Their Future Relies on Us

by Craig Smith

“American Indian families were broken by the federal government’s reservation policy. When tribes were forced onto the reservations, to prevent them from leaving to hunt for food, they were, in the early years, supplied with food, blankets, etc., to make them dependent on the federal government. Their children were sent to far away boarding schools to Americanize them and to break the link to Indian life. If a father refused and hid his children, he was arrested and chained to a rock near the agency building until he agreed to surrender his children. Indian character was shattered by two devices: welfarism, and public or statist education — exactly what is being done to the non-Indian population now.”¹

As heads of households and fathers to our children, we must not be tempted to think this isn’t true of us here in New Zealand. “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall,” warns I Corinthians 10:12. The context of that verse, what the word “therefore” is there for, is how our spiritual forefathers, those whose eyes beheld the curses fall upon Egypt, the Red Sea being divided, who ate the manna day after day; how these privileged people were still drawn aside into idolatry and immorality and thanklessness and were destroyed by God for it.

Consider the situation among Christians in the USA:

The Nehemiah Institute has been testing the world view of students in Christian schools, churches, home schools and other Christian ministries for 15 years. They use the PEERS Test which examines a person’s values and beliefs in the areas of Politics, Education, Economics, Religion and Society. Results from each category are classified into one of four major worldview philosophies: Christian Theism, Moderate Christian, Secular Humanism or Socialism.

Since the mid-1980s when it was common to find Christian students in both Christian and state schools scoring in the Moderate Christian range, average worldview understanding among these students has dropped steadily every year. Between 1988 and 2000, the scores of Christian school students dropped by over 30%. The scores of students from evangelical Christian families who were in the state schools declined by 36.8%! That is to say, teenagers from the more committed Christian families, but who attend secular schools, now typically score in the lower part of the Secular Humanist range: as far as a test can judge such things, they appear to have lost the Faith.

Nehemiah Institute also tested individuals who responded to ads in the Humanist Magazine and the New Age Magazine and found they typically scored in the range from –20 to –80. A score of –20, then, could be considered the threshold of a hard-core socialist (i.e., anti-Christian) world view. At the present rate, Christian students in state schools will start to have average scores of –20 by the year 2014, and those in Christian schools will be lost to the enemy, at least as far as their thinking goes, by the year 2018. That is only one school-generation away; that is referring to children being born today.²

The one piece of good news from all this is that some Christian schools, those using the Principle Approach or Classical Christian, and home educators, have not been declining over those years, but if anything, their scores are getting slightly better! Some believe these people are the true remnant of the Lord, but their numbers are very small.

Do you see your responsibility men? Home educated youngsters — your children — are among the few who, by God’s grace, appear to be raised in a consistent Biblical manner, are compromised the least, are the most faithful in outlook and understanding.  What are the implications? They and you will certainly be targeted by the enemy and may well be the most qualified to provide spiritual leadership in the coming decades.  Noah Webster wrote in the early 1800s:

“All government originates in families, and if neglected there, it will hardly exist in society…The foundation of all free government and of all social order must be laid in families and in the discipline of youth…The education of youth, [is] an employment of more consequence than making laws and preaching the gospel, because it lays the foundation on which both the law and gospel rest for success.”

We home educators have already escaped the dangers of our children being captured by the state schooling system. Welfarism is one to watch: its history in NZ is somewhat different than that in the USA, but the dangers are the same: looking at the Home Schooling Allowance, for example, it is at present totally without strings. Yet should we allow ourselves to become either financially or psychologically dependent upon it, the state could then lead us wherever they wanted us to go by placing conditions upon our qualifying for it.

So now we need to get down to the business of discipling our children to become loyal, faithful, useful, eager and fearless soldiers of the cross.

How do masters normally pass on their specialist skills and knowledge? They find suitable apprentices. Then they mentor them. We have suitable apprentices: the children the Lord sovereignly gave to us. Now the hard part: ensuring that we qualify as masters of the faith we have been entrusted to pass to the next generation, and learning how to mentor.

I would be the last to claim the title of “master” of the Christian life. No way. But I can assume I am way ahead of my children. And as long as I am doing what I can to grow as a Christian, I can assume I will be a few steps ahead of my children and therefore have much to impart to them. Personally, II Corinthians 3:18 has always helped me to keep on striving ahead: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord Who is the Spirit.” I want to conform to His likeness; I want to share that glory; I want to see that evidence of the Holy Spirit’s working in my life over and over again over time; I see that it requires constant change, and I acknowledge that change is not comfortable or stress-free; I further see that I must constantly behold His glory in order to be changed, which I take to mean I must attend to the spiritual disciplines of Scripture reading, study, meditation, memorisation and application; prayer; fellowship; be under the preaching of the Word and a godly church eldership and other things like serving others and personal piety. By the grace of our wonderful Saviour, all these things are a constant joy and delight, not a burdensome duty imposed by some heavenly killjoy. Anyway, it seems that some such personal programme for joyful, enthusiastic growth and maturity as a Christian is needful first of all to fit me for Biblically mentoring my children.

