Latest / Voddie Baucham Sermons / Voddie Baucham - The Children of Caesar Part 1

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Voddie Baucham - The Children of Caesar Part 1 · Voddie Baucham Sermons

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Speaker 1: Good afternoon. We have a great deal of ground to
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Speaker 1: cover as we look at this issue of worldview and education.
0:44
Speaker 1: The title of my presentation today is He Who Controls
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Speaker 1: the Schools Controls the World, a fact that unfortunately gets
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Speaker 1: by many of us in the Christian community. The overwhelming
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Speaker 1: majority of the Christian community makes the exact same educational choice.
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Speaker 1: Some 90% of people who call themselves born again, blood washed,
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Speaker 1: Christ followers, make the exact same educational choice. I don't
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Speaker 1: think there's anything else that 90% of Christians do. Together,
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Speaker 1: same choice. I just don't, anything, you bring up any
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Speaker 1: theological issue, and try to get 90% of Christians to agree.
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Speaker 1: I mean, well, you know, okay, the deity of Christ,
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Speaker 1: and we're, you know, that's, other than that, which Bible
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Speaker 1: are you going to use? Fight to the death over
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Speaker 1: which Bible you're going to use, okay? Which denomination are
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Speaker 1: you going to be a part of? Duke it out there, too.
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Speaker 1: But 90% make the exact same educational choice, and nobody
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Speaker 1: can point to book, chapter, and verse to justify it.
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Speaker 1: 90% of Christians allow our government to educate their children.
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Speaker 1: We are losing somewhere between 70% and 88% of our
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Speaker 1: children by the end of their freshman year in college.
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Speaker 1: That's the children of evangelicals. Somewhere between 70 and 88%
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Speaker 1: of them have nothing to do with spiritual things by
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Speaker 1: the end of their freshman year in college. Now let
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Speaker 1: me give you the easy answer before we go into
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Speaker 1: a more detailed answer. The easy answer is this. If
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Speaker 1: we continue to send our children to Caesar for their education,
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Speaker 1: we need to stop being surprised when they come home
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Speaker 1: as Romans. How? To see who controls the schools, control
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Speaker 1: the world. Luke chapter 6 and verse 40. A pupil
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Speaker 1: is not above his teacher, but everyone, after he has
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Speaker 1: been fully trained, will be like his teacher. This is
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Speaker 1: the New Testament version of Proverbs 22, 6. Proverbs 22, 6.
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Speaker 1: Train up a child in the way he should go.
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Speaker 1: When he is old, he will not depart from it.
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Speaker 1: The New Testament version of that is right here in
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Speaker 1: front of you. Luke chapter 6 and verse 40. A
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Speaker 1: pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone, after he
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Speaker 1: has been fully trained, will be like his teacher. It's simple.
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Speaker 1: It makes sense. Whoever's your teacher is your discipler. You
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Speaker 1: cannot separate education and discipleship. Whoever is educating our children
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Speaker 1: is discipling our children, which means whoever educates the majority
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Speaker 1: of children is discipling the majority of children. And if
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Speaker 1: the pupil is not above his teacher... And if everyone
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Speaker 1: will ultimately be like his teacher, you see the power
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Speaker 1: of education. From K through 12, children spend 14,000 seat
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Speaker 1: hours in school. Let me say that again, 14,000 seat
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Speaker 1: hours in school. The average Christian family spends less than
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Speaker 1: 30 minutes per week discussing spiritual matters. Parents who think
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Speaker 1: that a few conversations centered around what did you learn
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Speaker 1: today need to be honest about the usual answer to
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Speaker 1: that question, which is nothing. I hear this all the time. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I understand. And after they go through the regular, you know,
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Speaker 1: regular moral of our schools are different. That's everybody, by
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Speaker 1: the way. Doesn't matter where they're from. Doesn't matter who
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Speaker 1: they are. Their schools are different. Every other school in
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Speaker 1: the United States is having those issues, but our school
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Speaker 1: is different. After we get past that, here's the next thing. Well,
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Speaker 1: I send them there, but we make sure and talk
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Speaker 1: through things when they come home. Really? Let's be honest.
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Speaker 1: When they come home and you ask them what they
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Speaker 1: learned so that you can talk through it, what's their
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Speaker 1: response when you say, what'd you learn at school today?
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Speaker 1: The response is nothing. The fact of the matter is
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Speaker 1: they don't know what they learned at school. They have
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Speaker 1: no idea what's being shoved down their throat. It is
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Speaker 1: their normal. They have no concept of anything else. So
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Speaker 1: they don't know what to discuss. Currently, the curriculum in
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Speaker 1: schools is controlled by the government and teachers' unions. Interestingly enough,
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Speaker 1: it's the curriculum that's doing the discipling because that's the
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Speaker 1: other thing we hear. Oh, we have wonderful, we have
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Speaker 1: Christian teachers. We have Christian administrators. We hear that a
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Speaker 1: great deal. That's what a lot of folks used to say,
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Speaker 1: for example, in Port Natchez, Texas. And they pride themselves
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Speaker 1: on their schools there in Port Natchez, Texas. You know,
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Speaker 1: Port Arthur, Texas is real close to Port Natchez. Port Arthur,
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Speaker 1: that's where those people live. You know, large numbers of
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Speaker 1: blacks and Hispanics, poor people, that's where their schools are.
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Speaker 1: Port Natchez is different. Port Natchez is pearly white. It's
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Speaker 1: rather wealthy compared to Port Arthur. Their schools are different.
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Speaker 1: It's true, which is why one of their principals of
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Speaker 1: a Port Natchez elementary school was caught in a sting
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Speaker 1: in the middle of a park soliciting boys for sex.
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Speaker 1: He also happened to be a deacon in at a
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Speaker 1: local Port Natchez Baptist Church. So I'm sure the parents
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Speaker 1: there went around saying, our schools are different. Our principal
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Speaker 1: is not only a Christian, he's a deacon. Good for them.
