What is the Purpose of Christian Education? – Part 2

Last time, in part 1, I touched on a number of verses that speak to education. It is imperative to understand education from a biblical worldview if we are to raise children in the nurture and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4). As I have mentioned before this also is imperative because once we see what God calls for in the way of education it should became clear that the public education system is diametrically opposed to God’s plan for education and thus not acceptable for the children of Christian parents.

The public education system seeks to remove God from education but in truth He is simply replaced by the god of humanism. Everybody worships some god and the god of humanism is man himself and not the one God who created man. Any education children receive from the state is by its very nature and direction man centered and seeks to minimize or negate the God of the Bible, many times at all costs. Children in the public school system are bombarded by humanism for 8 hours a day which is difficult to counteract by most professing Christian parents with the remaining time left even for the most diligent parent. Needless to say it is easy to see where this leads to and that is a generation that has no more a biblical worldview than the schools they are taught by.

Here are some more verse that speak to the nature and direction of education:

Jer 10:2
Thus says the LORD: "Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them,

This verse speaks about the worthlessness of the cultures ways. This does not say we cannot teach what other cultures ways are but we are not to teach children so as they become their ways. In the public school system that is one of the main goals. That goal is to train children to be a part of society and fit the norms and morays of the people instead of teaching them to obey the commands of God. Keep in mind the worlds ways are not God’s ways and one cannot be taught one without it affecting the other.


Matt 12:30
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters
When deciding if public school is for children of believing parents contemplate the words of Jesus here. The school system cannot proclaim that God cannot enter the classroom and at the same time be for God. Thus to send children to public school is to send them into a system that is against God.


Matt 18:6but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
These words of Jesus should give us pause as anyone contemplates sending their children to the government schools. To send them where the goal is to separate God from education is to put them in a position to sin. Contemplate the position you put your children into by sending them to public school and this verse becomes one we should be concerned with.


Matt 28:20teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
While we often think of this verse only in terms of evangelism we should do so with our children in mind as this is our first place of evangelism. We are called not to make converts but disciples and when we send our children off to be taught by the government we are definitely not raising/discipling them to obey God’s commands. The public school system does quite the contrary and in reality seek to undermine all that God commands.


Luke 6:39-4039 He also told them a parable: "Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher

This verse is imperative as it truly reflects the nature of the government educational system, that it is blind since it seeks its answers in man not God. The result of all of this is that the student will in the end be like the one that teaches them and in the public school system that is to become a “good” pagan humanist. As I have mentioned already, don’t fool yourself that minimal time at home and in some Sunday school will overcome the 8 hours a day the student is being indoctrinated.


2 Cor 6:14
Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
While this verse is usually used with regards to marriage as well as business partnerships it is equally valid for education. The act of teaching is truly discipleship and when the student spends so much time with the teacher/teachers they are in a manner yoked to them. Not only are they yoked to the teachers but in the end the goal of government education is to be yoked to the state.



Eph 6:4Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

This may be the last verse listed but it is integral to understanding education from a biblical worldview. The training and discipleship of our children is to be centered on God not man as the humanistic public school system has as a focus. Many may balk at this and say what about math, reading, writing and the such but the point here is that all of those subjects when taught need to be taught with God as the focus and that will not happen in government run schools.

These are only some of the verses that speak to aspects of education and raising our children from a biblical worldview. The challenge for Christian parents is to realize God does speak to how we are to raise our children and His commands are not vague. We as Christian parents and especially fathers need to see that it is our position and duty to raise and to educate/disciple our children. It is too important a task to leave to others. I realize that many parents have gotten themselves to a place where a change is difficult but that should be no reason not to make the change. For those that are new parents I urge you to see what scripture says about educating your children and then seek to follow God’s commands.


Also, the following is a great post by Voddie Baucham: Top Five Reasons Not to Send Your Kids Back to Govt. Schools.

Here are the reasons he gave, you can read the post for the details.

