Sean and Lara Capparuccia
originally published October 13, 2019
Lara and I have been wanting to present a message on homeschooling for a long time because it is not only something that we felt was important 13 years ago when we started, but it has gotten more important every year since. Homeschooling is different. It is true that many people have some strange ideas about homeschooling – quite frankly, it’s kinda weird. At least that’s what a lot of people think. Well, quite frankly, I think that putting my children under the tutelage of a system that does not know God, refuses to acknowledge Him, and oftentimes seeks to refute Him, is kinda weird! Nevertheless, we aren’t here to judge your decisions as parents– we only want to inform you of an option that perhaps you have not had much exposure to or time to really think about.
Homeschooling may indeed not be for everyone, but I believe wholeheartedly that it is for every Christian.
Incidentally, on this day in 1927, the Holland tunnel was opened. The completion of this tunnel allowed people to go under the Hudson River from New York to New Jersey – obviously a very good thing for both places. Why a tunnel was built before a bridge is beyond me although it provides us with at least one simple thought: sometimes we just have to get deep into the water and do hard things. It may be easier in the short run to try to stay above water, but when you go ahead and get deep – bigger and better things happen for the long-run. Homeschooling is a Holland Tunnel experience.
I will forewarn you that this may get heavy, there may be some things that disagree with what you know or conflict with what you don’t know. I would encourage you hear it out and we can discuss later. I believe in the sovereignty of God and accept His leading.
Why do homeschoolers choose to school at home? Why have we, as parents, chosen to go against “normal” and take control of our children’s education? Over the years Lara and I have met with various answers to this question:
Some say it is for “religious” reasons, whether that religion is Christian or not, because the State does not adequately address or acquiesce to their beliefs.
Some say it is for educational reasons because the State does not adequately teach their children – whether their children fail to be challenged by State curriculums or whether their children have special needs that the State fails to meet.
Some say it is for political reasons because the State is a conspiratorial institution that seeks to control us and they want to have as little to do with the government as possible.
Some say it is for social reasons because the State fails to uphold their family’s moral values.
And some others say it is simply because public school interferes with their family schedule in one way or another, i.e. they don’t like to get up that early in the morning.
The fact of the matter, all of these reasons are tied up together and are just various aspects of the same larger issue: that it is a God-given command to raise our children and to educate them in the Truth. That’s the bottom line.
Let’s look at God’s Word for a moment. Central to all that God commanded His people were these three commands: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up” (Deut. 6:4-7). It’s as simple as that.
Listen, we talk a lot about what Truth is today, but this is nothing new. Mankind has always had a problem with Truth, with Reality. And here God answers the question, “what is the Reality?, the Truth?” in eight words: “The Lord your God, the Lord is one.” (The Hebrew word translated “one” here is echad. Adonai echad. But if we look at some of the other renderings of echad we get a beautiful picture of what God meant. Echad means
first, alone, altogether, certain, only, together. This is who God is… and this is where Truth begins.)
God said this so that no one could question which God we were talking about. This is the God of Creation, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob/Israel, the God of the Bible – all other gods are false, they do not represent Truth. (For example, Zeus is not God; Allah is not God; Buddha is not God; that beautiful mountain in the Western part of the State is not God (even though there are many who want them to be the same for the sake of peace.)[1]; your spouse is not God; your boss is not God; your T.V., your car, your boat, your laptop – none of these are God.
So, we have this Truth which is extra nos, outside of ourselves,– Adonai Echad.
Then we have a response: “Love God with all our hearts, soul, strength” or “mind.”[2] This is inward. Because we know this God who created our universe, we reverence Him, we fear Him, and we obey Him.[3] In Romans 12, Paul says, “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your reasonable act of worship.”[4] In other words, because of what God did for you, the least you can do is offer your lives back to Him. This echoes Deuteronomy 6:5 – it is our response to the Truth.