You see, these disciplines are not just important for our growth as men: part of mentoring our children is passing on to them the same disciplines as well as our attitudes toward these disciplines. And we want to pass them on so successfully that our children will just naturally do the same to their children who will do the same to the next generation. This is thoroughly Biblical: “You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (II Timothy 2:1-2.) Note the characteristic of “faithful” here. We must be faithful in all things, for this character quality, like most of them, is caught by our children from us. If we don’t have it, neither will they. If they don’t have it, this whole mentoring exercise breaks down before it even starts. Faithfulness to our children, our wives and marriages, our careers and to our Master’s call means we are not pursuing selfish ambitions. Neither do we allow our children to get the idea that “doing your own thing” is part of life as a Christian. Faithfulness also means paying attention to the “inconsequential details”: “He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much.” (Luke 16:10.)

As fathers and as mentors of our children, we take advantage of the unique father-son, father-daughter relationship, and exploit it to the max. This means quality time together. And of course, that means quantity time together, for there simply is no other way to achieve quality time apart from quantity time. It works the same in our relationship with the Lord: good things just cannot be rushed. Make commitments to spend certain parts of your day or week with each child: Charmagne gets Wednesday mornings from 6 to 7; Jeremiah has a claim on Saturdays, 1pm to 2 (for example). The children will love this special attention and long for it all week as the high-point. So have expectations or assignments to place on them to remind that you are expecting growth, work, discipline in response to your input. Be realistic in what you expect, and it is always best to be able to in-spect what you ex-pect: rather than just ask Jimmy to pray for his siblings, give him a prayer diary and show how to write specific requests, leaving a place to write specific answers as the Lord gives them. Rather than just ask Jenny to tidy the woodworking bench you both will use next time, mention that you want the old sawdust and shavings swept up and the chisels all laid out in order. Mentoring is two way: you are looking for faithfulness and commitment from them as well as from yourself.

Plan the times together, the more planning the better. Remember you are endeavouring to do a lot here: pass on wisdom and knowledge, important life-lessons, attitudes, values, character traits. The more varied your activities together, the more opportunities to see different strengths and weaknesses: doing a 500 piece puzzle or building a model airplane may allow you to observe patience or a knack for detail; privately plan a talk or allow an urgent fence repair job you can do together to supplant the bicycle ride you had scheduled, as this will enable you to see  — and perhaps give counsel — on how they handle disappointment. Use your times together to plan events and acts of service for the rest of the family.

“Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17.) Expect your children to be observant and tell you of faults they may see in your performance. Teach them how to do this tactfully, for they will surely find faults and blurt them out as soon as they are spied! This calls for patience and humility. They can also review you on your memorised verses just as well as you can review them.

Note well the wisdom of I Thessalonians 2:11-12, “For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to lead a life worthy of God, Who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.” A three-stage progression is pictured and said to be standard practice of fathers with children: to exhort, or call them when they are young to attain to what you have; to encourage, as they are older, which is what peers and colleagues do to each other; to charge, which is what an elder does to a younger as he is sent out into the world to be independent, leaving the elder behind.

Our ultimate aim is to raise godly men and women who will transfer their dependence (completely) and loyalty (their utmost) from yourself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and who will give their lives to the reproduction of the Most Holy Christian faith in their children after them.

Notes:

1. Rousas J. Rushdoony, missionary to the Indians and author of many books; Chalcedon Report, April 2000, p. 25.

2. Dan Smithwick, “One School-Generation to Go, and Then the End”, Chalcedon Report, September 2001, p. 7-8.

From Keystone Magazine
September 2002 , Vol. VIII No. 5
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

To order Keystone Magazine do one of the following:

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(Here is one we can throw at our opposition!)

Who is Guarding the San Bernardino Strait?

Let me tell you of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Though largely forgotten it was the greatest naval battle in U.S. history. It started as a high stakes gamble by the Japanese, one that almost succeeded, due to the temporary diversions of two of the US Navy’s best fighting admirals. A military disaster of great magnitude was prevented only by the heroism of a handful of U.S. skippers who saw the sudden danger and knew what had to be done, even though it meant confronting and being totally outnumbered and outgunned by the might of the Japanese navy. They sailed into the fray with little hope of surviving because they knew the price of inaction or retreat was far greater than losing their own lives and their ships.

