Christopher J. Klicka
If we are honest with ourselves, we cannot escape the fact that the public
schools are no longer a safe place for children academically, physically,
or most important of all, spiritually. The state, meanwhile, not content
to control only public schools, constantly encroaches on the freedoms of
private schools and home schools through various case precedents,
regulations, and statutes. As a result many public school authorities have
come to believe that they are the guardians of all the children.
Many home schooling parents, however, take offense to this presumption by
superintendents. In the tradition of their forefathers, these parents
believe that God, not the state, has given parents the sole authority and
responsibility for the education of their children.
Approximately ninety
percent of the estimated home schooling families in the United States are
Bible-believing Christians. Therefore, the word of God is recognized as
the source of all truth and the standard by which all things are measured.
When the United States was formed, the framers of the Constitution and
many of the citizens had a biblical mind-set. Today, it has been replaced
by a secular mind-set. Public schools are teaching the children to be
biblically illiterate and to ignore God's absolute moral values. The
negative effects are being felt throughout the country. In many ways we
have "sown the wind and now reap the whirlwind," as we allow children's
minds to be wasted in the public schools, void of godly values and truth.
Home schoolers are working to restore that biblical mind-set in their
children and trying to fulfill the commands of God concerning the
education of their children.
The following is a summary of the biblical principles of education which
support Christian home schooling.
The Raising of Children is Delegated to Parents by God:
According to the Bible, children belong to God, but the responsibility and
authority to raise and educate them is delegated to their parents.
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his
reward.-Psalm 127:3.
In Genesis 33:5 Jacob introduces his children to his brother Esau as "the
children which God hath graciously given thy servant."
In Isaiah 8:18, the prophet says, "and the children whom the Lord hath
given me."
Although God has "given" children to parents, children are a "gift of
stewardship," which means that parents do not really "own" their children.
Parents, therefore, are not free to raise their children any way they want
because God gives the parents certain "conditions" that must be met.
God
still considers the children to be His children. God refers to Jacob's
children as "the work of My hands" in Isaiah 29:23. David gives thanks to
God for being "fearfully and wonderfully made" while in his mother's womb
in Psalm 139:13-14.
In Ezekiel 16:20-21 the Lord emphasizes again that the
children are His, "you slaughtered My children and offered them up to
idols causing them to pass through fire." God judged these parents
severely because they did not meet God's condition for raising His
children. They gave their children up to an idolatrous system which hated
God.
As a result, home schooling parents, aware of the anti-God curriculum
and complete lack of absolute values in the public schools, cannot
sacrifice their children to such a system.
The Bible states further that parents must "render to Caesar [the state]
the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Since
children are not the state's or Caesar's in the first place, but rather
God's, parents do not have any obligation to render their children to the
public school by enrolling them in public school or complying with
excessively restrictive state controls of their children's education and
training.
Nowhere in Scripture can a reference be found in which God delegates to
the state the authority to raise and educate children. In fact, the only
time that God's people were educated by the state was when they were
occupied by a heathen nation which left them no alternatives. God,
nevertheless, has clearly delegated the responsibility and authority to
teach and raise children to the parents first.
God-Mandated Conditions for Educating Children:
Part of the parents' stewardship responsibility in raising children is
that certain commands and conditions set by God must be followed in
raising and educating His children.
For example, concerning children's
education: "And , ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but
bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).
The word "admonition" is the same word as "discipline," and it involves
using the biblical methods...in order to ensure our child's obedience and
ability to "stay the course." We must not "provoke" our children by acting
hypocritically, ignoring them, or being preoccupied with our work.
I
believe we are "provoking" our children when we send them to public
schools to learn the ways of the world, outside of godly training and
nurture. Let us train our children diligently in order to sear the truth
of God into their very souls. Furthermore in Deuteronomy 6:6-9 the Lord
declares: "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and
shalt talk to them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest
by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
These commands to educate our children, of course, cannot be accomplished
once a week at Sunday school. It involves a comprehensive approach to
education on a daily basis...taught to our children when we sit in our
homes, when we rise up, lie down, and when we travel. In other words, all
the time.
This comprehensive educational program is to be based on God's commands;
"For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers, they they should make them known to their
children. That the generation to come might know them, even the children
which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children"
(Psalm 78:5-6).
In Proverbs 22:6, God commands, "Train up a child in the way he should go:
and when he is old, he will not depart from it."
Of course, the children also have some responsibility. They must obey the
commandments of their parents who, in turn, are obeying God: "My son, keep
thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: Bind them
continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou
goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and
when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp;
and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:"
(Proverbs 6:20-23).
