Ravensdale Bible Academy

The Shema: A Parent’s Duty

“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” Deuteronomy 6:7

            In Deuteronomy chapter 6, the Lord commands parents to impart The Law of the Lord on the hearts of their children.  It is the duty and responsibility of parents to teach Godly principles to their children all day long and every day. Simply stated, parents are constantly, consistently called to train their own children in what is right, wherever we are and in whatever we are doing. In other words, every Christian family should have the conviction of giving their children a Biblically grounded education. How can parents who truly love their children and want them to develop a relationship with Christ send these same children to a public school system that undermines everything they are trying to accomplish? Can you visualize the Children of Israel sending their children back into, Egypt to go to school? Can you imagine the Pilgrims who fled British secular influence traveling to Holland, then across the Atlantic to America only to send their children to another American-British secular public school?

            I realize that in an agrarian culture it was much easier to raise children while working alongside you in a field or shepherding on a hillside.  We must take the principle from Deuteronomy 6 and apply it as best we can to our families today.

            We know that the point of Deuteronomy 6 was to raise children to fear and obey God’s Law.  This is impossible in a school system that denies God and especially His Law and teachings.  The public school is in direct violation of God’s desire for parents to lay a Biblical foundation in the hearts of their children.

            Christians know that God Created the Universe while the public schools teach the lie of evolution. God is in control of the universe, and He created every living thing in six-days.  Public schools continue to teach an unproven theory that humans are animals and that we evolved from apes.  Additionally, the Bible clearly states that God created only male and female to be married to each other with the blessing of being fruitful and multiplying.  Marriage, as created and defined by God, is only between a man and a woman.  Male and female is a biological fact that the public school system is undermining.

             Horace Mann spearheaded the Common School Movement in American, ensuring that every child could receive a basic education funded by local taxes.  His influence spread beyond Massachusetts as the key idea of a universal public schooling system.  Mann’s public school system rejected theocentric values for secular humanism.  Mann believed that man is in control and autonomous not God.

           Christian families believe that the Almighty is sovereignly in control and so we pray without ceasing and we follow our Master’s instructions.  Meanwhile, the public school has banned prayer in school, Bible reading, and Christians are treated at racist, bigoted, homophobic, hate-mongers. Christians believe in a lifestyle that is pure, holy, and morally right in the sight of God based on Scripture. The public school promotes ways for students to be sexually impure, immoral, and hedonistic. We believe a physical sexual relationship is sacred and reserved only for marriage while the public school teaches how to have such a relationship and call it “health class.” Health Class Indoctrination was for high school students, then middle school teens, and now children in elementary school are being exposed to graphically sexually explicit material. 

            We believe in the sanctity of life while the public school denies the rights of an unborn child.  The absurd denial that a fetus with a beating heart completely contradicts their scientific definition of life when they talk about life on Mars, microbes, or bacteria.   So, what do we, as Christians, have in common with such a place? Can we expect our children to serve the Lord after they have been exposed to such teaching’s contrary to the Word of God for more than 30 hours each week? 

            God had a plan against such contrary teachings.  In God’s plan the parents would be the key instructors for their children not the government run secular school district.

The Shema reminds parents that it is not the government’s responsibility to raise your children.  If you allow the government to parent your children from Kindergarten through High School and then into college don’t be shocked when they finally reject your instruction and the voice of your God. 

You must surround your children with like-minded friends, family, and teachers who share your Biblical values and beliefs.