5. You don’t have to
4. America’s schools are among the worst in the industrialized world
3. America’s schools are morally repugnant
2. Government education is anti-Christian
1. The Bible commands Christ-centered education


Series Posts
1) Christian Homeschooling and Charter Schools
2) What is the purpose of Christian Education: Part 1 & Part 2
3) Should the Government be involved in the Education of our children
4) Why are we so easily swayed by the money & items offered by charter schools?
5) Should not my children be in the public school to be lights in a dark place?
6) Why do we need to meet man’s standards for education?
7) Why do we need relief or a respite from the presence of our children?
8) Isn't how we educate our children a preference?
9) What if my husband says he does not want to homeschool?

Food, Inc. Movie Review

Well we just got back from seeing the release of the movie Food, Inc.. I have had a couple trailers up over the last month or so, here and here, but did not know the movie was coming to our area until today.

This is an important movie to see as the food we eat is becoming increasingly less natural and more genetically engineered. In the movie food is even referred to as being both technologically and scientifically advanced, I am not sure that is how we should refer to our food. As believers we need to watch this movie from a biblical worldview with regards to creation, the nature of man and government. We need to see our place in the creation order and our part of the dominion mandate not to destroy and genetically engineer food but to care for it and use it as God intended.

What needs to be taken away is the fact that the food we eat is not what we think it is and there is great effort made to keep it that way. However unlike the movies conclusions the answer is not more government regulations but better choices by people, although they do speak to the affect people can have. It is actually interesting that the movie both seeks for government regulation and at the same time blames the government for the problem. Their conclusions seem to stem from a view that takes the responsibility from man and places it on government.

However, I think the movie shows the opposite as it is the government control and access into the food industry that has brought many of the issues we have. At the same time they show how we as the consumer can effect changes as they show Wal-Mart making changes in the milk they sell. The truth is that government control in the end will stifle the growth of healthy food by the small farmer rather then help them. It is we the consumer that needs to seek food that is not simply labeled as organic or healthy but is truly what it is clamed to be.

The comments by Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm are great and he relates that healthy food can be produced without destroying the land and abusing animals. He shows that humane treatment of animals does not negate the use of them for food but instead seeks to be stewards of those animals as God’s creation while they are being raised. He comments that even if natural food is slightly more expensive it will in the end be less expensive when one takes into account being healthier. I would also add that if the government was not subsidizing the GMO’s (Genetically Modified Organisms) taxes may be less and then there would be more money to spend on healthy food.

So go and see the movie, make better decisions about food, and be part of changing this world for God’s glory while being the stewards of the creation that God has placed us over.

Here is the trailer I posted earlier:

UN Treaty Jeopardizes Homeschool Freedom in Britain

The following is further proof of the danger the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The UNCRC is not simply about children’s rights, whatever that means to the UN, but about government control of children.

ParentalRights.org reports the following from HSLDA:

The following is a press release published by Home School Legal Defense Association yesterday:

Purcellville, VA – Last week the Children’s Secretary of Britain accepted a report in full by Graham Badman which argues for an end to homeschool freedom. “While it’s disgraceful that the British government would even entertain this report it’s particularly troubling for American parents because the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) was used as the justification for this action,” said Michael Farris, Chairman of HSLDA and President of ParentalRights.org.

The Badman report uses Articles 12 and 29 of the UNCRC to justify registering the estimated 80,000 homeschooling families in Britain, forcing them to provide annual reports regarding their homeschool, granting government officials the right to enter the home and interview the children alone as well as reserving the choice of curriculum to the state. HSLDA has been warning that the UNCRC could bring an end to homeschool freedom in the U.S., if the treaty was ever ratified by the U.S. Senate because Article VI of the U.S. Constitution says that treaties become the supreme law of the land.

For the UNCRC to be ratified it must gain a two-thirds vote in the U.S. Senate. If this happens then the UNCRC will automatically supersede all state laws and U.S. judges will be obligated to follow the provisions of the treaty. Currently, family and education laws are state-based; however, ratification of the UNCRC would transfer the jurisdiction for making family and education law to the U.S. Congress. Congress would, in turn, be obligated to follow the UN mandates contained in the CRC. The only answer at this point would be to add a Parental Rights Amendment (PRA) to the Constitution.

The Badman report is a stark reminder of how government officials in an English-speaking democracy have interpreted the UNCRC. It’s clear that the right to homeschool in America will be negatively impacted if the U.S. Senate ever ratifies the UNCRC.