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Speaker 1: The teacher in Florida, in the Tampa area, who got
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Speaker 1: a slap on the wrist for having sex with teenage boys,
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Speaker 1: what did she claim? Christianity. So the people who were
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Speaker 1: sending their kids into her classroom and having them molested
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Speaker 1: by her could rest assured because their schools were different
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Speaker 1: and the teacher, a church-going Christian. So much for guarantees.
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Speaker 1: Our schools are incapable of training our children in the
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Speaker 1: very things that God commands us We only have 24
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Speaker 1: hours to invest. What do they look like? Sleep, eight hours.
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Speaker 1: Eating and bathing, two hours. If you have boys, you
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Speaker 1: can shave a little time off the bathing part. Travel
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Speaker 1: to and from school, about an hour. School itself, another
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Speaker 1: eight hours. Homework, another two hours. Again, if you have boys,
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Speaker 1: you can shave a little bit off that. TV, social,
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Speaker 1: about two hours. Now, if you know anything about our culture,
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Speaker 1: you know that's way low. Total, 23 hours. Here's what's
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Speaker 1: not included. I didn't put extracurricular activities in there, and
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Speaker 1: we're up to 23 hours. I also didn't account for
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Speaker 1: the lack of overlap between the schedule of parents and
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Speaker 1: students to take advantage of that one hour that's left. That,
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Speaker 1: by the way, is designed to overcome all those other
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Speaker 1: hours where our children are being inundated by Caesar in
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Speaker 1: secular humanism. Who are we kidding? There's not enough time
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Speaker 1: in the day. to compete with the schools for the
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Speaker 1: minds of our children. The Bible and education, is the
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Speaker 1: text silent? Because for a long time, this has been
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Speaker 1: our attitude on the issue. Our attitude on the issue is, hey,
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Speaker 1: just leave me alone. You do what you feel led
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Speaker 1: to do. I'll do what I feel led to do. Well,
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Speaker 1: excuse me if I don't buy into that mysticism. I
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Speaker 1: do what the Bible commands me to do, okay? It's
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Speaker 1: like saying, hey, there's a beautiful woman over there. I'm
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Speaker 1: standing here with a married friend. There's a beautiful woman
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Speaker 1: over there. She's giving us the eye. Hey, you do
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Speaker 1: what you feel led to do. I'll do what I
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Speaker 1: feel led to do. No, the Bible has spoken on
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Speaker 1: the adultery issue. I believe the Bible has also spoken
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Speaker 1: on the education issue. And for so long, we've treated
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Speaker 1: this like some sort of mystical decision that parents have
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Speaker 1: to make where we meditate until God zaps us with
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Speaker 1: what we're to do with our children educationally. Now, before
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Speaker 1: we look at all these, let me admit something to you.
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Speaker 1: The word school doesn't exist in any one of these.
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Speaker 1: And there's a reason. The Bible knows nothing of such things.
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Speaker 1: But let's look at what it says about the training
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Speaker 1: of the mind. Deuteronomy 6, 6 and 7. These words
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Speaker 1: which I'm commanding you today shall be on your hearts.
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Speaker 1: You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall
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Speaker 1: talk of them when you sit in your house, when
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Speaker 1: you walk by the way, when you lie down, and
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Speaker 1: when you rise up. That would be all the time.
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Speaker 1: I had an administrator in a school system in Amarillo, Texas,
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Speaker 1: challenge me on this issue because she's committed to public school,
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Speaker 1: committed to government education as a Christian. She's committed to it.
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Speaker 1: We've got to have it, and our kids have got
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Speaker 1: to be there. And I mentioned this passage of Scripture
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Speaker 1: to which she responded, I always thought that meant non-school hours. Ma'am, where,
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Speaker 1: pray tell, was Moses sending his kids to school? Listen
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Speaker 1: to Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who does not
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Speaker 1: walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in
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Speaker 1: the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers,
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Speaker 1: but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
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Speaker 1: and in his law he meditates when? Day and night.
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Speaker 1: He will be like the tree firmly planted by the
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Speaker 1: streams of water which yields its fruit in its season,
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Speaker 1: and its leaf does not wither. And in whatever he does,
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Speaker 1: he prospers. The wicked are not so, but they are
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Speaker 1: like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the
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Speaker 1: wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in
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Speaker 1: the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord knows the
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Speaker 1: way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked
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Speaker 1: will perish. Proverbs 1, 7, the fear of the Lord
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Speaker 1: is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction.
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Speaker 1: Romans 12, 2. Listen to this. Do not be conformed
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Speaker 1: to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of
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Speaker 1: your mind so that you may prove what the will
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Speaker 1: of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
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Speaker 1: Look at 2 Corinthians 10, 5. We are destroying speculations
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Speaker 1: and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.
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Speaker 1: We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
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Speaker 1: Is math a thought? Is science a thought? Is history
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Speaker 1: a thought? Colossians 2.8, see to it that no one
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Speaker 1: takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to
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Speaker 1: the tradition of men, according to the empty principles of
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Speaker 1: the world, rather than according to Christ. Listen to this.
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Speaker 1: 1 Timothy 6.20, O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted
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Speaker 1: to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing
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Speaker 1: arguments of what is falsely called knowledge. which some have
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Speaker 1: professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Can we
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Speaker 1: obey these principles without applying them to the way we
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Speaker 1: educate our children? How can we do that, folks? How
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Speaker 1: can we look at these principles about the training of
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Speaker 1: the mind and not apply them to the way that
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Speaker 1: we educate our children? I'm going to skip some of
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Speaker 1: these and talk about early education. You'll get some more
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Speaker 1: of this as we look through this. But listen to this.
