I began
my time with the Lord this morning by reading a pamphlet from the group that is
continuing with the ministry of D. James Kennedy. This pastor has sense passed on to be with
the Lord. We began following his TV
ministry about the year 1994. We are of
the opinion that he could pack more truth in twenty minutes than others can in
a two hour sermon. We always felt as
though we had truly been filled with spiritual food that packed a wallop,
giving godly nourishment to the depths of our spirit, being absorbed by every
part of our being. This must be that
which is called a message delivered under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, in
sharp contrast to a message that is delivered out of the heart of man, without
the influence of the Lord. The latter
may or may not lead to truth; whereas the former always leads to the truth of
the Lord, “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”
At any
rate, the theme of the monthly pamphlet had to do with the dumbing down of the
American education system which has steadily taken place, especially sense the
60’s, as a direct result of our courts passing laws which rule against God,
taking God, prayer, and the Bible out of our schools. Born in 1942 and working as a teacher during
the mid 60’s through 2006, I have experienced and witnessed the positive
advantages of living in a period when God was still allowed to have an
influence upon children, and society at large.
In addition, I have also experienced and witnessed the devastating
effects of the present period, during which nearly everything relating to God
and His ways are rapidly being removed, to be replaced by secularism. Having experienced first hand both ends of
the spectrum, I know what has been lost.
In comparison, those who were born since the seventies, have no idea what
previous generations had or what the present generation has lost.
In
1962, the Supreme Court banned school prayer (Engel v. Vitale). In that same year, the Supreme Court ruled
(Stone v. Graham) that the Ten Commandments could not be posted in classrooms,
“for
a child might read them, reflect upon them and then obey them.” Isn’t that a profound statement? In effect, they stated, and recognized the
fact that the word of God may have the power to possibly transform minds and
lives just by the reading of it. Fearing
even the possibility of God’s influence, the law removing the Ten Commandments
was only one of many in a line of succession meant for the express purpose of
eradicating the effects that God may
have upon the minds of the children.
They (secular humanists) demand, “Don’t force your Jesus down our
throats.” Working to feverishly to
remove all Judeo-Christian religious influence, they strive to give the secular
humanist “religion” the power to mold the minds of all future generations.
How
neatly and deceitfully have they accomplished their goal! Through revisionist history, they have
managed to remove all references to our Judeo Christian roots from our history
books. They wouldn’t dare let students
know that the first textbook used in public schools was the Bible. In 1830, Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the
Declaration of Independence, published a letter which supported use of the
Bible as a textbook. (“A Defence of the Use of the Bible as a School Book:
Addressed to Rev. Jeremy Belknap of Boston , Mass. U.S.
The
following excerpt will demonstrate the decline in our educational system. I copied the following information from the article
that you may see for yourself just how much we have regressed.
“The Dumbing
Down of America
“If you
doubt that statistic by the historian, let me read you a sampling of the
questions asked to sixth graders around 1908.
·
The orthography
quiz asked us to “Spell twenty words, including elucidation and animosity.”
·
An arithmetic
question asked us to “Find the interest on an 8% note for $900 running 2 years,
2 months, and 6 days.”
·
Among geography’s
ten questions was, “Name two countries producing large quantities of wheat, two
of cotton, and two of coal.”
·
In history we
were to “Name the principal political questions which have been advocated since
the Civil War, and the party which advocated each.”
Somebody
asked me, ‘Well, aren’t other countries going through the same thing?’ No, they are not. In comparative examinations with the
seventeen leading industrialized nations of the world, America Albania
down to the educational level of Zambia
and the Ivory Coast
·
A lot of high
school seniors can not find America
·
If you think
that’s bad, fifty percent of seventeen year-olds surveyed in one major city in America couldn’t tell where the Pacific Ocean was.
That city was San Francisco
·
In all of California fifty percent of the seventeen year-olds
surveyed did not know whether New York was
east or west of California
·
Many couldn’t
find the Soviet Union on a world map some
years ago when it existed. One student
said he knew it was somewhere near the Panama Canal …
wherever that is.
Tragically, because of our education system, we are
becoming a nation of dummies – the ignorant American. The Bible tells us what we’re missing today:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”
From
that same pamphlet, (Impact, Sept., 2015) the present state of our educational
system was effectually summed up by the words of Darrel Scott, a father of one
of the slain students of the Columbine massacre, when he testified before
Congress:
“Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You’ve stripped away our heritage,
You’ve outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question “Why?”
You regulate restrictive laws
through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand
That God is what we need.”
There
are none so blind who will not see, the Bible tells us so.
“Where [there is] no vision, the people perish: and
happy is he who keeps [God’s] law. (Prov. 29: 18) He, who does not learn from past history, is
destined to repeat it, both good and bad.
If we will not learn from past history, and take heed to what happened
to Israel
Turning from God, she chose to play the Harlot.
She suffered God’s judgment; her people were dispersed,
And Israel
became a nation without any home.
We cry out “God Bless America ,”
But defiantly declare “Repent? We will not!”
We clamor for His love and ask for all His blessings.
Obey Him? Forget that! Instead, we say “We will not!”
When confronted with our sinful ways,
We piously respond “Judge not lest ye be judged!”
To admit our need for Jesus, the Savior, and of course God’s
redeeming Grace,
We prefer to smirk and vainly think “Our evil, He will see
not!”
God is not a man that He should lie.
Blessings are promised, if we’d but trust in Him.
But curses will come, I’m sad to say,
As we trust in ourselves, and regrets, we have them not!
God is patient and long suffering too.
But He also knows,
With hearts cold and hardened,
His Holy Spirit, we choose to hear not!
But now, being stiff necked and haughty,
With scoffing lips, and fearing not,
You mock and say “The great I AM, who is He?”
Lost in darkness, pride, doubt, and unbelief,
Having no shame, you dare to exclaim
“Since my god is me, there is ‘no room’ for Thee!”
But even as my heart cries out,
I hear God call without a doubt.
Don’t give up yet, but come to me,
Get down upon your bended knee.
With prayer and faith, there still may be,
One last soul to win for me.
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