Teaching these commandments of God comprehensively to our children is
"light" to our children and leads them to "the way of life." A side effect
of a biblical education, then, can be the salvation of our children's
souls for all eternity. Learning God's Law and His principles tutors and
leads us to Christ. If the very souls of our children are at stake, should
we risk having them taught thousands of hours of information that is
contrary to God's truths and in an atmosphere that denies God's existence?
In addition, our children will receive a tremendous blessing, according to
Isaiah 54:13: "And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great
shall be the peace of thy children." It seems apparent that the children's
peace will affect the parents by contributing to a peaceful home and
minimal rebellion. No wonder so many parents who send their children to
the public school for six or more hours a day of ungodly instruction have
chaotic homes in which the children regularly challenge the parents'
authority.
God Commands to Train Our Children's Minds:
God commands His people in Jeremiah 10:2, "Learn not the way of the
heathen." The public schools are teaching the children the "way of the
heathen," while ignoring God's ways. Furthermore, David explains that we
need to "meditate" on God's Law, day and night (Psalm 1:2). How can our
children meditate on God's Law, when they are never even taught God's Law
in the public schools?
Parents must train their children to think God's thoughts after Him. A
godly education, therefore, is learning not only to believe as a Christian
(for salvation), but to think as a Christian. Christian home schooling
teaches children to think as Christians. Unfortunately, public schools and
some private schools are teaching children who believe as Christians to
think as non-Christians.
Since Christian parents in the past have neglected their duty to follow
this comprehensive approach to education, generations of adult Christians
now apply ungodly principles in their lives and work places, while
simultaneously believing as Christians. In essence, many parents are
raising humanistic Christians, many of whom are "lukewarm" and not
thinking God's thoughts after Him.
Scripture states that, after being fully trained, a student will be like
his teacher (Luke 6:40). This passage continues by describing the blind
who lead the blind into the pit. This is why it is so important that
parents teach their children to think as Christians and that children be
taught by godly teachers. Parents must not let their children be conformed
to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:12). Unfortunately, public schools
are working to conform our children's minds to the pattern of this world.
Negative Socialization:
Even though parents are commanded to give their children a biblical
education, they must also protect them from "negative socialization." The
Scripture warns, "Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good
manners" (1 Corinthians 15:33). Proverbs 13:20 states, "...but a companion
of fools shall be destroyed."
The public schools fail miserably in the area of socialization, with the
abundance of crime, drugs, immorality, and gang warfare rampant in the
school system. Home schooling enables parents to fulfill this
responsibility by fostering positive socialization.
Content of True Education:
God requires us to make certain that His Word and principles are applied
in a daily, comprehensive manner to the education and upbringing of our
children. Furthermore, he will hold us responsible for how we direct the
education of our children. Therefore, parents must be careful to provide
their children with an education in which the content is based on the His
Word, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus" (2 Timothy 3:16)
The goal of true education is found in Psalm 119:97-101: To train children
in God's laws so they can govern themselves, be wiser than their enemies,
have more insight than their teachers, and understand more than the aged.
If we train our children this way God will no doubt find us faithful
stewards of the children He has placed in our care.
Does Sending Our Children to Public Schools as Missionaries Make it Right?:
As far as our children are concerned, God commands us to provide our
children with a comprehensive education based on His principles. Sending
our children to public school to "save souls" while they receive six or
more hours of secular brainwashing does not relieve us of our
responsibility before God. Disobeying God by doing something in the name
of God does not justify our sin.
In Samuel 15:1-23, King Saul directly disobeyed God's command to destroy
the Amalekite animals by sparing the animals and then offering them as
sacrifices to the Lord. God rebuked Saul through Samuel, saying, "Has the
Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the
voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed
than the fat of rams." Are we trying to make a "sacrifice" to God by
sending our children to public school while disobeying God's command to us
concerning raising our children?
Home Schooling is a Biblical Form of Education:
As seen above, home schooling has the support of the Word of God. It
provides, in fact, the most successful way that parents fulfill their
immense obligations, in providing their children with a comprehensive
biblical education and restoring and preserving their families.
The goal
of home schooling is to raise the children so that each of them will
"study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Sending our children to
public school violates nearly every biblical principle described above. It
is tantamount to sending our children to be trained by the enemy!
God is blessing the home schooling movement, not because families are home
schooling for home schooling's sake, but because the families are
faithfully teaching their children to obey and glorify God! God will bless
you as you seek first the "kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you."
By making your children and their
training a priority, God will bring many invaluable blessings. However,
most important of all is our children's souls. Some day I would much
rather have [my children] standing with me in heaven than having them live
as geniuses in terms of their secular education and lost forever in hell.
John said it all when he said: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my
children walk in truth" (3 John 4).
Excerpts from the book The Right Choice: Home Schooling by
Christopher J. Klicka. Noble Publishing Associates, ©1995
Family Christian Academy.