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Christian Education, No. 2
SP02-02© Berean Memorial Church of Irving, Texas, Inc. (1982)
We are continuing to consider the subject of the mission of Christian education. As all of you know, the archangel Lucifer
exercised his free choice to rebel against God's sovereign authority. This challenge was exercised in the period of time
between Genesis 1:1, which says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," and Genesis 1:2, which says, "The
earth was without form and void." God decided at that time of Satan's rebellion neither to annihilate the devil nor to imprison
him, but rather to permit his principle of independence from God to run its course in order to discredit both Satan and that
concept. God's immediate judgment however was to curse the original perfect world which He had created, and He turned it into this
chaos that we read about in Genesis 1:2. The earth was without form and void. That is, it was chaotic, it was topsy-turvy, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. The original creation from a
perfect God and thus a perfect creation had become a watery grave.
Satan's Judgment
God's immediate judgment was executed. The long-term judgment
was to destine Satan to spend eternity in the special place created for him called the Lake of Fire. Satan's superior wisdom and
his great power was totally unable to reverse the chaotic condition of the earth which he now ruled over, and remember that he
did rule over this earth. He had that kind of authority to begin with, as God's prime minister, but he violated it, and he
prostituted that authority. But, interestingly enough, he continues to be the authority. God did not remove him from that position
of authority that he held. Instead God had another counter plan in his mind. Satan, at this point in time, with the earth in
darkness; covered by water; an ice glacier era; volcanic activity; the earth just shredded; mountains moved like jackrabbits
dancing across a field; and, everything was in tatters and shreds. Satan in the midst of this darkness could do nothing to counter the
independence of God. Despite his purported claims of being independent from God, he could do nothing to counter this. He could
only rage, sulk, pout, and stew--a perfect picture of humiliated arrogance. Satan was now permitted by God to demonstrate what
he considered to be the benefits of rejecting God and of following Satan. That's the whole point of the thinking of humanity today.
That is human history. God is giving Satan's concept of independence from God a chance to be fully demonstrated for what it really is.
This is very significant because, as you remember, Lucifer was the representative of God to all the angelic hosts before Genesis 1:2.
It's important that you remember that. He was the divine representative to the angelic hosts. In Ezekiel 28:14, we read, "You are
the anointed cherub that covers (or that guards), and I have set you so. You are the anointed (the particularly appointed) cherub
(a high category of angel)," that is, a guardian. Satan, in effect, was God's supreme administrator. He was the prime minister. All
passed through his hands. He brought to God the worship of the angelic creation. He transmitted to the angels the communications of God.
When God had something to say to the angels, he said it through the guardian prime minister, Satan. That's what Ezekiel is telling
us--that he held this kind of an exalted position of guardianship at the throne of God. He stood beside the Creator God. Satan was,
in effect then, a very powerful figure indeed.
However, this honored position of being a divine mouthpiece went to Satan's head. He became
so proud that he decided that he himself was equal to God; that he didn't need God anymore; that he could act in total independence
from God; and, that he was just as smart as God in passing on directives to the angels. He didn't need God to give him the information
first. He thought that he was just as powerful in dealing with the administrative affairs, and that he didn't need direction from God
to do that. He had gotten a taste of what it was to be worshiped as he watched the angels worshiping God, and as he passed on the
admiration and the expressions of praise from the angels to God.
Ezekiel 28
In Ezekiel 28:16 we read, "By the multitude of your merchandise they have filled the midst of you with violence and you have sinned."
"By the multitude of your merchandise." The word "merchandise" here means "widespread trade," and what this word relates to here is
to the matters that were passing through his hands to God. We use this word today when we speak of something that is sacred, and
somebody makes "merchandise" of it. Or, when somebody has an ability or a talent and we say he makes "merchandise" of it. It means
that through his hands runs a stream of trade. That's what Satan was doing. The merchandise that is referred to here is communications
from God to the angels; glory from the angels; praise from the angels; and, worship from the angels to God. This was passing through
the hands of Satan both ways. This was the merchandise--the business that he was in as the prime minister.
