“My son, give attention to my wisdom,
Incline your ear to my understanding;
That you may observe discretion
And your lips may reserve knowledge.”
Proverbs 5:1-2
The development and practice of a biblical worldview is the most important thing in life. The desire to do the will of the Lord is the defining characteristic of the Christian and how will we know that unless we know His revelation to us in Scripture? And what is the will of the Father? That we believe on His Son, Jesus Christ (John 6:29) and follow Him (John 21:19). And how are we to follow Him? By being His disciples and obeying His word (John 8:51; 17:17).
The thing to know about all this is that not knowing the truth, according to Scripture, isn’t because of educational issues, but because of moral rebellion. As Jesus explained in John 8:43-47, one’s refusal to come to Him is based in morality, not philosophy.
That said, let’s turn back to our verse from Proverbs. Proverbs is a book of wisdom – a most practical verse in which the Lord shares the major principles of living the good life. That’s the point of wisdom, after all. To know and obey the Lord is the good life. How do we know what to make of all the disparate facts of life? Being technically skilled in some field or another isn’t wisdom. Knowing how to build a car, or a computer, or anything else requires technical knowledge. Wisdom is knowing how to live. And Proverbs says, right from the start (1:7) that the foundation of it all is the reverent awe (fear) of the Lord.
Why is this the case? Because if we start from a flawed premise we’re bound to make a mess of things somewhere down the line. When we miss the foundation of life – the where from and what for, in other words – we’ll invariably mess up our life’s goals. Every man and woman has this question to answer in life – by what standard to we live?
Where did I come from? Who or what is in charge? What’s the purpose and goal of it all?
Those are life’s great questions and nothing can make sense without them answered logically. Ecclesiastes sums it up when it says, “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil (12:13-14).”
So, what do public schools have to do with this? Easy…they purport to be institutions of learning yet they’ve not only rejected God and His word as the basis of life and all knowledge, but now they’ve openly declared war on the authority structures He’s put in place – specifically the family. This is the natural course for them to follow, as we’ve detailed. When we start from the premise of Genesis 3:5 (that God and His word aren’t authoritative) we’ll continue to follow our own word. This will lead, in public life, to ever encroaching state power because man needs the security of predestination that they reject in the true God. The counterfeit, publicly speaking, is the state…and its schools.
We need to always remember that this is God’s world and there’s no neutrality in it. We can’t served two masters (Matthew 6:24). Yes, there are many good and upright people in the public education system but it’s the system itself, and its false foundation of humanism, that’s utterly corrupt. In Colossians 2:8 Paul says, “Beware lest any man rob you by means of philosophy and vain deceit.” Greg Bahnsen comments that by attempting to be neutral in your thought you’re a prime target of being robbed – robbed by vain philosophy of all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which are in Christ alone.
If we are unfaithful to the Lord we’ll appease the world and the flesh. If we’re unfaithful to the Lord we’ll attempt to be neutral – whether in our research, argumentation, reasoning or teaching – though we’re commanded to be set apart for God. As men and women of Christ we’re called no never acquiesce to the demand of neutrality anymore than a soldier can serve both his side and the other. What do we call such soldiers? Traitors. And for this treason of neutrality, this wimpish and cowardly submission to the world, we’ve had our the minds and hearts of our children “robbed” by the world.
It’s important to see Proverbs correctly, not through world-stained eyes. The Scriptures place all men and women under God and all people into families. The family is, therefore, the central institution of civil life. It’s for this reason that all secular attacks upon God are attempts to dismantle the biblical family structure – both its true essence and its God-given authority.
Solomon is talking to his son. Give me your heart, son, he says. In Chapter 4 he says, “Hear, O sons, the instruction of a father, and give attention that you may gain understanding, for I give sound teaching; do not abandon my instruction (V. 1-2).” In every chapter and every line the relationship of father and son is there. The crucial role of the mother is there too. Most famously, in Proverbs 31, the cherished and honored role of the wife/mother is detailed. We are all born into a family and are to be nurtured, educated and raised there. God intends for the family to be treasured. It’s deep. It’s true and rich. Who asks for the heart of their child unless they’ve given their own? Such would be a terrible contradiction.
The biblical model of manhood is here too! Today, in response to the rising militancy of woke-ish feminism, and their attending Marxist-fueled attacks on masculinity, some have retreated to an unbiblical stance on manhood. They think growing a beard, getting tattoos, driving a truck, being aggressive and drinking are marks of manhood. No. The true and ultimate mark of manhood is Jesus Christ. The mark of manhood is the servant-leader. The mark of manhood is that after cleansing the temple in a display of righteous anger and the use of force, children would still flock to Him and praise Him (Matthew 21:15). And parents brought their young to Jesus because they were safe with Him (Mark 10:13-16). Yes, indeed, the mark of the man is that children love him and he loves children. He’s strong and tender and no one has to fear him who isn’t evil.
