Not Eating Everything You are Served

By the time homeschooled or Christian schooled graduates attend college they have a long history of being trained to respect and honor authority. This is how it should be because the fifth commandment begins with the concept of submitting to the rule and directives of one’s parents and extends out to all legitimate authority ordained by God. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism makes clear, one honors God by honoring those He places in authority over us, which begins with parents and extends to those in authority in the various spheres of life. By implication, all people are to be treated with honor, whether positionally they are our superiors, inferiors, or equals.

When young people venture into the secular settings of higher education, all too often those in authority have achieved their position because they subscribe to the “religious” tenets of the institution. Godless worldviews and philosophies rule the day, and the tenured professors are those who adhere faithfully to the doctrines of a humanistic worldview. It is standard operating procedure for students to be barraged with humanistic, materialistic secularism in classes ranging from English composition to biology to language. How do we help Christian students facing these assaults?

First, by answering some questions:

1. Are they attending the institution with a specific goal in mind, or are they just killing time?
2. Are they really prepared for what lies ahead?
3. What subjects will they be learning about for the first time?
4. Are they willing to spend the time it takes to verify the truth of what they are learning?

The first question is a very necessary one. Without a specific purpose, attending college can be a huge waste of time and financial resources as the student struggles to find his calling. It may be more beneficial for the young person to spend time doing volunteer work, going on a short-term mission trip, apprenticing in a field of interest, or getting a job. The decision to attend college can always be postponed to a future date when the student has a goal in mind.

The second question is meant to identify whether or not the young person truly knows what occurs on a college campus. In addition to the intellectual assaults, there are moral assaults that come from the hedonistic lifestyle of non-Christians. Christian worldview conferences like the yearly West Coast Christian Worldview Conference are designed to prepare students for what lies ahead. If travelling to one of these conferences is prohibitive financially, lectures are often available on CD in mp3 format.

Third, how does one know that the information he is being taught is true? For example, without a prior knowledge of Biblical economics, a student may not be able to see through the fallacies of Marxist economic theory. Without a Biblical understanding of history or mathematics, a student will not be able to recognize the lies being taught and false teachings can easily erode the solid Biblical foundations laid in earlier schooling.

The fourth question will prove to be the most unpopular. With all the work involved in carrying a full credit load, there is little time to check what a professor teaches against the more reliable teaching of Christian scholars. Moreover, if a student does this and brings the Christian perspective into class, the reaction of his classmates and professors can be very harsh. So, does the student blindly accept what he is being taught or take the time to counter the instructor and perhaps, double the time it will take him to get through school, if he is even permitted to graduate with such unpopular views.

With these issues in consideration, it is easy to understand why Christian students need to find mentors and develop a support group to check with regularly and discuss what is being taught in their classes and the temptations and moral assaults they face on a daily basis. Without this assistance, it can be difficult to recognize whether they are being converted to another way of thinking.

There may come a time when the content of a particular class becomes intolerable for a variety of reasons. The teacher may be antagonistic to opposing views. The teacher may be a Christian basher and refuse to allow Christian perspective or analysis to be introduced. I know of a recent case where the class discussion contained offensive sexual jokes and class discussions originated by the teacher, all under the banner of becoming an “effective” communicator. In truth, it was just an excuse to be crass. In cases like this, it is appropriate to drop the class and have nothing to do with such deeds of darkness. At times, this may mean dropping a class that is required for graduation. Ultimately, principle must govern rather than pragmatism. If Christians are to be salt and light wherever they go, physically remaining in degraded situations may serve to significantly dim that light.

The Lord often calls us to what we consider to be less than ideal circumstances. That is why it is necessary to stay connected to His Word and listen to the Spirit’s leading. It is also important for young people not to buy into the lie that once graduated from high school they are adults and no longer in need of direction and guidance from their parents. In God’s economy, turning eighteen or finishing twelve years of schooling does not remove a person from honoring God and his parents. Secularists count on young people responding to the lie that they should be able to stand on their own two feet, as a way to dislodge them from their belief structures and their community. Additionally, many schools require that students live in dorms for, at least, their first year. Why would they do that? Because it is a good way to debase students. Exposing and subjecting them to immorality is a way to break them down so that they are more open and susceptible to other wicked teachings.

In the end, those who have been trained to respect authority must be discerning when it comes to how they obey God in these kinds of circumstances. The key is in obeying authority that honors God. No one has any obligation to obey God-less authority or accept a bill of goods from subversives bent on denying the truth of God’s Word. Unlike when they were children, they do not need to eat everything they are served!

