A Case for Supporting Christian Schools
Thesis: Christian Education determines the future of a young mind. A child’s up bringing and Christian education will shape a Biblical world view and mind set. The Bible makes it clear that training in the ways of the Lord is essential so that children don’t grow up and forget God and His ways. The result of a nation growing up and forgetting God has catastrophic repercussions. Out future generation needs to have strong Biblical values and morals so this nation will remain “One Nation Under God.”
Scripture Texts:
Deut.6:1-12: “1These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you. 4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
10When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
Proverbs 22:6: “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”
Proverbs 14:34: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”
Introduction:
There is a real entity of the dark side out there battling for your children’s minds and hearts. This force wants to snatch away from you and from your children a blessed future entrenched in God. This entity seeks to kill, steal and destroy not just you but your children and grandchildren. This force is real it’s not imaginary. We are warned about its destructive power from the Bible.
Proverbs 15 gives me sound advice to ponder in our society today:
Proverbs 15:4 states that “The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit…the author of this chapter then adds verse 7 “The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so the hearts of the fools.”
Let me illustrate to you my point with – real life stories:
As I have attended secular schools I have seen the dark force – discriminate, attack, intimidate and belittle Christian students. These students are marked by the force just because they are Christian. They are targeted just because they have a Christian and Biblical value system. I have seen with my own eyes and heard with my own ears how these students are constantly assaulted by the non-Christian professors, teachers and forces of evil. Their goal is undermine Christian morals and values in these students. Their goal is to get students to question their Christian values and then to encourage them to reject these Biblical values as outdated and foolish. The forces of humanism, secularism, and other isms are unleashed on young minds to get them to conform to the image of darkness. They want your children, grandchildren and others young minds to accept the fact that there are no eternal morals or values. They are scolded, ridiculed, intimidated, drilled, and manipulated to develop their own value system and to reject the value system of their parents and their outdated – religious value system.
When I was teaching in one school and pasturing in a neighboring town I had to go confront a dean of students who had told kids from my church they could not hold a Bible Study because of separation of church and state. I went into the dean with my information on my students legal rights and a warning that I would pursue legal means if he did not allow them to have their Bible Study. The American Center for Law and Justice has a great website which reveals the rights of students in public schools and the constitutional right to religious freedom. With information from this website and a serious but nicely said threat I made my case. He backed down and allowed them to have their Study. But this once again shows the attack on Christian students.
My own daughter in public school as a Kindergartener was asked to write what she was thankful for, so she wrote God. The teacher made her erase her answer and then told her she could not be thankful for God because of the separation of church and state. Let’s just say this dad went and had a talk with that teacher along with several other parents and she recanted her position. But once again the attack was made and the battle for my daughter’s mind and Biblical value system was assaulted in the public school.
When I was in college getting my degree in Social Work I watched this spiritual force pounce on young Christian minds, what was sad was to see how many of these young people so quickly deserted their Christian values. Of course when I was in school I was older – more mature and committed to God’s Biblical values. I spoke up often and with force against this force. I had professors and other students verbally respond back in anger and in injustice. They did not want to hear that their value system was wrong!
One Professor and I went back and forth just about every day in class. She bashed Christians and their value system all the time. She got so mad at me one day - She in essence said to me – “You represent the worse in society – you are a white, Christian, homophobic because you think heterosexuality is superior to homosexuality and Christianity is the only way.” I at this point in time did not know the definition of a “Homophobic.” So I asked her to define for me what that word meant. She said it means Mike that you think your way of relationships is superior to homosexual’s relationships. So I said, “Your right I am a homophobic because I know that heterosexuality is far superior because homosexual relationships do not produce life!” she was flaber gasted and said “That’s it we are changing the subject!” The spirit that controlled her despised me and she even discriminated against me in her class with my grades.
But I am reminded by the Apostle Paul this: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Galatians 6:12).
T.S. - So the question a rises do we place on children in the frontline of the battle for their minds or do we commit to training them up in the ways of the Lord when they are young so that when they are older they are able to drive the lies of the dark side with truth from God’s Word.
I. The Spiritual battle to remove God from all education has been raging since the 60’s:
a. The battle over God in the public school of America took a downward spiral when in 1963 religious principles were prohibited in public schools.
i. David Barton in his book “What Happened In Education” writes “As a result of Supreme Court decisions in Engel v. Vitale, Murray v. Curlett, and Abington v. Schempp, religious principles were separated from public education. School prayer, Bible reading, and any instruction which purported to have any type of religious connection were prohibited in schools. So thorough was the eradication of these principles that even the Ten Commandments, acknowledged by the Court to be the basis of law in the Western World, were eventually removed from schools. The traditional basis for any absolutes concerning right and wrong behavior, belief, and conduct were withdrawn from educational instruction and philosophy. Although these decisions were met with widespread public anger (some districts vowed to ignore the rulings), most educators soon fell into line, removing all public religious practices and principles from schools. The sequestering of religious philosophy from public education clashed sharply with deeply rooted traditions that had both allowed and encouraged religious principles in education from Pre-Colonial times. The Court decision in 1962-1963 was the first action in American educational history to separate religious principles from academic endeavors” (19, 20).
b. The dark force which took control of the court in this era said the following for their decision to remove God from public education:
i. “If portions of the New Testament were read without explanation, they could be, and …had been, psychologically harmful to children.” Abington v. Schempp, 1963 (Barton, page 33).
ii. “Freedom of speech and press is guaranteed to students unless the topic is religious, at which time such speech becomes unconstitutional.” Stein v. Oshinsky; Collins v. Chandler Unified School Dist., 1981 (pg. 34)
iii. “The posting of the Ten Commandments is unconstitutional, for if students were to see the Ten Commandments, they would be induced to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate (respect) or obey them and this would be unconstitutional.” Stone v. Gramm; Ring v. Grand Forks Public School Dist., 1980; Lanner v. Wimmer, 1981 (page 34).