And he is wise because instead of wasting his precious time drinking and doing dumb stuff (being a perpetual frat boy with a job), he studies Scripture. The mark of the real man is that he’s on bended knee before the Great King (Joshua 5:14-15)! Often. Every day. That’s the source of his power, not his fleshly so-called manhood. He doesn’t “unwind” by playing video games for hours like a child. No! He talks to his family rather than hide from them. And, as Rick Phillips wonderfully put it, his fingers are dirty with the soil of the hearts of his wife and children. Doing God’s work refreshes him, not earthly vices.
And do you wonder what a Godly woman is like? Proverbs 31 tells us that too. (This is already a very long post, so I’ll let you read it for yourself).
So, what does a Godly man or woman do when they hear the following story?
At an elementary school in Minnesota (Sartell-St. Stephen school district) students were required to complete an “equity survey.” A fourth-grade student, Haylee Yasgar, student at Riverview Intermediate School, said, “One question asked us what gender we identify with. I was very confused along with a lot of other classmates.” (We remember that Solomon called his son, “son”…he didn’t ask him what gender he was because it’s a settled matter).
This survey, as they call it, was created by an activist group called Equity Alliance MN (EAM) and paid $80,000 of tax money to conduct an “audit” of racial inequalities within the district. According to their website, EAM says that they’re working to make the educational ecosystem equitable for every single student. They add that their mission is to be “the leading force for systemic educational equity and integration through collaborative learning and advocacy.” Do we have to ask what would happen in a school district spent this much money on a church organization asking questions about eternal life and Jesus Christ? You see? They aren’t neutral and we shouldn’t be either. The enemies of Christ are staunchly evangelical.
To all this the discerning parent should be trained to ask, “according to what standard?” To use a word like equity is meaningless if not defined properly, right? But we do it all the time. And this is where wisdom is so necessary – and moral courage too. The lies of Satan (John 8:44) are always subtle. We should never forget this. Masquerading as angels of light, the messengers of hell come to us promising peace and equity. We must be wise in Scripture. We must be ready to test everything.
Under the guise of anti-bullying and mental health, the survey was conducted. Who can be against anti-bullying, mental health and equity? See how subtle they are? Ah, but here’s the best part: young Haylee said that students were told they weren’t permitted to “repeat any of the questions to our parents.”
So, there you have it. The schools that do this or approve of it in any way are no longer schools since they’ve violated God’s commands and chain of authority. The parents – the mother and father – are the ordained structure by God through which education is to be delivered. It’s permissible for a family to “outsource” the education of their children. There’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is when that institution usurps the authority of the family and declares itself higher than the family in the education of the child.
The rapacious Left, greedy for power, and haters of God, have now absolutely stepped beyond any point where a professing Christian can have their children under their tutelage. To subject children to radical ideologies on race and gender without the parents’ knowledge and to deliberately hide such from them is a profound fracture of the trust between educators and parents.
Again, the family is the primary authority structure in God’s economy, not the state or the school. If it was the other way around, Proverbs would be saying, “Give me your ear, students, for the state is the beginning of knowledge…and do not forget the school’s teaching but let your heart keep our Marxist commandments (Proverbs 3ish…LIV…Leftist International Version).” Listen closely to the verbiage of any dictator, any replacer of God, and you’ll notice that everything they say is a counterfeit of Scripture.
This isn’t to say, be sure, that every teacher and every school is practicing this evil. But evil this is and it must be answered. Biblical parents must endeavor in this dark time to develop themselves into the Christian parents needed by their children. They should “give their hearts” to their children and raise them up in the love and knowledge of the Lord. To pawn our children off to educational establishments that will disciple them into the doctrines opposing God is a grievous sin. A public school that teaches reading, writing and arithmetic is one thing. A school that presumes to play the role of the parent and teaches beyond that delegated mandate is no longer a true school.
How are we to answer this? Homeschool your children. Or send them to a good private school. We simply must not leave our children in the power of those that will teach false doctrines and usurp parental authority. This might cause some financial hardship, yes, but the hardship of hell and sin it avoids is more than worth it. More still, the Lord is faithful. We must never forget that as it will inspire faithfulness from us.
Finally, many of us have been raised in the soil of secular humanism. The path is clear before us now. Turn to the Lord and live for Him. Be a man or woman of God in your family. Stand up! Be men of courage, not sniveling and ambivalent cowards. Be faithful to the Lord – this is the victory over the world…faith. The greatness of Christian living isn’t in athletic accomplishments, business success and so on. Those things might and will come but they must be from the foundation of faithfulness in the word of Christ from within a Christian family.
Resist the tyranny of the state and its seminaries (public schools and universities). Come out of them. Homeschool your children or send them to good private schools.
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