THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME |
It's that time of year again when families begin to prepare for
"back to school," for most children in these United
States. The summer's over and our thoughts turn to educating and
preparing them for the world to come. However, when we think of
education today in our nation, many parents are uneasy and seriously
concerned because of troubling reports on education that have
been surfacing in this last decade of the century. American education
today is in big trouble! For in spite of the huge sums of money
spent on our public schools and educational technology, there
seems to be a dumbing down of education.
Some years ago when this first came to light, the then Secretary
of Health Education and Welfare, Joseph Califano, made a startling
statement when he declared, "The worst place a teenager
can be today is in the public school system." [1]
Since that alarm bell began to ring concerning dangers in public
secular education, many families have taken action. For most,
the only answer was to take their children out of public schools
and begin private education. In this group, perhaps the vast majority
of them are Christians who for even more important reasons than
simply quality education, have taken an even greater step to not
only remove their children from Uncle Sam's public schools to
preserve their national heritage and faith, but to bring them
back home for the place of real meaningful education.
Yes, friend, "There's No Place Like Home," not
only for our heart, but also for education too. As such, Home
Schooling has become a most rapidly growing concept of modern
education in the nation. So, after we pause now for another moment
of beautiful music, we'll talk about from a Biblical and societal
perspective. Stay tuned …
…"By the tens of thousands, U.S. youngsters are
shifting from public into private classrooms." Reported
U.S NEWS & WORLD REPORT awhile back, and that trend has not
dwindled. The article reported that the main reason parents were
switching, is that they are dissatisfied with the kind of education
provided by Uncle Sam's schools. For the overwhelming majority,
they want a total education where of all things Jesus Christ is
in the classroom, and study of Him and His Word the Bible is paramount.
Why has this trend happened. Well for starters public education
has changed. For since the founding of our nation, American education
for more than 100 years, was intertwined with the historic Christian
faith and was, in effect, inseparable. History confirms that teaching
in schools was strictly based on the Christian Bible, where the
Lord's Prayer, the Golden Rule, and the Ten Commandments were
firmly taught to all students.
Additionally, all the major Christian holidays were observed,
release time education was granted for students to be trained
by their personal religious leaders, and classrooms, assemblies
and extracurricular activities were all subservient to the religious
life of the community. But all that changed. In the past 100 years
our nation has been overtaken by a new philosophy, a very un-American
one at that, called "Secular Humanism."
This philosophy, which by the way was ruled by a U.S. District
court as a bonafide religion, has now fully taken over every public
school in the nation. What's worse is its doctrine and creed is
now the absolute director of all public education, and reigns
supreme in its teaching for all students regardless of their religious
heritage. What has been the result of this change?
The answer lies in what fruit this new "tree of life"
has grown. Today, statistics show us very clearly, that public
education under the rulership of secular humanism's educators
has drastically deteriorated. Neal Lawrence, writing for Midwest
Today Magazine, recently reported in an article on
public education,
"according to a federally-funded report recently released,
class work in English, math, science, history, geography, foreign
languages, civics and fine arts has shrunk to only 50% of the
typical American high school, day. Incredibly, U.S. High schoolers
only spend an average of about three hours every day on core academic
subjects - half as much time spent by German, French and Japanese
students. The typical U.S. public school curriculum has been 'dumbed
down,' at the same time schools have taken over the responsibility
for teaching everything from health to consumer affairs."
[2]
I believe it is for this reason that private Christian education
has seen phenomenal growth, especially Home Schooling. It is now
estimated that,
"over 300,000 families now practice this oldest, most
traditional method of education, which by the way is now completely
legal in all 50 states and virtually all countries of the world."
[3]
Now I admit, I am partial in this area of Home Schooling. My wife
and I have been Home Schoolers for over fifteen years. We like
many parents today saw that public secular education had so drastically
changed that we felt our children couldn't get the education we
desired for them in such an environment that had become so hostile
to our Christian faith and American heritage. Now, since that
time, we have heard many arguments against Home Schooling, and
been charged by many with failing to be patriotic and support
our nation's schools; to arguments charging us with neglect and
damage to the mentality and emotional growth of our children.
Now since this time of the year rings the school bell again for
our nation's children I want to share with you what private Christians
schooling, particularly Home Schooling has done for my children
and family. I give you this personal glimpse into my life only
to encourage you to consider the right path for you and your children.
To begin, the most common charge against private Home Schooling
has been the idea that when we did this, we were dangerously "sheltering,"
our children and not preparing them for the "real" world
out there. As I thought about that charge, I came to a startling
conclusion. They were absolutely right! I was sheltering them.
But, in coming to that conclusion, I was further galvanized in
my goal to do just that! Why?
Here's some things to consider. When I thought about Uncle Sam's
Schooling as compared to private and particularly Home Schooling,
I decidedly embarked on this journey of no-return, for I indeed
wanted to shelter my children from what public education had turned
to. You see in the secular schools of our nation, now run by religionists
called evolutionary humanists, my faith of Christianity is all
but forbidden. If my five children were going to receive 16,000
hours of instruction by the time they graduated High School, I
wanted to be sure whatever they were taught would not deny what
we believed about life and eternity.
