Education is the bringing up, and instruction of, children and youth to enlighten their understanding, instill their philosophy, develop their morals, form their manners, correct their tempers, give them knowledge, and train their skills such as in reading, language, mathematics, science, history, and arts, and fit them for usefulness in their families, associations, and communities. Education comprehends all that series of instruction and discipline which is intended to accomplish the aforementioned.

With these definitions in mind, consider that many Americans tend to think that State/public schools only school children, but the full truth is that they also educate them, always and at all times. That is, philosophers of education recognize that all schooling is education. All schooling is the teaching, training, and indoctrination -- to imbue with particular opinions, points of view, or principles -- of children and youth.

The impression that many parents and the public have, and that many public-school teachers and advocates present, is that school is mainly, or only, about instructing students in knowledge and skills, and that it does not teach them in ways of sectarian values and beliefs, worldview, and how to judge or evaluate things according to philosophical presuppositions. The truth is, all forms of schooling or education engage students in discipleship, the spreading and inculcating of the doctrines or teachings of a famous person or perspective (e.g., Yeshua the Messiah, neo-Marxism, critical theory, statism, democratism).

So the question is: What set of values do you want your children "educated" in -- the values of this corrupt world, or the values of the Creator God? Here are three encouragements if you are considering homeschooling:

Homeschooling Encouragement #1

The responsibility to teach and train children rests solely on the parents’ shoulders. It’s not on the shoulders of the government, public school, or even the Church. Here are three verses to support this conclusion…

Deuteronomy 6:7: "You shall teach [the words of YEHOVAH God] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up."

The "You" is parents, and this teaching is supposed to go on all the time, when you:

* Sit in your house…

* Walk by the way…

* Lie down…

* Rise up.

Proverbs 4:1-2: "Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction; pay attention and gain understanding. I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching."

Proverbs 1:7-9: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. Stubborn fools despise wisdom and discipline. My son, listen to your father’s discipline, and do not neglect your mother’s teachings, because discipline and teachings are a graceful garland on your head and a golden chain around your neck."

Reasons for Homeschooling

There are many advantages to homeschooling, such as your child can get the attention needed and doesn’t have to worry about the teacher helping other children. Schools in America have thrown away the Bible and are teaching children lies and evilness.

They are teaching that premarital sex and homosexuality are OK. Children are being brainwashed right before our eyes. As parents we are to protect our children from what they learn. If we teach them we can help them know the truth from Scripture. Bad company will always be found in secular schools. Children can easily be led astray by friends. Our children are getting dumber because this godless generation has dumbed down our offspring.

Homeschooling is a great way to raise up godly children.

1. There are so many deceitful things being taught in public schools these days that it should make you sick.

Colossians 2:8: "Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ."

1 Corinthians 3:19: "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As the Scriptures say, 'He traps the wise in the snare of their own cleverness'.”

1 Corinthians 1:20: "Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?"

2. There will be a bigger chance that your child will be led astray by ungodly friends and teachers.

Proverbs 13:20: "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm."

1 Corinthians 15:33: "Don’t be fooled by those who say such things, for 'bad company corrupts good character'.”

Psalm 106:35: "Instead, they mingled among the pagans and adopted their evil customs."

3. Conformity to the world instead of to YEHOVAH God is more likely.

Romans 12:2: " Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is -- his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Jeremiah 10:2: "This is what the LORD says: 'Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them'.”

4. You can teach your children yourself. You can teach them about YEHOVAH God and the Messiah.

Psalm 111:10: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise."

Proverbs 22:6: "Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it."

Deuteronomy 11:18-19: "Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

Philippians 4:9: "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me -- put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

5. Children are for YEHOVAH God and you are to raise them.

Matthew 22:21: "'Caesar’s,' they replied. Then he said to them, 'So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s'.”

Psalm 127:3: "Children are a heritage from the LORD, offspring a reward from him."

Ephesians 6:4: "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the LORD."

6. You will be wiser since you will be learning as you teach them.

Proverbs 3:13-18: "Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her; those who hold her fast will be blessed."

7. Homeschooling builds patience, responsibility, and other things that make you into the image of YEHOVAH God.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7: "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

Philippians 1:6: "being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

8. There will be more family time.

Philippians 2:2: "Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind."

Psalm 133:1: "How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!"

9. Public schools have tossed out YEHOVAH’s Word so how can your child grow closer to Him?

Matthew 4:4: "But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God."

Psalm 1:2: "But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night."

10. You are less likely to have rebellious children.

Exodus 20:12: " “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

When I taught elementary school as soon as the bell rang I sent students home for the day, but as homeschooling parents educating is never done. YEHOVAH God wants us teaching and discipling our children around the clock, every day, all day. When I was an officer in the Army they told us, "You always have to have a hip-pocket teaching available." Our uniforms had large pockets on our hips, and the idea is we had to have a teaching we could pull out at any moment to share with the soldiers.

The same is true with our children. We should look for teachable moments throughout the day to disciple them on forgiveness, generosity, service, joy, appreciating YEHOVAH’s creation, etc. As our children encounter day-to-day situations, we want to regularly say:

* What does the Bible say about this?

