Deliberate Family Discipleship Part 1

A Mandate for Biblical Education

“A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education.” - Theodore Roosevelt

2 Timothy 3:15 ESV

and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

Proverbs 22:6 ESV

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

We have a sovereign assignment as parents to educate our children. We need not esteem the world’s higher education as they are confused by the simplicity of creation itself. We hold fast to the highest of thought and understanding with with mind of the Most High. However, never let intellectualism become a substitute for real relationship.

We live in a society where if you do not have a degree you cannot hardly get a job above the poverty line. At the same time, to get that degree you have to sit through pagan, anti-God, socialistic indoctrination. If you send your kids, to just about any university in this nation, without a sound and solid Biblical worldview, you are sending them into the cultural war ill-equipped.

We are called to be more than just educators who peddle mere knowledge. There is all kinds of knowledge in the world. Some of it is useful and good while some of it is downright wicked. Today, you can get an education on just about anything through YouTube or on the internet. And the supposed higher education in our universities today is a cultural and social scam.

We are commanded by God to be more than just our kids best buddy, Santa Clause, or baby sitter.

My oldest son is a business student at University of Central Arkansas. During the middle of his first semester, he came home and exclaimed, “Dad, how is it that ever class and every subject is somehow tied to homosexuality? What does homosexuality have to do with algebra?”

As believers, we are called to impart the knowledge of God and call generations unto Him. We are called to give divine understanding and wisdom as the foundation for our homes and society as a whole. In 1 Corinthians 1:20 and 25, the Apostle Paul, a student of Gamaliel, states:

1 Corinthians 1:20 ESV

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

1 Corinthians 1:25 ESV

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And in Proverbs 9:9-10 we are told:

Proverbs 9:9–10 ESV

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be still wiser; teach a righteous man, and he will increase in learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

“In the days of Christ, the Pharisees were the Jewish group that believed in public education. The bet ha-midrash in the Temple hall (Luke ii. 46, xx. 1, xxi. 37; Matt. xxi. 23, xxvi. 55; John xviii. 20) is called the "bet ha-midrash ha-gadol," the great high school” (Tanna debe Eliyahu R. ix. [x.], xvi., and elsewhere). (BET HA-MIDRASH - JewishEncyclopedia.com)

“In the first century, schools existed everywhere at the side of the synagogues (Acts. xix. 9, "the school of one Tyrannus"). The primary school, bet hasefer, was, however, instituted at a later time, first by Simeon ben Shetaḥ, about 100 B.C. at Jerusalem (Yer. Ket. viii. 32c), and later introduced generally, for the benefit of all children, by Joshua b. Gamla in the first century” (B. B. 21a; see Education). (BET HA-MIDRASH - JewishEncyclopedia.com)

While in Egyptian captivity, the Israelite children went to pagan school. But in the wilderness the home and the Tabernacle were where they got a real education.

The beit midrash is more than just an institutional gathering. It is a place that competed with the ever-changing cultures around them to hold fast to truth. In fact, the word synagogue referred not so much to the building but to the people in it. The beit midrash was to be an extension of the home where the way of God was taught and talmidim (discipleship) began (Where Did the Beit Midrash Come From? - Jewish Theological Seminary; jtsa.edu).

In Matthew 11:29 Jesus says:

Matthew 11:29 ESV

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

(Learn - lamad; לָמַד; to be taught, instructed and trained with skill)

This was the foundation for early American public education. When you think of public education in the infantile stages of our nation, you probably conjure images of Laura Ingalls on Little House in the Prairie and a little white country church that doubled as the schoolhouse.