Violence
We're told here that the pride that rose in his heart from the position that he held resulted in violence--a violence expressed as
rebellion against God's sovereign authority. Rebellion against constituted authority always has at the heart of it, violence. Right
here in eternity past we see violence as the prime expression of rebellion. Anytime you have rebellion against constituted authority,
there is violence involved. Anytime a society turns in rebellion against God's moral standards as they're annunciated in the Word of
God, that society goes into violence. We are beginning to see it all around the world today. Groups are being trained in the violence
of terrorism because they are anti-God groups. Groups are being trained specifically to exercise that violence, that terror, in our
country.
1 Timothy 3
Satan's heart was filled with the violence of rebellion against God's authority. Now this is amplified for us in a rather interesting
way. Turn to 1 Timothy 3 where God the Holy Spirit uses Satan's experience in referring to the guidelines for a pastor-teacher in a
local church. If you will stop and think about it for a moment, you realize that a pastor-teacher holds much the same position today
between God and His people as Satan did between the angels and the living God. In 1 Timothy 3:1 we read, "This is a true saying, if
a man desires the office of a bishop (which is a pastor), he desires a good work. A pastor must then be blameless, the husband of one
wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, apt to teach (having the ability to teach spiritual things), not given
to wine, not violent, not greedy of filthy lucre (of money), not motivated by material gain, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous,
one that rules well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity (for if a man know not how to rule and exercise
authority over his own house, how shall he take care and exercise authority in the house of God the church?), and not a novice (not a
new convert who has not the spiritual maturity within his soul), lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the
devil."
Pastor-Teacher
That's an interesting comparison. One of the things that the Bible says is don't permit a person who is new in the Christian
life, or one who has not developed a spiritual maturity structure in his soul (one who has not had the time to do that), to be permitted
to exercise authority in a local assembly. If you do that you, will be exposing that person to the same thing that the devil faced, who
found himself in that identical position of authority between God and man. The pastor-teacher acts as a communicator between God and the
believer in the church age. We have recently been studying that in some detail in Ephesians 4:11-12 that explain that to us. Verse 11
tells us that this gift is provided. Verse 12 tells us the immense enormous consequences to the individual believer when this gift is
properly exercised in the local assembly. The pastor-teacher has an authority, the Bible says, which is to be respected and honored.
For example, one passage that tells us that is Hebrews 13:7: "Remember those who have the rule over you (speaking about the spiritual
rule of the local church operations) who have spoken unto you the Word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their manner
of life. Then verse 17 emphasized that further: "Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your
souls as they that must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that isn't profitable for you." So the
writer of the Hebrew says there is an authority that lies within the executive head recognized in the local church by that congregation.
That authority resides in his faithful presentation of the mind of God through the words of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Scripture.
This is the position that Satan had--the contact point between God and man--the communicator between God and man. And I'll guarantee
you that this is very heavy stuff on the human, as well as the angelic, level. It is very heavy stuff for a man to find himself viewed
as an authority in such matters of supreme importance to a human being as how he can relate himself to a holy God so as to escape hell
and spend eternity in heaven. If that authority to which a human being commits himself in that matter is wrong (as for example, in the
case of a Catholic priest, a Mormon bishop, or any of the numerous cults), that person will pay for that mistake with his soul forever.
When a person is in that position of realizing that people are going to accept his directives, it becomes a very great temptation to
fall into the trap of some kind of self-exaltation. There is a great danger that the pastor-teacher can be carried away by the fact
that people listen to him. In time he can be tempted to forget the wisdom of God and start speaking what he considers his own wisdom
and his own authority.
John Milton
John Milton was a great poet, in part, because he understood so much basic Bible doctrine. This was reflected in his writings. In one of
his great poetic productions "Lycidas," he speaks about pastor-teachers. He speaks about preachers whom he describes as "blind mouths."
You might think that that's a classical example of a mixed metaphor--a mouth that is blind? "Blind mouths"--and yet that is exactly
what pastor-teachers who fall into Satan's mistake, Satan's arrogance, Satan's crime of pride will do. What are pastor-teachers supposed
to be? They're supposed to be people who can see spiritual things; who can see their way to spiritual blessings; and, who have eyes to see
their way to eternal life. Therefore, they are to be able to guide people to those goals. Furthermore, they are to be communicators, and
they are to be speaking that which is God's truth, not human viewpoint wisdom and confusion. So, when you stop and think about it, it is
not so mixed. The pastor is supposed to be one who can see where he's going spiritually, so that he can lead other people. He is supposed
to have a mouth that can speak Bible doctrine truth, not one who can speak human wisdom.