In October 1944, General Douglas MacArthur began to fulfill his promise of “I shall return,” to the people of Philippines. The campaign to liberate the Philippines opened with the successful invasion of the island of Leyte by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps.

The Japanese then sent a small fleet to the north near Luzon, luring Admiral “Bull” Halsey’s main task force away from his responsibility of guarding the northern entrance to Leyte Gulf, a passage called the San Bernardino Strait. Admiral Thomas Kinkaid was responsible for protecting the Americans who had landed on Leyte Islanf by guarding Suriago Strait, the southern entrance to Leyte Gulf. Each thought the other was guarding the vital northern entrance to Leyte Gulf and the vulnerable landing beaches. This confusion led to Kinkaid’s famous message to Halsey, “Who is guarding the San Bernardino Strait?”

On the morning of October 25, 1944, the main Japanese fleet under Admiral Kurita suddenly emerged in Leyte Gulf from the San Bernardino Strait and found no significant American opposition covering the exposed landing beaches. Thousands of American soldiers and marines, along with unarmed transport and supply vessels, now lay unguarded. The only thing between the Japanese and the landing area was a surprised and considerably weaker screen of American destroyers, destroyer escorts, and small carriers, now suddenly facing the superior might of a Japanese fleet of battleships and cruisers.

It should have been no contest. But realizing the gravity of the moment and heedless of their own peril, the smaller American force immediately went into a full scale attack against the vastly superior Japanese. Their unexpected heroism fooled the Japanese into thinking they faced a greater force and had blundered into a trap. The battle inflicted severe losses on the weak American screen, but the Japanese veered off, sparing the landing forces from destruction.

Admirals Kinkaid and Halsey were by no means military incompetents. Halsey in fact is rightly regarded as one of America’s outstanding leaders in World War II. Yet their combined strategic errors and failure to coordinate their actions almost led to a serious defeat.

So it is with many of our larger Christian ministries. They seldom talk to one another or coordinate their efforts. Sometimes they act as competitors rather than allies. Frequently they fight battles they cannot win and even if won, would not be of significant impact. Our ministries concentrate on remediation, not prevention. Even the struggle against abortion and homosexuality, important as they may be, are struggles against the symptoms of a Christ-rejecting culture.

Our best ministries are chasing diversions, leaving the San Bernardino Strait unguarded; that is, Christian children by the thousands are totally naked and exposed to the rabidly secular, anti-Christian teaching in the public schools. Just as Kinkaid and Halsey misjudged the intentions of their enemies and were tricked into making serious strategic errors, so today many Christian leaders are off in pursuit of lesser enemies while a major enemy force, the secular humanist left, is allowed free access to our children six hours a day, five days a week, nine months a year. What’s worse is that we Christians are paying our worst enemies to inculcate our own children with nonChristian propaganda through our taxes. And who is left to guard the children? Only a few Christian school and home schooling organisations, and a handful of teachers and parents. This is all that is left to face the leviathan government school system, the liberal educational establishment and their allies in most political parties.

These brave few are charging into the teeth of the enemy while many of our best Christian ministries and denominations either remain unaware of what’s going on in the schools or are unwilling to face the problem. They are pursing diversions and leaving the most vital battle areas unprotected: the future soldiers of Christ, whose minds are already being trained by the enemy.

It is difficult to convince Christian leaders and pastors of the imminent danger. Some will not take the time to study this issue and become informed, for to do so might compel them to leave their comfort zone. Too many pastors seem content to allow the secular humanists to indoctrinate their children during the week while they urge their members to engage in peripheral battles on Sundays.

Those who understand the absolute necessity of the Christian community’s recommitting itself to Christian education have no choice but to take on the battleships and heavy cruisers of the humanist establishment on the one hand and simultaneously cope with the flak from our own people on the other. Unbelievably our own church leaders are telling us to go ahead and let our children enter the enemy’s training ground, the schools, for there our children can witness for the truth. The church leaders won’t do intellectual, moral and spiritual battle with the humanist education establishment themselves, but they expect our seven and eight year olds to do so! At best this is ignorance. At worst it is irresponsible cowardice.

Folks, it is simply not possible to save the public school system. We must come out of that corrupt system, just as the children of Israel left Egypt for the Promised Land, and establish Christian schools that are thoroughly Christian, not just cheap copies of the state system with a few Bible verses sprinkled around. Far better still is to bring them home (an institution the Lord definitely established, something I can’t say about schools) and teach them ourselves. Jesus Christ did not sacrifice Himself so that we could copy the world’s systems, but to be a peculiar people of His own possession, thinking His thoughts after Him. You can know for sure that God did not pour out His wrath upon Egypt and part the Red Sea and lead the people out of there with a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day so that the Israelites could have the fun of packing a lunch for their little ones each day to send them back down that same road to Egypt to go to school! Neither should we render unto Caesar our children who belong to Christ.

