in American culture. It is therefore impossible for any true, God-honoring, and lasting recovery to be found without this most fortified and critical of enemy strongholds being stormed, razed, and burnt to the ground.
Sound a little too dramatic? Well, it is dramatic. But, in light of Scripture, is it not true? And isn’t that what matters?
I know that, while once I thought very differently on this subject, and I do not even have a wife or children at this time, I cannot help but have radically changed in my views in light of the revealed truth of God’s perfect Word. What reconciliation can there be between Christ-less systems of education (or Christ-less systems of anything, for that matter) and Christ-centered biblical Christianity? None that I can see.
That kind of revelation can be painful, and much more so in this instance for those of you who have already sent your children down a path founded upon Christ-less education. Please know that God has purpose for you in precisely the position in which you and your children find yourselves. Remember: He loves to work through desperate situations, so take heart. That said, this will be anything but easy.
We have to ask ourselves questions, but much more than this, we have to want to find the answers. And whatever The Artists Formerly Known as The Emergent Church might have to say, God’s perfect Word does have the answers. All of ’em. I see this as both a blessing and a warning.
God’s revealed truth in this context makes for what we might call the quintessential “be careful what you wish for” proposition.
Do you want a Christ-centered life?
Do you pray for a Christ-centered home and family?
Do you desire a Christ-centered community, culture, and nation?
Do you dream of a Christ-centered restoration of that shining city on a hill that once was the United States of America?
Do you seek a reformation of the professing church of Christ in that same America?
I believe that, as a Common Believer, you do. You must.
With that in mind, I ask: Can you imagine any of the lofty goals listed above being even remotely possible without our personal insistence upon the Christ-centered education of children?
In the final three chapters, we will take a solid look at the three core essential components of any grand strategy that might bring about these most dramatic of personal, communal, and national improvements: The centering of life on God’s Word, God’s Gospel and, ultimately, God Himself.
This is an excerpt from the book Fire Breathing Christians
© 2014 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.
[1] Voddie Baucham, Question of the Month, as posted on January 11, 2010 at the Voddie Baucham Ministries website in his blog at: http://www.voddiebaucham.org/vbm/Blog/Entries/2010/1/11_January_Question_of_the_Month.html
Our children were home schooled, but were missing out on social contacts and a sense of community with other children. We sent them to a home school co-op operated by a local church that allowed children to do attend as little as 1 day every other week, to every day (arranged in advance, not on the fly). The parents paid according to attendance, or if able, volunteered as teachers. (All of the children were using the same Christian oriented curriculum, and worked at their own speed.) Children who attended full-time without parents helping out were, in effect, private school students. This year, the school
transformed into a full-time private school, but our kids and one other family are "grandfathered" in as co-op attenders. We still assign the work they will do while at school two days a week. They participate in extracurricular activities (Christmas play, field trips, etc. with the school). All the other families decided to send their kids as private school students. We are very blessed by the arrangement, but we think it is sad that the other parents feel it is too difficult to home school their kids at least some of the time. We will be moving to a new location this summer, and we plan to start a co-op school there, modeled after the way the school worked last year. We want to encourage parents to take responsibility for their children's Christian education as much as their circumstances will permit. Please continue to encourage parents in this.