The William Tyndale Story August 27, 2007

This weekend I watched The William Tyndale Story of the Torchlighters DVD series Heroes of the Faith. It was excellent! It’s an animated film for children ages 8-12. However the DVD contains as an extra feature an interview with Dr. David Daniell, a Tyndale scholar. This interview is more like a documentary and it would appeal to older children and adults. I thought it was fascinating and moving. To think that Tyndale sacrificed his life in order to get the Word of God into the hands of the common people in their own language! And yet many Christians today have so many Bibles – different translations, study bibles, reference bibles, pocket bibles, parallel bibles, etc.–and find it a chore to read even a little bit each day! Imagine how precious it was to those people in the 16th century to receive their own copy of the Scriptures for the first time in a language they could understand! May the Word of God be that precious to us! God has blessed us in these last days,especially in the USA, with Bibles being readily available. We have no excuse for not reading God’s Word.

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be required.” Luke 12.48 (NASB)

A Return to Classical Education August 23, 2007

In his article for the National Review, Victor Davis Hanson laments over what he observes to be an epidemic of ignorance in our country, giving examples of young adults not being able to do simple math or even read. While he admits that the fault lies not only with the schools, but also with the disintegration of the American nuclear family, he claims one fundamental problem is a faulty education philosophy that is characteristic of our public schools. In particular, he asserts that “sermons on race, class, gender, drugs, sex, self-esteem, or environmentalism” effectively “squeeze out far more important subjects”, and, as a result, should be canned and replaced with what he calls “traditional learning”:

© 2007 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

The old approach to education saw things differently than we do. Education (“to lead out” or “to bring up”) was not defined as being “sensitive” to, or “correct” on, particular issues. It was instead the rational ability to make sense of the chaotic present through the abstract wisdom of the past.

So literature, history, math and science gave students plenty of facts, theorems, people, and dates to draw on. Then training in logic, language, and philosophy provided the tools to use and express that accumulated wisdom. Teachers usually did not care where all that training led their students politically — only that their pupils’ ideas and views were supported with facts and argued rationally. (Read entire article)

What Hanson has described here generally characterizes what is sometimes called a “classical education”, although the author uses the term “liberal education”. Much of what is taught as classical education today follows in the wake of a 1947 essay by Dorothy Sayers called “The Lost Tools of Learning” in which Sayers claims that modern schools spend far too much time teaching subjects and not enough time teaching students how to think. Douglas Wilson brought back the spirit of Sayers’s work in his 1991 book Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. In his book, Wilson focuses in particular on a classical Christian education. His book was very popular and spurred a movement in the Christian community to incorporate the classical curriculum and method in their homeschools and private schools. The Association of Classical Christian Schools was formed in 1994.

While content may vary, the method of classical education is the trivium, which consists of the grammar stage, dialectic (logic) stage, and rhetoric stage. While some differ on what age/grade a child moves from one stage to the next, generally speaking, the grammar, dialectic and rhetoric stages correspond to elementary, middle school, and high school, respectively. In the grammar stage, students focus on the accumulation of information. Children of this age enjoy memorization and are usually quite good at it. In the dialectic stage, students become more concerned with the “why” of things and begin to analyze the data they learned in the grammar stage. Students are often taught formal logic during this stage. In the rhetoric stage, students build on the logic stage and learn to think through ideas and express their own opinions with clarity and originality.

Susan Wise Bauer, coauthor of The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home, has a very nice, succinct article on the definition of classical education on her website. This article is a great read for anyone wanting to learn more about classical education.

Permission to reincarnate August 22, 2007

© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.
Aug. 20-27, 2007 issue – In one of history’s more absurd acts of totalitarianism, China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next month and strictly stipulates the procedures by which one is to reincarnate, is “an important move to institutionalize management of reincarnation.”(full article)

Yes, you read that correctly. The laughable part of this is obvious.Of course, it’s also very sad. The article mentions that a Barna survey found that 25% of Christians, including 10% of all born-again Christians, “embrace it as their favored end-of-life view.” How sad. How clueless.

