What if Scripture – what we call “the Bible” – was infinitely more than anything else ever written or read, because it was an actual and accurate revelation of God’s very nature? Of who He is?
What if this literary revelation had been lovingly provided by God to His people for the sake of ensuring that they enjoy the greatest aspects of His nature as revealed in His creation? What if the restrictions He placed upon His people’s activities in His creation were there to protect them from the inevitable pain, darkness, and death that must follow from acting in a manner contrary to His nature while living in His creation?
What if truth, love, justice, law, and the pursuit of knowledge itself, when addressed in Scripture, were actually presentations of God’s very nature as expressed in those things?
The (very!) good news is that all of these things are true of God and Scripture.
The grace, love, and adoration of God towards His people in presenting such a revelation as we have been given in Scripture is beyond expression in finite language and a beauty that we will explore and elaborate upon eternally as we adventure forever with Him in the restored creation to come.
In the meantime, we are on a battlefield. We are at war. And the war is not going well…because we have abandoned Him in fundamental ways.
We have turned to the enemy for our understanding of everything from love and emotion to politics and economics, and we have secured an increasingly dark trajectory for our understanding of these things because, for generations now, we have embraced a thoroughly satanic understanding of the pursuit of knowledge itself.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared two previous portions from a presentation that I’ve started doing this year on the subject of Christ as the essential core of children’s education. The first two articles were Why do most professing Christians dismiss God’s Word on children’s education? and The Satanic approach to children’s education…as embraced by most professing Christians in America. In order to understand this last part in the series, I’d like to strongly encourage you to read through those first two posts if you have not already. Context is everything.
With that context established, let’s return for a moment to the questions at the beginning…
What if Scripture – what we call “the Bible” – was infinitely more than anything else ever written or read, because it was an actual and accurate revelation of His very nature? Of who He is?
What if truth, love, justice, law, and the pursuit of knowledge itself, when addressed in Scripture, were actually presentations of God’s very nature as expressed in those things?
If these things were so, then what would be the consequences of our disobeying His word on truth, love, justice, economics or politics?
And what sort of trouble would we be in if we embraced not His Word on the pursuit of knowledge itself, but the satanic alternative? (See: Genesis 3 and The Satanic approach to children’s education…as embraced by most professing Christians in America.)
If our preferred approach to the pursuit of knowledge itself was satanic, then how would that impact the things that are learned and the thoughts a that are formed through the pursuit of knowledge (aka “everything”)?
What would we be doing to our children and future generations by subjecting them to such an approach to seeking and interpreting knowledge?
Well, for the answer to that question, we need only look around us.
Ours is a culture reeking with the pride, darkness, and death that one would expect from a people given over to a thoroughly satanic approach to everything.
We are, in essence, Exhibit A in answer to the question, “What are the consequences of embracing a satanic worldview?”
That’s where we are. That’s what America is.
And, by the grace of God, He has preserved a remnant, as He always does.
The question for that remnant now is, will we continue down the path that has been charted for generations now, or will we, by God’s grace, repent and submit to His loving, life-breathing Word?
Will we continue down the path to totalitarian Statism that always lies at the end of such multi-generational pride and rebellion as that which has defined our culture for so long, or will we repent, believe, and actively apply the Gospel-fueled Great Commission mandate that He has given us?
Will we pursue all things including knowledge itself with the revealed nature of Christ the King as our guide in practice?
Or will we continue to cling to pride and rebellion unto death?
That is the question of the moment.
That is the context of this series on Christ as the essential core of children’s education.
Thank you for your time and interest in these things at this critical time.
And now, on to Part 3: The Consequences of Feeding Our Children to the Beast…
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Consequences of a Satanic Worldview
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While we’re on the subjects of Satan and worldview, we would be well served to take a moment to note yet another Deuteronomy 6 point of intersection with New Testament Scripture.
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Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark… ~ Revelation 13:11-17
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While the point here is not to dive into a deep discussion as to what exactly the “mark of the beast” described in Revelation 13 is or is not, this text does contain a couple of interesting components that may help to shed more light on the significance of Deuteronomy 6 and the consequences of embracing the satanic worldview as introduced in Genesis 3.
- First, we ought to note the Revelation 13 reference to “being marked on the right hand or the forehead”. Yet again, it would appear that the enemies of Christ cannot help but remain true to their counterfeiting approach to things since this passage presents a perversion of the commands delivered in…you guessed it: Deuteronomy 6.
- Second, since the truth of God described in Deuteronomy 6 is to be bound “as a sign on your hand” and “between your eyes”, so it is that the satanic counterfeit involve perversions of the same concept to for the purpose of enslaving adherents to the satanic (Genesis 3) worldview and persecuting those who conform to a biblical worldview (Deuteronomy 6).
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This notion is perhaps better understood when we consider (whatever other implications or intent may exist with regard to the specifics of “the mark of the beast” in Revelation 13) that the “mark” on one’s head can be rightly understood, at least in many contexts, as one’s worldview – what they actually think and actually believe (not necessarily to me confused with what one says that they believe). The “mark” on one’s hand, then, is an expression of their worldview in action. It’s what they do. It’s how they apply their worldview in deed.
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Deuteronomy 6 clearly presents us with the God-glorifying, Christ-centered approach to the pursuit of knowledge. Genesis 3 presents us with a picture of the satanic perversion of the same, and Revelation 13 displays one of the consequences of its application (the persecution of obedient believers).
Just how relevant is the seventh verse of Deuteronomy 6, then?
Let’s recap en route to revisiting some of those earlier cited “reasons” so often given for deflecting, dismissing, or ignoring the Word of God on children’s education as presented in Deuteronomy 6:7:
- When Jesus addresses the question, “What is the most important commandment?”, He responds by using the words found in Deuteronomy 6:4 and Deuteronomy 6:5.
