Shepherds! Protect the Lambs

One of the most frustrating things I have found in over two decades of working with youth in both a church and Christian school context has been the response of Christian pastors to Christian education. It ranges from apathy to antipathy. Few have the courage to call their congregations to obedience to Christ in this area. This despite the very real danger state education presents to the little lambs in their flock.

My experience has been that many young adults from Christian homes are either incapacitated and rendered impotent by the secular worldview they imbibe during their 17-year secular discipleship programme, or they leave the faith. And a lot of them do leave the faith.

Just this week, I was chatting with a friend who spoke of two young people he knew, both attending secular schools. One no longer attends youth group or church and has decided he is not a Christian any longer. The other, a young woman, has been so indoctrinated by feminism and humanism that she looks up to feminist icons who are responsible for the liberalisation of abortion.

Can pastors continue to look the other way? A pastor is a shepherd. When a lion or a bear came to attack and kill David’s sheep, he would seize them by the hair and kill them ( I Samuel 17:35). That takes manly courage and the ability to face risk and danger. This is the need of our hour. We need pastors who are willing to be courageous men. They must stand between the lambs and the wild animals out to devour them.

Jesus himself warned of the danger posed to little ones. After calling a child to himself and showing his disciples that they must become like little children to enter the kingdom of heaven, he gave one of his starkest warnings. He said, with this little child and perhaps others next to him, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”

We know, without a shadow of a doubt that the 17-year anti-Christian state discipleship programme is in a large part responsible for many little lambs being torn to pieces. Any Christian leader worth their salt should be aware of this. Teaching a child that God is irrelevant to the world he has made by never mentioning him in 17 years of education is likely to cause him to stumble. Teaching a child that Christ is Lord of his heart, but that he isn’t too interested in the rest of life is causing our children to stumble. Flawed teaching on gender and sexuality is causing our children to sin.

So about that millstone…Does it belong to our secular officials who desire to control the future by discipling our children into their faith? Does it belong to the teachers who abuse their positions to poison the minds of children with depravity? Does it belong to parents who fail to follow God’s law to impress God’s laws on their children day and night (Deuteronomy 6:6-9), or does it belong to the shepherds who see the children in their flock falling away from the faith but say nothing?

What will it take for Christian leaders to wake up, grab their weapons and start protecting the flock? When will we hear a sermon about the importance of training our children in the Christian faith and protecting them from the evil one? When will we hear our pastors calling all families to remove their children from the perils of secular education?

Will the recent news of the proposed Conversion Therapy ban wake our pastors up from their slumber? Will pulpits throughout the land warn parents that they are in danger of losing their children? Kris Faafoi on Newstalk ZB was asked whether it was ‘cool with him’ for parents to tell their children they can’t go on hormone blockers. He said, “No it’s not.” Of this law, Family First writes, “Shockingly, parents would be criminalised and potentially liable up to five years in jail simply for affirming that their sons are boys and their daughters are girls. These bans will lock children into transgenderism.” As a teacher with knowledge of the school system in New Zealand, I can assure my readers that this degeneracy is already being promoted by many schools and teachers. Too many naive parents think secular schools are only there to teach Maths and English. Unfortunately, that is about the only thing they are not getting. These must make way for the all-important secular indoctrination programme you see. A law like this is only going to make things worse. Godless teachers will turn children against parents and make them aware of their ‘rights’. The only protection will be removing our children from these godless pagans. Will pastors protect their sheep by saying this? That remains to be seen. If not, God help us.

The Directory for Private (Family) Worship #10

In recent months, I had a young man come to our house and we got talking on some of the spiritual disciplines that took place in our household. I mentioned to him that our family eats breakfast together and there I read the Word to our children and pray as we begin our daily labours. In the evening, after dinner, while we are still at the dinner table we do the same thing. He was surprised at this activity. Despite growing up in a Christian family, this had never been a habit in his family. Today’s direction from the directory for private worship is helpful in this regard.

X. These exercises ought to be performed in great sincerity, without delay, laying aside all exercises of worldly business or hinderances, not withstanding the mockings of atheists and profane men; in respect of the great mercies of God to this land, and of his severe corrections wherewith lately he hath exercised us. And, to this effect, persons of eminency (and all elders of the kirk) not only ought to stir up themselves and families to diligence herein, but also to concur effectually, that in all other families, where they have power and charge, the said exercises be conscionably performed.

In simple English, we are charged to regularly perform the duties expressed in the previous directions and ensure that the day to day busyness of life nor the mocking of those who do not love God do not put us off from fulfilling these duties. The writers of the directory mention both the mercy of God, and recent corrections from God as factors highlighting the importance of private worship. They complete this direction by arguing for the elders or spiritual leaders of the church to ensure they are diligent in exercising themselves in the fulfilment of the rules previously cited, and additionally that they encourage other families to perform them too.

Of great encouragement to me is the fact that in visiting a church recently the pastor made a big deal about the importance of family worship and even provided free books for families seeking to develop in this discipline. Let us encourage each other as brothers and sisters to be faithful in this all important spiritual discipline.

A Culture of Life vs A Culture of Death

One of the fascinating but predictable things about rebellion against the true and living God is the way it always devolves into lies and death. Since Satan is the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning, this should not surprise us. We see the rebellion of our father Adam was founded on Satan’s lies and ultimately caused the slow murder of Adam and all his progeny. Those in Satan’s kingdom employ his methods. Thus very early on we have Cain murdering his brother in envy and Lamech murdering a young man for insulting him. Yet Satan’s influence is not limited to individuals. Cultures that embrace rebellion against the living God grow more and more like their father the devil. They too embrace lies and death. The Pharaoh of Moses’ day embraced the lie of his own divinity and murdered countless young Hebrew boys. The Canaanites embraced Molech and sacrificed their own children to their ultimate ruin.

Our secular culture in its haste towards the abyss more and more manifests its diabolical nature. Its language is full of lies. We have transwomen, marriage equality, antiracism, gender affirmation, social justice and economic equality. A transwoman is a man. Marriage equality? A homosexual union can never be a true marriage. Anti-racism is actual racism. Gender affirmation is the attempted destruction of the image of God in an individual as male or female. Social justice is injustice. Economic equality is stealing. You get the idea. Our secular culture only lies when it speaks.

Then we have secular culture’s embrace of death. Abortion is our euphemistic term for child sacrifice. In New Zealand, 18% of known pregnancies in 2019 ended in an abortion. We’ve also introduced euthanasia. And our suicide rate amongst youth is horrendous, but surely given the culture of death celebrated, and our nihilistic outlook, unsurprising. Secular culture is killing itself off. They see children as a threat to the environment. Recently Meghan and Harry won an award for their decision to have only two children. Environment worshipping secularists even promise to have no children for the sake of the planet. In this, the secularists plant the seeds of their own destruction.

The secularist trumpets their rebellion with slogans such as ‘a woman’s right to choose’, and ‘I was born in the wrong body’, but their embrace of this culture of lies and death is actually evidence of God handing them over to wrath and judgment. They will not be fruitful. Their culture will dwindle and decline. In contrast, this world will be full of the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Fruitfulness and blessing come to those who love the Lord their God. They will inherit the earth. Those who love God, for whom Christ is king produce a culture of life. Having children for us is part of the calling to dominion under Christ. That is why faithful Christians tend to have more children than nihilistic secularists. We are hopeful. This world belongs to our Lord. It will be restored and we will reign with him over his creation.