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Speaker 1: Government education was established around 1870. I'm surprised at how
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Speaker 1: many people don't know this. Modeled after the Prussian format,
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Speaker 1: rooted in secular humanism. It was opposed by American Christians
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Speaker 1: for decades. First 50 years, the church fought tooth and
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Speaker 1: nail against compulsory education and against government education. Fought it
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Speaker 1: tooth and nail. They knew better. As late as 1900,
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Speaker 1: still two-thirds of all high school children were educated at
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Speaker 1: home or the church. As late as 1900, still two-thirds.
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Speaker 1: Listen to this from Alexis de Tocqueville. As late as
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Speaker 1: the 1830s, it was noted in America that education was
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Speaker 1: everywhere in the hands of the Protestant clergy. Education is
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Speaker 1: not mentioned in the United States Constitution, but guess what is?
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Speaker 1: The Tenth Amendment. The powers not delegated to the United
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Speaker 1: States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the
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Speaker 1: states are reserved to the states respectively or to the people.
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Speaker 1: What does that mean? I'll tell you what it means.
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Speaker 1: The federal government has no constitutional jurisdiction over education. Now
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Speaker 1: we clap, but let me pause here to give you
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Speaker 1: an illustration. Remember, a pupil is not above his teacher,
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Speaker 1: but everyone after he is fully trained will be like
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Speaker 1: his teacher. I'm a homeschool dad. We homeschool our children.
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Speaker 1: Trey's with me. Trey travels everywhere with me. Trey's 14
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Speaker 1: years old. I am his teacher. I am his discipler.
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Speaker 1: When our sons reach the age of 13, they go
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Speaker 1: through a rite of passage. They enter into manhood. And
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Speaker 1: when they enter into manhood, their mother closes up the
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Speaker 1: books and hands them to me. She is no longer
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Speaker 1: their teacher. I am. There are things that I, as
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Speaker 1: a man, am commanded to teach my children, my sons,
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Speaker 1: that my wife cannot. And so Trey travels everywhere with me.
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Speaker 1: He is my personal assistant. I am his mentor. I
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Speaker 1: am his teacher in all of his subjects and in
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Speaker 1: the art of manhood, what it means to be a man,
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Speaker 1: to live like a man, to conduct oneself as a man,
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Speaker 1: the good, the bad, and yes, the ugly. And so
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Speaker 1: people are always asking the same questions when they find
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Speaker 1: out that we're a homeschool family. Always asking the exact
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Speaker 1: same questions. And these questions are rooted in the fact
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Speaker 1: that they've been discipled by the system. There are three
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Speaker 1: questions that we always get, okay? Number one, every homeschool
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Speaker 1: family knows it is the question of questions. It is,
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Speaker 1: if we have any homeschool families in here, I'm not
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Speaker 1: even going to say it. What's the question? What about socialization? Exactly,
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Speaker 1: we get that, you know. And that's the easy one,
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Speaker 1: all right? What about socialization? The other question is, is
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Speaker 1: that legal? And the other question is, where do you
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Speaker 1: get your curriculum? whoever sees your curriculum, those are the
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Speaker 1: three questions. Why does everyone ask the exact same three questions?
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Speaker 1: Because everyone's been discipled by the same teacher. Is that legal?
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Speaker 1: Where does that question come from? That question comes from
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Speaker 1: sheep who have forgotten that they are free men. We
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Speaker 1: ask that question because we believe that children are wards
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Speaker 1: of the state. We ask that question because we've been
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Speaker 1: discipled by the system that says it owns us. And
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Speaker 1: the first question everybody asks is, how can you educate
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Speaker 1: your own children? Why? Why? Because the system wants you
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Speaker 1: to be a slave. I'm a free man. My children
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Speaker 1: are mine, not wards of the state. The government has
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Speaker 1: no jurisdiction over my children. But everybody asks that question. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because the pupil is not above his teacher, but everyone,
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Speaker 1: after he's been fully trained, will be like his teacher.
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Speaker 1: And everyone who's gone through our educational system has had
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Speaker 1: the idea pounded into their head that the state is
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Speaker 1: the educator, that you have to ask permission from the state.
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Speaker 1: Ninth Circuit has actually expressed that. In no uncertain terms,
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Speaker 1: they've expressed that. In my home state of California. When
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Speaker 1: it comes to sex education, hey, you send your kids
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Speaker 1: to us, you have no rights when it comes to
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Speaker 1: what they're taught. You are sheep and not free men.
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Speaker 1: Everybody asks that question. Everybody. Why? Because the pupil is
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Speaker 1: not above his teacher. But everyone after he's been fully
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Speaker 1: trained will be like his teacher. The other question stems
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Speaker 1: from the same concept. Where do you get your curriculum?
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Speaker 1: Who gives you your curriculum? Who approves your curriculum? Who
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Speaker 1: tests your children regularly to make sure that you're keeping
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Speaker 1: up with your curriculum? Again, that's the slave mentality. How
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Speaker 1: is the state exercising its jurisdiction over the child that
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Speaker 1: you and the state share? That's what that question means.
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Speaker 1: And the last question, well, what about socialization? Again, it
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Speaker 1: comes from the same place because we're sheep and not
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Speaker 1: living like free men. Socialization. Are you serious? I want
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Speaker 1: a group of 14-year-olds socializing my son right now? Are
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Speaker 1: you kidding me? When was the last time you were
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Speaker 1: in a room with 25 people your exact same age? School.