Knowing the Truth, then, and having the proper inward response to the Truth, we also have an outward responsibility to the Truth. Let’s be honest, this is where we all fail; we all fall short along the way. We aren’t proud of it, but we do have a hard time living out what we say we believe. Nevertheless, our responsibility is to take what we know to be Truth and pass it on to others. And if we have the passion to share Truth with friends and neighbors and strangers, (listen to this) how much more should we be sharing it with those over whom we have the most influence – our children? “Impress [it] on your children. Talk about [it] when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” …Saturate your children with the Truth.
Jesus said to baptize all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey Christ’s commands.” The word baptize in the Greek generally means “to immerse.” Forget about the water for a minute and listen to it this way: “Go all over the world making disciples, immersing them in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey Christ.” Do you hear a slightly different connotation there?
Immerse them. Drown them in the Truth and teach them to obey it. Are we really doing that?
It is our responsibility. Why do we homeschool? This is why. Need I go on? Well, yes. So I will elaborate some more.
Pro-homeschool or Anti-publicschool
The logical argument, then, is that Truth can be taught to our children just the same whether they are in public school or homeschool. And yet… there is something that stirs within (isn’t there?) that wants to homeschool. It seems rather evident that the choice to homeschool is at the same time a purposeful choice against public school. It is either/or. I know of very few people who homeschool and think that it is just as wonderful to send their kids to a State-school. No, on the contrary, people homeschool precisely because they do NOT want their children in a State-school. Just like a pro-life advocate cannot logically say that abortion is okay – Pro-life is at the same time anti-abortion. And I say this because I want the two ideologies – homeschool and public, or state-school – to be clearly contrasted.
A woman I know who is a Christian has a husband who, while being a believer himself, does not find it necessary to attend church, despite the fact that she does want to go. She recently told me that she felt that it was more godly for her to support him in not going to worship than it was for her to go without him. What do you think? I asked her, “if your husband asked you to kill someone would you do it? Of course not, because he would be asking you to break God’s command.” And yet, is that not exactly what he is doing here? Not only is he wanting her to break the fourth commandment to keep the Sabbath holy and worship, but he is asking her to break the first commandment by setting himself over God to his wife. She is wrong in her understanding, and even though the Truth of Scripture may be hard to swallow, I hope she at least understands that Truth.
I tell you that story to make this point: public school today is based on a Lie as I will explain. Not everyone can understand that; not everyone can accept it. It is a hard thing. It may sound radical, and that’s okay but understand this: being a godly parent is a radical undertaking. The widening gap between the world and the Faith is making Christians become more and more radical. We have to be able to discern what is good and what is detrimental to our lives.
This is why we want so desperately to show that the State-school system is not some benign institution that we can just roll our eyes at and hope that our children make it through okay. No! The public school system is rooted in a system of beliefs that don’t just ignore God; they refute Him. It denies His existence, it persecutes His people, and it replaces His Truth with a lie.
When I began to feel called to the ministry I hastily enrolled at a Bible college without knowing too much about doctrine or theology. And I quickly found that, although I wasn’t clear on just what it was that they were teaching, I knew deep down in my spirit that it wasn’t right. A young man who was getting ready to graduate told me to “eat the meat and spit out the bones.” So I tried for another semester but I couldn’t do it. And it wasn’t just affecting me; it was affecting my wife and my kids and my spirit was in such turmoil. I was choking on the bones.
Now, in light of the Deuteronomy passage we discussed, tell me why any parent who knows and loves God would put their child under the tutelage of this system without reservation?? Statistics are showing a coming mass exodus of Christians out of public schools.
In his book The Five Pillars of Biblical Success, Gary North proposes that there are three religions into which all people fall. They are Dominion religion, Power religion, and Escape religion.
Dominion religion is the religion of the Bible and requires men to subordinate themselves to God. The law-order that God requires them to use as their tool of dominion is Bible-revealed law.
The attempt to substitute any rival law-order seeks to usurp God’s authority, thereby transforming dominion religion into power religion: from obedience to God to obedience to men.
Dominion religion defines success as attaining the special grace of salvation and membership in the kingdom of God.