* What does YEHOVAH’s Word tell us about this situation?

* How should Scripture direct our thinking regarding this decision?

With our children growing up in Christian homes and churches they learn so much Scripture, but how does this benefit them if it isn’t affecting their day-to-day lives? If it isn’t affecting their relationships and decision-making?

Proverbs 22:6: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

Is this addressing the public school system, the government, or even churches? It’s clearly speaking to parents.

Ephesians 6:4: "Fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the LORD."

This verse is interesting because understandably with fathers working, mothers perform most of the teaching; therefore, how do we obey this verse? While mothers might deal with much of the day-to-day academics, it seems much of the [spiritual] training and admonition rests on the father’s shoulders. Fathers can never sit back and say:

* Well, my wife has it under control.

* Their mother will handle the teaching.

* Whatever my kids need to learn, they can learn it from Mommy.

* I’m too busy working to worry about teaching my children.

Whether fathers have to get up earlier, or clear the table as soon as dinner is over, we need to make sure we gather our families around the Word of YEHOVAH God. Consider what YEHOVAH said about Abraham:

Genesis 18:19: "[YEHOVAH God said], "I have chosen him, that he may [direct] his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him."

This is exactly what YEHOVAH God could say to every father: He has chosen those of us of Israel as fathers. He wants us to direct our children and our households that we may keep them in the way of the LORD, to do righteousness and justice.

Homeschooling Encouragement #2

The amount of time we have with our children is limited and valuable.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics the average number of hours in a public school day is 6.64, and this doesn’t include the time spent walking, driving, or riding the bus to and from school. The average number of school days per year is 180, which adds up to a little under 1,200 hours per year. This means by the time public school students graduate high school they have spent over 15,500 hours away from their parents.

We have seven children. Our oldest is eleven and we’re recognizing just how little time we actually have with each of them. As parents, we should be selfish. We shouldn’t be willing to give up so much of this time to others. When we consider just how much time our children would be in school…

It’s a lot of time for them to be taught and trained by someone else when YEHOVAH God has put that responsibility on parents’ shoulders. Some number of the teachers might not be Christians, might not have the same values we want our children to have, might teach academics that conflict with our teaching, etc.

It’s a lot of time for our children to be surrounded by hundreds of students that could have a strong negative influence. Some number of those students aren’t Christians, don’t have the same values, exhibit behaviors or hold beliefs we wouldn’t want in our children.

Homeschooling Encouragement #3

Move beyond teaching academics and morality.

When I taught elementary school, I found the teachers I worked with to be hardworking, and genuinely concerned about their students. They taught their students important academics, and they’re moral people who also taught an amount of character. In classrooms across the nation students learn important subjects like math, reading, writing, science, etc. as well as important morals: do not lie, cheat, steal, be kind, etc.

So what homeschooling parents need to consider is if we don’t move beyond teaching our children academics and morality, we’re not moving beyond anything public schools teach. If we’re homeschooling we need to make sure -- like Deuteronomy 6:7 and Ephesians 6:4 command -- we’re teaching the Word of YEHOVAH God, teaching the Gospel, teaching a biblical worldview, etc.

If we taught our children the academics that could get them into the most prestigious schools in the nation but they weren’t committed to using that education for the Messiah, what good have we actually accomplished? Why do we teach our children…

To read? So they can read Scripture.

To write? So they can write about YEHOVAH God and the Messiah.

Music? So they can worship YEHOVAH God and help others do the same.

Sciences? So they can better know the Creator of creation.

Art? So they can produce works that bring glory to YEHOVAH God.

History? So they can learn about our Christian Heritage and the sacrifice many were willing to make to freely worship YEHOVAH God, and learn from the mistakes of those who rejected that same God.

Paul’s son in the faith, Timothy, grew up to be a wonderful, godly young man. He was so impressive, even at a young age that when Paul met him he wanted to bring him along (Acts 16:3). What made Timothy so exceptional? Paul gives the answer…

2 Timothy 3:15: "From childhood you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus."

From a young age Timothy knew the Scriptures, which did two things for him:

First, they [made him] wise; Scripture is where true wisdom comes from.

Second, as a descendant of Israel they guided him to salvation; they taught him how to be in the first resurrection through faith in the Messiah's sacrifice.

This is a great example of what we should desire for our children: that they know the Scriptures at a young age, that they’re wise for salvation, that they know to put their faith in YEHOVAH God and the Messiah.

And where did Timothy receive this instruction? Did he receive it from his 4th grade teacher, wonderful coach, the government, or even the Church? He received it from his mother Eunice, and his grandmother Lois (2 Timothy 1:5). And this is where our children should receive the same wisdom and discipleship.

Six Pitfalls to Avoid

#1: You abuse your God-given parental authority.

Homeschooling parents, as they envision the type of children they would like to raise, can become confused regarding the nature, extent, and purpose of their authority. This leads them to potentially abuse the authority YEHOVAH God has given them.

The purpose of parental authority is not to impose our will upon someone else. As the Messiah said regarding the difference between our natural understanding of authority and YEHOVAH’s design for authority among believers:

Matthew 20:25-28: "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The purpose of authority in Scripture is to serve. Parents exercise spiritual authority not by conforming their children into caricatures of themselves, but by helping them know and love YEHOVAH God and the Messiah.