(This is a re-write by Craig Smith of a 1997 article by E. Ray Moore, Jr., Th.M., Executive Director of Exodus 2000 found at http://www.christianity.com/partner/Article_Display_Page/0,,PTID21938|CHID122759|CII D364225,00.html)

From Keystone Magazine
July 2002 , Vol. VIII No. 4
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

To order Keystone Magazine do one of the following:

send email to sales@hef.org.nz with visa number

post cheque or visa number to PO Box 9064, Palmerston North, New Zealand

fax: 06 357-4389

phone: 06 357-4399

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Parents, not TV,

Must Be the First and Most Important Influence

in Their Child’s Developing Brain

by Craig Smith¹

Both parent-child interaction and the child’s own experiences during the formative years profoundly affect two foundationally important aspects of the child’s future prospects: the development of the child’s brain and the degree to which that child will function to his potential. Most parents seem to know this on an instinctive level, and automatically talk to their infants in motherese, a higher-pitched voice than normal². They do this all day, even though the infant only gurgles and coos in response. All peoples world-wide talk to infants in this higher-pitched voice, and indeed it is recognized that infants’ brains are pre-wired to take in and de-code sounds until they learn the language – or languages – being spoken. Much of the research reporting these findings has been contained in scientific journals that parents would not customarily read. But in 1996 and 1997, Newsweek³ magazine and then Time⁴ magazine brought the findings of pediatric neurology to the popular level.

It must be noted that in 12 pages of coverage in the Time and Newsweek articles, television was never mentioned as benefiting early childhood development. Rather, the waking hours babies spend in front of a TV robs them of the time for parent-child interaction and their own play time. These two activities are crucial to the development of intelligence and imagination. The development time lost to a TV allowed to dominate a family’s time from birth through age five cannot be made up in later years. It is crucial for parents to understand this. Certain aspects of brain development only occur during certain ages, and a child who to some degree misses out on the appropriate stimuli during that period may be somewhat disadvantaged from then on.

Exploit the One-on-One Opportunities

Switch off the tube; scoop baby up for cuddles, smiles, talk and play. Sing to baby, put on classical music tapes and CDs. Play peek-a-boo, number games, hide and seek. Take baby for a tour around the back yard introducing him to everything there: the colours, the smells, the textures and contours; have baby reach out and touch leaves, spider webs, branches, bricks, boards and puddles. Infants love to be held and carried and talked to. They listen. Make this a nightly habit and your child will forever listen to you.

One could list such beneficial activities for pages. TV, however, would not appear on this list as a useful activity for young children. The difference is that the non-TV activities exploit the most valuable opportunities home educators and parents of young infants have: that of parent-child interaction and of allowing the child to explore his own environment under safe supervision. Playing with toys stimulates brain development. Repeated experiences, whether alone or with a parent, help “wire” the child’s brain. Advocates in this area believe TV should not be a part of a child’s environment until age five.⁵

Thinking Skills & Imagination

A crucial element within the skill of thinking is moving from the known to the unknown; that is, working out how to use in new situations knowledge and understanding gained in the past. Real life situations, of which home education is fully composed, requires this constantly. TV does not. In The Development of Children, Michael and Sheila Cole report on the work of G. Solomon who found that children who have been raised to do their learning from TV have lower than normal expectations about the amount of mental effort required to learn from written texts. That is, they reckon it should be just as effortless to read books or listen to a teacher’s lesson as it is to absorb stuff from the TV, and they are frustrated when they find it is not so. These children also tend to read less and perform relatively poorly in school. Indeed, research shows a direct relationship in preschoolers between amount of TV viewing and academics and social skills: The more preschoolers watch TV, the less well they do academically and the less well-socialised they are in the first grade. ⁶

Jerome & Dorothy Singer conducted field studies on children to see if TV can stimulate imaginative play. They subjected four groups of children to different types of classroom situations; two incorporated TV into the sessions, one was a control with no TV, and the last had no TV but an adult present to stimulate imaginative play. The greatest increase in imaginative play occurred within the last group.⁷

A child must learn to move the eyes back and forth across the page, while holding the head still, in order to read. While watching television, the eyes are fixed on the screen as well as the head being in a fixed position. Many children watch TV for four or more hours a day, learning that information automatically comes into their senses as long as the eyes and ears are all in a fixed position, focussed straight ahead. Otherwise you might miss something. The half-brother of our adopted sons has exactly this problem. From day one this now 12-year-old was plonked in front of a TV as a form of baby sitter. Today, take him for a ride in a car, and he cannot see the animals in the paddocks on either side of the road, for your eyes have to shift laterally to see them. Take him to the zoo, and he cannot see the monkeys in the trees just above his line of sight. When he reads, he laboriously moves his whole head from left to right, rather than his eyes alone.