Then Milton goes on and he describes the congregation of these who sit under "blind mouth" preachers, and he calls them "swollen with
wind"--"swollen with wind." When you stop and think about that, that's very incisive. What is Milton saying? He's saying that out of that
"blind mouth" comes wind--empty, nonsense wind. People are sitting out there quietly listening to an authority and they're just taking in
this wind. You know what the sign is of a person who is starving, don't you? His stomach is swollen. If you watch some of these countries
forever on the verge of starvation, you will notice that as the children run around, their stomachs are greatly distended. You would think
that that's a sign that, "Boy, do those kids ever eat. They need to ease off. Look how fatty they are." They're not fat! They're dying of
malnutrition. They have bloated stomachs because they're starving.
Milton says that "blind mouth" preachers are giving empty air human
wisdom, and people are swallowing it. They look, with their bloated stomachs, like they're well fed when they're dying of spiritual
malnutrition. That foul philosophy out of these "blind mouths" has caused these people to gradually starve to death spiritually. For many
of them, it means an eternity in hell. For many believers sitting under that kind of "blind mouth" preaching, it means an eternal loss of
reward. What a contrast to 1 Peter 5:2-3 when Peter tells the pastor-teachers, the local elder, "Feed the flock of God which is among you,
taking the oversight of it but not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind. Neither as being lords over
God's heritage, but being examples to the flock.
It is no wonder that Paul and Timothy warn against putting a novice into the pastorate because he will be tempted to reproduce
Satan's crime. He will be in Satan's position as a communicator between God and God's creation. Satan places high priority,
therefore, on producing teachers who deceive. There we come to the point of Christian education. We come to the point of
education--deceivers or non-deceivers. Christian education is constantly being played by Satan's temptation to follow his
example of pride and of independence from God. The teaching of the secular schools is continually an example of Satan's
production--proud blind arrogance, teaching errors of nonsense.
Isaiah 42
What Satan forgot as he exercised his role as God's prime minister, was the principle which is enunciated by the prophet
Isaiah in Isaiah 42:8. We in Christian education had better not follow Satan's example and forget it. Isaiah 42:8 says,
"I am the LORD." Notice that this is capital "L," capital "O," capital "R," capital "D." This is "YAHWEH"--the four-letter
Hebrew word, the sacred Tetragrammaton, that is the most sacred and highest name that God attributes to himself. "I am Jehovah.
That is my name. And my glory will I not give to another." God is not about to permit you or me or anyone else, including his
majesty the devil, from taking the glory of God to himself. So don't try to keep some of God's glory for yourself. Don't try to
exalt yourself. That's why we keep reiterating. There is only one exalted person in the universe. There's only one celebrity,
and that's Jesus Christ. It is not these clowns in the entertainment world that you are seeing exalted in one way or another,
or these clowns in the political world, or these clowns in any other area of life that are being exalted. There is only one
celebrity--the Lord Jesus Christ.
Man
So, Satan sinned. God turned the devil loose to do his thing to see where his philosophy would lead. All of the angelic hosts,
the believing and the unbelieving, the elect and the lost angels were all watching this. Then a few thousand years ago, God
restored the planet Earth that He had thrust by his own word into chaos. All of the life forms on the earth were replaced.
This earth was then placed under the authority of a man whom God had created. These human beings were brand new. They were
created on a scale lower than the angel beings. They had now been given authority over the realm that Satan had once possessed.
Satan immediately saw a threat to his own authority in this new creation.
However, Satan also saw, in the ability of this new
creature, the ability to exercise free choice, the means by which the devil could undermine God's plan. Satan convinced Adam
to follow his example to act independently of God. Adam made himself sovereign in God's creation, and you all know the consequences
of that act. Again, God's holiness responded as before with the curse upon the earth. When Satan sinned, God responded with a curse
upon the earth. When Adam sinned, God responded again with another kind of curse upon the earth. However, out of the fall in Eden,
God would settle the issue of the angelic rebellion and settle the angelic warfare.