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Speaker 1: It never happens again once school is over, which means
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Speaker 1: that that is false socialization that gives you skills that
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Speaker 1: you never needed to acquire in the first place. There
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Speaker 1: is only one positive social skill that a kid can
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Speaker 1: learn in school. There's a bunch of negative social skills
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Speaker 1: you can learn in school. And afterwards, if you want
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Speaker 1: to talk, we can talk about those. I got plenty
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Speaker 1: of those that I learned in school. Only one positive
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Speaker 1: social skill. I've searched this out. Only one. And that's
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Speaker 1: standing in line. And if you have enough kids, you
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Speaker 1: can teach that at home, okay? Some alarming facts. Less
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Speaker 1: than 10% of American Christians possess a biblical worldview. I
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Speaker 1: believe the reason for that is because the overwhelming majority
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Speaker 1: of them have been educated by Caesar. That's where they
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Speaker 1: got their worldview from. Two-thirds of born-again Christians, and I
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Speaker 1: put that born-again in quotes because that's what they claim
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Speaker 1: in America, assert that there's no such thing as absolute truth,
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Speaker 1: which means they don't believe they're absolutely saved. All right.
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Speaker 1: Only four out of ten said they were absolutely committed
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Speaker 1: to the Christian faith. In today, maybe out tomorrow. Only
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Speaker 1: 44% of church youth assert that humans are capable of
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Speaker 1: grasping the meaning of truth. which makes you want to ask,
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Speaker 1: how did you grasp the meaning of the truth that
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Speaker 1: you can't grasp the meaning of truth? But anyway, 85%
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Speaker 1: of church youth agreed with the statement, what is right
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Speaker 1: for one person in a given situation might not be
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Speaker 1: right for another person who encounters the same situation. That's
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Speaker 1: relativism or situational ethics. 62% agreed with the statement, nothing
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Speaker 1: can be known for certain except the things that you
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Speaker 1: experience in your life. And of course, that must mean
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Speaker 1: that they've experienced everything else in their life in order
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Speaker 1: to know that this is true, because that's the only
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Speaker 1: way that they can make that statement. All right, people
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Speaker 1: with a Christian worldview, 11 times less likely to condone adultery,
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Speaker 1: 15 times less likely to believe homosexuality is acceptable, 18
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Speaker 1: times less likely to condone drunkenness, 31 times less likely
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Speaker 1: to condone premarital cohabitation, and 100 times less likely to
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Speaker 1: endorse abortion. What are we always pounding the pulpit about?
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Speaker 1: This list. Why are we always pounding the pulpit about
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Speaker 1: this list? Because people don't have a Christian worldview. If
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Speaker 1: they had a Christian worldview, we'd be pounding the pulpit
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Speaker 1: about something else. But because 90% of the people who
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Speaker 1: call themselves Christian don't have a Christian worldview, we have
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Speaker 1: to constantly remind them to act like what they are not.
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Speaker 1: So what's a worldview? Briefly. A worldview is a set
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Speaker 1: of underlying assumptions that interpret existence. It's an Iran Nash.
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Speaker 1: A worldview is a conceptual theme by which we consciously
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Speaker 1: or unconsciously place or fit everything we believe in by
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Speaker 1: which we interpret or judge reality. It's in the James Sire.
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Speaker 1: Our ground floor assumptions, ones that are so basic that
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Speaker 1: none more basic can be conceived, those compose our worldview.
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Speaker 1: And hear from Colson and Peercy. A worldview is the
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Speaker 1: sum total of our beliefs about the world, the big
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Speaker 1: picture that directs our daily decisions and actions. Our worldview
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Speaker 1: directs our daily decisions and actions. You want to know
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Speaker 1: a person's worldview. Don't ask them what they believe. Just
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Speaker 1: watch how they live. That's where you see a person's worldview.
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Speaker 1: How are these worldviews formed? First of all, they're formed informally.
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Speaker 1: No formal class. Sit down. This is your worldview. So
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Speaker 1: when our students are in the government education system, nobody's
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Speaker 1: saying to them, here is secular humanism. They're not saying that.
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Speaker 1: It's informal, uncritically. They're not thinking through it. In fact,
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Speaker 1: they're not even being taught to think. We don't teach
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Speaker 1: logic in our schools anymore. Why? You cannot shove trash
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Speaker 1: down the throat of a person whom you've taught logic.
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Speaker 1: They're learned intergenerationally. They're learned intragenerationally. And they're learned over time. 14,000
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Speaker 1: seat hours. Elements of a worldview. Our view of God.
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Speaker 1: Our view of man. Our view of truth. our view
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Speaker 1: of knowledge, and our view of ethics. Again, the most basic.
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Speaker 1: There's a couple more we can add here, but just
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Speaker 1: the most basic, just to give you an idea here, okay?
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Speaker 1: Two main competing worldviews in our culture, secular humanism and
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Speaker 1: Christian theism. View of God, atheistic versus theistic. View of man,
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Speaker 1: secular humanism, evolutionary. Christian theism, special creation. View of truth,
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Speaker 1: secular humanism, truth is relative. Christian theism, truth is absolute.
22:37
Speaker 1: View of knowledge, how do we know things? Secular humanism,
22:39
Speaker 1: naturalistic materialism. Nature is a closed system. Matter is all
22:43
Speaker 1: that matters. There's nothing outside of nature. So everything that
22:46
Speaker 1: we know, we know through our observation of nature. Christian theism,
22:50
Speaker 1: general and special revelations. This is an important point because
22:54
Speaker 1: they argue, we heard Bill Maher's statement, Christians are the
22:57
Speaker 1: ones who don't like science. No, Christian theism is actually
23:01
Speaker 1: the worldview that formed the basis and foundation for the
23:04
Speaker 1: philosophy of science. It's Christian theism as a worldview that
23:07
Speaker 1: gave us the hard sciences. Don't forget that. In fact,
23:11
Speaker 1: secular humanism does not work well with science because how
23:15
Speaker 1: can you do science if you believe truth is relative?
23:18
Speaker 1: view of ethics. Secondly, humanism believes they're cultural and negotiated.
23:22
Speaker 1: What's ethical in one culture is not necessarily ethical in another.
23:26
Speaker 1: Christian theism says they're absolute and universal. It doesn't take
23:29
Speaker 1: a genius to figure out which of these worldviews dominates
23:32
Speaker 1: contemporary American culture. For the sake of time, we'll move here.