On the subject of reincarnation, John MacArthur has this to say:

Romans 1:18 says, “The wrath of God is revealed,” right? and that is the heart and soul of the Gospel, that God is going to pour out wrath on sinful man. Now, how can man deny that? So that’s his dilemma, he doesn’t want to accept God, he doesn’t want to accept the truth, he doesn’t want to accept the gospel. So somehow he’s got to replace this concept of judgment. The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27, “It’s appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.” So the Bible denies reincarnation in that one verse.

Now, at that point the system of man says, we deny judgment. In 2nd Peter it says, “Where is the promise of His coming, all things continue as they were from the beginning…” so forth and so forth…they don’t want to admit judgment. Now the way they get out of judgment is by this constant cycle of reincarnation, you’re never judged, you just keep cycling through human existence again and again, there’s no consequences to what you do, except a lowering or a raising of your karma in life. It is a calculated design to evade the reality of judgment.

Your children or the state’s children? August 18, 2007

According to the Maryland State Board of Education, the right to control the upbringing of your children is “not absolute” and “must bend to the State’s duty to educate its citizens.” (Washington Post) The Board approved Montgomery County’s sex-ed curriculum which, among other things, teaches that homosexuality, bisexuality and and transvestitism are “innate” and normal. (Baptist Press)

Hey, at least the students in Montgomery County need parental consent to take the lessons. Parents and students in Canada weren’t so lucky in the area of evolution:

Parents would rather move than hear evolution

© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

Fifteen Christian families from a tiny community of only about 1,300 people are making plans to leave their homes and work behind so that their children will not be forced by the Canadian government to attend “sanctioned” schools where evolution is taught.

A report in the Vancouver Sun said provincial officials have threatened the families with legal action, including the potential loss of their children to state control, if they do not abide by the mandatory education curriculum.

Read full article

Makes you wonder what the NEA has in mind when it writes in its homeschooling resolution B-75 (emphasis mine):

The National Education Association believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state requirements. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.

The Association also believes that home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.
The Association further believes that local public school systems should have the authority to determine grade placement and/or credits earned toward graduation for students entering or re-entering the public school setting from a home school setting. (1988, 2006)

Primetime August 16, 2007

Consider the following scenario:

Let’s say someone wants to “not shelter” their children from the ways of the world. So they’re going to sit them down in front of an average sitcom or show on primetime television. (Note: they may have a better chance of exposing their child to homosexuality if they choose a sitcom or show on ABC.) Afterwards, they’re going to sit down with them and say, “Now, son, you have just seen an example of what the world loves and God hates. The world sees nothing wrong with people “hooking up” and “living together”, but rather these behaviors are actually encouraged. You also see that homosexuality is totally accepted. You see that God’s name was blasphemed 7 times in a half hour. Christianity was ridiculed twice. Now, let’s look at what the Bible has to say. We’ll begin by reading Romans 1.18 through the rest of the chapter.”

Hmmm. I’m not condoning this sort of use of the television (and I would have a different view of how we should “shelter” our children), but I wonder if this actually ever happens.

Instead, this is probably what happens more often: The same show may be watched. Everyone will laugh and be entertained. Comments such as “I’m so glad they finally hooked up. I was wondering if that was ever going to happen!” may be made. Maybe when God is obviously being ridiculed someone may speak up and say “I wish they wouldn’t do that”. However, all of the “Oh my God” and “Jesus” statements are ignored or laughed at. There may be no conversation at all discussing what was actually wrong in the show. What would be the basis for such conversation? It’s like saying the following: “now children, I want to stress how important it is that we seek to live holy lives before God. Even though I know we were all laughing and being entertained by a show that condones things that God hates, that doesn’t mean that we don’t take sin seriously.”

