Homeschooling—Beware the Roaring Lion

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a
roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

The majority of those who homeschool want to create a safe haven where they
can train up their children with a Christian worldview founded in God’s Word.
They believe they are training a new generation of “soldiers” for the spiritual
warfare that is raging all around us.

But the homeschooling movement is under attack.

The devil, as a roaring lion, is seeking any way to wreak havoc in the home
and devour our children. No place is safe, and it appears that he has found
a way to infiltrate homes, where parents think they are strongest.

The parents’ best “weapon” in training children really is the Bible, which
is “powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Hebrews 4:12). Ephesians 6 gives details about equipping young soldiers, which must include learning
how to use “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17).

And that’s where the devil sees a weakness.

Imagine two soldiers fighting with swords, but one sword is broken and useless.
You wouldn’t want your child to be the one holding the broken sword. Sadly,
the majority of young people from the church have been equipped with broken
swords, and two-thirds are losing the fight and walking away from the church
by the time they reach college age.

The devil is trying to get homeschool parents to equip their children with
broken swords. How is he doing this?

Throwing Down the Gauntlet

A recent article in the Atlantic magazine featured a new class of homeschooling
parents who want what they called more “science” in textbooks published by evangelicals.1
But sadly, by science they don’t mean the observational science of modern genetics
and physics; they mean historical or origins science, and more specifically
they mean the historical or origins science of the evolutionists and old-earth
beliefs.

In other words, a vocal group in the homeschool movement want textbooks to
promote as truth the pagan religion of evolution and millions of years—a perspective
that contradicts God’s Word and will ultimately lead kids away from the truth.

Why It Matters

The point I want to make again that I’ve made in churches many times over the
past thirty-five years is that, although Christian acceptance of millions of
years or evolution is not a salvation issue, it is a gospel issue, and it is
an authority issue.

It is a gospel issue because the evolution of life on earth over millions of
years would mean sin is not the cause of death, disease, suffering, or bloodshed.
It means sin is not the cause of the groaning world described in Romans 8:22.
And it means God—not man’s sin—is responsible for death, disease, and suffering!

It is an authority issue because you do not get millions of years or evolution
from God’s Word. Such beliefs come from outside God’s Word, and then compromising
Christians use them to undermine the truth of God’s Word and thus undermine
its authority.

An Old Strategy for a New Battlefield

We are losing the coming generations from the church, and the major reason
is the same method the devil has employed since Genesis 3:1—“Did
God really say . . . .” This mindset has caused generations of young people
to doubt and eventually disbelieve the Word of God and the gospel message.

The devil is out to destroy the Christian homeschool movement the same way
he has been destroying generations of young people who grow up in the church.
If God’s people in the homeschool movement (and the church in general) do not
stand on the authority of God’s Word beginning in Genesis, then the movement
is doomed!

Don’t be led
astray when
those who want
to compromise
with millions of
years use the
word science.

Don’t be led astray when those who want to compromise with millions of years
and evolution use the word science. Remember, observational science that builds
our technology is very different from historical science, which involves beliefs
about the past—beliefs about origins (see this article). The compromisers have used
the word science to intimidate people for centuries. Now they are attempting
to intimidate homeschoolers.

Sadly many don’t understand how the compromisers are brainwashing them by not
admitting that they are mixing historical science (beliefs about origins) and
observational science (empirical science in the lab that builds technology)
together and calling them both “science.” The secularists use this trick to
intimidate and falsely indoctrinate people to think that beliefs about origins
are on a par with repeatable, verifiable observational science.

Does this mean that homeschooling parents should never expose their children
to evolutionary ideas? Of course not. Homeschoolers certainly need to address
different views about origins and other controversial issues in their teaching,
but they need to do so in the clear context that God’s Word is truth and compromising
views are error!

The compromisers are trying to infiltrate homeschool households. It is the
devil’s way of trying to undermine this great movement that was originally formed
to raise up generations of kids to stand on the authority of God’s Word and
be the salt and light that the culture needs. The devil has already been successful
in infiltrating the organized church and many Christian schools and universities
with this confusion. Now the devil is using the same method against homeschool
children, too.

Homeschool parents need to stand! God’s Word is just as powerful as it ever
was, if wielded unflinchingly against the roars of the lion.

“Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor
of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all,
to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate
of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel
of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11–17 NKJV).

Ken Ham is the founder and CEO of Answers in
Genesis–USA. He has edited and authored many books
about the authority of God’s Word and the impact of
evolutionary thinking on our culture, including Already
Compromised and The Lie.