23:39
Speaker 1: Look at the educational influence on worldview. Non-Christian education puts
23:45
Speaker 1: the child in a vacuum. The result is that child dies.
23:49
Speaker 1: Christian education alone really nurtures personality because it alone gives
23:53
Speaker 1: the child air and food. Modern educational philosophy gruesomely insults
23:58
Speaker 1: our God and our Christ. How then do you expect
24:01
Speaker 1: to build anything positively Christian or theistic upon a foundation
24:06
Speaker 1: which is the negation of Christianity and theism? No teaching
24:10
Speaker 1: of any sort is possible except in Christian schools. It's
24:14
Speaker 1: Cornelius Van Til. This whole process of education is to
24:18
Speaker 1: be religious. And not only religious, but Christian. And as
24:21
Speaker 1: Christianity is the only true religion, and God in Christ
24:24
Speaker 1: the only true God, the only possible means of profitable
24:27
Speaker 1: education is the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Charles Hodge.
24:33
Speaker 1: Listen to A.A. Hodge. I am as sure as I
24:36
Speaker 1: am of Christ's reign that a comprehensive and centralized system
24:39
Speaker 1: of national education, separate from religion, as is now commonly proposed,
24:45
Speaker 1: gives you an idea of when he's writing, will prove
24:47
Speaker 1: the most appalling engineering for the propagation of anti-Christian and
24:53
Speaker 1: atheistic unbelief and of anti-social, nihilistic ethics, individual, social, and political,
25:00
Speaker 1: which this sin-rent world has ever seen. Those words were prescient.
25:08
Speaker 1: David Allen Black is a dear friend of mine, professor
25:11
Speaker 1: of New Testament Greek at Southeastern Seminary. No academic skepticism,
25:15
Speaker 1: no secularist authors, no blatant materialism can so undermine the
25:20
Speaker 1: spiritual life of the country like the completely secularized training
25:24
Speaker 1: of a child under the authority of the state. Bible-based
25:28
Speaker 1: education is mandatory for Christian parents. If we think we
25:32
Speaker 1: can keep our children in a secular school system and
25:35
Speaker 1: escape the dumbed-down, amoral, and immoral results of secular humanism
25:39
Speaker 1: in schools, we are sorely mistaken. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
25:45
Speaker 1: By the way, we're not the only ones who understand this.
25:50
Speaker 1: When an opponent declares, I will not come over to
25:53
Speaker 1: your side, I calmly say your child belongs to us already.
25:57
Speaker 1: What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however,
26:01
Speaker 1: now stand in the new camp. In a short time,
26:04
Speaker 1: they will know nothing else but this new community. Who
26:07
Speaker 1: knew this about the power of education? Adolf Hitler. Adolf Hitler.
26:13
Speaker 1: Education is thus the most powerful ally of humanism, and
26:16
Speaker 1: every public school is a school of humanism. What can
26:19
Speaker 1: the theistic Sunday school, meeting for an hour once a
26:22
Speaker 1: week and teaching only a fraction of the children, do
26:25
Speaker 1: to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?
26:28
Speaker 1: Charles Potter, signer of the Humanist Manifesto, one of the
26:31
Speaker 1: architects of the modern American educational system. Our schools may
26:35
Speaker 1: not teach Johnny to read properly, but the fact that
26:37
Speaker 1: Johnny is in school until he is 16—by the way,
26:39
Speaker 1: now that's 18— tends to lean toward the elimination of
26:42
Speaker 1: religious superstition. Paul Blanchard, signer of the Humanist Manifesto, one
26:47
Speaker 1: of the architects of the modern American educational system. Public
26:50
Speaker 1: education is the parochial education of scientific humanism. Joe Burnett,
26:55
Speaker 1: signer of the Humanist Manifesto, one of the architects of
26:59
Speaker 1: the modern American educational system. So how are they doing?
27:04
Speaker 1: Nehemiah Institute has been conducting the PEERS test for decades.
27:08
Speaker 1: It tests worldview. What does that test look like? Here's
27:12
Speaker 1: the breakdown of the scale of the Peirce test. Anything
27:17
Speaker 1: from 70 to 100 is called biblical theism. That's what
27:20
Speaker 1: they would expect Bible scholars and professors to score. Moderate
27:25
Speaker 1: Christian worldview, 30 to 69 range. That's what they would
27:29
Speaker 1: expect mature Christians to score. You're a Christian, you have
27:31
Speaker 1: a Christian worldview, 30 to 69. Secular humanism, 0 to 29. Socialism,
27:36
Speaker 1: anything below 0. So, What do their test results look like?
27:47
Speaker 1: Biblical scholars average 87.8, just where you would expect between
27:51
Speaker 1: the 70 to 100 range. Humanists average negative 45, just
27:56
Speaker 1: where you would expect. Christian school faculty, these are folks
28:00
Speaker 1: who teach in your average Christian school, high school. They
28:06
Speaker 1: average 52.9, again, where you would expect them between that
28:10
Speaker 1: 30 and 69 range. Homeschool students averaged 48.6, just behind
28:15
Speaker 1: Christian school faculty. Christian students in Christian schools averaged 27.8,
28:21
Speaker 1: which is just below the moderate Christian worldview seeping into
28:25
Speaker 1: the secular human worldview. Now, what's the problem there? Here's
28:28
Speaker 1: the problem. It's not true with all Christian schools, but
28:31
Speaker 1: it boggles my mind. Christian schools actually brag about the
28:35
Speaker 1: fact that they have certified teachers. Certified by whom? The state. Caesars.
28:43
Speaker 1: So Christian schools are out there going, hey, Caesar approves
28:46
Speaker 1: of our teachers. Christian students in public school average 7.9
28:55
Speaker 1: on the Pierce test. The low end of secular humanism
29:01
Speaker 1: falling into Marxist socialism. I don't write the mail, I
29:06
Speaker 1: just deliver it. A couple of charts. Since 1988, 90%
29:12
Speaker 1: of Christian students who have taken the Pierce test have
29:15
Speaker 1: scored below the moderate Christian worldview level. 90%. 90%. The
29:27
Speaker 1: way home. Listen to this. This is from Christian Smith.
