Every Christian parent and every godly Pastor in America should be deeply concerned about the present condition of our nation. America is in deep, spiritual trouble and at the root of our problems is the conspicuous absence of Christianity in the lives of most of our children. Sadly, even the children growing up in our professing Christian homes are suffering from a lack of solid, Christian training.
Our day sharply contrasts with the America that once existed. You may not know it, but America was once dominated by Christian education. The Bible was once the main focus of education across our nation. Consider the following information provided by Dr. James Kennedy in his book, “What if the Bible Had Never Been Written?” On page 88 Dr. Kennedy writes:
“Virtually all of the men who wrote the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights–all the major founding documents of this nation–had received a strong, well integrated Christian education. In the lower grades, the Bible was the chief textbook, and the church or home the classroom. Many educational elites of our day would no doubt mock such a scenario, but the result was a highly literate society.
Christianity made the United States the leader in universal “public” education around the world. Schools and universities blanketed the land, since our forefathers believed that all men needed to read the Bible to understand the doctrines of the Christian faith. Education was necessary for all so that all could study the precious Word of God and be faithful servants of Christ.
As far as higher eduation is concerned, America was committed to Christian education. The Christian origins of Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Columbia, Princeton, and many other of our great universities is well documented. Of America’s first 126 colleges, 123 were Christian. Faith wasn’t separate from learning. Taking their cue from the Bible educators applied faith to all aspects of life, including politics. The Scriptures were the bedrock of all higher learning at that time…”
Of course today all that has changed. Gradually, the “public” school system, once the vision of Christians to educate the populous with a thorough knowledge of the Word of God, has steadily declined to its’ deplorable condition today. The Christian community all across our nation has witnessed the systematic removal of Christianity from the educational experience of the nation’s youth. Our current system has been so secularized that for all practical purposes the influence of Christianity is non existent! As a matter of fact, the current public system is quite hostile to anything “Christian.” It is beyond the scope of this short letter to document that fact, however, it should be painfully clear to the Christian community that the current condition of public education is not acceptable. We desperately need a return to Christian education.
