By Jeff Keaton
Over the years that I have been involved in the effort to provide children with Christian world- view education, I have talked with a lot of parents about whether or not it was a worthwhile investment for them.
I have no doubt that most parents care deeply about their child’s education. I am confident that most Christian parents want their kids to know, love and serve Christ. However, when it comes to making the call to provide them with a Christian worldview education, many parents hesitate. For some, it’s the money or time investment necessary to place their child in a Christian school or to homeschool them. For others, it’s the sports program at the local non-Christian school or the academic acceptance that comes from being recognized at a large community school. Still others believe that their children are called to be missionaries in a non-Christian school. This belief is by far the most legitimate reason to place children in a non-Christian school, but for far too many it has not worked out.
Over the last few months, I’ve been asking the following question to sincere parents as they have talked with me about the education of their children. What kind of falsehood would your school have to teach in order for you to say, “My child will no longer be subjected to these lies?”
If a school were teaching one of the following statements as fact, would you pull your child out of that school?
2 + 2 = 7
Joseph Stalin was the founder of America.
America killed millions of Jews in concentration camps. • Abraham Lincoln was pro-slavery.
I haven’t met a parent to date who hasn’t agreed that any one of the above falsehoods, if continually promoted, would require them to pull their child out of the school that was teaching them.
What if a school were teaching these falsehoods? Would you pull your child out of that school?
God does not exist.
The Bible is not true.
God did not create the world.
Christians are hateful and mean.
Homosexuality is good and normal.
There is no absolute standard of right and wrong.
There is no heaven or hell. Death is the end of all existence.
I am amazed to find Christian parents who would pull their child out of a school if the school insisted that 2+2=7 but don’t seem to be overly troubled with a school teaching these falsehoods.
I was reading through Matthew recently and came upon these words that struck me to the heart. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matthew 18:5-6 ESV
As parents, we must do everything in our power to make sure that our kids are being taught the truth about God. If they become an academic genius in the world’s eyes, but lose their soul, we have failed them eternally.
Thankfully, many Christian schools and homeschools are producing world-class students who are being accepted into the most rigorous academic institutions in the world. However, the most important question we must ask as parents is not, “Can my kid make it to Harvard?” It is, “Will my child make it to Heaven?”
Volume 5 Issue 1 - The Renewanation Review
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