Satan did not fully realize all that God was
doing when He brought man onto the scene. He did not realize all of the implications when he saw this creature on the earth, that
it was God's method of establishing something once and for all eternity. Through the fallen human race, there would come another
perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would exercise positive volition to the will of God. This, of course, had been promised
in Genesis 3:15. Through this fallen human race would come this perfect man. Satan undoubtedly could not figure it. He could not
figure how God was going to do that. He undoubtedly did not anticipate the virgin birth approach which would produce a man as
perfect as Adam had been originally, free of the sin nature. The LORD Jesus Christ, as that perfect man, would pay the penalty of
the human race so that all who accept this provision will in time be like the Lord Jesus Christ in positive volition forever toward
the Father. So, where Satan came with his promotion of independence from God, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to create millions of
human beings who not only will be positive to the will of God, but who cannot be anything but positive because they have been
transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. Therefore, 1 John 3:2-3 says, "Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not
yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." So in the
meantime, verse 3 says, "Everyone that has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure.
So, the earth is going to be filled with millions of human beings. You're going to be part of that group who will be gladly
obedient to God's sovereign authority. Satan and his negative followers are going to suffer forever in the hell that God has
created for them. This is what was behind some of these expressions in what is commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer in
Matthew 6 where the Lord was teaching His disciples how to pray. Matthew 6:10 says, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in
earth as it is in heaven." What was He saying? He was saying exactly what mankind needs to know. If you're in Christian education,
this is at the heart of what your students need to know--God's will on this earth. Where do we find that will that leads us back
to the authority of Scripture? How do we relate that will to the areas of life in which we are engaged? What are the consequences
of not relating that perfect will of God to the experiences of man and to the institutions of our society? That's what history is
all about--to demonstrate the consequences when Satan is permitted to be sovereign among us. In verse 13 of Matthew 6: "And lead
us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen." Satan said
that the kingdom and the power and the glory were his.
Christian Education
Today, our world is blinded by Satan's principle of the sovereignty of man, and the human race is consequently in chaos. We in
Christian education are in the forefront. We are the vanguard of pushing that chaos back. 2 Corinthians 4:4 describes the condition
of mankind today: "In whom the god of this age (that is, Satan) has blinded the minds of them who believe not." Notice that. It's the
mind--that's where the battle is. "...blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine unto them."
God is going to settle the issue of Satan's challenge and the promotion of the concept of independence from God's will. The evidence
will in time be in the final and tragic destruction of all that human civilization today holds dear. That's where we are coming. We
are on the threshold around this world of seeing everything that western Christian civilization holds dear on the verge of being
destroyed. At that time everybody will see the total bankruptcy of the devil and his followers. We who follow the living God, along
with that living God, will shake our heads and we will find it impossible not to laugh at the devil. We will find it impossible not
to laugh along with God at the devil.
Psalm 2 tells us where we're going to come to: "Why do the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against Jehovah, and against his anointed saying, 'Let us break
their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.'" You know who's talking there. They're repeating the devil's philosophy. "He
who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall hold them in derision. You and I are going to sit right there shaking our hands
laughing at the ridiculous spectacle of Satan and his human viewpoint followers. "Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and
vex them in his greatest displeasure. Yet I have set my King upon My holy hill. I will declare the decree the Lord has said unto me,
You are my son, this day have I begotten you. Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the uttermost parts
of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be
wise now therefore you Kings; be instructed you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are they who put their trust in him."
Therefore, it is the mission of Christian schools to expose the madness of Satan's viewpoint as it is expressed in secular humanism
today, with its exultation of human viewpoint above the divine viewpoint of Scripture; and, to expose even to Christians who are inconsistent
in their own beliefs and their own practices, who while purporting to believers in Scripture yet act and make choices that are right in
line with Satan's sovereignty of man principle. It is our calling in Christian education to teach the reality about Satan and his anti-God
influence. Our children must know that the devil exists. Our children must know that he is a virulent hateful opponent of the living God.
It is our calling to teach the authority that the Bible has in speaking the mind of God, and to speak that mind without error. It is the
business of Christian education to roll back this attitude of indifference and of undermining the Bible. It is our calling to establish
the Bible as being a voice from the God who is out there. It is our calling to teach the nobility of man who is on positive volition
toward God's authority and the degradation of man who is on negative volition. All of human history is a record of the failure of Satan
acting independently of God, the Creator.