Overstimulation

Werner Halpern writes about the potential over-stimulation of young children that may result from watching TV. This over-stimulation may tax their still-developing neurological systems, and that may result in a short attention span and hyperactivity.⁸ There appears to be evidence that the approximately seven minute length of featured TV programming between the ads may condition a child to a seven minute attention span. The professional story teller Odds Bodkin, performs before some 10,000 people a year, most of them children. After about seven minutes, he says, restlessness sets in as their inner clocks anticipate a commercial break.⁹

The constant high levels of sounds and rapidly-changing images can condition a child to expect similar levels of stimulation in other circumstances. You probably don’t fancy turning your home education endeavours into a show that rivals TV programmes in this way. Your children will be expected to speak, to listen attentively and respond appropriately, to work some problems on their own occasionally, to read and to write. Since none of these contain the same level of attention-grabbing effects of TV’s dual stimuli of sound and image, TV-educated can become easily bored and then restless. Anecdotal information suggests that one of the main reasons university professors are introducing power-point and other multimedia (sound and image) segments into lectures is to retain the attention of the TV-raised student. A chalk-on-the-blackboard lecture is less likely to keep students attentive.

Home educators are perfectly placed to give their developing infants and children a wide range of sensory experiences under immediate, loving supervision that is also interpreting, commenting and explaining the experiences. Interaction with a living and loving parent is infinitely superior to the one way traffic of a pre-recorded couldn’t-give-a-hoot TV show, no matter how educational it is.  Once the child has learned to read and listen actively with comprehension and discernment, able to sift fact from opinion, objective reporting from propaganda, then he may profitably watch selected educational TV shows and videos.

Notes:

1. Based on two articles at www.limitv.org

2. Dunn, J., & Kendrick, C. (1982), Siblings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

3. Newsweek, “Your Child’s Brain,” February 19, 1996, pp. 55-62.

4. Time, “Fertile Minds,” February 3, 1997, pp. 49-56.

5. www.limitv.org

6. Burton, Sydney G., James M. Calonico and Dennis R. McSeveney, “Effects of Preschool Television Watching on First-Grade Children,” Journal of Communication, Summer 1979, pp. 164-170.

7. Singer, Jerome L. & Singer, Dorothy G., “Can TV Stimulate Imaginative Play?” Journal of Communication, Summer 1976, pp. 74-80.

8. Halpern, Werner L., “Turned-on Toddlers,” Journal of Communication, Autumn 1975, pp. 66-70.

9. Graham, Ellen, “Going Tubeless: Some Families Flourish Without TV,” The Wall Street Journal, February 10, 1994.

From Keystone Magazine
July 2002 , Vol. VIII No. 4
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

To order Keystone Magazine do one of the following:

send email to sales@hef.org.nz with visa number

post cheque or visa number to PO Box 9064, Palmerston North, New Zealand

fax: 06 357-4389

phone: 06 357-4399

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Be Unafraid of the Unprincipled

by Craig Smith

When Protestant Christians came to this country they possessed and subdued the land. They worshipped God, and his Son Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world, and acknowledged the Scriptures to be the rule of their faith and practice.  They introduced their religion into their families, their schools, and their colleges.  They abstained from all ordinary business on the Lord’s Day, and devoted it to religion. They built churches, erected school-houses, and taught their children to read the Bible and to receive and obey it as the word of God. They formed themselves as Christians into municipal and state organizations.  They acknowledged God in their legislative assemblies. They prescribed oaths to be taken in His name. They closed their courts, their places of business, their legislatures, and all places under the public control, on the Lord’s Day.  They declared Christianity to be part of the common law of the land.

In the process of time thousands have come among us who are not Christians.  Some are Jews, some infidels, and some atheists.  All are welcomed; all are admitted to equal rights and privileges.  All are allowed to acquire property, and to vote in every election, made eligible to all offices, and invested with equal influences in all public affairs.  All are allowed to worship as they please, or not to worship at all, if they see fit.  No man is molested for his religion or for his want of religion.  No man is required to profess any form of faith, or to join any religious association.  More than this cannot reasonably be demanded.

