Introduction

The Christian Educator is being brought back from the proverbial graveyard. The Christian Educator was a publication of our educational ministry that started in the 1980s with the development of desktop technology. It was published for approximately 10 years. The last issue was printed and mailed in the Spring of 1995.

Technology has changed considerably in 27 years. The main issues we face as Christians and families in the United States have remained the same. We are dedicating this resurrected Christian Educator to those who have gone before us in this great work.

Each issue will be published as a short newsletter and will contain three short articles.

1] Introduction and Encouraging Theme

2] Teaching Helps

3] Worldview and Religious Matters to Consider

We would also like to feature student artwork. If your son or daughter would like to submit a photo that might be featured in a newsletter, please email it to christianeducator@christianliberty.com. Subject: Photo for Christian Educator.

Teaching Tips – Without Apology

Edward Straka, Assistant Administrative Director of Christian Liberty Academy School System

Teaching is one of the most rewarding and difficult tasks that a person can undertake. And homeschool teaching is no exception. On the high end of the equation, the parent is in complete charge of everything that goes on which is probably why they chose an independent education model. On the low end of the equation, the parent is completely in control and completely responsible — for better or worse — for how their homeschool “school” functions and how they run their education program. And that is where the fear begins! As parents, we all wonder “how do we work this? Where do we begin each day and each lesson?”

These are great questions and reasonable questions that all teachers, everywhere, have wondered about and at times agonized over. Indeed, as both a homeschool dad years ago, as well as a high school teacher and university professor | have wondered about how to manage the classroom thing so that the students can learn efficiently and effectively.

In a series of columns to follow, I plan on sharing a variety of strategies that I have found helpful in my teaching career and believe you will also. Many of these “tips” you may already have used in your homeschool! But if not, | do believe you will find them extremely helpful in managing both your time and tasks in an efficient fashion as well as give some structure to your educational endeavor with your children.

That said, let’s begin with tip # 1:

1. Without Apology: Don’t make excuses for what you are teaching! As an adult homeschool teacher, you are in charge, not your student. You are the adult who has been given authority over the children God has given you. You decide what is what and they, the students, need to meet your expectations as to what you require for them to be successful. Equally, do NOT negotiate what you are teaching. Again, you are in charge. Your job as an adult parent is to set the rules for engagement and the conduct of your students. They are not adults nor are they your buddies. There is work to do that is necessary to prepare them to be self-governed in the real world when they are in charge and on their own (I Corinthians 13:11). Remember: if you place no expectations on your children, then don’t expect much (Galatians 6:7).

Worldview: What Time Is It?

Edward Straka, Assistant Administrative Director of Christian Liberty Academy School System

Christians must realize the time within which we are living. So, it is time, to tell the truth: a quick read through the book of Judges confirms what happens to a faithless culture. Indeed, a faithless culture that has compromised with the “spirit of the age” still wonders why things are the way they are. As the late Christian writer, C.S. Lewis once said, “We continue to clamor for those very qualities we are rendering impossible. You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more ‘drive,’ or ‘dynamism,’ or ‘self-sacrifice’ or ‘creativity.’ In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate, and bid the geldings be fruitful...”

Is it ridiculous to assume that America, and “the men without chests” within her, will be exempted from the destruction that occurs daily all around the world just because “we’re America” and we “have a Christian heritage? God is not concerned with what was but, rather, with what is now. His will is that we do His will now! If we do not, we will most certainly be disinherited as a nation not to mention a world leader.

Is the above possible? From a purely secular and demographic point of view, Thomas Cahill, in his book How the Irish Saved Civilization, made the following observations about ancient Rome, along with modern America. The observations are, in paraphrase form, as follows:

The character of the native population had changed, brought about by barbarian migration into the empire. An increasingly unwieldy and rigid governmental structure was created whose own survival became its overriding goal. Established families came to despise the military and avoid its service, while its offices presented an unprecedented opportunity for marginal men to whom its ranks had once been closed. Lip service was paid to “traditional values” long dead. The foolish insistence that a people are what they once were. The increasing concentration of the populace into richer/poorer by way of a corrupt tax system led inevitably to deep-seated desperation. The aggrandizement of executive power at the expense of the legislature. Unimportant legislation promulgated with a great show. The moral vocation of the man at the top is to maintain order at all costs while growing blind to the cruel dilemmas of ordinary life.