To read the full United Kingdom report, click here.

To find out more about the Parental Rights Amendment, click here.

To read the full report from HSLDA on this press release click here.

What is the Purpose of Christian Education? – Part 1

A week or so ago I wrote on Homeschooling and Charter Schools and in the course of writing the post I touched on some questions we as Christian parents need to answer. But before I get to the first question I will deal with what we need to remember as professing believers we have gotten ourselves to a place where changing course is imperative but will be difficult. It will take hard decisions and may often even mean financial hardship. The question though has to always come back to not what we feel we should do but what God reveals we should do. I think as believers when we seek the road that has to be traveled we need to answer first; should believers rely on the government and public education to educate their children. Then the question is; as believers are we to educate our children or can we leave this to “Christian schools.”

So with this all in mind here are the questions I posed previously, but I have reordered them:

1) What is the purpose of education/discipleship for believer’s?
2) Is the government to be involved in the education of my children at all?
3) Why are we so easily swayed by the money & items offered by charter schools?
4) Should not my children be in the public school to be lights in a dark place?
5) Why do we need to meet man’s standards for education?
6) Why do we need relief or a respite from the presence of our children?
7) Isn’t the method of education of our children a preference?

I begin with the purpose of education because we need to understand this aspect of the caring for our children before moving on. As I want to put the verses with each reference I will break this down into at least two parts.

When one looks in scripture for education you will not find the specific word education as we know it is used. Instead we need to seek out words such as wisdom, knowledge, discipleship and the like. We need to realize that God’s call to make disciples starts with our children.

So let us look at some verses that touch on the education of our children. After the verse I will give a brief comment on each.

First is Deut 6:1-9:
(1) “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the rules that the LORD your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, (2) that you may fear the LORD your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long. (3) Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. (4) “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. (7) 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. (8)You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. (9) You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We will also look at this passage later when it comes to who should educate our children but this passage shows the necessity of teaching/discipling our children about the commands of God. We are told in V6 that we as parents, especially fathers, are to have these very same commands on our heart and then we are to not only teach them to our children but to do so diligently. Then Moses, in case it was not clear, reveals what is meant by diligently. We are to spend a large amount of our time discipling our children in all places in all of life. So the education/discipling of our children is primarily to instill in them the commands of the Lord and to let them see by our constant contact with them that those very same commands are on our hearts.


Next is Prov 1:7-9
(7) The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction. (8) Hear, my son, your father's instruction,
and forsake not your mother's teaching, (9) for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.

This passage lets us see that the wisdom we are to teach our children does not start in some textbook or curriculum but in the fear of the Lord. That fear is only taught in scripture and is to be taught by the parents as V8 shows. The mainstay of the teaching of our children should be the fear of the Lord as revealed in scripture so that they can truly, by God’s power, be wise.


Prov 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go;
even when he is old he will not depart from it.

This verse makes it clear that the training of our children is to focus on “the way they should go.” This training is not found in a calculus book or some philosophy book but in God’s word. This does not say that math is not important or that other subjects are not useful. What I am saying is that those subjects are not where scripture has us start. A child that knows his 3 R’s but is not raised in the fear of the Lord or the way he should go is not prepared to be used by God. Again, as always. remember this is not about education as the world defines it but about education as God calls us to educate.


Isaiah 54:13
All your children shall be taught by the LORD,
and great shall be the peace of your children.

This passage shows God’s heart for His people to know Him and in this verse for their children to know Him. So we can discern that the education of our children is to make sure that they are taught about God. Yes, it is God that will call them and change their hearts to know Him but God can and often does use the training of children in His word to draw them to Himself. For so many, education is all about everything but God however in His word it is clear that God is most interested in His people and their children knowing Him first and foremost. Education that does not have God at its center is not the education He desires for His people.


I will stop there and look at some other verses later. Keep in mind that my purpose here is, as best I can, to help us see that the raising of our children is not something God has left to our discretion. He has instead set forth parameters that narrow our options so that we can know what God desires us to primarily teach our children. Many of these principles have a cross over when it comes to why we should not allow the government to educate our children as their goal for education is not based on God’s desires but man’s. I would also hope that even for those that already are convinced that public schools are not for the children of believers would see that we need a firm understanding of biblical educational principles so that we do not simply “school at home” but that we would seek after God in all of the curriculum we use.

