Public Blog

I am more and more convinced that the most important thing that all education does is to shape the worldview or belief system of the student (regardless of age).  This conviction has been reinforced each and every day as I see what is happening in society.  I also realize  that what is happening in society or the culture ends up happening in homes, schools and even in churches.  The only thing that somewhat amazes me is when I see and/or hear Christians being surprised by the “shocking” things they are confronted with.

An example of this is something that has been in the headlines this past week.  It seems like everyone is alarmed about a situation where a mother has been reported about driving her son to become a female.  Reports that the boy’s father was being denied his rights to stop this effort to transexualize his son.  It was even said that the mother of this young 7 year-old boy was going to have him go through gender altering chemical treatment and surgery.

More than likely, you have heard about this.  The outcry about this was everywhere.  Social media was filled with shock and condemnation about the possibility of this taking place.  People from all walks of life were wondering how can the culture allow something like this to happen.  It became so bad that a governor and state attorney general had to get involved and try to stop this type of “idiocy” from taking place.

I, too, have found myself being angry when I witness some of this insanity that has become so commonplace in the world today.  However, I am not surprised at all by it.  What can we expect when generation and generation of young children and youth have been indoctrinated by a secular education system for the past 100 plus years.  There has been and continues to be an atheistic worldview undergirding secular education throughout history.  God is ignored or denied and evolution is the only “scientific” answer to the origin of the universe and life.

This has led to two similar “isms” that now dominate the thinking of people in the world today.  The first one of these is called materialism.  This philosophy can be defined as,

physical matter is the only reality and that everything — including thought, feeling, mind and will — can all be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena.

The other “ism” is naturalisim.  This term carries with it this meaning.

all can be explained in terms of natural causes and laws.  Nothing has moral, spiritual, or supernatural significance.

This is why Carl Sagan opened his Cosmos series with these words.

The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.

Young children are hit with this same lie when Actual Factual, the world’s foremost bear scientist, answers the question, what is nature? with these words.

It’s all that is, or was, or ever will be.

The only thing that is eternal is the cosmos or the material world.  If this is true, then there is no eternal God that created man in His image.  Therefore, man has no greater significance than any other material thing.  Man is just a natural phenomenon that is like anything and everything else.  This is why some lawyers are arguing to a judge that Happy, an elephant in the Bronx zoo, should have the same rights as humans — including the fundamental entitlement to liberty.  Their argument is that this elephant should be considered a person.

If everything can be explained in terms of natural causes, then man being imago Dei is a false belief.  This is why it was reported last week that the suicide rate of 10-14 year olds has almost tripled between 2007 and 2017.  The “experts” blame this on social media and bullying.  However, all of these other “reasons” are a reality of what happens when human beings are no longer considered to be image bearers of God.

I am convinced that if something drastic doesn’t change it is only going to become more bizarre and disastrous in the very near future.  When I read about a judge’s ruling concerning a doctor who was fired because he refused to refer to a bearded man as “she” because of his religious beliefs, I realized what we are going to face in the coming days.  The court ruled that,

the Bible, especially its teaching that man was created in His image, male and female is incompatible with human dignity especially because of its lack of belief in transgenderism.

The judge went on to rule that this doctor’s religious beliefs goes beyond just personal, private thoughts.

Those beliefs form part of one’s wider faith [Christianity] and this wider belief also does not satisfy the requirement of being worthy of respect in a democratic society.

WOW!  Christianity is not worthy of respect in a democratic society!  This is because biblical Christianity is built on the truth that God created everything and He created man as the capstone of His creation.  Man was created in the image of God and, therefore, has inherent worth and value.

In closing, I want to go back to the premise for this post.  Christians should not be shocked by what we are witnessing in our secularized society.  In fact, we should be taking responsibility for a lot of this.  We are the ones who have educated the majority of our children and youth in secular educational systems from birth through their teenage and college years.  Parents, pastors, church leaders and educators have chosen to have a secular worldview education shape their beliefs and values.

As the depravity of man becomes  more and more evident, what will it take for Christians to wake up, stand up and say enough is enough.  We will no longer give our children over to the world to educate.  We, the home, church and school, will unite and provide our children with a biblical worldview education.  I pray we won’t wait until it is too late!

