“And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river’s brink,” Exodus 2:1-3.
Christian Education is no new thing. It has ever been the will of God that children be taught the truth of God. “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord,” Ephesians 6:4.
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up,”Deuteronomy 6:4-7.
Old Truths Rediscovered
Many times in the pilgrimage of the people of God an old truth has been rediscovered and given an emphasis it had not received for quite some time. To some it appeared as a NEW TRUTH! We have an example of this in 2 Kings 22:8. “And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the LORD.” Long neglected, its contents came as an amazing and distressing revelation to king Josiah. “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes,” verse 11.
In the days of the Reformation, teaching children the truth of God became a prominent feature of that time of blessing. John Knox, the Scottish Reformer, determined to put a school in every parish in Scotland. He detailed his desire in his FIRST BOOK OF DISCIPLINE. He said it was the duty of the church, in order to maintain the truth of God to its ‘posterity’ that schools were a necessity. He wrote in his Book of Discipline , that ‘of necessity it is that your Honours be most careful for their virtuous education, and godly upbringing of the youth of this Realm, if other you now thirst for the advancement of Christ’s glory, or yet desire the continuance of His benefits to the generation following. . . . Of necessity therefore we judge it, that every several churches have a Schoolmaster appointed. . .’
The First Book of Discipline took the view that the government of the day or civil magistrate should be responsible for the education of the youth, but it was to be an education which was carefully defined by the reformers themselves. They said it is to be an educational system set up to promote ‘the virtuous education and godly upbringing of the youth of this realm’. They looked to the future with a vision of succeeding generations of young people brought up in the Christian faith and able to help in church and state: ‘For as the youth must succeed to us so we ought to be careful that they have knowledge and erudition to profit and comfort that which ought to be most dear to us, to wit, the Kirk and spouse of our Lord Jesus’.
Secular subjects, of course, were to be studied in the school but the emphasis was upon gaining a knowledge of the Christian religion.
The reformers were conscious that such reforms in education as they proposed in the First Book of Discipline would lead to great moral and spiritual benefits throughout the country. Knox and the Scottish reformers were entirely supportive of the view that education should be specifically Christian.
Christ said to Peter just before His ascension, “Feed my lamb,” John 21:15. That came before His command to “Feed my sheep”!
Certain Nobles!
However, certain nobles in the first meeting of the General Assembly, meeting on December 20th 1560, wanted to hold onto the money confiscated from the RC church for their own benefit rather tan have it spent on the upkeep of John Knox’s proposed church and educational structures. In consequence, the parish schools system he proposed was never established.
It is a story of man’s will put before God’s that is repeated today in our midst!
Here in Ulster, Dr Henry Cooke, in the early 1830s, fiercely opposed the government’s plan to remove the Bible from the classroom. Dr Cooke believed that any system of education which rejected the Holy Scriptures could not be tolerated by believers. That view of education has been utterly abandoned by those in the realm of education, by most Christian parents today and by many of those minister who would claim to walk in the footsteps of Henry Cooke!
That is how far from former Biblical standards the people of God and the majority of their ministers have strayed! We sang a hymn today based upon Mark 10:13-14. “And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.”
Today, the Bible has been replaced by the most heinous doctrines of the devil and yet Christian parents refuse to withdraw their children from under such teaching and they are supported in this evil by ministers!. Such a defiant attitude can only spell the death of the gospel witness here!
In truth no church which calls itself ‘Christian’ but does not provide Christian Education, is in truth truly Christian!
I. HOW TRAGIC IT IS THAT PARENTS ARE THUS PREPARED TO SACRIFICE THEIR CHILDREN!
1. This is the equivalent of the most heathen practice that was embraced by Israel of old! “But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin,” Jeremiah 32:34-35.
Is this not the equivalent of the sacrificing of children today by Christian parents and ministers to the evil teaching of the state school which will lead to a burning in hellfire!
2. As it resulted in the abandonment of Judah, so such actions will bring a like judgment upon us here in Ulster. “And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence,” Jeremiah 32:36
Can we not see this already happening in the growing dominance of the apostate ecumenical churches and Sinn Fein/IRA here?
3. Ought we not to have learned from the Bible’s record of past attacks upon God’s people by way of their offspring? God’s purpose for Israel was set forth by Moses to Pharaoh. “And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD,” Exodus 10:9. Pharaoh’s response was plain. “Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence,” verse 11. The Lord plagued Egypt further because of this refusal by Pharaoh until he relented, to some degree. “And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the LORD; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let your little ones also go with you,” Exodus 10:24. The world will always resist God’s people living in obedience to God’s will!
It is utterly sad when Christians, as we see today, readily comply with ‘Pharaoh’s’ objections to walking in the old paths!
II. GREAT COURAGE IS NEEDED TO OBEY THE LORD IN THESE DAYS.
“By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment,” Hebrews 11:23.
1. They defied the king. They ‘HID’ Moses. That ‘defiance’ is needed today! The hiding place is the Christian school!
2. They acted from the very birth of Moses. It was their parental instinct. Where is that ‘instinct’ in many Christian parents today?
3.. They believed the Lord. It was faith in Him that motivated this defiance! This was the spirit of the apostles. “Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men,” Acts 5:29. Such were those who “loved not their lives unto the death,” Revelation 12:11.
III. THERE WERE MANY IN THAT DAY WHO OBEYED PHARAOH AND YIELDED UP THEIR CHILDREN TO DEATH.
“Till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live,” Acts 7:18-19.
Pharaoh’s aim was to force the dying out of the Israelite nation by the killing of the male offspring. Sad to say, many complied with his demands. The parents of Moses are set forth as courageous and believing exceptions!
It is not yet too late for the evil scheme at work today to be frustrated by obedience on the part of Christian parents BUT the time is short!