What we are offering the Christian student is life with the quality of eternity--life with the quality of eternity now. In 2 Corinthians
10:5, our goal in Christian schools is expressed: "Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
It's important that you remember that that's what we're doing in Christian education, in Berean Christian Academy. It's important that you
understand why it's necessary to do that; what has happened; what is going on between Satan and God; what God is doing in permitting
something to run its course; and, that God is preparing a mass of humanity who will forever be on positive volition to His will. If
you don't understand that, then Satan will be able to undermine the efforts of Christian education among us. The future for positive
Christians, for positive Christian students, is expressed in Ephesians 2:10: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." We have to teach our children that God has a good works plan for
them to walk in, and that there is something more in life than for them to get out and become rich. There's something more important for them
to get out and go grubbing around to exalt themselves in some accomplishment that has to do with material things. The God who tells them to
exalt themselves in righteousness is the God who also has told them that all of these material things will be added unto you. You will not
have to grub around like a dog to secure these material possessions. Remember that it was man who was introduced into this picture as the
divine instrument of Satan's defeat and of Satan's eternal humiliation.
There is going to be a multitude of new rulers through Jesus Christ, and we are teaching them. From Lucifer's chaos come the sons of God
who reflect God's glory and who will rule with Him. These sons of God will be in positions far above the prime minister position that
Satan held. They will have powers and prerogatives exercised beyond Lucifer's fondest dreams, and yet without the slightest rebellion
against God's authority. All of this is awaiting our final transformation into the image of the obedient Jesus Christ. When that has
happened, we will be transformed to His image. We should tell our children and our students that this is what is ahead for them. We will
remember that He brought us from the miry clay to stand on the rock of doctrinal truth, and we will never desire human viewpoint lies.
When we've been transformed into the image of Christ, we will remember the pit of sin from which we were raised, and we will have no heart
to glorify and exalt ourselves. We will remember that only God is worthy of worship, and we will not seek any false worship for ourselves.
Berean church is engaged in a great battle in the angelic warfare--a great segment of this battle which is rapidly coming to a climax.
Satan will attack with everything he has our exposition of his bankrupt policy of evil. His policy is evil. We are exposing that as a
bankrupt policy. That's what we're doing in Berean Academy. He is going to do everything he can to undermine and to frustrate that effort.
He will seek to discourage and to sidetrack you as a congregation and individual staff and faculty members from that goal. I'll guarantee
you. The forces of evil will seek to belittle and to undermine what we do. The forces of evil are arrogant. That is at the heart of what
Satan is.
The other day we were having trouble with our telephone in the office. People would call in and you could talk to them for
about a minute or a minute and-a-half and then it would cut off. It would go dead. It would sound like someone had hung up.
Earlier in the summer, we had decided, in the Lord's guidance, that we would not have four-year-old kindergarten. We had
about seven or eight families who had signed up, and we didn't think that that would merit the effort. We felt that the Lord
was leading us, which has been confirmed subsequently, toward concentrating on an expanded five-year-old kindergarten. We
informed all of these people, directly by phone, that we would not have four-year-old kindergarten. Some man called on the
phone; our principal answered; and, this guy was irate. He wanted to know why he hadn't been informed that we were not going
to have four-year-old kindergarten. His child had come to school and she had been rejected or not permitted. He was going to
sue this school. He was just as irate as he could be. His wife later confirmed that she had just talked to our secretary even a
day or two before and had been again told that we had not changed our mind about having four-year-old kindergarten. He must
not have gotten the message, and boy he was really cranking it away to Steve, and the phone goes "click." Steve thought,
"What's he going to think? This wonderful man who is irate because he can't reach out and grab our lives." I'm sorry the phone
didn't continue working, and that I was not on the other end of the line. I'm just laying for him to call back.
That is the arrogance of human viewpoint people. When you see that kind of a loathsome example, you get a little bit of a feel
of the experience when God sat and watched Satan; and the recoil of all the righteousness and holiness of God. We always feel
regret and pity when we see this kind of human viewpoint degradation. God saw his prime minister go down the tube. He's going
to try to belittle us, to undermine us, and to discourage us. It's very discouraging when we think about a school building.