Yet public education has ruled all teachings of Christianity illegal
in public education. Today U.S. law in a public classroom forbids
a teacher, or pupils to pray in class, to have daily readings
from the Bible, to learn about Creation, to even learn about our
Christian American heritage!
Yes, as one examines today's edited textbooks you will find a
censorship of unbelievable magnitude. What has been censored out?
One thing exclusively -- any references to Christianity and the
Creator God having anything to do with our nation's founding and
heritage. Gone are the days of curriculum based on the Bible and
related moral teachings. In its place, secular humanists have
inserted the dogmas and doctrines of their militant anti-God ideology.
Humanism and evolutionism are the "deadly duo," that
permeate all learning. As a result I ask you -- who is really
being sheltered? Are Christian children being sheltered?
The answer is yes. They are being sheltered from the false, dangerous
and deceptive teachings of evolution that say our children are
nothing but cosmic accidents in a mindless, unattended universe,
along with very other life form - nothing but animals, as such
they can live like one if they want. Yes, I chose to shelter them
from that which leads them to hopelessness and despair.
Yet the public school children are being sheltered too. However,
their sheltering rather than being helpful and good, is dangerous
and deadly. Public school children are sheltered from the real
world, for any real introduction to this world in which we live
must begin with an introduction to the One who created it. Another
part of the real world is understood when a student learns that
God made the universe and all things including them. Evolution,
the flagship doctrine of humanism declares there is no God or
creator. To teach this lie to innocent growing children is unconscionable
and dangerous.
Furthermore, sheltering occurs in public education when students
are for years taught that man is self-made, and basically good.
The false idea to this day still perpetuated in secular education
is that all man needs is further education, and a different environment
and all things will get better and turn out well. All one has
to do is read the daily news to find out this is a bold faced
lie. Yes, public school children are in effect the most sheltered
children from the real world. For when the Gospel of Christ is
not taught, they are not equipped with the power to live right
and do right. As a consequence, children who never hear of the
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ are not saved, nor granted the
power of the Holy Spirit within them to life godly, clean and
good for God and man. They never hear that their sins can be forgiven,
that their sin nature can be controlled, and that every children
can have the joy of gaining a new heart that desires to do right.
Yes there is sheltering, but the question is what sheltering.
Is it good sheltering or bad sheltering. I challenge anyone listening
to prove me wrong. Just look at the statistics. Those who gain
a twelve year education in public schools and never hear of Jesus
Christ and take Him as their Savior and Lord, most become the
statistics of today's reports. Crimes of cheating, dishonesty,
rebellion, growing suicide, drunkenness and drugs, broken lives,
sinful immoral living, hopelessness, and deep despair are rotting
our youth from within. These things are not reported of those
who are schooled in a Christian environment, and come to a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ. Why? The answer is simple the basis
of education is wrong and leads to wrong living.
In public schools the Bible is not taught, rather ridiculed. God,
patriotism, and good citizenship is not stressed for these things
can only happen in an environment that our nation was founded
-"One nation under God." John Adams said it well in
1798 when he declared,
"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious
people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
Our Sixth president John Quincy Adams said,
"No book in the world deserves to be so unceasingly
studied, and so profoundly mediated upon as the Bible."
And most recently our 38th president Gerald Ford so
wonderfully stated a quote from President Dwight D. Eisenhower
who said on December 5, 1954,
"Without God there could be no American form of government,
nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Being
is the first - the most basic - expression of Americanism. Thus,
the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus with God's help
it will continue to be. - 1974"
Almost all such expressions of faith have been removed from the
textbooks of history in public education. As such, public school
children are the most sheltered naive children in the world. From
this I willingly sheltered them. But then another popular argument
against our family home schooling was, my children would not be
adequately educated and prepared from college and life. Quite
honestly, when my children were young I could not answer this
one. I had to wait until they too became adults.
Well my friends, my family is all but grown now. My wife and I
are grandparents too. My oldest children a boy and three girls
went on to college. Two have already graduated with Bachelor's
degrees, two others are completing college now and our last, a
boy anxiously awaits college next year. My oldest boy is completing
his masters degree in telecommunications at this time. No, on
the contrary, home schooling was not a detriment to them, rather
it was a positive discipline that fully prepared them for life.
Now as good citizens of our nation and faithful members of the
body of Christ, all of my children are walking with the Lord and
faithfully serving him as God has equipped and led them. That
my friend is an adequate education, and one that enabled me to
pass on my faith as commanded by God.
Now I've left for last the most important reason for Christian
education. My wife and I and literally hundreds of thousands of
others who have chosen private Christian education have done so,
because of the command of God upon the life of parents to rightly
rear their children in the faith of their fathers. You see as
a Christian, every one who believes in Christ is commanded to
train their children in the truths of God's Word. We read in God's
Word found in,
Deuteronomy 6:1-6 (NIV) "These are the commands, decrees
and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe
… 2 so 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… 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the
LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments
that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress 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.
