The Outcome Is in Our Hands
Our Condition
My daughter teaches sixth grade social studies in a Character School. She has three other teachers in her cohort that all teach from an historic American frame of reference. They have their parent-teacher interviews together. Neither parents nor students can manipulate the situation because the teachers are unified. They function rather like good two parent families do. They are unified. They are consistent. They correlate their expectations with their presentations. The expect results with equality, not equity.
Their consistent experience is this. Too often the parents are not engaged with their children. Too often the parents pay no attention to the multiple communications from the teachers. Too often the parents make excuses for the children. Frequently, extracurricular activities take precedence over studies because performance there is the source of the children’s “self-esteem.”
The News Cycle
I listen to the news. I engage with both conservative and leftist reporting like CNN. A friend of mine who tends to lean left complains that the real problem is that conservatives and liberal talk at each other. He recently made that charge in a Presbytery meeting where one would expect we are all conservatives (that would be a wrong assumption when talking civil issues and/or woke issues).
Importance of Teaching for Transference
Tim Goeghein recently quoted as making the observed that with our stunning ignorance of America’s past: We’ll lose our nation, if we don’t do a better job of teaching history and civics. (WGN.org 2-17-23). He is correct. However, this is not a brilliant observation. It is revelatory because God taught the same lesson to Israel (Deuteronomy 6:1-10).
The Witness of History
Unfortunately, Israel made their history a selective tradition. They did not live it in the family and did not teach it as God prescribed, resulting in failure to transfer the faith from one generation to the next. This failure led to multiple evil kings and many “good” kings not being consistently good. As a result, God intermittently allowed other nations to overthrow their sovereignty.
The Expectations
So, if we Christians have failed to transfer the faith from one generation to the next in accordance with Deuteronomy 6:1-10, and we Americans have failed to live out the Constitution in our families and have not taught our history in our homes and have depended upon the church and the public schools to do our jobs, we should not be surprised at the disastrous results.
We need a church and home revival so that they can and will work in concert to transfer the faith and the Constitution to the next generation. Without both, we will have the experience of ancient Israel.
The Challenge of Moses
Hear Moses appeal to Ancient Israel from Deuteronomy 32:
1 Listen, you heavens, and I will speak;
hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.
2 Let my teaching fall like rain
and my words descend like dew,
like showers on new grass,
like abundant rain on tender plants.
3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord.
Oh, praise the greatness of our God!
4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
upright and just is he.
5 They are corrupt and not his children;
to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.
6 Is this the way you repay the Lord,
you foolish and unwise people?
Is he not your Father, your Creator,
who made you and formed you?
7 Remember the days of old;
consider the generations long past.
Ask your father and he will tell you,
your elders, and they will explain to you.
8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance,
when he divided all mankind,
he set up boundaries for the peoples
according to the number of the sons of Israel.
9 For the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob his allotted inheritance.
44 Moses came with Joshua, son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” (NIV).
Implementation
In the letters to the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 there is a refrain that we should embrace. “Him that has ears to hear, let him hear….”
If we believers do not do the work of the Great Commission, evangelism, enfolding, and discipleship first of all, regarding the Gospel, we will lose our children and we will lose the cultural influence intended for us when Jesus indicates that we are the salt and the light. As the church goes, so goes the family and the culture. We will also lose the America we love and enjoy for without a vibrant church influencing the culture, the kingdom of evil will prevail resulting in that downward spiral of Romans 1:18ff.
Simply, the implementation is every Christian do the great commission day in a day out staring at home with one’s family.