I am eternally grateful to many of you who regularly comment on one of my posts and/or send me quotes, articles and other information.  One of my readers recently sent me a link to an article that immediately captured my full attention.  It was the title of the article that I found so fascinating.  It was written by a pastor and the title was,

What if God Doesn’t Care a Whole Lot About How You Educate Children?

After seeing the title to the article, I immediately clicked on the link and carefully read what this pastor and parent had to say.  I was intrigued to find out how he answered the question.  As I read the article, I realized that the author had asked a very important question.  However, he didn’t try to answer it.  Instead what he really answered was an entirely different question.  The question he answered was,

What if God Doesn’t Care a Whole Lot of Where You Send Your Children to School?

This person did what so many parents and church leaders do when it comes to educating their children.  They make the fatal mistake of equating education with schooling.  It is true that schooling plays a major role in education.  However, education is a multi-faceted process of raising a child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.  By multi-faceted I mean it involves the home, church and school.

As I continued reading this article, I saw similar things that I have heard throughout my ministry in education.  The article presented several opinions that this person had about schooling.  Some of these included (keep in mind that he is talking about “schooling” not “education”):

• Christians have elevated education into one of the most important elements in the successful raising of our children.
• An important goal of parenting is to raise children who are well-skilled and well-adjusted so they can contribute to society.
• Christian parents have the “additional” goal of raising children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord – hoping that one day they will come to faith in Christ.
• Christian parents are equally divided about where they send their children to school: public, Christian or homeschool.
• There is little observable difference between the outcomes.
• Children educated in these different ways have turned out to be successful, godly adults and others have turned out to do very poorly in life and reject the Christian faith.

The author concluded that perhaps God doesn’t care [which option we choose] nearly as much as we think He does.  He went on to say this.

Maybe God doesn’t care which option we choose as long as we choose on the basis of conviction and then make sure that we don’t act as if that choice alone will make or break our children.

 

Again, I want to make the point that every time the writer used the word education he really was talking about schooling.  Throughout the article there was no mention of any Scripture that he used in making his decision of choosing a school for his children.  I thought to myself that if I wanted to know if God cared about how we educate our children, I would try and see what God’s Word says about it.

At the end of the article, readers were given the opportunity to respond by writing a letter to the editor.  So, I responded by doing so.  I shared with the writer that I did not believe that he gave an answer to the question he initially asked but merely talked about how each parent must prayerfully choose a school for his/her children.  I stated that the Bible does not tell Christians where to send their children to school.

However, the Bible has a lot to say about how we educate children such as one can find in Deuteronomy 6, Psalm 78, Ephesians 6 and Psalm 127.  Then, there are all the references in Scripture where God warns us about the danger of sitting under false teaching and false teachers.

It was interesting to read another article by this writer explaining why they had chosen, along with their child, a Christian college.  Read carefully what he wrote.

As happy as we’ve been with our children in public schooling, we do think there’s value in having that year of (a year at a Christian college), what really comes down to worldview training.

I found that statement very interesting to say the least.  This is exactly what I see taking place in the vast majority of Christian homes.  Parents will send their children to secular schools from kindergarten through high school and then send them to a Christian college so that they will get some “Christian worldview” training.  The problem with this is that, as George Barna has found, the worldview of a child is pretty much formed by the age of 13.

What was eye-opening to me as I tried to wrestle with all that I was reading was something that the writer’s son had to say about his schooling experience.  In yet another article by this pastor, he asked his son some questions about his experience in public schools.  In one question the young person was asked about any negative influences that public schooling had on him.  His answer was very revealing.

Of course. You can’t soak into a worldly culture for years and not be changed. Probably my most egregious offence was adopting a two-layer view of everything. At school, my response to a given question would be one thing, whereas if I were in church, I would respond quite differently.

The young man went on to say that he read Nancy Pearcey’s book, Total Truth, and realized that he had compartmentalized his life into the sacred and the secular.  He then had to take two years in order to renew his mind and think biblically about all of life.  It was evident that his parents were intentional in trying to give their children biblical instruction at home.  However, this is more the exception than what happens to most children who end up receiving a secular education throughout their elementary and secondary years.