Why do Christians tolerate this in their homes? I guess we’ve become numb. I personally don’t watch much television for the very reason that I don’t think there is much worth watching. In addition, even when I do find something that’s somewhat acceptable, I feel like I’m wasting my time if I sit there for any extended period of time. It’s so easy to get sucked in. The other night I decided I would turn on the TV. I lasted on one show for about 15 minutes. By the time God’s name was blasphemed for the third time (why didn’t I turn it off the first time?! uggghh!) I decided to change the channel. The best thing I could find was a Catholic mass on EWTN. TV time over!

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things” -Philippians 4.8 (NASB)

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” -Romans 12:2 (NASB)

Homemaking courses? August 11, 2007

My comments follow the article:

Southern Baptist Seminary to Often Academic Program in Homemaking
By ROSE FRENCH
Associated Press Writer
NASHVILLE, Tenn.

The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary offers coursework in Greek and Hebrew, in archaeology, in the philosophy of religion and _ starting this fall _ in how to cook and sew.

One of the nation’s largest Southern Baptist seminaries, the school is introducing a new, women-only academic program in homemaking _ a 23-hour concentration that counts toward a bachelor of arts degree in humanities. The program is aimed at helping establish what Southwestern’s president calls biblical family and gender roles.

Coursework will include seven hours of nutrition and meal preparation, seven hours of textile design and “clothing construction,” three hours of general homemaking, three hours on “the value of a child,” and three hours on the “biblical model for the home and family.”

Seminary officials say the main focus of the courses is on hospitality in the home _ teaching women interior design as well as how to sew and cook. Women also study children’s spiritual, physical and emotional development.

Yet the program is raising eyebrows among some Southern Baptists, who say a degree concentration in how to be a Christian housewife is not useful, and a waste of seminary resources.

Seminary President Paige Patterson, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, which has its executive committee headquarters in Nashville, said wives of seminary students asked for the homemaking courses. The program was approved by seminary trustees.

“We are moving against the tide in order to establish family and gender roles as described in God’s word for the home and the family,” Patterson said at the denomination’s annual meeting in June. “If we do not do something to salvage the future of the home, both our denomination and our nation will be destroyed.”

Terri Stovall, dean of women’s programs at Southwestern, which has its main campus in Fort Worth, Texas, said the purpose of the program is to strengthen families.

“Whether a woman works outside or strictly in the home, her first priority is her family and home,” she said. “We just really want to step up and provide some of these skills.”

Stovall said the homemaking degree is one of 10 women’s programs at the seminary and is “only targeted to women whose heart and calling is the home.”

A description of the homemaking program on the seminary’s Web site says it “endeavors to prepare women to model the characteristics of the godly woman as outlined in Scripture.

“This is accomplished through instruction in homemaking skills, developing insights into home and family while continuing to equip women to understand and engage the culture of today.”

The Rev. Benjamin Cole, pastor of Parkview Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, and a frequent Southern Baptist critic, wrote about the homemaking program on his blog.

“At first it was almost incredible to me,” Cole said. “I thought this is not happening. It’s quite superfluous to the mission of theological education in Southern Baptist life. It’s insulting I would say to many young women training in vital ministry roles.

“It’s yet another example of the ridiculous and silly degree to which some Southern Baptists, Southwestern in particular, are trying to return to what they perceive to be biblical gender roles.”

Patterson took a leading role in the 1980s in a successful campaign to oust moderates from leadership posts in the Southern Baptist Convention. While he was president of the convention from 1998 to 2000, Southern Baptists issued a statement that women should not be pastors and that wives should “graciously submit” to their husbands.

In 2003, when Patterson left his post as president of North Carolina’s Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary to serve as Southwestern’s president, he was asked whether women would teach in the seminary’s theology school under his leadership.

“The New Testament is crystal clear that pastors are to be men,” he said.

In March, a former Southwestern professor filed a federal lawsuit against the school and Patterson, alleging she was fired from her tenure-track position because she was a woman.

Professor Sheri Klouda was hired in 2002 and was the only woman to teach at the school of theology. But last spring, school officials informed Klouda that her contract was terminated because she was “a mistake that the trustees needed to fix,” the lawsuit states.