This doesn’t mean that biblical parental authority is devoid of decrees and dictums that are to be obeyed. To the contrary, as biblical parental authority is properly exercised, children should be all the more careful to follow their parents' instructions exactly. But the goal of exercising authority is radically different for the believer who wishes to avoid idolatry. The parent is mindful of the biblical restraints placed upon his sphere of authority. There should be a reluctance to go beyond that sphere or impose his will.

Homeschooling parents can struggle with the notion that their children will act in ways that are contrary to their preferences for their life. Their idolatrous conception of what the ideal family looks like may drive them to exercise authority in realms where it is unwise to do so.

#2: You are motivated not by trust in YEHOVAH God but by fear of man.

YEHOVAH God calls us to trust in Him and believe in His good plan for us. Making decisions regarding your children’s schooling because you are fearful of people is idolatrous.

This does not mean we should treat sinful influences in our children's lives lightly. YEHOVAH God has called you to be mindful of the environment into which you place your children. If a family decides that the best school for their child for a period of time is in their home, that is wonderful.

Do not, however, be so fearful of the world’s power that you believe YEHOVAH God is at its mercy. A teacher does not have the power to turn your child into a communist or a vegetarian. YEHOVAH God still sits enthroned in the heavens and laughs at the schemes of the rulers of the earth (Psalm 2:1-4).

#3: You respond sinfully when your goals for your family are not met.

Our reaction to disappointed dreams reveals what we really worship (James 4:1-10). When our goals for our family -- however noble -- are frustrated, the response of our heart reveals whether we were worshipping YEHOVAH God or an idol.

#4: You view your children as an end instead of a means.

Hannah desperately longed for a child. But as 1 Samuel 1-2 makes clear, she did not view her precious child as the end goal. Even the gift of a child was a means to worship YEHOVAH God.

Your children are not the end goal. Your children are yet another means YEHOVAH has given you to engage in worship of Him.

#5: You teach your children to have an unbiblical view of the family.

The way many homeschoolers conceive the family is not how the Bible would understand family. They rightly love the individuals who live in their home, but they are tempted to believe that their familial responsibilities are fulfilled by simply meeting the needs of the nuclear family.

In Exegetical Fallacies, D. A. Carson addresses "semantic anachronisms." Carson writes: "This fallacy occurs when a late use of a word is read back into earlier literature." The way we center our lives around the nuclear family is a recent cultural phenomenon. When we encounter the family in Scripture, we are sometimes guilty of the semantic anachronism of which Carson speaks, assuming that Scripture understands the family the same way we do in North America.

It is important to teach children not to idolize the nuclear family. Our family doesn’t exist simply to meet the needs of the individuals who live under our roof. We seek to honor and care for our grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles and the family of YEHOVAH God.

#6: You teach your children to have an unbiblical view of the Church.

The unbiblical view of the family leads to an unbiblical view of the Church. Homeschooling families can become so consumed with their nuclear family that they don’t have the energy or desire to engage in deseminating YEHOVAH's Truth to the nations of Israel. In some circumstances, families may even say that homeschooling is their ministry.

But this attitude is harmful for both YEHOVAH's Church and the family. It deprives the Church of the vital spiritual gifts that the members of the family possess. It hurts the family as they fail to experience the joy of serving others.

But Remember...Homeschooling Can’t Save

The truth is that only YEHOVAH God can move upon the heart of an Israelite child inclined toward sin, and do a work of regeneration. It will be YEHOVAH God that moves upon the heart of a child if they are educated at home, and it will be YEHOVAH God that moves upon the heart if they are not. YEHOVAH God is the hero of Christian homeschooling, not us parents.

No amount of Latin lessons, Bible memory songs, or classical literature can lead an Israelite child to salvation. To the family just beginning the journey of home education, may YEHOVAH God bless you as you educate your children for the glory of YEHOVAH God. Only please remember, it is no guarantee. Our homeschooled children may leave our homes serving YEHOVAH God, or they may not, but our exceedingly great reward is in the sacrifice of the Messiah.

Aggressive prayer may be needed for a child that has embraced the atheistic worldview after homeschooling. In one case that I know of a homeschooled girl sat under a Malthusian biology professor for a semester, who advocated for the intentional de-population of the world through airborne viruses. He legitimized sexual assault by excusing male predation as evolutionary instinct. As the semester wore on the girl shifted from hard atheism to agnosticism. She had a whiff of the pigsty.

In a case like this you must pray that YEHOVAH God Himself will meet the child in the woods of his/her rebellion and use whatever means He chooses to for redemption. The Messiah said, “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14). The way of salvation is truly the road less traveled, and YEHOVAH's saving grace alone for His people Israel makes the eternal difference.

Hope of Israel Ministries -- Preparing the Way for the Return of YEHOVAH God and His Messiah to This Earth to Set Up the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God!

Hope of Israel Ministries P.O. Box 853 Azusa, CA 91702, U.S.A. www.hope-of-israel.org

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