1. In these decisions God was allowed to be removed from American education and the result is seen in the graphs of the SAT scores which have plummeted. We have also watched our schools plummet into places of disorder and violence.
a. The charts have continued to show that children in private Christian schools continue to score better in testing than children in public schools.
b. Surveys reveal – That students in Christian schools feel safer and more secure than students in public schools.
c. Many public schools have become war torn with drugs, alcohol, free sex, violence, humanism, homosexual agenda’s and the list could go on.
d. Many public schools will promote everything except Christian morals and Biblical principles.
i. A prime example was what my wife and I encountered teaching in public schools.
ii. The teachers would celebrate Satan’s high holy day (Halloween), but cry separation of church and state if another teacher emphasized Christmas as Jesus’ birthday.
iii. Sounds crazy right – well listen to Proverbs:
1. Proverbs 14:2: “He whose walk is upright fears the Lord, but he whose ways are devious despises him.”
2. Proverbs 14:5: “A truthful witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies.”
c. I have observed first hand – even in a small town what the lack of Christian morals and a Biblical value system can do to a society. Yes, even in small town America most of the teachers that I taught with in public education were consumed by the value system of the dark side. This belief system spilled over into their town and it was consumed with drugs, alcohol, child abuse, wife abuse, broken homes and dysfunctional families.
i. Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes tells me in chapter 1:12-18 that wisdom and knowledge is meaningless without God. He says in verse 15 “What is twisted cannot be straightened, what is lacking cannot be counted.”
1. In other words a educational system without God is twisted, deceived and worth nothing! Why? He tells us he tried it without God and it was meaningless a chasing after the wind.
2. He tells us about His life’s journey and he walks us through his journal to remind us we need God in everything we do – especially in education and study!
a. Listen to his conclusion:
i. Ecclesiastes 12:13, 14: Now all has been heard: here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.
ii. Once again I come back to my thought -- today we are in a battle for the future generation of this nation and its spiritual direction.
1. Before I left Amery, the only Christian school closed last year, this year I have heard of Christian schools in this area that are going to close.
a. The dark side is on the assault – Remember - to win over the hearts and minds of this new generation!
b. If he can get the leadership to give up on the mission then he knows he is winning the battle for those young minds.
2. You may be thinking – “Why are these schools closing?
a. A few reasons for the closings:
i. We do not value Christian education because many have forgotten the true God of the Bible.
ii. We Christians give the Devil a foothold by slamming the system instilling Christians values in our children.
iii. By withholding our finances and using the money we should be investing into our children into material things.
iv. Other schools are closing because of legal law suits based on the school and the leaders willingness to stand up for Biblical moral principles.
1. NCU (formerly NCBC) – sued for expelling a student who was actively living a life of homosexuality while in their Bible school.
2. California Christian Schools banning lesbians and homosexuals are being sued.
v. Some schools are closing because the spirit of offense has taken root.
T.S. – The truth is the assault is real and it needs to be driven back by our commitment to support Christian Schools.
II. We need to fight against this force and be determined to support our Christian School with prayer, with finances and with a commitment to serve.
a. The reality is in our world today Christian School Ministries costs money and a commitment from the parents and relatives of students to support their Christian education!
i. As parents, grandparents and the like we have a responsibility to support Christian Schools so that the future generation has a thorough understanding of God, His law, His teachings and His ways. Yes, they need strong academics also! But if we continue to lose ground in this battle field for our society then it will continue to collapse and spiral into moral chaos. Trust me when a nation and or community walks away from God it is clear that God deals with that nation severely. Just read the Old Testament and see what happened to Israel! The United States is no different she will be held accountable for throwing God out of public education!
b. Today in America our public school system has forgotten even blatantly thrown God out. This nation has done exactly what Benjamin Franklin warned against on the floor of the Constitutional Convention:
i. Have we now forgotten this powerful Friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance…The longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth: “that God governs the affairs of man”…Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it…Without His concurring aid…our projects will be confounded: and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages…(Barton, page 33).
Conclusion:
I will repeat myself again – I hear and see of Christian Schools closing all across the country because of lack of funds and the spirit of offense ripping them apart. I see Christians tearing down their own schools because of an unwillingness to finance their children’s futures. I see the spirit of offense attacking Christian Schools and bringing them down because the schools have rules and guidelines. But I and the board of Christian Hills Church and School pray that this school will move forward into future so as to rise up the next generation of Christian leaders for the Kingdom of God. We desire these students to grow up to become Godly leaders within a godless community. Their Biblical value system will enable them to become lights in the midst of darkness. They will be enabled to win back this society from the evil forces which are trying to destroy it. These children, your children, my children and grandchildren are the means which God desires to invest in to change the course of this nation back to Him.
But it takes finances, a commitment and tenacity on our part to see this school push back the Kingdom of darkness and advance the Kingdom of God!
The Bible clearly records God’s promise: ‘Whoever honors me, I will honor. And whoever disregards me, I will disregard” (I Samuel 2:30).
Barton concludes his book with this statement: “Obtaining God’s aid and favor in our educational system is an asset with value not to be underestimated.”