Patterson’s wife, Dorothy Patterson, is the only woman faculty member now teaching in Southwestern’s theology school.

David Key,director of Baptist studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, said part of the reason why the seminary may be introducing the new homemaking program is in reaction to the Klouda lawsuit.

“Women continue to make more inroads into traditional male bastions, which could be provoking Patterson to do this,” Key said. Patterson is “trying to draw the line in the sand of where women need to be.”

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., also offers programs for women, including a 13-hour certificate of ministry studies. Required courses cover child-rearing, “God’s plan for marriage,” and managing a budget.

Key said neither seminary will allow women to be pastors, but notes that Southern hasn’t “articulated homemaking like Patterson.”

“Southern at least appears to realize the realities of modern day life _ that often times husbands and wives must both work outside the home to support the family,” Key said.

___

On the Net:

Southwestern Theological Seminary: http://www.swbts.edu/

Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

I thought this article was very interesting. I’m not so sure that a “degree” per se concentrating in homemaking is particularly useful. I mean–who exactly is going to be reading that resume? (BTW, I’m not saying that women who plan to stay home shouldn’t seek educational degrees.) However, I think something can be said about the fact that women were requesting that these courses be taught. These women obviously want to manage their homes well, and they’re asking for the resources to help them do so.

The Bible says where women should go for their resource–the older women are to train the young women to “love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” (Titus 2.4) Sadly, I have seen very little of this verse put into action in my personal experience. Specifically, I mean the older women training the younger women. The fault probably lies in both camps, with many older women not taking an active interest in the domestic pursuits (or lack there of) of the younger women, and likewise, the younger women not seeking out the older women when they want to learn something. I guess the end result is a Seminary offering homemaking classes!

So if someone wants to make the case based on Titus 2 that it isn’t the role of a seminary to be giving homemaking courses, I would entertain such an argument. However, that particular objection isn’t listed in the article. But listen to an objection that is made. Notice the words of Rev. Benjamin Cole:

“At first it was almost incredible to me,” Cole said. “I thought this is not happening. It’s quite superfluous to the mission of theological education in Southern Baptist life. It’s insulting I would say to many young women training in vital ministry roles.

“It’s yet another example of the ridiculous and silly degree to which some Southern Baptists, Southwestern in particular, are trying to return to what they perceive to be biblical gender roles.”

Maybe Cole had some more to add on the subject that’s not included in this article, but from these words alone, Cole seems to be implying that women who seek to maintain their homes are not in “vital ministry roles”. Sadly, many wives/mothers probably feel guilty about not having the time or energy to be involved in what Cole would define as “vital ministry roles” because frankly they are spending all of their time changing diapers, taking care of sick family members, wiping germs off the toilet, fixing meals every day and teaching their children. A mother has her evangelism field clinging to her leg everyday–her children! Is that not a “vital ministry role”?! How many problems in our nation and churches today stem from the fact that family and homelife are being uprooted and neglected?

I would agree that there are roles in the church that are more grandiose than others. Some people as pastors and missionaries are going to reach far more people with the gospel than the mother at home with her three children. However, that doesn’t mean her ministry isn’t vital. 1 Corinthians 12.21-26 says:

And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; or again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

I think that passage pretty much speaks for itself.

But what is the dissension really about? The rest of Cole’s words, along with the focus of the rest of article, shows that the root of the issue is a disagreement, likely with disdain, of the seminary’s “perceived” role of women in their family and in their church.

An apologetic for the biblical teaching of the role of women in the home and church is outside the scope of this post. But I will say that the reason the Bible gives for the older women teaching the younger women to do these domestic things is one that I think stands regardless of time or culture: “That the word of God may not be reviled”.

It is I by Octavius Winslow (1808-1878) August 11, 2007

I found the following excerpt from a sermon by Octavius Winslow so comforting. To think that everything that God does will be for His glory and ultimately our good!