Till next time, Grace and Peace.

Series Posts
1) Christian Homeschooling and Charter Schools
2) What is the purpose of Christian Education: Part 1 & Part 2
3) Should the Government be involved in the Education of our children
4) Why are we so easily swayed by the money & items offered by charter schools?
5) Should not my children be in the public school to be lights in a dark place?
6) Why do we need to meet man’s standards for education?
7) Why do we need relief or a respite from the presence of our children?
8) Isn't how we educate our children a preference?
9) What if my husband says he does not want to homeschool?

Around the Web and Blogosphere (6/11/09)

Gary North has a new free site that deals with Deliverance From Debt. There is helpful information, a forum and a free 12 Week/ 12 Lesson Course to help get out of debt and just as importantly create good habits with regard to finances. I have signed up for the course to see what it entails and will give a review when the lessons are done.


Kevin Swanson has a blog post that should get ones attention: Are Christians Meant To Take Over the Government? We have a standard that God has called us to live by and that standard should affect all we as Christians do including how we interact with the world around us, thus affecting it in a profound way. Sadly many miss this point, only seeking a kingdom that is to come while missing the kingdom of God that is with us today as His people.


Voddie Baucham has a good article on Barack Obama’s recent declaration of June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. In his article; Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2009 he speaks on the presidents agenda and how we have “the office of the President of the United States not only calling “evil good and good evil,” but putting his seal on it.” We are truly seeing both Romans 1:18-27 as well as Isaiah 5:20 being played out right in front of us.


Now for something a little less controversial, unless you think pickles are controversial. If you like pickles you can check out my wife and daughters blog, Practical Simplicity, as they just made some Fermented Pickles. Not being a pickle lover, except on hamburgers, they were pretty good.

ABC Nightline on Christian Films

ABC’s Nightline did a surprisingly good piece on the Christian Film movement. They interviewed Rich Christiano, Kirk Cameron and others. Here is a link to the video of the show: Box Office Busters from ‘Godlywood’

Also, here is the link to the new movie coming out mentioned on Nightline: The Secrets of Jonathan Sperry.

Around the Web and Blogosphere (6/5/09)

With the death of George Tiller, also known as “Tiller the Killer”, there have been numerous articles written. I think Doug Phillips in his article George Tiller is Dead: For Whom Shall We Mourn? and Kevin Swanson’s Generations Radio broadcast, Tiller the Killer is Dead, are well worth reading and listening to. On the other side is an article by Frank Schaeffer, How I (and Other "Pro-Life" Leaders) Contributed to Dr. Tiller's Murder, that is in reality very sad. Let us realize we can call the killing of Tiller what it was, murder and unbiblical, but at the same time not necessarily feel sorrow for his death. What we should feel sorrow for is the state of our country where men like Tiller are allowed to kill millions of children and be protected by the law. When a country strays from God’s law this is where we end up, a law unto ourselves.



Voddie Baucham’s article: USA Today Misses the Mark on Homeschool Trends, deals with an attempt by the press to show homeschooling as a way for the wealthy to segregate their children from minorities. While it is sad opponents of homeschooling need to turn to such rhetoric it does show that homeschooling is making the type of impact that entails such attacks. I would not be surprised that the government does not latch onto this as they see children slip through their grasp. They will not attack, at least initially, from the front but will start as it has already done with such subversive programs as Charter Schools.



This is a good article over at Vaughnshire Farm: Desiring Slow Community. How often the busyness of the world detracts from the biblical community we are called to have. I am as guilty of this as anyone and need to be more aware of how I allow the “urgent” affairs around me dictate my life. This is one of those areas that the” Industrial Revolution” greatly impacted in a negative manner. While I enjoy many of the benefits the “Industrial Revolution” brought I need to be aware of the many negative aspects it also brought and work, by the power of God, to combat them, at least in my life and the life of my family.



If you area looking into Homeschooling this article may give you some things to think about.: Are You Considering Homeschooling?