29:31
Speaker 1: Christian Smith was the chair of the sociology department at
29:34
Speaker 1: the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. And he conducted
29:36
Speaker 1: a study called the National Study of Youth and Religion.
29:38
Speaker 1: A four and a half million dollar research project. Now,
29:42
Speaker 1: four and a half million dollar research projects in sociology
29:45
Speaker 1: are virtually unheard of. But they conducted this study. Now
29:49
Speaker 1: he's no longer at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.
29:51
Speaker 1: He moved on up. He is now the chair of
29:53
Speaker 1: the sociology department at the University of Notre Dame. Now
29:56
Speaker 1: Christian Smith is not a radical fundamentalist. He is a mainline, well,
30:09
Speaker 1: he's not a radical fundamentalist. And so he's not writing
30:14
Speaker 1: here advocating other forms of education. Listen to him when
30:19
Speaker 1: he just puts forth his pure research. Especially when religion
30:22
Speaker 1: is structurally isolated from the primary schedules and networks that
30:25
Speaker 1: comprise teenagers' lives, are teens' religious and spiritual lives most weak?
30:30
Speaker 1: It is by contrast when teens' family, school, friends, and
30:33
Speaker 1: sports lives and religious congregations somehow connect, intersect, and overlap.
30:40
Speaker 1: Don't you love how he puts that? Somehow connect, somehow intersect,
30:44
Speaker 1: somehow overlap, that teens exhibit the most committed and integral
30:49
Speaker 1: religious and spiritual lives. What's the point that he made
30:53
Speaker 1: but wasn't willing to say? The point that he made,
30:57
Speaker 1: the point that he found in the National Study of
30:59
Speaker 1: Youth and Religion was this. It's the same thing found
31:02
Speaker 1: by the National Home Education Research Institute. The children most
31:06
Speaker 1: likely to remain in the faith of their parents, those
31:08
Speaker 1: educated at home, were currently losing 75 to 88 percent,
31:13
Speaker 1: between 70 and 88 percent of young people by the
31:15
Speaker 1: end of their freshman year in college. Homeschool students remain
31:18
Speaker 1: in the faith of their fathers all the way through college,
31:20
Speaker 1: according to Nary, at a rate of 90 to 95 percent. Again,
31:25
Speaker 1: I don't write the mail, I just deliver it. Listen
31:32
Speaker 1: to Richard Baxter in the reform pastor writing in the 1600s.
31:35
Speaker 1: This is the sanctification of your studies when they are
31:38
Speaker 1: devoted to God and when he is the end, the
31:41
Speaker 1: object and the life of them all. I'm a Southern Baptist.
31:48
Speaker 1: This year I had the second resolution that my friend
31:51
Speaker 1: and Bruce Short and I have brought before the Southern
31:53
Speaker 1: Baptist Convention. encouraging Southern Baptists to remove their children from
31:56
Speaker 1: our government schools. In 2005, we brought another that got
32:00
Speaker 1: a lot of attention because we were directly opposing the
32:03
Speaker 1: radical homosexual agenda in our schools. And we got a
32:05
Speaker 1: version of that one passed, and we got another one
32:07
Speaker 1: through this year. And so we're a thorn in the
32:09
Speaker 1: flesh again. But in 2005, just before the Southern Baptist Convention,
32:14
Speaker 1: I got a call from Al Mohler's program. He's the
32:16
Speaker 1: president of Southern Seminary and one of the most brilliant
32:20
Speaker 1: men in America today. bar none, of any, it doesn't matter.
32:24
Speaker 1: It's one of the most brilliant men in America today.
32:27
Speaker 1: And I get a call to come on his show.
32:29
Speaker 1: I'm not sure because most of the Southern Baptist leadership
32:31
Speaker 1: has just blasted us in the press. I mean, they
32:35
Speaker 1: were creaming us. They threw us under the bus and
32:37
Speaker 1: backed it up a few times, okay? And so we
32:40
Speaker 1: get this call from Moeller. And while I'm on the program,
32:43
Speaker 1: he makes this statement. I believe that now is the
32:45
Speaker 1: time for responsible Southern Baptists to develop an exit strategy
32:48
Speaker 1: from the public schools. This strategy would affirm the basic
32:52
Speaker 1: and ultimate responsibility of Christian parents to take charge of
32:55
Speaker 1: the education of their own children. The strategy would also
32:59
Speaker 1: affirm the responsibility of churches to equip parents, support families,
33:04
Speaker 1: and offer alternatives. That's what our resolution is about this year.
33:08
Speaker 1: At the same time, this strategy must acknowledge that Southern
33:10
Speaker 1: Baptist churches, families, and parents do not yet see the
33:13
Speaker 1: same realities, the same threats, and the same challenges in
33:16
Speaker 1: every context. Sadly, this is almost certainly just a matter
33:19
Speaker 1: of of time. Talking about these objections to home education,
33:24
Speaker 1: because that's where we are in this. And here, these
33:28
Speaker 1: are just the objections that we receive. And they're the
33:31
Speaker 1: same objections that people bring toward any kind of education,
33:34
Speaker 1: but some of them are more specific to those of
33:36
Speaker 1: us who educate at home. And since that's my perspective
33:39
Speaker 1: and the questions that I get, and because that's the
33:41
Speaker 1: least common among us, I wanted to answer the objections
33:44
Speaker 1: from that perspective. Not that I believe every parent has
33:47
Speaker 1: to do it that way. believe we're obligated to give
33:50
Speaker 1: our children a Christian education, but there are a variety
33:51
Speaker 1: of ways to do that. So I'm not saying that
33:53
Speaker 1: every parent has to do it this way. Here's objection
33:56
Speaker 1: number one. Parents are not trained teachers. First of all,
34:01
Speaker 1: and there's a monogram that you need to get, homeschooling
34:03
Speaker 1: from extreme to mainstream. It's a collection of the data
34:07
Speaker 1: over the last 20 years, from all the research of
34:09
Speaker 1: the last 20 years about home education. Here's what was found.