It warns against the pursuit of money, the pursuit of power, and the pursuit of sex outside of marriage.
It asserts that the only success indicators worth attaining in this life are those that flow both supernaturally and naturally to people who do not pursue them for their own sake, but who instead pursue opportunities for service.
Power religion is a perverse imitation of Biblical religion. It operates in terms of a rival god, a rival hierarchical system, and a rival law-order [rival to Dominion religion].
Success for power religion is summarized like this: “You shall be as gods, knowing [determining] good and evil.”
Power religionists seek to imitate God by displaying their own autonomous power. This is the religion of the tower of Babel.
The supreme manifestation of power religion in the twentieth century was Communism, a religion of revolution that created a culture of bureaucracy. [Naturally, we saw that Hitler viewed all other orders as rival to himself and sought to destroy them.]
Escape religion is that religion which attempts to avoid any confrontation with power …
It offers spiritual transformation to the individual through techniques of physical self-discipline leading to mystical illumination, or through emotional celebration in isolation from the general culture.
It is unconcerned with the details of social and civil law, as long as society allows the specific escape religion to remain autonomous from the general culture.
Its supreme success is the attainment of individual spiritual autonomy— [which is] an imitation of God.”
In summary, Mr. North’s categories are as follows: those whose god is the God of the Bible and live accordingly; those whose god is themselves and/or what they create, i.e. corporations, governments, or empires, and seek to be worshipped; and thirdly, those whose god is any number of things, including a form of Yahweh, although their understanding – their beliefs – lead them to retreat in one way or another from living according to prescribed principles, hence “individual spiritual authority.” In my estimation, most people fall into this category when their beliefs “have a form of godliness but deny [God’s] power.”[5]
In truth there only two religions: the religion of Abel, who sought to obey and please Yahweh; and the religion of Cain who disregarded Yahweh and placed himself, by his actions, outside of God’s authority.
Here’s another truth: all of us live our lives such that none of us separate beliefs from faith: beliefs are units of the central meta-narrative which determines our actions. We are just wired that way. “As a man thinketh, so he does.”
“In the beginning, God…”[6] Assuming we understand which God we are talking about, the one True God, this establishes the beginning of all that is and all that follows – this, then, for the Christian, becomes the meta-narrative. God is the Creator; every other thought and action should stem from this.
I’m not preaching here, just telling the Truth. Even “science” is showing more and more that our world had a creator of some sort. So let’s follow the logic…
if God is the beginning of all things and the source of all things (including me), then I must accept that what God says and what God does, whether in history or in the present, has significance for me. It certainly bears investigation.
And upon investigation I find that God’s first creations rebelled against Him and because of that sin all humanity, including me, is tainted by it and thus in need of redemption.[7]
And at a certain point in history this God who created all things became flesh, died a physical and painful death, and rose again in accordance with prophecies that were told long before for the purpose of redeeming sinful man.
That this event fulfilled over 100 prophecies of the Old Testament automatically gives credence to the Old Testament.
That this event is verifiable by Biblical, ecclesiastical, and secular records gives credence to the New Testament.
Without getting into Christological apologetics, or citing the events of the last 1,980 years that also give support to His authenticity, suffice it to say that the man Jesus was who He said He was and this Truth in itself has tremendous ramifications for all of humanity. Again, the place to start is that God – the God of the Bible – is Creator; all other Truth flows from this.
With this as the meta-narrative, we then find, at the least, these next three sub-narratives: that God through Jesus Christ redeems His people; that the Bible is “God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the people of God may be thoroughly equipped…”[8]; and that we, as created beings, are subordinate to God and under His authority.
If we believe these to be truth, then certain actions will flow from that. We will… (see slide).
What about when a Christian does things that are wrong, unbiblical, or ungodly? Why do they do that if actions flow from belief? One, and let me put this in the 3rd person, we sometimes suppress what we know to be true for one reason or another. Or two, our belief is in error and contradicts what is Truth. This is why we have God’s Word, God’s Spirit, and God’s Church – to convict us of Truth.[9]
If, then, we want to live by the Truth, we should have some reaction to what is not Truth; darkness cannot coexist with Light; light exposes the darkness. If we have Truth and attempt to live in darkness, there will be dis-ease.
