SHOULD CHRISTIANS REBUILD HOPE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

SHOULD CHRISTIANS REBUILD HOPE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS?

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August 13, 1999 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) – The following article by James Boyes is from the Christian Education Awareness Network [http://www2.whidbey.net/jmboyes (web site) jmboyes@wayoflife.org (e-mail)]. I do not support everything that is available at the CEAN web site; but this warning about the public school system is important, and I want to pass it on to our readers.

SHOULD CHRISTIANS REBUILD HOPE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS?
by James Boyes, Host
Christian Education Awareness Network (CEANet)

The August 1999 issue of Family (a Focus on the Family publication) depicts, on its cover, well-dressed men and women wearing hard hats, all of whom are busy rebuilding a small school building. The phrase, "Rebuilding Hope for Public School," appears in large (3/4-inch) type on the lower right side of the cover; the title of Cheri Fuller’s 2-page article contained within. Cheri’s article is but one of many articles published by Focus on the Family which communicate how to hope and cope with government schools versus the need for Christians to abandon these socialist-run, humanist-based institutions.

Cheri Fuller seems to ignore the fact there is absolutely no Biblical foundation upon which to support the practice of Christian parents yielding their God-given parental authority over education, to the state. On the contrary, God’s Word teaches that Christian *parents* are to educate their own children and to do so with Christ in mind, with Christ as the center of all that is taught, in order to glorify Him (see Scripture references, below).

Please do not misunderstand me; I believe Ms. Fuller’s desire to bring change to public schools to be sincere and heart-felt. Nonetheless, Christians must stop and consider the impact of the answers to two important questions:

QUESTION 1: Can the Truth be taught in American government schools? In other words, is Jesus Christ preeminent in all that is taught in the classroom?

The Answer: No. The Truth of Jesus Christ is legally banned from public schools. It is against the law for American public school teachers to let children know that Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. His name is not lifted up, but rather, is scorned and frowned upon by the government education establishment. Thus, Christ is not preeminent in all that is taught in the classroom. In direct contrast to Biblical thinking, United States public school curricula is humanist and child-centered. Student-based, or child-centered learning is psychologically designed to gradually lure little intellects and hearts away from parents and from Christ, toward the eternal death and darkness of human philosophies (Goals 2000, Societal Evolution, The New Age, etc.). Instead of rebuilding and strengthening government schools, Christians need to become Biblically literate to the point of rejecting the state’s desire to control the content of their children’s learning.

Christians are in the midst of a spiritual battle of eternal consequences. The public school classroom is perhaps one of the more profoundly important battlegrounds of this spiritual war. There are clear battle lines drawn in the Scriptures, lines which should not be compromised. Christians should not be encouraged to cross these lines in order to rebuild hope for institutions which coerce their hard-earned tax dollars in order to force the teaching of false doctrines upon their children.

OUR HOPE NEEDS TO BE PLACED IN JESUS CHRIST, NOT PUBLIC SCHOOLS!

Our thinking, hope and prayers all need to be founded upon the Rock of Jesus, who comes first, followed by our mates and our children. In direct contrast, state education is founded upon sinking sand. It is a spiritual and intellectual catastrophe of humanist origins, and is therefore no repository of Christian hope.

QUESTION 2: Under whose (or what) authority (Christ’s or the State’s) do Christians submit when they send their children to state-controlled, humanist-based, public schools?

The Answer: Of course the answer to the above question is obvious. When Christians submit their children to public schools, they are no longer under the authority of Christ. Instead, they are submitting to the state’s authority concerning the content and purpose of their children’s education. This is not what Christ would have us do. Rather, Christian parents need to submit to Christ’s authority in this area, and seek His content and purposes concerning the education of their children (see Scripture references, below).

THE NEED TO REJECT STATE EDUCATION

Why does Focus on the Family and its leaders fail to recognize the need to abandon the socialist education system which seeks to choke Christianity at its core? Government-controlled, government-certified, and government-owned schools are not the means by which to strengthen the family, sustain human intellectual liberty and the Christian worldview. Rather, state schools are an effective means by which to further America’s decline toward anti-Christian, globally-oriented, socialism.

THROUGHOUT SCRIPTURE, CHRISTIANS ARE TOLD TO REJECT DECEITFUL TEACHINGS

Over and over God’s people are called to separate themselves from darkness and turn toward the Light, toward Christ. We are called to reject and abandon that which sets itself against Christ. One can only ponder the positive results of such call of rejection from Focus on the Family. Imagine what might happen if Dr. James C. Dobson set about on a campaign aimed at Christians removing their children from public schools. Imagine what might happen when these families re-prioritize their lives around the significance of Christian worldview education. I believe that families would be strengthened as more Christian parents grasp hold of, and actually exercised, their God-given responsibilities with regard to education. The parent-child bond would, no doubt, be strengthened (and thereby families strengthened) as children spent more time with their parents and vice-versa.

In closing, a Christian parent’s hope, devotion, commitment, and prayers need to be focused upon Christ and the restoration and building of relationships with their spouses, and their children. God did not place us here to rebuild hope for a system that is clearly founded upon sand, and rapidly sinking because of its neglect of the Truth. Instead, we are to continue building upon the Rock, upon Christ, upon whom all things consist and have their being. It is in Him that we place our trust, prayers, and hope. And it is upon Him that we should build a curricula designed for His purposes and glory, amen.

SCRIPTURES RELATED TO INSTRUCTION, TEACHING, DOCTRINES, ORIGINS, AND THE TRANSFER OF GOD’S WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE AND TRUTH FROM GENERATION TO GENERATION:

Genesis Chapters 1-thru-11 (The source of origins, marriage, the Fall, sin, wearing clothes, flood geology, etc.)

Genesis 18:18-19

Exodus 20:8-12

Deuteronomy 4:5-10

Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Deuteronomy 11:18-21

Deuteronomy 32:45-46

1 Chronicles 12:32

Psalm 11:3-4

Psalm 78:1-11

Psalm 145:4

Proverbs 1:7-9

Proverbs 1:20-33

Proverbs 4:1

Proverbs 4:20-27

Proverbs 6:20-23

Proverbs 12:1, 15, 28

Proverbs 15:2, 5, 7, 14, 20-22, 28, 31-33

Proverbs 19:2, 3, 8, 20, 27

Proverbs 22:6

Proverbs 23:12-14, 19, 22-26

Ecclesiastes 10:2

Isaiah 5:11-13

Jeremiah 10:2

Hosea 4:1, 6

Mark 12:13-17

Acts 17:16-28

Romans 1:1-7, 13, 18-32

Romans 16: 17-19

1 Corinthians 2:1-14

1 Corinthians 5:9

2 Corinthians 6:14-18

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Ephesians 4:10-26

Ephesians 5:6-33

Ephesians 6:1-4

Colossians 1:16-18

Colossians 2:1-10

Colossians 2:18-22

Colossians 3:1-3, 8-10, 16-21

1 Thessalonians 5:1-8, 15, 21, 22

1 Timothy 6:20-21

2 Timothy 1:5

2 Timothy 2:15

2 Timothy 3:14-17

2 Timothy 4:3-4

Hebrews 13:7-8, 17

2 Peter 2:1

2 Peter 3:1-7

2 Peter 3:17-18

1 John 4:1-6