8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates."
If you're a Christian today, know this. The Bible teaches that
man was explicitly created for God's glory. The Bible declares,
Isaiah 43:7 (NIV) "everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.""
Therefore, education for Christians must have the standard of
glorifying God and preparing children to live lives that glorify
Him. Moses wrote to his people that God commanded them to diligently
teach His Word as the principle for living all life. To further
reinforce this God warned His people,
Jeremiah 10:2 (NIV) "This is what the LORD says: "Do
not learn the ways of the [godless] nations…"
Colossians 2:8 (NIV) "See to it that no one takes you
captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends
on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather
than on Christ."
2 John 1:7-11 (Paraphrased) "Watch out for the false
teachers--and there are many of them around--who don't believe
that God in the person of Jesus Christ came to earth as a human
being with a body like ours. Such teachers deny God's truths and
are against Christ … 10 If anyone comes to teach you, and
he doesn't believe the Bible and what Christ taught, don't even
invite him into your home. Don't encourage him in any way. 11
If you do, you will be a partner with him in his deceitful wickedness."
You see friend, God warns us that we are not to allow our hearts
nor our children's hearts to be infected with teaching that denies
the Bible, the origins of our majestic creation, nor prevents
God from glorifying Christ in everything. Public education by
our neo-American interpretation of law, says Christianity must
be excluded from every vestige of public education., But to do
that denies God His right to the hearts of the children He created.
As such, I could not obey God's Word for my home, family and Christian
life unless I adequately gave my children a Christian education
and heritage that only private Christian schooling could bring.
Now this week, millions of young children will return to school
as the vast majority will go into Uncle Sam's secularized schools.
There they will learn there is no God, that they are the product
of mindless chance and as such have no meaning and are going nowhere.
They will learn there that everything around them in the world
is a product of mindless evolution. As such, a worm, a spotted
owl, a whale or a monkey may have more rights than they have.
They will further learn that they are inherently good and that
they have the right to form their own rules for living; that parents
are not the true authority over them, and they owe no allegiance
to them.
Children [de]humanized by evolutionary faith will after 16,000
hours of study come out of high school godless, fully secularized,
and aimless in life. For many, their lives will have already been
ruined by drugs, alcohol, immorality, and a host of mind filth;
so much so, that life for them will consist mainly of having a
good time, eating, drinking, partying and indulging in riotous
living until they die. Admittedly, some will go on to do right
as society sees it, but the vast majority will have been wasted
and when they die, they will go on to a Christless eternity and
an endless Hell, all because they were sheltered from learning
of the great God who gave them life and who loves them and has
a wonderful plan for their lives.
Oh my friends, my heart is burdened when I think of the wasteland
of youth today that has been abused by public education and denied
the beauty and truth of Jesus Christ. It is therefore our duty
as Christians to seek and save them that are lost. Let us as this
school year begins dedicate our lives to reaching children for
Christ. Giving the them wonderful Gospel and Good News that Christ
has died for their sins, and that upon receiving Him into their
lives, their sins can be forgiven, and God will grant a new heart
to love Him and live for Him. Say friend, on this note may I ask
you? Have you been sheltered from hearing this "good news?"
Have you received Christ into your life? If not, all that awaits
you when life is over is a fearful looking for of judgment to
come. Don't deny it! God is real, Christ is real, the Gospel is
real too.
So, come to Christ, receive Him as your Savior and Lord, and God
your Creator promises to make your life more abundant and enjoyable
and in eternity, you will receive God's abiding love and care.
This my friend is the basis of all true education. May it be your
goal for your own heart and family and friends.
Education today that omits God, and teaches a false origin of
life is, I believe, the most evil and wicked thing that can be
delivered to our children. It's sad that today our nation is dedicated
to rooting out God and His Word. He is forbidden to attend public
schools, and as such they have become barren wastelands of false
teaching and hopelessness. But every Christian has the option.
To either home school which I believe is closest to fulfilling
God's plan for education, or utilizing the wonderful Christian
schools most have near them. Don't wait too long. You may lose
your children not only to Christ, but to a rewarding life and
satisfying old age. May God guide you in this plan and place for
education and truth.
________________________________________________________________
Resources:
[1] "YOUR CHILDREN: THE VICTIMS OF PUBLIC EDUCATION," by Robert Allen Hill & Olaf John; page 13, a comment by Dr. Joseph Califano; Published by Bible Voice, Inc. Van Nuys, California
[2] "HOMESCHOOLING VERSES PUBLIC EDUCATION," Article by Neal Lawrence; Midwest Today Magazine, September 1994. [Access on Internet: http://www.midtod.com]
[3] Ibid.
The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures.A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request.These weekly radio commentaries can be heard in selected areas around the nation. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for 16 years, and serves as General Director. These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of all messages is available upon request also.
For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker,
Dennis L. Finnan(wwyfin@sparc.isl.net), or visit our webpage at [ http://www.isl.net/wwyweb.html ].