Teach Your Children : The Business of Christian Education LIII

 ⁶ Start children off on the way they should go,

and even when they are old they will not turn from it.   

Proverbs 22:6

           

Children are prime learners.  They learn anything very fast.  And once they learn what they learn, it will last forever in their life.  All educators know this secret.  Kings and philosophers know about this.  And so when they want their nations to grow and be strong, they always think of educating their children.  Nations compete against each other to come up on the top.  This can only be reached by excellent education.  The US is pushing for the development of education in the area of science, technology, engineering, and math.  Because they know that whoever comes up first on those areas will be the winner of the world race.  A lot of researches have been done in order to pile up cutting edge knowledge.  Space discovery, human genome, and advance knowledge in nano technology for medical and engineering purposes have been the focus of the pursuit of human advancement.  Whoever holds that sacred knowledge will rule the world.  In order to achieve that dream, education must be organized in such a way that may emphasize
those four areas.  While there is nothing wrong with pursuing the development of those four areas known as STEM, one should not forget other important areas in human life, namely the spiritual and the moral.

Proverbs 22:6 gives an important wisdom.  Children are to be educated in the way they should go in order that when they are old they will not turn from it.  This means that children are to be educated in the way of truth and righteousness, so that when they are old they will not turn to be evil and wicked.  The concern of the Proverbs is not knowledge in the area of technology and science, but the concern of Proverbs is on the right standing before God and the righteous living.  For the author of Proverbs, the right standing before God and righteous living are more important than science and technology.  Science and technology only live for a short time and soon they will be replaced with new theories, new findings, and so on.  Now, the problem with education in general today is that right standing before God and righteous living are peripheral; for modern education the most important matter is science and technology.  Science and technology bring power and wealth.  Right standing before God and righteous living lead to many sufferings and subpar living condition.  And thus the world favors those who can achieve high scientific and technological discovery and undervalue those who speak for morality and spirituality.  Discussion of morality and spirituality is fading in our age.  But little the world knows that spirituality and morality are always God’s concern for eternity.  For those are way more superior than any discussion in science and technology.

In today’s world, however, God is considered irrelevant.  Humans are seen to be far more superior in the matter of morality and spirituality than God.  This is reflected in what Desmond Tutu said a while ago regarding homosexuality.  He said that he would prefer to live in hell rather than to live in heaven with a God who is homophobic.  When someone as famous and big as Desmond Tutu speaks, the world listens.  His statement elevates man over God.  He wants a god that he can dictates.  And his view matters more than God’s.  The word of God in the Scripture is no longer honored and valued for the sake of getting along with the crowd.  The apostle Paul speaks of this in Romans 1:26-27:

²⁶ For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; ²⁷ and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

This is a curse, and God himself does it to those who ignore God.  Homosexual passion is unnatural.  In desperate defense of homosexual passion, science forces knowledge to acknowledge that homosexual passion is genetic, and because it is genetic then it is natural.  Let me ask you a question.  If science does not know for certain where and how humans came to be, how can it confirm what is natural and unnatural for us?  The scientific knowledge is severely limited even to today’s level.  We don’t yet understand the secret of human DNA.  Scientists still try to figure out how in the world our DNA can be formed in such a way with all the codes and make us the way we are.  And we are still in awe at how qualitatively different we are from any other creatures in the world.  Deepak Chopra tried to devalue humans by claiming that we are no different than a tree because for him at molecular level we are composed from the same ingredients.  But he did not acknowledge anything about the unique design that composed those same ingredients into creatures far more superior than any others in this world.  Chopra is greatly mistaken in devaluing humans.  Let me illustrate.  What is the difference between the painting of Leonardo DaVinci and some artists whose paintings are considered of no value?  Aren’t they using the same ingredients?  But why Monalisa is valued greatly and many other paintings in the world are valueless?  If using Chopra’s argument, then Monalisa is of no value for it is made of the same ingredients with any other valueless paintings.  Chopra failed to realize that the composition, the design, and the designer are key to the value of a thing.  Speaking of designer, who designs humans?  Even Richard Dawkins cannot easily dismiss the possibility that there is an intelligent designer behind the existence of the universe.

