Oliver,
I like those books too! However I also like Deuteronomy and Proverbs and Ezekiel when it comes to child training and talking about our duties as parents, the book of Judges comes in handy to illustrate why we must pass on “How to think like a Christian” to our children – otherwise they will say of us like they did of Israel after Joshua died” Judegs 2:10 When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.” Come to think of it Judges is a great book that illustrates what happens to God’s people when they try to live in peace with the heathen. – oh wait I hear it now …that is an OLD testament book. (as if that makes it irrelevant to us now) no matter …Christ never changes the nature of the war just the weapons. We witness and live out our salt and light believing in faith that Christ was telling the truth that we would be victorious over his ememies by converting them to faith in Jesus.
When interpreting Scripture context is everything. To isolate all the passages about taking the gospel to the wicked from the passages that talk about our duties to train up our children in the way they should go does violence to the fabric of Scripture. It would be like saying Jesus told me to “hate my father ” so the 5th commandment has nothing to do with me now. We all know that this just isn’t true.
Luke 14:26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
You are making several (bad) assumptions – you assume we are trying to shelter our children from the realities of a sin filled world and I’ll tell you right now we homeschoolers don’t try to. But we also believe we can teach our kids about the evils of murder without having them witess one. That we can instruct them that porn is wrong without having them read it. that we can teach them to combat the lives of the devil, to answer humanist foolishness without having our kids steeped in it for 6-9 hours a day five days a week.
My wife and I are in an unsual and (admittedly small) but growing segment of the Christian education world …we are second generation homeschoolers. Let me tell you something: my parents never tried (and neither do we ) to shelter our children from the realities of our fallen world. Neither do we have any illusions that when you put children into a “humanist training academy” (read public schools) that our kids WON’T be affected. They would, and so will yours.
Oliver, it’s true that Jesus acted – that doesn’t lessen our duty to think God’s thoughts after him or to take every thought captive in obedience of Christ.
Finally let’s be clear….we don’t hold any malice against those Christian brothers and sisters who disagree with us. Quite the contrary we love them dearly and want to see them find a better way to raise God’s children “Ezekiel 16:20 Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, 21 that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire? 22 And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember
the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your
blood. 23 “Then it was so, after all your wickedness–’Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord God– ”
Which is why we must talk about educational methods no matter how hard the discussion seems.