- When Jesus refutes the devil’s three perversions of Scripture, He responds each time with words found in Deuteronomy, and two out of the three times appeals to truth recorded in Deuteronomy 6:16 and Deuteronomy 6:13.
- In Revelation 13 we see a reference and contrast made between the mark of the enemies of God and the mark of His obedient people…as described in Deuteronomy 6:8.
In the context of considering the contemporary viability, relevance, and authority of Deuteronomy 6:7, the previous points come together to form what is known in deep theological terms as an “are you kidding?” moment.
If Jesus quotes the 4th and 5th verses of Deuteronomy 6 in response to the scribe, the 13th and 16th verses in response to the devil, and gives us in Revelation a clear reference point to the 8th verse of the same chapter, what might that tell us about the seventh verse in that chapter? Any guesses?
Can the 4th, 5th, 8th, 13th, and 16th verses of Deuteronomy 6 be explicitly cited by our Lord in the New Testament and (thus redundantly) confirmed as authoritative, yet the seventh verse just be assumed to be something less? Is that approach coherent? Is it God-honoring? Is it rational?
Were the 4th, 5th, 8th, 13th, and 16th verses of Deuteronomy 6 not “written to Israel”? Are they not “in the Old Testament”?
They were and they are…so what does that tell us about the “they’re written to Israel” and “that’s in the Old Testament” brand of excuses used today to selectively deflect, dismiss, and deny the Word of God when it comes to the seventh verse of Deuteronomy 6?
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Christ as the Essential Core of Children’s Education
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As Scripture makes plain, the name and nature of Christ defines everything that is in His creation:
- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1-3)
- He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)
- …Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Colossians 2:2-3)
- …yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. ( 1 Corinthians 8:6)
- For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)
- Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
With these proclamations embraced as actual, genuine truth, any path to a right understanding of anything in all of creation must be understood to, of necessity, center explicitly on the personal nature of the Creator as revealed in His perfect Word.
To pursue true knowledge of anything in creation while denying these truths is pure folly. (Hence the scores of references to unrepentant unbelievers as “fools”.)
Put another way, how rational or reasonable would it be to study…
- A magnificent work of literature that significantly impacted culture…while avoiding any acknowledgement of the identity of the author and disallowing any contemplation of what their purpose might have been for writing it?
- A great technological invention that radically advanced civilization…while refusing to even identify the inventor by name and disallowing investigation as to why or how they worked to craft the invention in question?
- A matchlessly beautiful work of art that positively influenced all subsequent generations of artists and art lovers…while preventing any acknowledgment of the artist by name or any consideration of the goals and purpose of the artist for creating the work of art in the first place?
In a word, such “educational” pursuits as these would be ridiculous.
And they are ridiculous.
To pretend to seriously pursue a right understanding of a thing – anything – while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge, much less seriously consider, the identity, nature, motive, and purpose of its creator or author, is inherently foolish, in the most extreme sense of the term.
This reality helps us to better understand why it is that Scripture so pervasively describes unrepentant sinners and their pursuits as “fools” and “foolishness” (Psalm 14:1; Psalm 53:1).
The debased mind described in Romans 1:28 is debased because it is not centered on the nature of God as revealed in His perfect, authoritative Word. It is enslaved to the sinful worldview of self-centeredness introduced in Genesis 3 (John 8:34) and dominated by the emotion-fueled dictates of its deceitful heart (Jeremiah 17:9). It is easily taken captive by the philosophies and traditions of the world (Colossians 2:8). As such, it refuses to build on the Rock of Christ, and builds instead on the shifting sands of worldliness (Matthew 7:24-27).
To claim a desire for the serious study of art, mathematics, geography, astronomy, biology, or anything else in creation while dismissing the nature of their Creator as critical to a right understanding of any of these created things is preposterous.
Yet by God’s grace, He allows men such ridiculous, preposterous pursuits for a time. But His grace in that regard should not be used to deflect from the reality that such Christ-mocking intellectual pursuits – such God-dismissing approaches to “education” – are, in fact, ridiculous and preposterous.
They are absurd. They are sinful.
They are also incredibly dangerous, which is why our loving Lord has given us the beautiful, life- and knowledge-preserving commands contained in Deuteronomy 6.
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Has God Spoken?
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With the authority and the sufficiency of Scripture understood, the first question that any Christian should ask when considering any subject of consequence is: Has God spoken with clarity on this?
That is always where we should begin as believers.
When we ask the question, “Has God spoken to His people with clarity where the subject of children’s education is concerned?”, we have an answer. A clear, vivid, detailed answer. (Praise God!)
It is on display throughout Scripture, and one of its most detailed and essential points is lovingly on presented in the seventh verse of the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy:
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 6:7
I hope and pray that these three posts have been helpful and encouraging to those who, by God’s grace, are seeking to honor the Lord and seek what is best for their families through loving obedience to the clear teachings of Scripture on the subject of children’s education. The dark and dying culture in which we now live despises these truths and will do all that it is able to keep us from pursuing them. Sadly, the most vigorous opposition and disdain for these beautiful truths will come from within the professing church.
This is Part Three of a presentation on children’s education that I made earlier this year. (Part One – Why do most professing Christians dismiss the Word of God on children’s education? – can be read by clicking here.. Part Two – The Satanic approach to children’s education…as embraced by most professing Christians in America. can be read by clicking here.) I hope that it has been helpful and I look forward to sharing the rest here soon, Lord willing.
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© 2015 Scott Alan Buss – All Rights Reserved.
Soli Deo Gloria!