More, however, is demanded. The infidel demands that the Government should be conducted on the principles that Christianity is false. The atheist demands that it should be conducted on the assumption that there is no God.  The sufficient answer to all this is that it cannot possibly he done.  The demands of those who require that religion, and especially Christianity, should be ignored in our national, state, and municipal laws, are not only unreasonable but they are in the highest degree unjust and tyrannical.

— Charles Hodge, in Systematic Theology (1871-1873), vol. 3, pp. 345-346.

Gentlemen, although Mr Hodge wrote this 130 years ago about the USA, he makes valid points applicable to NZ. But if he had written this last week, then I would say he understated the case by quite a margin.

We are being flooded by all manner of pagan, wickedly evil, anti-Christian influences. This is not simply reflected in the numbers of immigrants from nonChristian lands. The Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Shinto, animist, communist, secularist adherents who come to stay here occasionally offer the Christian an ally in regards to traditional family values and a desire for advancement through hard work and thrift. Occasionally. However, we must not be surprised if we should find that a Muslim’s two sisters are actually his second and third wives; that the Hindu uses this country’s virtual abortion on demand industry to eliminate unborn – and unwanted – daughters; that the Buddhists’ disregard for the physical realm contributes to the rise in prostitution and infanticide; and that the ultimacy of pragmatism over unchanging spiritual values in them all sees the graft and corruption endemic to the non-Western world becoming common place here as well. Sadly it is the rising tide of native-born apostates who are leading these trends.

The real issue we Christian men need to address, as emphasised by Mr Hodge, is not the bad influences around, but the way in which nonChristians want to institutionalise their freedom to publicly express nonChristian thought and morality, and in fact to see both legal and social sanctions favouring such things, while at the same time inhibiting the Christian’s freedom to express Christian thought and morality in the public arena.

Isn’t it odd how Christian standards of morality, right and wrong, are turned around 180 degrees, stood on their heads by legislation, yet Chrisitans have been convinced we cannot and should not ram our morality down other people’s throats? Those who will not work are guaranteed food, clothing and shelter, whereas the Bible says to let them not eat. If the thief is deemed too poor to ever pay back what he stole, he is not required by the judge to make restitution, but instead has access to legal aid, community services card, unemployment benefits, sickness benefits or complete care in prison, meaning the victim ultimately pays for his robber’s upkeep. Those guilty of capital crimes are not executed but given by the state 24-hour-a-day care and protection, access to recreation, crafts and education as well as retaining the right to vote. Rather than keeping the marriage bed undefiled, sexual activity of all kinds is viewed as a form of recreation, subsidised by one-stop-shops which give advice, medical checks and condoms for free. Perversions such as homosexuality are raised to a state of honour equalling marriage. Things that are wrong, such as murdering unborn babies, are considered right and compassionate. Things that are right, such as a teacher of history pointing to the redemption in Jesus Christ as the pinnacle and whole point of history, are illegal. And the parent spanking his own child for disobedience, is now seen as wrong and may soon have legal moves made against him.

Look here, this is plain old heathen immorality being rammed down our throats; that is, someone else’s nonChristian morality being forced upon us. Why is it OK for the enemy to do this but not for us? Why do we put up with it? It is worse when you think that the state takes money from Christians (via taxation) and uses it to abort babies and subsidise immorality and irresponsibility. It is just as bad when you realise that we Christians are forced to pay for a totally nonChristian, secular schooling system and teacher training system and in addition are forced to send our children to these places for at least 10 years to be trained up in nonChristian thought, which according to Matthew 12:30, Romans 6:16-23, Colossians 2:8 and others is nothing more than anti-Christian thought. That is, Christians are not only forced to send their children, for whom Christ died, to the enemy to be trained up as atheists, but Christians are also forced to pay for this indoctrination of their own children against them! Why do we still render to Caesar the things that are God’s?

Well, praise God, He is helping us home educators to see this more clearly all the time. We are only lacking in confidence, for we listen too much to what the enemy tells us about ourselves, our Saviour and our Faith. They say that mere parents relying on God cannot train up children as Bible believing Christians and still expect them to survive in the 21^st century. Listen, men: when the Rabshakeh told the officials of King Hezekiah in the hearing of those on Jerusalem’s wall that Sennacherib king of Assyria was going to wipe them out (Isaiah 36); when Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem were giving Nehemiah a hard time about rebuilding Jerusalem’s wall, saying it couldn’t be done (Nehemiah 4-6); when Peter and the other apostles were told by the high priest not to preach in the Name of Jesus (Acts 5:27-32), listen: those uncircumcised heathen and those self-righteous church council jokers (with the possible exception of Gamaliel) were simply not qualified to comment. What did they know about the faithfulness and omnipotence of God? Zippo. Accordingly, God’s people didn’t listen to God’s enemies, but instead paid attention to their Lord.

