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Private Christian Schools in America
Why do we need to put our children in Private Christian Schools
Here is the fundamental issue:
Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4) For the past several decades it appears that leaders of our nation, particularly in the field of education, have systematically set out to demonstrate that Jesus didn't know what He was talking about. From the removal of the Ten Commandments in the classroom to denying prayer in school to forbidding any display of religious objects in public places (including a closed Bible on a teacher's desk), our nation has determined to become a secular people officially. No Word, just bread; no supernatural, just natural.
The fruit of this removal of Christianity from the public square is apparent to anyone who wants to see- a decrease in good things (honesty, morality, literacy, family coherence, etc.) and an increase in bad things (crime, sexual immorality, bankruptcies, business and government corruption, family breakdown, etc.). Within a few short generations, our nation has been changing from liberty to bondage (government dependency), from free enterprise to socialism, from creditor status to debtor status, from community spirit to isolationism, from honoring God to ignoring Him.
The seedbed for this change I believe, more than any other place, has been the public school classroom. When the public/government school system began in the early 19th century, it was absorbed in an environment of Christian ethics held to publicly and privately since the days of the Pilgrims. Prayer, Bible reading and fear of the Lord were the foundations of learning. Not anymore. The spiritual capital inherited by the public school system has been spent and will not be replenished.
But America didn't enter this experiment of non-religious secular education without warning. Theologian and educator Dr. A.A. Hodge, Princeton Theological Seminary, said, I am as sure as I am of Christ's reign that a comprehensive and centralized system of national education, separated from religion, as is now commonly proposed, will prove the most appalling enginery for the propagation of anti-Christian and atheistic unbelief, and of anti-social nihilistic ethics, individual, social and political, which this sin-rent world has ever seen.
Martin Luther
Scholar J. Gresham Machen said "An education that trains the mind without training the moral sense is a menace to civilization rather than a help." On January 12, 1926, Machen testified before a Congressional committee on the dangers of creating a federal Department of Education. He stated, "Do we want a federal Department of Education, or do we not? I think we do not. And I am asking your permission to tell you very briefly why. We do not, I think, want a federal Department of Education because such a Department is in the interests of a principle of uniformity or standardization (emphasis mine) in education which would be the very worst calamity into which this country could fall."
Martin Luther - Thoughts About Schools
Is the present system of public education Godly or Godless? Martin Luther gives us some historical perspective.
Can a Christian remain faithful to God and His law and still send his children to such a system or does this necessarily involve sin?
And why or why not?
The application (or general equity) of the principles enumerated here can often be applied to other areas of life also. Public schools have been singled out because, as the Earl of Athlone (Governor General of Canada from 1940-1946), said,
"To this day there exists in the world in all classes of society a veritable revolt against Divine Law, the Moral Law, which they strive to eliminate from the education of its youth and government of its nations. Education without religion sooner or later marches to its doom."
Also, there is no doubt that the "public schools have become the established church of secular society."
Martin Luther and the Bible
Moreover, as evidenced by the words of our LORD in Luke 17:12 (above), this is not an issue to be taken lightly. "For a church or for parents," says Rushdoony, "to have no regard for the fact that their children are receiving a godless education is a mark of apostasy."6 Or, as Henry Van Til states,
"In the great spiritual warfare the forces of darkness are organized against the Lord and his anointed. Any organization that claims to be neutral, as do the public schools and some labor organizations, is by that token denying Christ's claims of absolute lordship over all things. As such they are serving the cause of the antichrist. To deny this is either willful blindness or woeful ignorance of the devil's devices and the claims of Christ.
The 95 Theses and standing up against the corruption made him famous.
Martin Luther and the 95 Theses
Furthermore, Martin Luther has pointed out the extreme importance of this question, when Luther stated,
"I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth."
Famous quotes from Martin Luther:
Martin Luther Letters
The nine ministries generally earned high scores for promoting a Christian worldview, for promoting K-12 Christian education or home schooling and for warning about the dangers of public schools, but they received poor grades for wasting their efforts on public-school reform, on justifying keeping Christian children in public schools to be salt and light, and on promoting a moral equivalence between K-12 public, Christian and home schools. Moore said, "The failure in these criteria is largely due to the fact that some Christian ministries and Christian school associations have not yet come to believe that there is an explicit biblical theology of Christian education in the Holy Scriptures. These same ministries have promoted a Christian worldview, and many Christian families, taking this teaching to its logical conclusion, have now outstripped the ministries."
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