34:12
Speaker 1: Having at least one parent who is a certified teacher
34:15
Speaker 1: has no significant effect on the achievement levels of homeschool students.
34:19
Speaker 1: By the way, homeschool students outperform public and private school
34:22
Speaker 1: students on all measurable standardized tests. All. Bar none. And
34:30
Speaker 1: having at least one parent who's a certified teacher has
34:34
Speaker 1: no impact on that. Here's the other thing. Teachers represent
34:38
Speaker 1: the lowest scoring group enrolled in college. They do. As
34:43
Speaker 1: far as SAT scores, as far as entry scores, ACT,
34:46
Speaker 1: the lowest scoring group of individuals going into college are
34:49
Speaker 1: education majors. They are the second lowest scoring group entering
34:53
Speaker 1: graduate school behind social work majors, okay? Hey, these are
34:58
Speaker 1: just the facts. Am I saying that there are no
34:59
Speaker 1: intelligent people in education? No, it's not true, not true.
35:03
Speaker 1: But here's what happens to brilliant people who go into education.
35:06
Speaker 1: They are part of a group that represents the lowest
35:09
Speaker 1: scoring academic achievement level in college. So they usually don't stay.
35:16
Speaker 1: They usually go do something else, especially when they realize,
35:20
Speaker 1: you know, a person with an IQ of 150 who
35:23
Speaker 1: is a genius and 1400 on the SAT and they
35:26
Speaker 1: go and get an education degree and they go start
35:28
Speaker 1: teaching in schools and they are stellar teachers. And there's
35:31
Speaker 1: somebody over here who's just, they're a bum. They just
35:35
Speaker 1: don't get it. They make the exact same salary regardless
35:39
Speaker 1: of the results. It's standardized because of the teachers unions.
35:44
Speaker 1: How long is a brilliant academician going to stay in
35:49
Speaker 1: that environment? Not long. Not long. So the facts are these.
35:55
Speaker 1: They represent the lowest scoring group going into college. The
35:58
Speaker 1: education degree represents one of the lowest level programs available
36:01
Speaker 1: in modern higher education. It's a fact. And low pay
36:08
Speaker 1: and lack of discipline tend to drive good teachers away.
36:13
Speaker 1: America ranks 16 out of 17 industrialized nations in math
36:16
Speaker 1: and science. Nearly 70% of U.S. fourth graders do not
36:21
Speaker 1: read proficiently. Why is that important? Because if you can't
36:23
Speaker 1: read by the fourth grade, they've stopped teaching you to read,
36:26
Speaker 1: which means you'll probably never learn. If anyone has proven
36:31
Speaker 1: to be unfit to teach America's children, it's the American
36:33
Speaker 1: school system. Students miss out on socialization. Great. This is
36:41
Speaker 1: a myth. Schools provide unrealistic and overwhelmingly negative socialization. Homeschool
36:47
Speaker 1: students are involved in an average of 5.2 outside activities.
36:51
Speaker 1: By the way, if that's you, repent and cut something
36:53
Speaker 1: out of your life, okay? Homeschool students watch less than
36:59
Speaker 1: half as much TV as non-homeschool students. In 1992, Professor
37:03
Speaker 1: Larry Shires assessed whether or not homeschooled children suffered from
37:07
Speaker 1: retarded social development. His research observed children in free play
37:12
Speaker 1: and group interaction activities. What were his findings? Public school
37:16
Speaker 1: children had significantly more problems behaviorally. Imagine that. And there
37:20
Speaker 1: was no significant difference between homeschooled and non-homeschooled children in
37:24
Speaker 1: terms of either their self-concept development or assertiveness. None. They
37:30
Speaker 1: were less likely to fight and more likely to exchange
37:32
Speaker 1: phone numbers and emails. That's what he found. Students miss
37:37
Speaker 1: out on team sports. Hear this a lot in the South.
37:41
Speaker 1: I get this a lot from people in the South.
37:43
Speaker 1: You're a big old boy. You look like you play
37:47
Speaker 1: some football. Your son ain't that small either. Look like
37:52
Speaker 1: he's going to be a big old boy too. Here's
37:53
Speaker 1: what I'm wondering. Y'all homeschooling everything. How are you going
37:56
Speaker 1: to worship the God of sports? That's what everybody wants
38:03
Speaker 1: to know. How are you going to bow down before
38:05
Speaker 1: the bale of sport? Because everybody who is capable must
38:09
Speaker 1: bow down and sacrifice their children on the bale of sport.
38:14
Speaker 1: You must. How are you going to do that? How
38:18
Speaker 1: are you going to pay homage to the deity of
38:20
Speaker 1: our day? That's what everybody wants to know. How are
38:23
Speaker 1: you going to worship the football God if you homeschool?