As basic as this is, we easily lose sight of it. We are creatures of this world and are often afraid of the consequences of standing up for Christ and ordering our lives according to His Word. It’s tough these days, eh? I mean, we may even have people call us names like “fanatic” or “extremist” or even “narrow minded”. And yet it is the secularist and the materialist of today whose minds only acknowledge the narrow physical aspect of life, ignoring the much wider range of understanding and variation a spiritual view of any situation imparts. In addition, these mockers of Christians are also generally only ever interested in the here and now, having no time for the hereafter.

The fact is, of course, Christians are far less narrow minded than the secularist, since we see both the spiritual and the physical sides of life; and the Christians are nowhere near as short-sighted as the secularist, for we see way beyond the here and now, out into God’s eternity. We are accused of being “old fashioned” and not “up with the times”, when in fact we have the far more superior perspective of eternity. Why let their uninformed comments intimidate us?

Mainly because we also let them define the terms. By narrow minded they mean Christians don’t embrace the full variety and diversity of thought and lifestyle out there in the modern pluralist society. That is to say, we don’t like to tolerate the intolerable. And so it is: the state agents and others can use legal force and social pressure to force Christians to accept fornication, adultery, divorce for no reason, prostitution, homosexuality, unwed parents of multiple children by multiple “partners”, non-traditional definitions of “family”, etc., as legitimate activities/lifestyles. (The only reason child prostitution and bestiality are not in this acceptable category is because their respective lobbies aren’t yet big enough.) Any of these options can be freely taught as legitimate alternatives in state schools (and remember, we Christians are paying for this garbage through our taxes), but one must be extremely careful in presenting Christian Biblical morality, for such instruction in state primary schools is against the law! (See Education Act, Section 77).

The bad guys around us are a bit late to be trying to wipe out Christianity…..about 2000 years too late! Satan did his best then; Pilate also tried to wash his hands of Jesus; but who’d want to be where those guys are today? The Scriptures say repeatedly that every knee shall bow to Him (including our Prime Minister, every member of Cabinet and on down), and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There is no need for embarrassment, or even timidity, when you’re on the winning team. Let’s go to it! Let us live it and teach it to our children.

From Keystone Magazine
July 2002 , Vol. VIII No. 4
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

To order Keystone Magazine do one of the following:

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post cheque or visa number to PO Box 9064, Palmerston North, New Zealand

fax: 06 357-4389

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“A good name is to be chosen rather than

great riches.”

— Proverbs 22:1

(We read this verse only this morning, but it touched off quite a little discussion among us: mum & dad and the three at home aged 15, 10 and 4. — Ed.)

What is a good name? It is one’s reputation. It is the sum of your track record to date, the overall impression people have of you and your character and what you are like to deal with. A good name is something one works hard to build up. It takes years of faithful service, consistent practice in dealing honestly, always being at your best.

You get a good name when people like dealing with you because of your friendliness: you are friendly, respectful, take the time to talk with them.

You get it because of your honesty: people know they can trust you; you do what you promise, even if it ends up being totally inconvenient or uneconomical for you; you give a fair day’s work for a day’s pay; you don’t stretch lunch and tea breaks for an extra 5 minutes; you show up for work early and leave after quitting time.

You get a good name because of your compassion; you keep others informed of your progress on a project you know they’re depending on; you lift others’ loads from them, either by taking it on yourself or organising others to take it; you are always looking out for the interests of others. (You know, once the word gets out that you are genuinely interested in the welfare of others and that you will put their interests ahead of your own and actually spend your valuable time talking to them about their concerns….people will beat a path to your door.)

A good name is attached to those who are dependable: there are many players, but a lot fewer are real stayers; you will stick with a project or commitment you begin until its completion, no matter how much of a pain and hassle it turns out to be; when you say, “I’ll pray about it,” or “I’ll see what I can come up with,” people know that you will, and that you’ll be getting back to them soon. A good name comes when people know you may not be quick to take on projects or commitments, not because you don’t want to, but because you are committed to a high standard of excellence; once you sign on to a project, people will relax and be confident, knowing the job is in good hands. A good name inspires confidence in others.