Psalm 120:1-2 reads, “I call on the LORD in my distress, and he answers me. Save me, O LORD, from lying lips and from deceitful tongues.” Two words jump out here: distress and save. We can sense the emotion here. The Psalmist is in duress because of the lies around him.
Listen, typically, when someone passes you by and asks, “How are you doing?” what is your answer 99% of the time? It is “I’m doing fine.” I’m guilty. I could be having a lousy day but if someone asks me how I’m doing I say, “Doing fine, how ‘bout you?” It’s a bare-faced lie! I’m not doing “fine,” I’m doing miserably, and won’t you take time out of your day to listen to me whine about it!
We lie so easily don’t we? And we get lied to so easily as well. In this Psalm, there is a desperate plea for God to save from lies. But here’s the clencher: if we don’t know what Truth is, how can we know a lie?
About this Psalm, author and pastor Eugene Peterson writes,
“Rescue me from the person who tells me of life and omits Christ, The lies are impeccably factual. They contain no errors. There are no distortions or falsified data. who is wise in the ways of the world and ignores the movement of the Spirit. But they are lies all the same, because they claim to tell us who we are and omit everything about our origin in God and our destiny in God. They talk about the world without telling us that God made it. They tell us about our bodies without telling us that they are temples of the Holy Spirit. They instruct us in love without telling us about the God who loves us and gave himself for us.”[10]
Wow! Imagine that – a lie that is “impeccably factual!” We have over many centuries developed a warped sense of Truth and lie but this is the defining mark: does it flow from God as Creator and Christ as Redeemer? If it does not, then it is lie.
Now I’m not talking about surface truth and surface lie. 2+2=4: that is truth and it can’t be made a lie. But it is surface truth. The deep Truth that makes this math true is that God, in His omniscience, made this to be true. If God is denied as the source of this math, then it is a lie. I know that sounds very philosophical but in order for some of us to be justified in homeschooling, we need to follow this reasoning.
Here’s a good one: I think a thorn in a lot of Christian homeschooler’s sides is Dinosaurs. The word “dinosaur” has become synonymous with “millions of years ago” and “Darwinism” as if Darwin himself invented the dinosaur. We, Christians, cannot ignore the fossils – dinosaurs existed. But the secular evolutionists cannot ignore the fossil record – dinosaurs co-existed with man. And yet, the existence of dinosaurs can be taught as lie, or as truth. There is a difference, and it is a difference that can impact a child’s thinking for the rest of his/her life.
Now that I have introduced the D-word, Darwinism, into the discussion, I’d like to show how this is the single most undermining philosophy in our world today. Darwin himself was quite skeptical of his own thinking and what we are being taught today is nothing like what Darwin came up with. But this only shows how careful we should be with our ideas. §Again: what is the meta-narrative? Ask: is this thought, this feeling, this teaching in accordance with the revealed Truth? I think a lot would be avoided if that question was consistently asked.
So, despite Darwin’s original intent, what has happened since his time has been a constant trend towards hyper-Darwinism which has given non-believers a way to remove God from the material world. Today, Darwinism underscores the entire public school curriculum in our country, if not the world. Evolutionary philosophy colors every subject and is taught as truth even though there has never been any substantiating evidence to support it. Even many Christians have been deluded into thinking that evolution and Christianity can coexist. They can not. The theory of evolution is itself a religion based on faith that stands in stark opposition to God’s Word, God’s Creation, God’s plan of redemption, and to Biblical values. Consider survival of the fittest: does this one idea alone not give credence to racism, sexism, abortion, euthanasia, murder? Yet God’s Word teaches life, love, compassion, and mercy. Let me reiterate: evolution and Christianity cannot live side-by-side.