38:30
Speaker 1: Students miss out on team sports. First, who cares? Next,
38:44
Speaker 1: while physical activity is important to children's development, organized sports
38:47
Speaker 1: for children are a recent development that has led to
38:50
Speaker 1: higher levels of performance on the field, but no increase
38:53
Speaker 1: in academic, spiritual, social, or emotional development. We need to
38:59
Speaker 1: be physically active. George Washington wasn't part of a traveling
39:03
Speaker 1: baseball team when he was a kid. Thomas Jefferson wasn't
39:07
Speaker 1: on the soccer team when he was a kid. They
39:10
Speaker 1: turned out okay. Well, team sports build character, really? If
39:17
Speaker 1: you believe that, then you must also believe that the
39:20
Speaker 1: men with the most character in America are in the
39:22
Speaker 1: NBA and the NFL. Because they've got more team sports
39:28
Speaker 1: under their belt than anybody else, right? Students miss out
39:36
Speaker 1: on scholarships. In recent years, homeschool students are gaining admission
39:41
Speaker 1: and scholarships to the most prestigious universities. In fact, most
39:44
Speaker 1: schools have people dedicated to recruiting homeschool students. because they
39:48
Speaker 1: are the best equipped students in America when it comes
39:50
Speaker 1: to being prepared to go into college. Over 700 post-secondary
39:53
Speaker 1: institutions across the United States, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Rice,
39:56
Speaker 1: and the Citadel, have admitted homeschool students. Everybody does. Low-income
40:01
Speaker 1: students are left in underperforming schools. That's what we heard
40:03
Speaker 1: a lot in the Southern Mexican Convention. If we do
40:05
Speaker 1: this pullout, those low-income students are going to be left
40:07
Speaker 1: in underperforming schools. We can't leave them there. Well, first
40:11
Speaker 1: of all, Students taught at home by mothers who never
40:15
Speaker 1: finished high school Listen to this scored a full 55
40:18
Speaker 1: percentile points higher than public school students from families with
40:22
Speaker 1: comparable education levels So mother number one didn't finish high
40:25
Speaker 1: school her kids went to public school mother number two
40:28
Speaker 1: didn't finish high school She homeschools her children at home
40:31
Speaker 1: mother number two who didn't finish high school just like
40:33
Speaker 1: that one didn't her kid scores an average of 55
40:36
Speaker 1: percentile points higher than the other kid by the way
40:40
Speaker 1: The mean performance of homeschool students whose parents do not
40:44
Speaker 1: have high school diplomas is much higher than the mean
40:47
Speaker 1: performance of students in public schools on the whole. In
40:50
Speaker 1: case you're wondering if I really said that, let me
40:52
Speaker 1: say it plainly. Homeschool moms who never graduated from high school,
40:59
Speaker 1: their students outscore the national average of public school students.
41:08
Speaker 1: Don't miss that. Don't miss that. These kids struggling in
41:15
Speaker 1: these schools. I was raised in drug-infested, gang-infested South Central
41:20
Speaker 1: LA in the projects, raised by a single teenage Buddhist mother.
41:27
Speaker 1: I went to horrible schools. I'd have been better off
41:32
Speaker 1: if my mother taught me at home. Moreover, these students
41:36
Speaker 1: are left in underperforming schools whether Christians decide to use
41:40
Speaker 1: them or not. This amazes me. If we do this,
41:44
Speaker 1: those children will be left in underperforming schools. Oh, and
41:46
Speaker 1: now they're not? The only thing that will change the
41:54
Speaker 1: situation of poor students in underperforming schools is to take
41:57
Speaker 1: education out of the hands of those who have created
41:59
Speaker 1: the current dilemma. Those who talk about affordability, The average
42:05
Speaker 1: cost for homeschooling is $ 546 per year per child compared
42:09
Speaker 1: to an average of $ 7, 000 a year per child for
42:12
Speaker 1: the government. That's less than $ 50 per month per child.
42:17
Speaker 1: What about single mothers? There's a large network, a large
42:20
Speaker 1: national network of homeschooling single parents. And this is part
42:24
Speaker 1: of the church's responsibility toward the widow and the orphans.
42:35
Speaker 1: If you pull them out, we're not being salt and light. Really,
42:40
Speaker 1: the context of Matthew 5 has nothing to do with
42:43
Speaker 1: sending our children to the government school. The idea of
42:45
Speaker 1: salt and light has to do with being distinct, not
42:49
Speaker 1: with assimilating. City on a hill cannot be hidden. What's
42:53
Speaker 1: great about a city on a hill? It's distinct and
42:55
Speaker 1: set apart. We homeschool because we believe in being salt
42:59
Speaker 1: and light, distinct and set apart. By the way, on
43:05
Speaker 1: the whole salt and light argument. You know, when you
43:08
Speaker 1: continue to read in Matthew 5, the Sermon on the Mount,
43:12
Speaker 1: when Jesus gives the treatment of salt and light in
43:15
Speaker 1: that passage, and people say, God say this with me,
43:18
Speaker 1: salt and light. If you continue to read just a
43:23
Speaker 1: few more verses, he talks about not a jot or
43:26
Speaker 1: tittle of the law passing away. And he makes a
43:30
Speaker 1: statement about those who teach little ones to go astray
43:36
Speaker 1: from the law and says that they are the least
43:39
Speaker 1: in the kingdom. So right there in the very passage,
43:44
Speaker 1: right after the place where people go and say, Jesus says,
43:50
Speaker 1: if you are encouraging young ones to go astray from
43:57
Speaker 1: keeping the law, you are the least in the kingdom.
44:04
Speaker 1: The least. The least. in the kingdom. What is my
44:08
Speaker 1: responsibility as a father? My responsibility as a father is
44:12
Speaker 1: to equip and to train my children, to raise them
44:15
Speaker 1: in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. That is
44:19
Speaker 1: my responsibility as a father. My responsibility as a father
44:24
Speaker 1: is to raise, train, hone, aim, and launch the arrows
44:29
Speaker 1: that God has given me. And there are those who
44:33
Speaker 1: seem to think that I should take them when they're
44:36
Speaker 1: undeveloped twigs and launch them into a system that will
44:40
Speaker 1: hone them and sharpen them and aim them back at me. Newsflash.
44:47
Speaker 1: I'm raising an army. An army of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
44:53
Speaker 1: And one day the silo is going to open over
44:56
Speaker 1: my home. And when it does, there will be missiles
45:01
Speaker 1: launched to impact this world who have been trained, armed
45:06
Speaker 1: and honed in my home and not by Caesar. Thank you.