A good name goes before you. As soon as others ascertain who you are, they are well disposed towards you as a person and towards everything you say. You may be offered gifts, favours, honours, opportunities to speak or positions of authority and responsibility that you haven’t sought. Although you enjoy this very much, and it is a blessing from the Lord to you and your family, you are actually a little uneasy with it all. Why? Because you know your own weaknesses, you are aware of your frailties, you are embarrassed at how far below Christ’s standards you really are. That is, you are humble. It has been a foundational part of your character all along and was the key ingredient that enabled you to gain a good name in the first place. And now, because of this humility, you realise that a good name also carries responsibility. If people are too quick to accept your suggestions or recommendations and don’t check out other options, they may follow your lead. If it turns out to be an unsuitable choice for them, not only does it disappoint them and waste their time and resources, but there is also the danger that you may get the blame – and the back-chat – for their lack of investigation and evaluation.

A good name goes before your spouse and your children. It will open doors of opportunity you would never dream of! Such offers are not only always a totally unexpected surprise, but you also find it really difficult to accept these opportunities for they seem far too generous. No wonder the Proverb says a good name is to be chosen rather than even great riches! Money cannot buy your way into people’s hearts, and this is what has taken place by way of your good name: it has endeared you to people’s affections to the extent that they are willing to open up their lives and businesses….and yes, even put their good names at risk…..by taking on your children. Who needs an A-pass Bursary when you have a good name?

A good name is something that takes many years to build up; we’re talking decades here, not a mere five or six. It is that depth of experience that people can sense when they meet you for the first time, even when your good name has not preceded you and you are a total stranger to them. A good name is therefore, almost by definition, the original preserve of middle aged and older folks. Young people can and do have a good name in a more limited sense, a good name in progress as it were, which is valuable and obviously essential for a good name later on. This is part of what older folks talk about when they say life begins at 40. You will certainly be over 40 when others begin offering your children high-paying jobs and responsible positions on the strength of your good name.

As valuable and long-lasting and hard-won as a good name is, it is also rather fragile and brittle. A large enough act of indiscretion can shatter your reputation in a moment and may even put you into a position from which your once good name will never recover. And now it becomes scary when you consider, on the one hand, the good name you have been building up and, on the other hand, your children. Younger children can do a lot of foolish things, even downright stupid, mean and ugly things, and “get away with it”… not with you as parents, I trust. You will deal with them in the strongest terms with loving godly discipline. And other people outside your family will generally cut little children plenty of slack. But somewhere along the line, your children reach an age where people do expect a lot more from them and their behaviour, when they most certainly do see your children’s behaviour as a reflection of your character….or lack of it. This is sometimes very difficult for you to see, for only the closest of friends will dare raise such issues with you as what they perceive to be chronic disrespect or dishonesty or just a perpetual case of D.R.A. in your child (DRA = dirty rotten attitude).

Here is where home education is such a blessing. Both Mum and Dad can be down on little junior like a ton of bricks whenever a DRA or actual offensive behaviour is manifested and can nip it in the bud. But it requires Mum and Dad to have both eyes opened to the many faults of their children which they as parents must discipline out. At the same time Mum and Dad must be training in to their children those qualities that are needed to build up a good name, the qualities Mum and Dad must be displaying and working on in themselves.

Your good name is actually, in fact, for your children just as much as it is for you, maybe even more so. Yet before they can inherit all its benefits, they must be trained to respect it, desire it and realise the terrible potential they have of shattering it in a moment by some wild act of indiscretion. Tell your children of the power they have, by committing unthinking actions, to inflict on you almost total destruction: the pain of a totally crushed heart; the trampling of your most cherished dreams; the ruin of your reputation within the wider community, the name you have been painstakingly building up, preserving, polishing and otherwise working on for years before they were even born. Some may object, that this is laying a guilt-trip on your children. But it is nothing more than revealing to them the facts. And the facts demand that they, for your sakes as well as for their own, be responsible. Be done with idiocy passing itself off as the wisdom of the age in sayings such as “boys will be boys”, “children must be allowed to find themselves” or “beware of harming their self-esteem”. Because you want the best for your children, because you want them to have every advantage in this life, because you want them to have a proper Biblical self image, you will train them to have the utmost respect for this most valuable of commodities that you can pass on to them: a good name, which is to be chosen rather than great riches.

From Keystone Magazine
May 2002 , Vol. VIII No. 3
P O Box 9064
Palmerston North
Phone: (06) 357-4399
Fax: (06) 357-4389
email: craig@hef.org.nz

To order Keystone Magazine do one of the following:

send email to sales@hef.org.nz with visa number

post cheque or visa number to PO Box 9064, Palmerston North, New Zealand

fax: 06 357-4389

phone: 06 357-4399

Trademe (fees added):  http://www.trademe.co.nz/Members/Listings.aspx?member=2366144

Sella (No added fees):  http://www.sella.co.nz/store/4ym9qg/home-education-foundation/display-100