While the trend towards this secular humanism had been slowly gaining momentum, it wasn’t until the 1950’s that it really began to take hold. Three major shifts in education have taken place that have led us to the point where we are now.[11]
Up until that time school was a local institution run by the parents, relatives, and friends within a community. Everyone pretty much knew each other and either had similar values or respected each others’ values which were reflected in the curriculum. After WWII, in 1946, there was a population explosion. No one thought much about it until 1951 when all those wonderful babies were ready for school. The number of children entering school increased five times from 1950 to 1951. No longer could the schools identify let alone reinforce the family values represented by so many kids.
Secondly, since the establishment of the federal Department of Education in 1979, the growing federal presence in schools has led to a nationally influenced curriculum instead of locally produced ones that fit the values. This is when “politically correct” started.
And lastly, because of this, parents have changed the way they think of education. They feel it is the school’s job, the principals, the teachers, etc., to teach their children. This has also spilled over into church where it is the youth or children’s pastor’s job to educate rather than the parents taking primary responsibility over their child’s education.
When the parents fail to be their children’s educators, they do nothing more than feed, clothe, and shelter them. Hitler once said, “Whoever teaches the children, controls the nation.” Yes, we may meet our children’s needs, but their respect and attention belongs to the public schools. Lara and I saw a glimpse of this when our oldest went to first grade…
Lawyer and theologian Gary DeMar reflects on the first chapter of Daniel when Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took away captives from Israel to serve in his court. §DeMar writes, “First came the plundering of the old religion, the introduction of the new sovereign, and finally capturing the best and the brightest to be indoctrinated into the ways of the new religion controlled by the State (1:1).”[12]
Is this not exactly what is happening in the schools today? It goes back to North’s proposals of religions. Our beloved nation was built on dominion religion. By God’s grace the separatists and puritans left the power religion of Europe and founded America as a free and soon to be sovereign nation under God. Now we can argue all day about how some of the framers of the Constitution were not true Christians but only Deists. But the documents and the history stand on their own. Despite what the beliefs of some of these early architects were, the fact that this country had at its root a Christian ethic is indisputable. And yet, this factual heritage is being disputed in schools today.
The dominion religion that underscored America for nearly three centuries has moved toward a power religion of the State in the last several decades. And unfortunately, too many in the Church have defected to an escape religion and are refusing to get involved.
There is one argument that I have heard a lot that really gets me. Some people say, “if we take our kids out of the schools, then there won’t be a Christian presence.” Most adults can’t even argue against evolution, how in the world do they expect their kids to? Children are to be protected, not sent to the front lines to fight our battles for us. This really irks me…
After our children have been immersed in the Truth and are ready for battle, then we send them, as God wills, into the government, into the media, and into the public school system to turn it around. But right now we need to raise up a generation of warriors who can hold their ground in the Truth.
Why do we homeschool? Because the State is bent on controlling the coming generations with the Lie that ignores God – Adonai Echad. And it is our God-given command to teach our children Truth. In the end it is their only inheritance to pass along to their children. Thinking back to Daniel, our choice is to eat the king’s food and serve the State, or obey God and trust in Him. For the discipling Christian, is there really a choice?
[1] Matthew 10:34, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace but a sword…”
[2] Matthew 22:37
[3] Deuteronomy 6:1-3
[4] Romans 12:1, “reasonable” is in the NIV footnote.
[5] II Timothy 3:5
[6] Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (NIV).
[7] Expound: Because God is holy – set apart – He is incapable of being in the presence of sin/evil. If, then, man is sinful he cannot be in God’s presence unless he is made righteous. This is done through Christ’s death and resurrection – redemption.
[8] II Timothy 3:16-17.
[9] John 16:13, et. al.
[10] Peterson, Eugene. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction. InterVarsity Press, Downer’s Grove, Ill.: 2000, 27-28.
[11] McDowell, Josh. Right From Wrong. Word Publishing, Dallas: 1994, 40.
[12] DeMar, Gary. Whoever Controls the Schools Rules the World. American Vision, Powder Springs, GA: 2007, 1.
posts 