Short Sermon on Education
IF you read our church newsletter, then you know I do a lot of thinking about education. And the reason for that is because God’s Word says a lot about education. The education of children, and the education of His people – the Church.
And historically speaking - - - the Church has been heavily involved in education. Now the biggest reason for that is because Christians have taken seriously the Great Commission.
“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel and make disciples.”
And Jesus tells us how we make disciples, we baptize them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and TEACH them to observe (put into practice) all that He has commanded.
Teaching someone to “observe” or to follow and obey and practice is the essence of disciple making. So we’re not called to teach a bunch of obscure facts that have no bearing on how a person lives their life. We’re called to teach something that not only informs, but transforms.
So, I want to talk to you tonight – FIRST about education in general, and SECOND about what we do and can do as a Church when it comes to education.
Let’s go to God’s Word….
Deut. 6:6-7, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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.”
So that’s a pretty clear command from God – to teach our children what He commands. To teach them HIS WORD.
In the late 1700’s John Adams said the following, “To find an illiterate man in New England was as rare as a comet.”
A lot has changed since then. Here’s the statistics for 2023:
- 130 million adults struggle with math beyond addition and subtraction.
- 54% of American adults read below a 6th grade level. That’s around 168 million people
- 21% of American adults are fully illiterate. That’s close to 70 million people.
- In 2022 only 24% of Oklahoma 4th graders tested proficient or better on reading.
- Interestingly enough, in 1920 we were spending $500 per student and were near full literacy, but in 2022 we spent $12,500 per student and were failing miserably (and those numbers are adjusted for inflation… so we were actually spending less in 1920, but that’s the inflation adjusted number).
GIVE HANDOUTS (1895, 6th grade final exam from Salina KS., and 1912 Bullitt County Schools 8th grade exam).
It’s not lack of funding… So what happened? Well……….
We can find correlation with the removal of Christianity and the introduction of secularism.
THE purpose of education in the Old Testament was to “teach children to know and understand their relationship to God, and to serve Him by keeping the Law and in holiness.” And to “teach them their history and how God has blessed, led, protected and corrected them down through history.”
By the time of the New Testament – there were synagogue schools in many towns and communities.
In Greece it was a little different.
In Sparta, education was designed to create totally loyal warriors who did everything for the betterment of the STATE.
In Athens, the purpose of education was to produce good citizens and citizens were taught letters’ music, morals and manners, math, science, athletics, and philosophy. The betterment of SELF.
In Rome, the purpose of education was to prepare a citizen to be mentally and physically fit for whatever service was required of him by the state (be it farming, war, trading and bartering).
Students would be specifically taught and trained for whatever career they were going into. So, SELF & STATE.
Later on John Calvin in Geneva Switzerland created a public school so that laypeople could learn to read the Bible. He changed the notion that education was for EVERYONE. Not just the elites, or the clergy, but all needed to know how to read, and rightly interpret Scripture, and be useful for the community they were part of. GOD, SELF, & STATE.
The education system he created was rigorous by todays standards.
This carried over to the United States with the Pilgrims. In 1647 they passed a law called “The Old Deluder Act” – which said: “It being one chief project of the old deluder – Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times… it is therefore ordered by this court and authority thereof, that every township within this jurisdiction, after the Lord hath increased them to the number of 50 householders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him, to write and read.”
But that all changed in 1837 with a guy named Horace Mann. He was a Unitarian who didn’t believe in the inspiration and authority of Scripture. He denied the Trinity and Deity of Christ. He hated that the education of American children was in the hands of the Church, and so he came up with a remedy for that situation. STATE EDUCATION. The whole purpose was to drive children away from Christian education and the Christian religion.
A.A. Hodge, who was a seminary professor at Princeton during this time wrote the following concerning Horace Mann’s sweeping changes, “I am as sure as I am of Christ’s reign that a comprehensive and centralized system of national education, separated from religion, as is now commonly proposed, will prove the most appalling enginery for the propagation of anti-Christian and atheistic unbelief, and of evil ethics, which this sin-rent world has ever seen.”
The purpose of education was now for the betterment of the OLIGARCHY.
That brings us to the Church.
What is the purpose of Education within the Church? Well, it goes back to the Great Commission – “Preach the Gospel and Make Disciples.”
It’s to teach them the Word of God. Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
And in Deuteronomy 28, the Lord warns Moses and the people, that if they turn away from Him, and rebel against Him, and do not teach their children, then … Verse 41, “You shall father sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours, for they shall go into captivity.”
There are 52 Sundays in one year. Your children; or grandchildren, if they come to church every Sunday, will get to spend roughly one hour every Sunday in Sunday School, and then they get roughly another hour during the worship service. That is 104 hours a year that the Church is able to teach them. The last statistics I’ve seen say that the average 8 year old spends about 20 hours a week watching TV – that’s 1040 hours per year watching TV, the average 12 year old spends anywhere from 30 – 50 hours a week in front of his or her computer. That’s 1560 – 2600 hours a year, and these numbers are even worse when the TV or computer is in their bed room. Kids spend roughly 7 hours a day, 5 days a week in school, for about 180 days in Oklahoma. That’s 1260 hours of secular education. Compare any of those with the 104 hours of education a year they get from church.
Pastor Voddie Baucham says it like this, “If you send your kids to Rome for their education, don’t be surprised when they come back as Romans.” Our kids go into captivity – captivity to alcohol, drugs, sexual immorality, false teachings and lies. Captivity to sick and perverted ideologies and world-views. Child predators and sexual deviants. It's disgusting and sick. Immoral and wrong - it's akin to sacrificing your children to Molech or some other demon.
And don't kid yourself, thinking that a Christian teacher in the school is like a missionary. I used to think that... no longer! Former Senator Ron Paul said it best... if Christian teachers are missionaries in the public school, then why aren't they sharing the Gospel?
I'll tell you why - because they'll get fired.
It is far past time for Christian parents to pull their kids out of the godless system known as American education! Get together, pool your money, and hire a teacher (or teachers) who will teach the truth, and teach the Word of God, and instruct your children in the ways of the Lord.
One of the clearest ways that we can see God blessing us as we do this is our kids will grow to love Jesus. We can see that these kiddo’s here love Jesus. And when we get right down to it, what is more important than that? Not sports or extra-curricular activities, not being accepted and approved by worldly friends, not being accepted into woke – godless – universities.
So what is of primary importance to us – that these kids whom we love, love God, and seek to glorify God, and that they will enjoy Him forever.
CLOSING.