Cahill’s assertions ate, to be sure, succinct, and speak to the decline of the ancient Roman Republic, as they, unfortunately, speak to our own. Multitudes of books have been written over the past few decades, in various fields, on how “we” can regain what has been lost. Even the Christians have gotten into the game by offering their own solutions, many of which ate only slightly more viable regarding changing modern America than the usual “work more, save more, and buy less” books that sit side by side with books by columnists filled with “Virtues” or “See, I Told You So” rhetoric.

There is unquestionable truth in what many have written about America’s multitudinous problems. Yet, despite it all, we appear to be grossly missing the mark judging by the continued and growing complexity of these problems. With all the hype about living in the “information age” and how technology, according to books like Power Shift, will solve all of our problems, it is easy, as Christians, to get caught up in the frenzy of the “Build Back Better” rhetoric that echoes throughout Washington D.C.

Yet, such statements by President Biden and the World Economic Forum are more reminiscent of Mao Tse-Tung’s “Great Leap Forward” programs which were far more powerful rhetorically than logically or practically. The Christians must ask themselves, “Is information or political promises a legitimate substitute for Biblical wisdom? Will surfing the net, universal basic income, and pharmaceutical promises rescue America from 30+ trillion dollars in debt, the disintegration of all ethical principles, and the rise of totalitarian government?

Judging from all the excitement in the Christian community about technology, one would think that is what many believe. Reality, however, speaks much louder in our collective conscience. In our spirit, all true Bible-believing Christians realize that there will either be a great revival or a crash: the ultimate hard-drive failure. Indeed, the great Russian writer and thinker, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, has said, “The strength or weakness of a society depends more on the level of its spiritual life than on its level of industrialization. Neither a market economy nor even general abundance constitutes the crowning achievement of human life. If a nation’s spiritual energies have been exhausted, it will not be saved from collapse by the most perfect government structure, or by industrial development. A tree with a rotten core cannot stand.”

When, where, and how the “end” will come remains to be seen and experienced. Be assured, however, that technology and _ political promises will not solve our real-world problems. People have believed and lived the lie of democracy and individualism for so long that the inevitable result has arrived: anarchy. With that said “anarchy” will come the rise of persecution from above (by the State) similar to what our apostolic brothers and sisters in the early first century Church experienced. There is also the violent oppression from within by American barbarians pumped up with sex, drugs, and gangsta-rap music who come not from the wild forests of Germany, but from our own neighborhoods! They are as “homegrown” and as “made in America” as our former industrial power. What will we do about these barbarians? How will they be stopped, and how will others be prevented from going down the same path?

No civilization has ever risen without faith, and no civilization has ever survived the loss of its faith. American non-believers have boldly and explicitly insisted that they can do without God. Many American believers have insisted implicitly that although they need Jesus as Savior (fire insurance), they do not need or want Him as Lord. Nor do they want His voice of authority: the Bible. This applies not only in areas of righteousness and justice but also in comprehending the will of God for Christian education at this time in history. What then do we really want to accomplish as the Church? What is our goal?

Consider the following assertions:

Only a comprehensive worldview can defeat other comprehensive worldviews. Humanism will not be defeated by Vacation Bible School and an Awana program (as good for pre-teen kids as those may be!)

Humanism is a powerful non-Christian philosophy that has a full-orbed worldview, which is why it has been so devastating. As a world and life view, humanism has its own eschatology anthropology and theology. It has its own art, literature, government science, and educational methods. Thus, Christians will only defeat Humanism if they have a similar full-orbed world and life view, based upon a sure “voice” of authority (Psalm 119; Matthew 4:4).