Back To School

Labor Day is approaching.
Children have gone back to school already or they will be going back to school very soon.
Metal detectors and a police presence is the norm in the wake of school violence.
More programs, varied curriculum, and much testing to measure their progress.

God is nowhere to be found in our public schools.
The locks that are to keep the intruders out is thought to keep Him out as well.
In God’s place is the idolatrous god of humanism.
We have put ourselves in the place that belongs solely to Him.

Certainly, God is in the hearts of believing teachers who love Him.
Their heart breaks knowing that God’s Word has been removed; that prayer has been eliminated; and sharing the Gospel is considered hate speech.

It wasn’t always this way.

There were three legislative acts enacted by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The law of 1647 was also known as the Old Deluder Satan Law.
Compulsory public education had begun in the colonies.

A law in 1642, called the Massachusetts School Law, took educational supervision out of the hands of the clergy and placed it in the hands of the officials of the colony.
According to this law, education consisted of “reading and understanding the principles of religion and capital laws of the country.”
This law stressed education rather than schooling and was often neglected.

The Old Deluder Satan Law of 1647 believed that “ignorance was a satanic ill to be circumvented through the education of the country’s young people.”
If a town had more than 50 families, the law required them to hire a teacher.
If a town had more than 100 families, the law required them to establish a “grammar school” where teachers were required to teach reading, writing, and the Bible as well.
If the town failed to obey the law, they were fined 5 British Pounds.
After grammar school, some young men went to Harvard University, which prepared them for ministry.

Many of the leaders in the colonies were Puritans.
The Puritans wanted a literate population to ensure that “ye old deluder Satan could not keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures.”
Knowledge of the Scriptures was an “essential requirement for temporal living and eternal salvation.”
Illiteracy was no excuse.

How far we have come.

We have Bibles on the shelf, but never read them.
We think that what is written in God’s Word applies to THEN, not NOW.
How foolish we are.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:14-17)

We have removed the very Source of Life from our schools.
No man made book or program can ever teach, rebuke, correct, and train in righteousness.
Man made programs change with every whim and fancy.
God’s Word is eternal, unchanging, and inerrant.

Your Word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens. Your faithfulness continues through all generations; You establish the earth and it endures. Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve You…Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
(Psalm 119:89-91, 105)

God is not welcome in the public square.
We want Him to stay in His corner over here, and we will take care of the rest.
That is the epitome of arrogance and foolishness.

God the Holy Spirit is truly present in the hearts of His people.
God’s Word is all we need for faith and practice.
That was known in the 1600’s.
It seems to be forgotten now.

Let’s help each other remember.
God has never left us.
The problem is with us; we have failed to acknowledge Him.
Look where that failure has gotten us.