Time For School

“Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.”

Colossians 4:5

There is an obvious inequality of time in what believers claim to want, versus the time they put into it. A previous Reload compared entertainment consumption of the last 100+ years versus church service length. Today we will simply look at the calculated facts of another, equally sinister time monster: education.

Schoolmaster to Bring Us to Christ?

Though the intent of any education program is upright, any education that purposely excludes the law of God will ultimately lead to mass deception, NOT truth.

“Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”

Galatians 3:24

As a wise preacher once said, “Education without salvation is damnation.”

Since the big stink made in the 1960s about prayer in the public schools, Christians have been afraid to speak up. In the 1980s the government kicked the Ten Commandments out, and fearful Christians high-tailed it again. What little courage they gained nationally after September 11, 2001, was quickly moderated out, because we didn’t want to come across as ‘religious extremists’.

(By the way, it is not the 'extremists' who are dangerous... it's 'believers of violent religions' such as Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism, and Hinduism, to name a few.)

Bible believers-followers of Jesus Christ- today have forgotten that public profession of faith is a privilege of the saved, not a constitutionally-installed right of the governed. God commissioned the church from Heaven (Acts 1:8) with no conditions granted for government disapproval. Churches don’t want to poke the behemoth of the Department of Education unless they can have multiple layers of legislation to ensure its ‘sanctioned’ or ‘safe’.

When you allow your Christianity to become contingent on any earthly government, you risk placing Caesar above Christ. “We have no king but Caesar!” will no believer openly say, but, “We have to keep our priorities straight,” is the modern rendition. (Don’t forget class, ‘Caesar’ is just another name for ‘Pharaoh’. And Pharaoh will bring you into bondage)

“For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.”

John 5:46

The main issue is time.

Hours, minutes, seconds.

Time that I was blessed with as a child who trusted Jesus Christ by a bed-side altar. Time that children who are brought to church at ALL early ages may eternally redeem. Time that often is sacrificed to the gods of knowledge at the rate of 13 years per life.

Separation of church and school

There is no question that ANY public school district ANYWHERE in the United States of America is NOT a promoter of the Bible, in whole or part. “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.” (Luke 11:23) There may be a saved teacher, bus driver, janitor, coach, or principal who acts as a missionary in their role, but none of them can ever bring these two institutions together. The church reaches the lost with Truth to save them. The school reaches them with knowledge of good and evil to finish what Eden started.

Sometimes there is a light in the darkness. There is no denying that. But to say that all is well because you found a Gospel tract in a bathroom once is ludicrous. That’s like trying to read your home insurance policy by the flames of your house burning down. The damage is being done right now.

I challenge my readership to find a public school policy that will contradict what I’m about to claim. The indictment is, that the institution itself has no interest in any child:

1. loving a God who loved them first,
2. acting pure and clean according to Bible standards,
3. loving righteousness,
4. hating sin,
5. knowing that they will spend eternity in either Heaven or Hell, or
6. living with a clean, forgiven conscience.

I accuse the system of complete failure in these areas. With ZERO emphasis on just this short list- what on earth could they possibly be shoving into the minds of five-, six-, seven-, eight-, nine-, and ten-year olds? What are they presenting to a formative youth in their preteen and teen years?

Do not believe that your attempts to evangelize, pray, invite, or preach to children are forcing religion on them. I want to arm you with the facts to face the pagan who would shame you into silence. Shame on THEIR foolishness, not yours.

“For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.”

1 Corinthians 1:21

Believers must be bolder.

A Rigorous Schedule

I want to show you that the influence of unsaved minds on children is titanic in its size, and nearly irresistible in its downward pull.

If a child attends a public school district like the one I live in, they will spend 177 days in school in the 2022-2023 session. School runs from August 17, 2022 to May 18, 2023. The 177 days do not account for the whole school year, only the actual days in school. N ot accounted for are the weekends, national holidays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter vacations, and an assortment of special days off. The actual school year impact is of course much larger: 274 days (9 months) of the year.

Let’s just consider the 177 actual ‘in class’ school days. The average school day starts before 8am and lasts after 2:30pm. Let’s figure 6.5 hours a day of influence that does not account for:

• The bus rides
• After school programs
• Athletics
• Band rehearsals
• Field trips

Figuring 177 days per grade multiplied by 6.5 hours per day we come up with 1,150.5 hours per year of INFLUENCE that an institution which cares nothing for God’s Word has on children.

Finally, let’s realistically take those hours per year (1,150.5) and increase that by the number of years a student in the United States will spend to graduate in a K-12 system. Fourteen thousand, nine hundred fifty-six and a half hours. 14,956.5 hours are dedicated to ‘educating’ a person before they are 20 years old.

“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

2 Timothy 3:7

Just how massive is that influence? Imagine you were a Christian FANATIC. You started at 5 years old going to every service your church had, including Sunday School and Wednesday night prayer meeting (if it’s like my church), and even a week-long revival meeting in the spring and fall. That’s crazy, I know. But how crazy? You’d be in church:

• 1 hour a week for Sunday School
• 1.5 hours a week for Sunday Morning services
• 1.5 hours a week for Sunday Evening worship
• 1.5 hours a week for Wednesday Prayer meeting
• 7.5 hours a week for each 5-day special revival

The total influence of Christianity upon your life would be a whopping 301 hours for the entire year. Plus, you’d be labeled a fanatic.

In order to match the influence of just the education system upon your mind, you’d have to go to church LIKE A FANATIC…

…until you were 55 years old. The scoreboard doesn’t lie, friends: godless influence=1, fanatic Christianity=0.

1 in 100

A closely related sad truth is that no one is nearly THAT interested in the Lord Jesus Christ. And sadder still, they are much more involved with school than just the 177 days/6.5 hours on the schedule. We are not the fanatics- they are. They are much more persuaded and committed to their religion than we are to our Saviour. We are not ‘shoving Christianity down’ anyone’s throat, we are barely getting a chance to present Calvary as an option to sin-cursed living.

When was the last time you witnessed to a middle- or high-schooler?

“These things I say, that ye might be saved.”

John 5:34b

When you do, you will not receive honour from men. It will be embarrassing. The students will resent you. But this I say brethren, the time is short: and time is quickly running out as the best chance for young people in your city is going… going…

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