Letter: America’s Godly Education

Foundations, history and questions. Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on a rock (a solid foundation), but those who do not put them into practice are like foolish men (Matthew 7:24-26).

Our Founding Fathers were wise men. America’s education foundation, government and moral structure were built and established on the principles of the Bible (Luke 21:33).

Question: Did you know that public schools are allowed to and do promote a religion?

“Secular Humanism” is a religion in the same way that Hinduism and Buddhism are religions. The first tenet of Humanist Manifesto #1 states: “Religious humanist regard the universe as self-existing and not Created”. But today we know that great scientists such as Einstein and others have debunked such an idea.

“The Second coming of Christ” is an important but much neglected doctrine in many churches today. Some Christians say we are in the “Last Days” and use it as an excuse to be disengaged but Jesus says we are to “occupy until He comes” (Luke 19:13) and “To whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48).

We will be held accountable for what we have. We live in America where 63% claim to be a Christian and 85% of America’s households have a Bible. There is something wrong with this picture. Today we have ‘much’ but know so little.

Abraham Lincoln said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next”. The Ivy League Institutions in America’s history were Christ-centered. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, all owe their origins to the Christian gospel.

Harvard, the first Ivy League school proclaims, “After God had carried us safely to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government; one of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advance learning, and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.”

Harvard’s two mottos were: “For the Glory of Christ” and “For Christ and the Church”. Harvard’s directive to students was: “Let every student be plainly instructed and... consider well that the main end in life and studies is to know God and Jesus, which is eternal life (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning”.

Regardless of what “Day” we are living in, as professing Christians we have the highest calling when it comes to educating ourselves and our children.

We are not to leave the education of our children in the hands of a humanistic secular government. Oh, that the churches today would once again embrace the riches of our Christian foundation (I Corinthians 3:10-15) and rebuild on the foundation of our Founding Fathers.

Ted Roberts, Princeton