There are two concluding thoughts I want to leave with you.  The first thought I want to make is concerning a statement that this writer made in the article that was sent to me.  He stated,

And do you know what I have observed?  I’ve observed that there’s little observable difference between the outcomes (public, Christian & home school).

I hope that this causes you to think about what is the focus and what are the results that we are striving to accomplish through Christian and home schooling.  Yes, there are differences between the different schooling choices as the Cardus study has reported.  However, the reality is that too many of our children have been and are continuing to leave the faith in their late teenage years.  If there is little or no observable difference seen in our children’s lives due to their schooling experiences, are we willing to ask ourselves why?  Could it be that what is happening is because Christian and home schools are not being true to God’s ultimate purpose of education?    I will never forget something I heard Dr. Albert Mohler say several years ago.

The Christian school cannot be secular education dressed up for church.  It must be the church armed for intellectual battle!

The second thought I have is that we can’t merely try and see if God cares about where we educate our children.  The home, church and school must answer the bigger question.  Does God care a whole lot about HOW we educate our children?  The answer to that question must be answered with a definitive YES!!!  This means that we cannot go on in the same way we have over the past several decades.  It is absolutely mandatory that the home, church and school address the issue of education biblically!

 

This is why I have dedicated whatever time I have left to developing resources that do exactly that.  It is exciting to see hundreds of Christian school educators being trained in developing a biblical worldview and philosophy of education through the resources that are available through my Kingdom Education Ministries’ Prime Membership.  If your school is not a member, I want to urge you to consider becoming one TODAY.  Contact me by clicking HERE and I will send you information on how to do this.  God cares a whole lot about how we educate our children.  Let’s make sure that we are doing it His way!

Last week I wrote about a theme that is found throughout the Bible.  The theme is that the motivation behind everything that God does is that everyone will know that He is the Lord God.  Since this concept runs throughout the Scriptures, it should play a major role in how we educate our children and youth.  Everything should be designed to guide students in knowing God.

There is a second theme that I regularly come across when reading God’s Word.  In an effort to put it into understandable words, I would state something like this.

The beliefs and actions of parents, specifically, and adults, in general, will have a significant impact on their children’s future.

One example of this theme is found in Numbers.  The children of Israel were ready to enter the Promised Land.  Moses sends a small detail of leaders into the land to see what it is like.  When they return, the 12 men give a glowing report of the richness of the land.  However, they also reported several obstacles that they would face if they tried to enter the land.  There were giants in the land and the cities were well-fortified.  Unfortunately, 10 of these leaders convinced the entire nation that it was too dangerous to try and take possession of the land that God had already promised was theirs.

Only Joshua and Caleb were willing to act as if God’s Word was true.  They had seen the obstacles just like the others.  The difference was that these two men knew that God said the land was theirs.  So, they knew that God was bigger than all of the obstacles put together and He would give them victory if they only trusted Him.

Well, we know the story.  The Israelites decided not to enter the Promised Land.  Because of their lack of faith, God judged them.  He said that none of that generation of adults would ever enter the land.  So the entire nation of Israel wandered in the wilderness for the next 40 years, until an entire generation of adults died.

What does this account have to do with the theme that I stated above?  The answer to that question is found in Numbers 14 where we find these words.

And your sons shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years, and bear the brunt of your infidelity… Numbers 14:33 (NKJV)

Another translation says that their children would be wanderers in the desert for forty years where they would bear the penalty for [their] acts of unfaithfulness.  The actions of the parents caused their children to suffer.  What parents believe and do affects their children.

I found a similar account in Ezekiel.  In chapter 23, God tells the prophet how Israel lusted after the things of the world.  Because the nation prostituted itself with the pagan idols of society, God would bring judgment on the people.  He would make known their sinfulness.  God also predicted that something would happen to the people’s children.  Two times in this chapter God says the same thing.

…they took away her sons and daughters…they will take your sons and your daughters.  Ezekiel 23:10, 25 (NKJV)

As I read this passage, I realized that the idols of this world that I chase after will actually capture the hearts and minds of my sons and daughter.  Knowing this caused me to consider if there were any idols that were worth the loss of my own children.

Another passage of Scripture came to my mind as I contemplated all of this.  In this passage God was once again speaking through one of His prophets.  This time it was the prophet Hosea.  Listen to these chilling words.

Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.  Hosea 6:4 (NKJV)

If I don’t know God’s Word and live by it, it can cause my children to reap some very heavy consequences.  The worldview or beliefs of parents will have an impact on their children’s lives.  This reality is recorded in Jeremiah where God explained why children were following the Baals of the world.

…but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them… Jeremiah 9:14 (NKJV)

I don’t think that the Israelite fathers sat their children down and taught them how to follow after the Baals.  However, they taught their children how to do that through example.  Their children saw them follow after the Baals and they simply followed in their fathers’ footsteps.  What we believe and how we live our lives will have a greater impact on our children’s future more than the words we speak and the subjects we teach.

In his research on the state of religion in young people’s lives, Christian Smith concluded that we get what we are!  Scripture makes it clear.  Our worldview drives all of our actions and together these things shape the future of our children.  It has been several years ago that I heard a quote by James Montgomery Boice.  Years later, these words still haunt me today.

The sacrifice of one’s children to demons is so terrible we can hardly imagine it.  It is a sin caused by a combination of pagan religions of the most debased kind. But are we so sure that we never practice it ourselves?

You might be thinking to yourself right now that you would never be found guilty of such an abomination as sacrificing one’s children to demons.  That is what I thought until I read the rest of Boice’s statement.

We do if we desire worldly success for our children to the point of thrusting them into a pagan environment today or encouraging them to live like the world accommodating its morality just to get ahead.  If you worship any of the gods of this world whether wealth, fame, sex or power, they will become a snare to your children.

I believe that this theme found in Scripture must have a major influence on how we educate our children.  The education we give our children must lead them to know the Lord God.  We cannot afford to give our children an education that is focused on the pursuit of the ‘gods of this world’ such as wealth, fame, power, sexual immorality, etc.  I don’t want my children and/or grandchildren to have to wander in the wilderness of an anti-Christian culture and bear the penalty of my acts of unfaithfulness.  I must give them a biblical worldview education!  Their future depends on it!

Next week I am going to deal with a dangerous question that was presented in an article that I was sent recently.  You don’t want to miss what I have to say.  It deals with this same principle.

As I have been studying the Scriptures, I have become increasingly aware of two themes that run throughout the Bible.  The first theme is most often found in words like these.

…then they will know that I am the Lord God.  Ezekiel 28:24 (NASB)

I have found it fascinating that this seems to be the motivation behind everything that God does.  You find these words, or very similar statements made, whenever God:

• worked a miracle such as parting the waters of the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross through on dry ground.
• gave victory to one of His followers like when David defeated Goliath.
• judged the wicked which was a common prophecy that He gave about several nations through the prophet Ezekiel.
• brought judgement on His children when they followed after idols rather than following after Him.

God’s desire to be known by all people as the Lord God can even be seen in His decision to create the heavens and the earth.  Psalm 19:1-3 and Romans 1:20 tell us that even lost people have no excuse for not knowing that there is a God because all of creation shouts His existence.

I am sure that you have marveled when reading about how God did supernatural things through ordinary people in Scripture.  What I found intriguing as I studied so many of these accounts in Scripture was the heart motivation of the people that God used.  For example, when David stood before Goliath, he made this bold statement.

This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.   I Samuel 17:46 (NKJV)

One can also see this motivation driving Elijah when he confronted the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel.  After he repaired and prepared the altar, Elijah prayed this prayer.

Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that You are the Lord God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.  1 Kings 18:37 (NKJV)

Following this theme in Scripture has challenged me to realize that God will do whatever is needed in my life so that others will know that He alone is the Lord God.  If I follow after the gods of this world, He will accomplish this through His judgement on my life.

However, if I follow after Him with all my heart, soul and mind, He can show others that He is God by blessing me and/or working through me.  This has caused me to search my heart and check my motivation behind everything I do.  It is my desire to serve Him in such a way that others will see Christ in me and know that He is the Lord God.

What would happen in homes, churches and Christian schools if parents, pastors and educators would pray that God would do a work in their lives so that their children would know that He is the Lord God?  I believe we would be able to witness the next generation surrendering to Christ and possibly turning their world upside down.