Getting the Question Right

Brothers Who Undermine

Today while driving, I heard a Christian talk show host and his guest, a local pastor, discuss the “negatives” of homeschooling. Both noted that at one point they had homeschooled their children. In so many words, they indicated that failing to place children in the public schools demonstrated an isolationist mentality that was antithetical to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The pastor made the outrageous statement, “My Master would have put His kids in public school.” He supported this statement by indicating that Jesus was against the Pharisees and their false piety. His solution was for families to learn how to deal in the “real world” by going to church, Sunday school, Wednesday evening service, and many other “church” events that would arm parents so they could prepare their children for the missionary work of spreading the gospel in the public schools.

It cannot be stated too often or too strongly that the “real world” is the world where Jesus Christ is Lord over every area of life and thought. Any other world is the world of myth, falsehoods, and deception. What naiveté to assume that Christian children can learn any academic subject honestly and correctly if the Word of God is not the foundation and starting point, let alone act as missionaries. What arrogance to claim that Jesus would want children in the hands of God-haters in their formative years.

With friends like this, who needs enemies!

Collaboration

There are many important milestones in parents’ lives with their children. It starts when the couple discovers that the wife is pregnant and continues with the birth of the child. There are the noteworthy events of the first smile, the first word, the first step, and many others including a first car and a first job. Some firsts are easier on the father than on the mother, and vice versa. What is universal is the tension that arises when the parents view their children as youngsters, when they are young men and young women.

This was driven home to me three years ago when my “baby” was fourteen years old. From the outside she was anything but a baby, since she measured at least 5’9” in stature. Nonetheless, she was still my youngest, my “baby.” Then, my son and daughter-in-law presented us with a “for real” baby in the person of my grandson. Witnessing my daughter hold her nephew for the first time changed my image of her radically.

Older children often feel as though their parents “baby” them. They recognize that they still have much to learn, but they wish they could alter the perception their parents have of them.

An effective way to bridge this transition is for parents and children to get involved in a collaborative effort. By taking on a joint project, they learn to see each other as associates rather than parent and child. Having the opportunity to see each other work under the pressure of deadlines, deal with unexpected outcomes, or share success, make each recognize the others’ strengths and weaknesses. Each learns how to be gracious with each other as their relationship matures.

Currently my daughter and I are working on a graduation project because she will complete high school next spring. This project has taken planning and vision. We have had to work together to schedule, determine production costs, select materials etc. In the process, I have discovered that many of her ideas and skills are superior to mine. She has found out that her mother has talents and abilities that she does not. We make a good team.

Long after our children establish themselves with their own families and callings, these kinds of activities allow for a smooth transition into the adult-to-adult relationship that many children desire with their parents. For me, one of the best “payoffs” to homeschooling is having children I can go to to help me think through personal problems and concerns because I have established a mature relationship with them, and know the foundations on which they were raised.

That Slippery Slope You've Heard About

A young mother watched her baby son die in her arms after doctors refused to help because he was born two days too soon and therefore ‘just a foetus’.

Sarah Capewell gave birth to Jayden after 21 weeks and five days of pregnancy.

But doctors refused her desperate pleas to place him in intensive care because medical guidelines state that under 22 weeks a baby is a foetus and does not qualify for intensive care treatment. (more)

From Hearers to Doers: The Alpha and Omega of Faith

The book of Ecclesiastes ends with a straightforward directive,

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Eccl. 12:13–14

This statement presupposes that God’s law-word is the rule for all areas of life and thought, and calls us to obedience to it as a duty. Anyone who takes this admonition seriously will naturally need and want to know, how do we go from being hearers of the Word to being doers of the Word? Read the rest of this article...

Mistakes, Blunders, Oversights, and Errors

Homeschooling moms need to run a tight ship. If a woman is going to succeed in the varied roles she fulfills (wife, mom, teacher, chauffer, medical liaison, social coordinator, etc.) she needs to have control of her domain. It is not unrealistic or unreasonable to expect everyone to do his or her job and conform to a schedule that allows all priorities and expectations to be met. But…

There is a danger in being regimental. It can lead to overlooking the reality that people (especially husbands and children) have flaws, and that mistakes, blunders, oversights, and errors can and will happen. In short, as homeschooling moms rise on the efficiency meter, it is possible, and likely, that they fall on the mercy meter.

Nothing remedies this tendency like personal, humbling experiences that reveal to us that we, too, fall short of God’s glory and need to rethink our harsh grading of those we teach and with whom we live. Yesterday, I had such an experience, the details of which don’t mean much to anyone but me. Suffice it to say, when we go through the “valley of humiliation,” we see how good our God truly is, and how we would be nothing without Him.

Excellence, efficiency, competence, and diligence are vital components to serving the Kingdom of God. Similarly, mercy, patience, understanding, compassion, and longsuffering are the God-ordained means by which we become more like His Son.