            The sacred book of the Bible testifies about the God of heaven and earth, Yahweh, who created the whole universe.  And God created humans with great care.  He is the one and only who knows the value of man, and who knows what is natural and unnatural.  It is to his shame that Desmond Tutu, after professing as a servant of God with his archbishop title, denied the very word of God that claims homosexuality is unnatural.  It is unnatural but yet it can be found in human life.  When it can be found in human life it does not necessarily mean that it is natural.  Scientific research is flawed in many ways.  Science makes claims based on its own paradigm.  Its paradigm is, often unspoken and unwritten, that when it can be found in this world then it is natural.  Do you not know that this paradigm is a huge mistake?  Simply because not all that we can find in this world is natural.  For example, a baby born with a heart defect.  Does it mean that heart defect is natural?  We can find cancer in human cell, does it mean that cancer is natural?  The thing is, we can make science speak what we want it to speak.  This truth is concealed, because if this truth is out, then people will start questioning every finding.  Because clearly every scientific finding is not as objective as a lot of people think it is.  Even scientist cannot deny the fact that every research contains the researcher’s bias.  Every research finding can be bend to speak what the researcher wants it to speak.  The finding that homosexual gene is found does not necessarily mean that humans have natural tendency of being homosexuals.  This is no more true than a baby born with heart defect cannot be considered as natural condition.  Again, if science cannot know for sure where and how humans came to be, then how can it confirm what is natural and unnatural for humans?

            Start off children in the way they should go and when they are old they will not turn from it.  Such is the wisdom from Proverbs 22:6.  The example from homosexual debate is important for our time because this is historic.  When the Supreme Court ruled that gay people are free to marry, the gay community accepted it as divine order.  If we interpret the ruling of Supreme Court correctly, we won’t quickly claim it as divine order.  The Supreme Court ruling is actually simply saying that the State has no right to forbid gay marriage.  This is based on the main value of the US constitution, which is human rights.  So the Supreme Court did not actually speak that gay marriage is natural or anything.  But since the gay community wanted so badly to legitimize the naturalness of homosexual passion, they used the Supreme Court ruling as the basis of their legitimacy.  The truth is, homosexual passion, seen from all angles, is unnatural.  Even the physical body functions don’t match.

            Some Christians are sided with this notion that homosexual passion is natural.  They use the argument that God is loving and so he would not condemn homosexuals.  True that God is loving.  But God is loving doesn’t mean he cannot distinguish between what is wrong and what is right.  Let me illustrate.  When parents teach their kids math and their kids answer that 2+2 equals 5, wouldn’t we tell our kids that their answer is wrong?  Wouldn’t we try to correct our kids and tell them that the correct answer is 4?  Does it mean that when parents say that their answer is wrong they are not loving?  Isn’t it true that we can love but at the same time still distinguish between right and wrong?  But let me tell you, some Christians are very confused that they mix up God’s love with his truth.  For them truth can be relative because of love.  Sadly, it is a mistake.  But such mistake is now a growing trend among Christians.  With big words such as God is loving, they force others to agree that homosexual passion is natural.  This is plain wrong.  When I say it is wrong, that doesn’t mean we should not love people with homosexual passion.  We ought to embrace them as our neighbors.  But at the same time we ought not agree that homosexual passion is natural.  For God says it is not.

            When our children get into this discussion, what are we going to teach them?  This is just one example out of many.  The Bible says that we ought to teach children on the right way.  Do we dare to teach them on the wrong way?  Aren’t we going to be held accountable by God who created us and also those little children?  It is very unfortunate that Tutu spoke that way.  For he has led many people astray.  Tutu has led many people to the wrong way.  He will be held accountable by God, the God who he serves.  Truth is important.  And Jesus is the truth.  We all know that Jesus is loving.  If he is not, he would not die for us.  There is no argument against Jesus being the greatest and the most loving man in the world.  But yet he condemned the Pharisees, the lawyers, and those who taught God’s people the wrong way.  No matter how great our love is, 2+2 will always equal 4.  We cannot bend the truth just because we love and then say that 2+2 equals 5.  And so, it is our duty to teach our children in the way they should go, so when they are old they will not turn from it.  May the Lord enable us to do so.  Amen.
- The Business of Christian Education LIII -