Next week I will share with you the second theme that has captured my attention as I study His Word.

Last week we looked at how a vast majority of people, including the majority of Christians, are being held captive by false ideas.  Many, if not all, of these false ideas are a result of the education that they received.   This is because no education is neutral or void of spiritual meaning.  The reason why education cannot be neutral is that all education is presented from the teacher’s, parent’s and/or church leader’s worldview.

Since there is a person will either walk in freedom or be held in captivity, we need to know how one can choose freedom over captivity.  Parents, church leaders and educators must understand that education is the determining factor on whether or not a person walks in freedom or is held in the chains of captivity.  This should cause us to realize that we must give our children and youth an education that will lead them into freedom and not into captivity.

The only type of education that leads people to live lives of freedom is a biblical worldview education.  This is because a biblical worldview education is based on truth and the existence of God, who created and sustains all things.  The apostle John, under the inspiration Holy Spirit, wrote,

Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  John 8:31-32 (NKJV)

Here we find Jesus identifying three groups of people.  There were the:

• unbelievers — these were the Jews who didn’t believe.
• believers — these were the Jews who did believe.
• disciples — these were the believers who continued or abided in God’s Word.

Jesus made the bold statement that His disciples, those who continued/abided in the Word, would know truth and truth will bring freedom into their lives.  We must give our children and youth an education, at home, church and school, that is grounded on God’s Word.  Then, the education they receive must teach all subjects and all lessons from a biblical worldview context.  This is the only way we can guide our children to walk in truth and be free.

This year I am helping the Christian school at the church I attend by teaching biology, chemistry and physics.  The school had lost its secondary science teacher and was finding it difficult to fill the vacancy.  It was sad to learn that the school interviewed several candidates but none of them believed the biblical account of creation.  So, I offered to fill this void till another science teacher could be found.

It has been both challenging and exciting to put the philosophy of kingdom education into practice.  I am spending a lot of time helping these teens understand that the study of science isn’t about merely learning the theories and laws that govern life and creation.  They are beginning to see that science helps man solve problems that everyone faces due to living in a fallen world.  These students are coming to understand that everyone is created in the image of God.  Because of this, man has been given the ability to observe, experiment and understand God’s creation ordinances that rule the universe.  Through these courses they can understand the very nature of God, Himself (see Psalm 19:1; Romans 1:20).

When this takes place in a person’s education, he/she comes to know that there is a God who created everything.  They also come to know Him personally and are challenged to abide in Him (His Word).  This results in them breaking free from the captivity of having a false worldview.  Of course, this isn’t relegated merely to the science classroom.  All education should be aimed at this same goal.  This is because all subjects come from some aspect of creation and, therefore, is way of God making Himself known to the students that are studying these courses.

I have been fascinated by what other scientist knew about studying science and coming to know God.  One such scientist was Werner Heisenberg.  Heisenberg was a Noble laureate physicist and one of the fathers of quantum mechanics.  He stated,

Galileo argued that nature, God’s second book, is written in mathematical letters…Kepler is even more explicit in his work on world harmony; he says: God created the world in accordance with His ideas of creation.  These ideas are the pure archetypal forms which Plato termed Ideas, and they can be understood by man as mathematical constructs.  They can be understood by Man, because Man was created in the spiritual image of God.  Physics is reflection on the divine Ideas of Creation, therefore physics is divine service.

Lord William Kelvin helped form the basis of modern physics, the second law of thermodynamics and the absolute temperature scale, the dynamic theory of heat, the basic concepts for electromagnetic theory of light and the fundamental works in hydrodynamics.  As he studied science and discovered God’s marvelous creation ordinances (some people call them laws of nature), he said,

If you study science deep enough and long enough, it will force you to believe in God.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of our children and youth are not getting an education that is guiding them to know and understand that God is the creator and sustainer of the universe.  Instead, they are being indoctrinated in a secular educational system that denies or ignores the very existence of God.  As a result they are being taken captive by false ideas and this captivity leads to destruction and ruin (see Hosea 4).

It is time for the home, church and school to become a unified force that provides children with a biblical worldview education.  When this happens they can go from being an unbeliever to becoming a believer and finally to become a disciple of Jesus.  The result will be life-changing and culture-shaping — because they will be FREE!