We've gone just about as far as we can go, just like in Kansas City, as the song says. We have to have a school building. I got
a terrible shock the other day when our young architect working on that said that we're talking about two-and-a-half million
dollars now. That's a lot of bananas for us monkeys to get together. We tried to get a loan for a school bus. We even have some
money contributed monthly to pay for it. The bank said, "Yes, we'd be glad to lend it to you. We want 25% down and 24% interest. That's
a $500 per month payment (and a promise to let us handle the funeral of your mother)." These are tough times. Where are we going
to get the school bus? Our school bus staff comes to me and says, "Four buses is not going to make it. It cannot cover this town
with four buses. We have to go to five. We have five buses, but one of them died several years ago. As it drives down the street,
you can see that this is living death. It can hardly make it from one door to the next.
Well, I think that God is going to solve it. I
think the solution is going to come. I think if He wants us to beat the tail off of Satan and his arrogance, He's going to give
us what we need to do it. In the meantime, we need to uphold each other in prayer; we need to uphold each other in our labors;
and, we have to remember we are in a spiritual battle. In battle, people get hurt and some become casualties if protective
measures are not adequately taken. We are all, as teachers, warned in Scripture, and we will be held particularly accountable of
all the human race for God. As teachers, we are all particularly exposed to Satan's sin--that arrogance of being the go-between
the living God and human beings.
There are three things which are at the heart of the satanic lie which is at the heart of secular education today. All secular
education conveys three concepts, and they are locked in now. If you've got eyes to see it, you will see it. The more secular,
the more non-Christian influence the place is, the easier it is to spot these things.
God
Number one: secular education teaches that there is no God. They teach it in one way or another, either implicitly or explicitly,
but they teach there is no God. It's just a joke. It's just an old idea. Don't take it seriously.
Evolution
The second thing that secular education teaches is that man is an evolutionary animal without a soul; without a spirit; and,
without any life after physical death. Man is a function of chemistry and physics. That's all. This is taught everywhere, and
increasingly at lower levels--not just university and college--down below high school and junior high. Children who attend the
secular school system receive the opinions of secular humanism. One: there is no god. Two: human beings are the product of a blind
evolutionary process as the result of matter which has existed forever.
Character
The third thing which is taught in secular education is that intellectual and moral character are the products of one's experiences in the economic
climate in which he was reared. So if you are reared in an economic climate of free enterprise capitalism, you will have a certain
kind of character, and a certain kind of moral value, and a certain kind of system of values and goals. If you are, on the other
hand, supposedly reared under socialism and communism, you will have a different kind of set of values. Therefore, there is no
basis of what's right and wrong. There is no value system that comes outside of man himself. A person is just an animal who is
reacting, just an animal acting on the basis of the economic sphere in which he was reared. That's all man is because he's an
animal.
These three things are at the heart of secular education: there is no God; man is an evolutionary animal; and, his intellectual
and moral values are the result of the economic climate. Students everywhere, on the college level, in one way or another, are
taught this, and if they're not smart enough to spot it, they'll eat it up. These are the people who become prime candidates for
socialism and communism. It then makes sense to them. Once they believe these three things, then socialism and communism makes a
lot of sense to them. These are the lies which Satan is promoting as his final solution to his battle against God. If Satan can
win here, he feels that he indeed can win the battle. He at least thinks that he can delay his doom.
So, what are we doing in the Berean Academy? We're fighting all three of these things. We're constantly upholding all three of
these things as for the lies that they are. We are in the business of communicating these to these 240 children that God has
placed under our care. Christian education is in the front line in this final stage of the age of grace--this age in which the
battle has heated up to its climactic form. This is the final stages of the angelic warfare. The battle for the mind is where
it's being fought. The battle for doctrinal truth is the other side of that coin. That is the thing to which God has called us.
If you are part of that, and you are as member of this church, then you are called to a very grave responsibility. Pray for one
another. Uphold one another. If you are the honored elite chosen to be part of the people who carry that battle in one way or
another in the functioning and the operation of Berean Academy, view yourself as being under the gun of the devil, and act accordingly.
Take to yourself all that Ephesians 6 describes as the armor of the Christian soldier. If that's not clear in your mind, then you
had better flee to these series of recordings and get that series of tapes so that the pieces of the armor are crystal clear in your mind,
and the tactic of prayer is functioning. Otherwise, you will be exposed to being wounded.
Christian education, the wisdom of this world, is bankrupt. The wisdom of God makes us winners every time.
Dr. John E. Danish, 1973
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