Bo​az Baptist Chronicles

This message isn’t for everyone. If the truth be told, most Christians don’t have their act together enough, spiritually, to consider homeschooling their own children. Christian, if you aren’t homeschooling your child, it doesn’t mean you are sinning. It simply means that, thus far, in your spiritual walk, you haven’t worked out this important biblical issue.

First of all, I am not speaking about your child(ren) learning the three R’s (Reading, wRiting, and aRitmatic).  The issue is who do your children belong to?  Well, the obvious answer is, your children belong to you!

Be Fruitful and Multiply…

Whether your child ever learns it or not, two plus two always has and always will equal four.

Worldly knowledge is not the issue, here. The issue is who should be teaching your children. The Devil? The Devil’s crowd? The world? The public? The Church? A Nanny? A Sitter? Or, should the ones that sired that child teach them? Christian, who brought that child into the world, to begin with? You did, remember? Who is responsible for your child? The obvious answer is you. You made that baby and it’s your responsibility to nurture it and raise it to maturity. But, alas, we are too far, already.

When the Lord said to Adam and Eve “…Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…” (Genesis 1:28), who do you think He had in mind to teach, guide and instruct those multiple children? Here's another question... What degree, from what university, do you think Adam or Eve needed to teach those little souls they were both soon to produce? Moreover, who started the first university? Adam and Eve needed a university to teach their children, right? Well, maybe that’s stretching it, a little. Maybe not a "university." So, let’s just call it a “think-tank.” Here, is the revised question… Who started the first “think tank?” There, that's a better question.  

This question can best be answered by reading Genesis chapter two.  This chapter provides us with a summary of chapter one. God gives us a second look, if you please, in what just transpired, in writing, right before our eyes, in chapter one. To get the answer to our question, let’s read a few verses from this chapter... 

“And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.” (Genesis 2:19-20)

Just before the Lord describes His method of creating the first woman (Genesis 2:21-25), he puts Adam to work, by bringing him “every living creature” and asking him to name them. Why am I making such a big deal about this? Simply, to prove that Adam had a mind that could (literally) name each and every animal that God created.  Then, doesn't it stand to reason that he had the credentials to teach his own children? 

With the judgment of God pending (Genesis 6:5-6), some fifteen hundred years after the fall, God found a man whose three son’s supported his ministry by helping him build an ark of safety. [Don’t forget that Noah was five to six hundred years old at this point, when it was being built (Genesis 7:6), so I'm sure he must have needed some help.] Did you ever read the mathematical plans that needed to be studied and then expertly reproduced, by constructing it, in order to save the human race from extinction? (Genesis 6:14-16) These four men (and their wives) were called upon, by a holy God, to use their knowledge, not only to build an ark that needed to stay afloat for at least a year, but to save two of “every living creatures” (not to mention seven of every clean animal, for sacrificing, once they were safe, again, on land). Did you miss it? If you did, I’m going to say it, again. These boys went to homeschool! They not only learned  the knowledge and practical training they would need to assist Noah with the building of the Ark, but they learned about the holiness of God from their father.  He taught them that the Lord refused to tolerate men's wickedness.  Where did they learn these things?  At home, with their father!

Once they safely departed the Ark, God issued the same command to Noah as He did to Adam…

“And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Genesis 9:1)

You might be saying to yourself, “Well, there was no one else to teach them, back then. There were no public school teachers to give these boys an education, so Noah had to do it. And, besides, today, in our modern world, we have others who are hired by the state to teach our children.” All that might be true, but remember, all who were outside of Noah’s family perished. There was a benefit, then, for sure, of being part of this homeschooled family. These children had knowledge and holiness, combined, which achieved the one thing that an outside education couldn’t produce. Salvation. In this case, salvation of the whole race, including all the animals.

Time and space will not permit me to say much more on this subject, but I would like to include what the Lord said about Abraham…

“For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.” (Genesis 18:19)

Someone, who doesn’t understand that our children’s education is connected to their very soul and being, has given the church of Jesus Christ the idea that it can somehow divorce their children's education from their spiritual life and that it can be taught in a separate venue. This idea, friend, didn’t come from God.

Last, listen to who Moses, taught under the finest state training in Egypt, said should teach God's children…

“Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.

Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” (Deuteronomy 6:1-7; 11:18-19)

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

Pastor Bob

Correspondence from May 2014: 

Dear Brother,

No one is telling you that you have to have my convictions. Of course you can provide an education for your children any way you feel necessary. These are my convictions and unless God changes them somehow or shows me something else, I will not change them.

With that being said, I will give you a few things that you might not have considered.

As far as I know, there is not one case in all of scripture that tells a believer to go to the world (look at that last word for a moment and then look this scripture up-- John 15:19. Also, see James 2:15) to get an education or to educate their child for them. In fact, it is just the opposite...

Deuteronomy 6:1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: 2 That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.

3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. 4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: 7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. 9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. 10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not, 11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full; 12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage. 13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. 14 Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you; 15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.

If you read these verses carefully, there is no question that God wants us to teach our children about the things that really matter--the things about/of Him. Now, if you are referring to the secular world and having a "good paying" (I Timothy 6:10) job, I guess someone has demonstrated their priorities from the get go. If someone wants Egypt to teach their children that's up to them. Hey, it worked for Moses. (Actually, the truth is that Moses' momma got to him first!!! Read Exodus 2:7-10 and you will see what I mean. ...This is a case where the government actually paid a believer to raise their own child for them in their own home.)

Brother, raise your child the way you seem fit to raise them. Nobody is telling you to have my convictions. Really. That's your call. However you raise your own flesh and blood babies is up to you. My only question to you is why did you have those babies to begin with? Again, that was your personal choice ...to have or not have children. That was between you, your wife and, since you are a believer, you and God.

So I don't sound accusatory, at this juncture, I will turn from asking you any more questions and simply ask myself... Why did I want my own babies/why did I want my own children? Here are some of my conclusions...

1. To see my babies to get saved, love God and live with them forever in Heaven.

2. To see my babies live for and glorify my Saviour.

3. To see them help others get into the kingdom of God.

The children of Israel were commanded not to give their seed unto Molech. (See Leviticus 18:21, 20:2-5, 1 Kings 11:7) We later find out what the term “giving their seed” meant, when we read II Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 32:35. They were actually offering up their own children to this false god. They were tossing their little lives into the fire. “What a tragedy,” you say. And, I say, “What's the difference.” There is more than one way of offering up your “seed” to the Devil.

No one is dictating to you what you should do with the fruit that comes from your body, Brother. You do what you feel led to do with your babies, and by the grace of God I will do what He shows me.

By the way, we have barely touched this subject. If someone doesn't see what is being said above, they might not see nor understand the desperate need to teach their own children without any outside influences that would turn their heart away from loving the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. There might just be more issues at stake here than who is teaching your children the “three R's.”

Pastor Bob