Should Christians try to Reform Government Schools? What Would Jesus Do?

by Josiah Friberg

This is a response to a friend's reply to one of my postings in which another person called the government school a "pit of hell." My friend disagreed with that and suggested that we need to take back the government schools the way the elders in the old days took their place at the city gates.....Here is my reply:

I think that you could pretty accurately describe government schools as the "gates of hell," for it is through those very gates that so many youth get pulled in to immorality, idolatry, lust, hedonism, drugs, sexual immorality, homosexuality and perversion, and it is through those very gates that the enemy is indoctrinating young children in the LIE that God does not exist and even if he does, He's not significant to even mention all year. From that LIE, a whole legion of other lies are perpetrated on innocent children such as evolution, moral relevance, humanism, socialism, Marxism, New Age mysticism, occultism, Islam, hedonism, post-modernism, etc. SO, the government school is being used by the enemy as one of his most effective "gates" or entrance points into a worldview and lifestyle that is completely contrary to God, to the Bible, to the truth, and is literally "Anti-Christ," or against Christ. This is certainly not the place for Christian parents to send their kids for 14,000 seat hours to be taught atheism, humanism, rebellion to parents and other authority, including God's authority. You suggested that we shouldn't abandon this important "gate" to the enemy.

Here are a few important points to consider. First, the gates of a city is where the wise old elders sat as judges and protectors of their city. If you are right, then the only ones from the church that should be sent and seated at the gate of government education is the oldest, wisest, most mature judges in the church - certainly not young children and certainly not young parents.

Second, I'm not so sure the church elders should be sitting in the gates of government school because it is not a God-ordained institution and has no authority to govern education anywhere in Scripture. If the elders are going to sit somewhere and judge the people and protect the household of God, wouldn't you think that they should be seated at the "gates" of Christian Biblical worldview education, at the "gates" of the local church, and at the "gates" of Christian families, and at other gates that have been ordained by God to be under the authority of His church. To say that Christian elders should be sitting at the gates of the public school, which is a worldly, anti-Christian, humanist religious institution, is the same as saying that Christian elders should also be sitting down at the gates of the local Muslim mosque, Hindu temple, Marxist revolutionary council, and occult center. These are all places of the enemy and his scheming and deceiving. Yes, we should reach out to all of them and lead them to the truth one on one, but are we really called to go down there and camp out on their doorstep and try to take over their godless organization and religion? NO. Those institutions have all rejected Jesus as the Messiah, rejected His truth and Gospel, and have chosen to continue deceiving the nations with their lies. Jesus instructs us to leave the city gates in that kind of situation and shake the dust off of our feet as a witness against them and in protest of their rejecting the Gospel of the Kingdom and the Savior of mankind. In the same way, we are not called to go down to our local government schools of humanism and atheism and try to take authority over them or sit in their gates to try to influence them or try to reform them. They are institutions of darkness that are not founded on the truths of God's Word, not founded on the fear of the Lord, not founded on Jesus Christ, not founded on anything Christian or Biblical.

Jesus' advice to us in this situation is this: They are "blind guides" leading the blind and those who follow them will fall into a pit. Leave them alone; don't waste your valuable time trying to change them. And don't throw your kingdom pearls before swine, for they will just trample them under their feet and treat them as worthless. Also, Jesus says: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits." Modern American education is founded upon the lies and deceptions of false prophets of education like John Dewey, Horace Mann, Charles Darwin, etc. Beware of them! Stay clear of them. Have nothing to do with them. In fact, expose them for the liars and deceivers they are. A bad tree (=gov't schools) cannot produce good fruit, and every tree that does not produce good fruit is and should be cut down (uprooted, pulled down, destroyed) and thrown into the fire. I truly believe that this is the attitude of Jesus and His wisdom and instructions to the church today regarding how to deal with the godless government school system. He is speaking to the church today and saying that the most powerful and effective thing Christian parents can do to properly raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord - is to first of all, remove them from the world's godless government school system, and then secondly, to give them a truly Christ-centered Biblical worldview education, both at home and through a family homeschool or in partnership with a well-chosen Christian school.

I pray that many would wake up and hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches regarding their children's education. The way for the church to take the gate of education and influence all of society through it is to establish truly Christi-centered Biblically-based educational centers in the home and in the church - not to try to reform the world's school system that is corrupt, built on lies, and is a very gate of hell.