It is I (public domain)

The following is from Octavius Winslow’s sermon,
“Be Not Afraid Or, The Voice of Jesus in the Storm”

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
Mark 6:50

Listen, then, to the voice of Jesus in the storm.

It is I who raised the tempest in your soul,
and will control it.
It is I who sent your affliction, and will be
with you in it.
It is I who kindled the furnace, and will watch
the flames, and bring you through it.
It is I who formed your burden, who carved your
cross, and who will strengthen you to bear it.
It is I who mixed your cup of grief, and will
enable you to drink it with meek submission
to your Father’s will.
It is I who took from you worldly substance,
who bereft you of your child, of the wife of
your bosom, of the husband of your youth,
and will be infinitely better to you than
husband, wife, or child.

It is I who have done it all.

I make the clouds my chariot, and clothe
myself with the tempest as with a garment.
The night hour is my time of coming, and
the dark, surging waves are the pavement
upon which I walk.

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

It is I, your Friend, your Brother, your Savior!

I am causing all the circumstances of
your life to work together for your good.

It is I who permitted….
the enemy to assail you,
the slander to blast you,
the unkindness to wound you,
the need to press you!

Your affliction did not spring out of the ground,
but came down from above; a heaven sent
blessing disguised as an angel of light clad
in a robe of ebony.

I have sent all in love!

This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God.
This bereavement shall not always
bow you to the earth, nor drape in
changeless gloom your life.

It is I who ordered, arranged,
and controlled it all!

In every stormy wind,
in every darksome night,
in every lonesome hour,
in every rising fear,
the voice of Jesus shall be heard, saying,

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Read more by Octavius Winslow at http://www.gracegems.org/

What is the purpose of education? August 9, 2007

My oldest child is only three, and yet I have spent a copious amount of time trying to decide the type of education my children should have. I’m trying to answer the hard questions. What is the goal of my children’s education? What do I hope to accomplish through their education? Do I want them to be smart? Do I want them to be successful? How should I define success? Do I want them to be able to get good jobs and make lots of money to be financially secure? Do I want them to have many opportunities to do something worthwhile in this world? What sort of things are worthwhile in this world?

In regards to my own education, I would say I always heard, “You must do well in school and go to college so you can get a good job and support yourself.” That was pretty much it in the stated purpose of my education. And I would think that many who haven’t really thought about the issue would say the same thing.

If our sole purpose in life is to glorify God, then how can such an important thing as education be reduced to a means of getting a job or just obtaining knowledge for the sake of obtaining knowledge. If all things hold together in Christ, as is stated in Col. 1.17, how can a true education not be Christ-centered? If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, how can a true education take place in an environment where God is ultimately divorced from all areas of learning.

This is what I want for my children. Of course, they need money to put a roof over their heads, clothes on their bodies and food in their mouths. I want my son to be educated enough to support his family as it is his God-given duty to do so. But my goals go so far beyond that. I want them to live their lives for the glory of God. I want them to have integrity and compassion and be honest, diligent and responsible. I want my children to be able to pick up God’s Word and read it and have the tools necessary to properly study it. I want them to be able to articulate and defend their faith clearly with others. I want them to be able to see how God has been active throughout all history and that the logic behind mathematics would have no basis at all if God didn’t exist. I want them to be able to see through all the false teaching that is so pervasive in our society and is even creeping into our churches. I don’t want them being deceived and falling for everything they hear just because someone has a bit of charisma behind their ideas. I want them to hear the propaganda in the media and recognize it for what it is. I want them to read a newspaper article or listen to someone’s argument or speech and be able to determine if what’s being said is actually logical and true and not be deceived. I want them to see the deficiencies in other worldviews and their ramifications. I could go on and maybe I’ll add other things later. But ultimately I want my children’s education to equip them for these things. I want them to think. I want them to be discerning. I want them to have the tools necessary to learn by themselves. I want them to have a Biblical worldview where their faith is seen in every aspect of their lives.