Lifting the Lid . . .
The major purpose of building schools and colleges during the colonial period of our history and well into the nineteenth century was to instruct students in the Christian Religion. Many of our large universities such as Yale, Columbia, Harvard, and others were begun for this very purpose. The primary purpose of education in those days was to teach and engage students to know God in Jesus Christ and to love and serve Him in all sobriety, Godliness, and Righteousness of life with a perfect heart and a willing mind. This was also true of elementary education in those days. Children were taught the three R’s for the sole purpose of being able to read the Bible, to read and write edifying literature, and to live a good simple Christian life. Children were required to recite the entire catechism and several chapters of the Bible from memory. The children, besides learning the catechism by heart, had to have a personal, practical, knowledge of the same. The textbooks used in this era were predominantly religious. A famous American elementary textbook of the past is “The New England Primer”. It was first printed in Boston between the years 1687 and
1690. It was the most used textbook during the Colonial period and continued to be until around 1830. A total of three million copies or an average of 20 thousand copies were sold per year over a period of 150 years. The contents of this textbook is as follows: a table of the letters of the alphabet in the various forms; a famous collection of two letter syllables made by putting one consonant and one vowel together; short tables of words of one, two, three, four and five syllables; a rhymed and illustrated alphabet beginning:
In Adam’s Fall
We sinned all;
an alphabet of lessons for youth made up of Bible verses; the Lord’s Prayer; the Apostle’s Creed; a picture of John Roger being burned at the stake with his wife and ten children, together with a poem written by him shortly before his death; a so called shorter catechism of the Westminster Assembly of Divines; the Ten Commandments; and John Cotton’s “Spiritual Milk for Babes Drawn Out of the Breasts of Both Testaments”.
From the above facts one can see that instruction in the Christian Religion occupied a major place in the curriculum of early American education. Although the people of that day neglected subjects like music, art, and science; nevertheless they developed a hardiness of character and a steadfastness of purpose which helped to make America the truly great nation that it is.
But alas, a radical change in education took place in the period between the Revolutionary War and 1870. Before this period Christian instruction was enforced by law in all the existing states and the schools were maintained by the churches and the local congregations. During this period the schools gradually became controlled by state and city governments, thus providing free education for everybody. It was during this time that instruction in Christianity became outlawed and atheistic modernism was substituted in its place. Space does not permit me to describe in detail how this change came about, but it is evident that the devil took advantage of state supported education in order to spread his counterfeit religion. Today reading of the world’s greatest literature, the Bible, is outlawed in many states; while students are forced to spend hour after hour studying modernistic and man-centered literature under the camouflage of “English.” Today it is unlawful for a Christian teacher, by the grace of God, to show the Way of Life to unconverted students, but it is perfectly alright and even mandatory for an atheist teacher to atheize those students that had a good bringing up. To prove these facts I would strongly urge our people to read the books entitled, Crucifying Christ in Our Colleges; The Fifth Column in Our Schools; and The Heritage of Hell, all of which are written by Dan Gilbert.
The devil invented the public school system in order that the coming generations may be taught to serve him without any reservation whatsoever. Why is so much time and attention allotted to “English” (modernistic ungodly literature, pardon me) and to the social sciences such as history and economics? This is done in order to impress, upon the minds and hearts of the students the modernistic philosophy that God is man’s higher self and that man is getting better and better as the ages progress. These subjects can be readily adapted to suit this doctrine with very little convicting of the conscience, by withholding the truth if necessary and substituting a lie in its place. This is equally true when subjects of equal and of more importance are slighted.
The study of the natural sciences such as chemistry, geology, biology, astronomy, electricity, etc., forcibly reminds mankind that there IS a God that created the universe and controls it according to His good pleasure. Although modern man will try to evade God by imagining that the universe was gradually developed by an evolutionary process; yet he cannot escape the fact that there is a God far mightier than himself. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Psalm 19:1-3. This is the reason why the natural sciences are deemed of less importance in modern education.
Mathematics and physics reminds one that God is a God of order and a God of infinite perfection. It is God that says two plus two equals four and man MUST comply with it even in order to fulfill his sinful lusts and to fill his measure of iniquity. Think of what a chaotic condition the world would be in if there was no standard system of measurements. Without mathematics, all of our modern inventions would be virtually impossible. Often thoughtlessly, man violates God’s laws of physics and is instantly punished for it. God’s laws of inertia, momentum, gravity, etc. are major factors in every traffic, home, and industrial accident. Thus mathematics and physics are reluctantly taught for the sake of self-preservation and self-satisfaction. Modem educators never teach their children to provide for God’s kingdom, the aged, the sick, and the poor, but teach them how to pile up worldly treasures which shall be a testimony against them in the Judgment Day.
The study of hygiene and physiology reminds us that our bodies are fearfully and wonderfully made and deserve the finest and utmost care. Yet this important subject is often neglected entirely in modern education. The reason for this is that the theatre, the night clubs, and the sale of liquors, cigarettes, narcotics, etc., must not be hampered in any way whatsoever. The cruel system of modern industry, that wrecks men’s lives, and from which they are ejected for inability and old age before they are fifty, must not be tampered with. Sinful lusts must not be restrained in any way whatsoever. No wonder that our hospitals and insane asylums must be increased and expanded these days! People now days take more care of their gold watches, automobiles, and money than they do of their bodies, whose mechanism is much more intricate than any machine ever invented. For example, the finest and most expensive camera ever built cannot even be compared with the human eye.
In the foregoing paragraphs I have showed how modernism is spread by means of tax supported educational institutions. For this reason we as covenant people can NEVER send our children to the public school. Even our Christian schools must be more than just a school with a little Bible study or a chapel service added to it. God MUST be recognized throughout the ENTIRE curriculum. And if our governments or the UNGODLY educational alliances of our day attempt (they have done so, are doing it today, and will continue to do so in a greater degree) to make laws, rulings or requirements that would force or lead our Christian schools to deny the Living God or rob Him of any honor due to Him; we must become as fearless and bold as Daniel and his three friends even if we should have to suffer for it. Dan. 3:16-18; 6:10. Today we need
more apostle Peters who will denounce this ungodly system of education which also is invading our own Christian schools by leaps and bounds. Acts 4:13; 5:29.
In my next and final installment on this subject I hope to tear off Modernisms hypocritical cloak of piety and reveal its true inward nature, that it is nothing more than a stool-pigeon for Communism, the devil, the Antichrist, and for all the powers of darkness that exist on this earth.