However, both primary and secondary education have been a foundational part of American society beginning with the first colonists who established both schools and colleges in the seventeenth century. According to Dr. Patrick Capriola, in 1635 the Boston Latin School was the first public school in the United States. It was founded by the early Puritan settlers as a boys-only college prep-school. What followed were various denominations establishing public institutions of education. But it was the Puritan settlers of New England who initiated what we know as the public education system for both primary and secondary education, not the government. (The History of Education in America: A Timeline; By: Author Dr. Patrick Capriola; Posted on Published: October 31, 2022; https://strategiesforparents.com/the-history-of-education-in-america-a-timeline)

So, what of these Puritans? Was their intent to establish secular humanistic education under the thumb of government funding and control? In their quest for religious freedom, the Puritans viewed their journey to America as exactly analogous to the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. England was Egypt, the king was Pharaoh, the Atlantic Ocean their Red Sea, and the Puritans were the Israelites entering into a new covenant with God in a new Promised Land. In fact, most of the Puritans had Hebrew names and there was even a proposal to make Hebrew the language of the colonies! Many people believe that the Pilgrims modeled Thanksgiving after the holiday of Sukkot סוכות (Feast of Tabernacles). (RABBI ERIC EISENKRAMER, What's Jewish about Thanksgiving? Lots!; https: ReformJudaism.org)

However, public education in America has been stolen by the government and hijacked by humanists. Anti-Christ liberalism has seized public education with an agenda to pollute and pervert the minds of generations. Reading, writing and arithmetic are no longer the goal. Instead, it is sexuality, socialism and social restructuring. Our nation has digressed from ethical absolutes to the age of moral relativism and now to the days of absolute social insanity as the new cultural normal. Moral depravity ensues and people perish for the absence of the knowledge of God. They now seek to propagate ideas such as ethical non-monogamy and normalized pedophilia. Education is now the tool of the reprobate mind. If you believe in absolute truth, you are now the root of all evil. Good is evil and evil is good. If you believe in transcendent ethics, you are now an intolerant enemy of the state.

Even most churches are filled with Christians, both in the pews and pulpits, who profess the Christ but have not experienced a conversion. Churches are filled with pastors and parishioners who do not have the mind of Christ but instead have assimilated the new cultural norms into their eclectic form of modern, progressive, common core Christianity. Most Christians today do not have biblical worldviews as generations are leaving the church, losing their identities and forfeiting their destinies.

“Christians are tempted to make unnecessary concessions to those outside of the faith. We must show true Christian colours, if we are to be true to Jesus Christ. We cannot remain silent and concede everything away.” - C.S. Lewis

Speaking of the mighty men who joined with David to restore the kingdom of Israel at the call of the Lord:

1 Chronicles 12:32 ESV

Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 200 chiefs, and all their kinsmen under their command.

According to Barna Research, “A sizable number of Americans see morality as a matter of cultural consensus. About two-thirds of all American adults (65%) agree either strongly or somewhat (18% and 47% respectively) that “every culture must determine what is acceptable morality for its people.” (The End of Absolutes: America's New Moral Code - Barna Group; https://www.barna.com/research/the-end-of-absolutes-americas-new-moral-code)

Another article states, “The analysis of results from the American Worldview Inventory 2021, a representative sampling of 2,000 U.S. adults from the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, shows that 54% of the survey’s participants embrace the postmodern idea that all truth is subjective and there are no moral absolutes.” (Poll: Most Americans say ‘truth’ is subjective, no absolute right or wrong; https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/oct/20/most-americans-say-truth-subjective-no-absolute-ri)

I believe we have a clarion call to re-establish, re-build, and reform education in our nation starting in our homes and the church for generations to come. My greatest concern is not just the soul of our nation, but future generations. The Church is in the Christian education business (teaching the Way of Adonai) but we are foremost in the business of the souls of men.

As followers of the Christ, we must understand that His Kingdom still impacts and must be the foundation for our political and ethical convictions as well as the way we think about theology, philosophy, ethics, morality, biology, ontology, psychology, epistemology, sociology, law, politics, economics, statesmanship and history.

For too long we held, and continue to live by false assumptions about the days ahead. We must diligently seek to overthrow every argument (including naturalism, humanism, relativism, socialism, atheism, agnosticism, pantheism, feminism, antinomianism, henotheism and every other ism) that seeks to exalt itself above the sovereignty of God Almighty. These ideologies have found their way into the Body of Christ. They seek to destroy the fabric of our families and distort the knowledge of God.

We must place Kingdom over culture. We must understand the times we are in and answer the call to reform education and re-establish a firm foundation with the mind of Christ. May none of you grow weary in the well doing of the calling that is before you. You are not just building a ministry or establishing another parallel educational institution. You are building the Kingdom of our God in the face of the enemy right in the midst of your homes.