Evangelism is NOT a Good Reason to Send Your Kids to Public School
Evangelism should not be confused with education.
Today, in another place, I was reminded of that tired old argument that public education is an alleged "mission-field" therefore, Christians should send their children through a pagan, perverted and dangerous educational system for the sake of the other lost children and staff who attend that same terrible and disobedient institution. (Selah!)
My antagonist used her experiences (a penumbra) of various alleged successes in her own testimony to substantiate her position conflating educational laws with evangelistic laws.
As is so often the case, rather than come to the table of reason with objective evidence from God's Word - they come to the table with subjective emotings. When asked to bring objective evidences my antagonist announced they were unwilling to take the time to even read my appeal to truth on this incredibly important topic. Therefore, I decided that the valuable truths I wrote should not be left buried in some obscure thread where they would not be appreciated, and I brought them to the forefront of my social media for the benefit of as many as possible who may value them enough to at least consider the weight of their authority for Christian family life. I certainly hope so. Suffice it to say, if you like your Facebook reads to be short and shallow, perhaps enjoy posting photos of your food... this post is not for you. 😉
The reason this "public education is a mission-field" talk is fallacious is fairly simple: there is no either/or dichotomy between saving lost children's souls and refusing to send saved children to a bad school. You can do both evangelism and education, Biblically and obediently, without destroying one or the other's obvious objective.
Both realms (evangelism and education) have clear instructions, purposes and corresponding duties that should be accepted, believed and obeyed - each emanating from the same holy book - the Bible.
Pitting one against the other is fallacious and dangerous to children...
If your worldview requires constant use of fallacies in order to defend itself, you have a flawed worldview, out of harmony with Scripture and reality, and you need to be lovingly corrected, especially if you are promoting those bad ideas in front of God's people.
To be clear, I am taking the time to write all of this because I love children very much, and I hate to see so many Christian families systematically destroyed by fallacious arguments based upon poorly developed doctrine. I also write this because I am very well aware of how controversial and emotional it is to discuss this with Christian people who react defensively about their current decisions, rather than to humbly consider that they may have erred, and for said reason(s), most pastors (statistically) refuse to address this topic in order to avoid emotion-based strife from their own congregants who can't handle this discussion without getting angry and offended once they are forced to look into the Bible/mirror of the soul to see an unflattering reflection. (James 1:23).
First, I commend the desire in so many persons to reach the lost and appreciate so many families stands for Jesus in their communities, but consider the following: In our church we do not accept the myth that we must send our poor children into a disobedient form of education in order to save the other poor children whose parents did not understand their own bad decision to do the same thing.
In our community, we reach both the children and the parents who are unsaved (all likely attending public schools, which is irrelevant regarding evangelism) by our church families going together to the local parks and directly knocking on the front-doors of neighborhood homes - and later, busing them-in to our church as we are able.
Thousands have heard the Gospel across many years, without us sacrificing proper, obedient educational fundamentals for our own young, impressionable children for whom we are charged by God to teach in a very specific way, (and correspondingly forbidden to educate in another deviant way).
Christians should not flagrantly dismiss Biblical commands on what God says about how to educate children (and how not to educate children) in the name of evangelism. This is no-doubt well-intended, but it's incorrect and requires all kinds of predictable fallacies to shield itself from a desperately needed critique.
I disagree with the fallacy, for example, that suggests that in order for a community (children in particular) to be a "mission field" we must (or even should) poorly educate our own young people in direct disagreement with the blatant instructions the Bible gives us on education. This is a cognitive dissonance!
We should not subject our children to a rebellious curriculum using evangelistic sentimentality as a defense on social media or otherwise. This has nothing to do with "fearing" evil or "sheltering" children in an unreasonable "bubble" (more fallacies) and everything to do with thesis/antithesis thinking and simple submission and obedience to educational realities accepted across 2000 years of church history (which see below).
Socialist education was disobedient from its rather recent American experiment beginning a short century ago. The statistics of modern Christian kids whose worldviews are ruined through this kind of deviant and sexually perverted educational environment are not in the favor of those who argue that "public school is a mission field for young children to be a light for Jesus."
We can evangelize the lost children and give Christian education to our own children at the same time.
Here are some objective, Biblical worldview fundamentals on education that bear down directly upon every Christian parent who is serious about obeying God and not being conformed to the thinking of this fallen world.
Here is what the Bible requires in 7 commands (all 7 openly disobeyed by all American public school institutions - which makes public education untenable for obedient Christian families):
Truth is Absolute and Should Be Taught as Such:
John 14:6 Deuteronomy 6:6-7 Galatians 1:8 Ephesians 6:4 1 Corinthians 4:15 Deuteronomy 4:9 Hebrews 13:8-9 Malachi 3:6 James 1:17
Family Government is Sovereign:
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 Deuteronomy 4:9 Proverbs 1:7-9 Proverbs 13:24 Proverbs 22:6-7 Proverbs 27:10 Joshua 24:15 Matthew 22:21 Ephesians 6:4
Education Must Glorify God:
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 Proverbs 1:7-9 Hosea 4:6 Proverbs 9:10 Job 28:27-28 2 Timothy 3:16 2 Corinthians 10:5 Colossians 2:8
Virtue of Bridled Speech to Be Learned:
2 Timothy 3:16-17 James 3:1-2 Titus 1:10-11 2 Kings 2:23 2 Timothy 2:14-17, 23 Colossians 2:8 1 Corinthians 1:10
Teacher Must Distinguish Truths and Deceptions for the Student:
1 Timothy 1:4 Colossians 2:8 2 Timothy 3:6-9 Galatians 1:8 Proverbs 1:7 Hebrews 13:9
No Philosophy or Study of Nature has Merit Outside the Authority of God’s Word:
2 Timothy 3:16-17 Proverbs 1:7 Psalm 19:7 2 Corinthians 10:5 Colossians 2:8
Decentralized Education is Wise:
Proverbs 27:10 Psalm 74:17 Judges 2:1-3 Acts 17:26 2 Corinthians 6:16
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