Scripture and the Church

ACCC 2021 Resolution on Public Education in America

We encourage Christian parents to find alternatives to government education for their children, whether in private schools or in the home.

From the TeachingtheWord Bible Knowledgebase

Editor's Note: The 80th Annual Convention of the American Council of Christian Churches met in Monroeville, New Jersey from October 19-21, 2021. The convention approved several resolutions on critical issues confronting Christians and the church in our time, including the one below. We present it for the edification and encouragement of God's people. - Dr. Paul Elliott [2]

American Council of Christian Churches
80th Anniversary Convention, October 19-21, 2021
Hardingville Bible Church, Monroeville, New Jersey
Resolution on Public Education in America

Psalm 127:3 says: "Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." God admonished His people in Deuteronomy 6:7: "Thou shalt teach [the law of the Lord] diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." The Apostle Paul likewise commanded that children be brought up "in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4).

In an attempt to reinforce these commands, the Massachusetts Bay Colony passed the Old Deluder Satan Act in 1647, which stated:

It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an unknown tongue, so in these later times by persuading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense and meaning of the Original might be clouded by false glosses [i.e., explanations] of Saint-seeming deceivers; and that Learning may not be buried in the graves of our fore-fathers in Church and Commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors: it is therefore ordered by this Court and Authority thereof; that every township in this Jurisdiction. . . shall. . . forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read.

Sadly, Massachusetts and her sister States do not offer public education like that today. Due to the Supreme Court's rulings in the 1960s, public prayer and Bible reading are absent from classrooms. Darwinism now replaces creationism. Feminism, transgenderism, sodomy, and adultery supplant Biblical sexual ethics. Private property is despised, while socialism is exalted. Textbooks scorn the Judeo-Christian heritage of this nation and belabor the infirmities of formerly respected men. Many teachers indoctrinate their students in Critical Race Theory, spreading lies of structural racism and systemic police brutality within present-day society. State-run schools "compass sea and land to make one proselyte [to these godless causes], and when he is made, [they] make him twofold more the child of Hell than [themselves]" (Matt. 23:15).[1]

Therefore, the American Council of Christian Churches at its 80th Anniversary, October 19-21, 2021, at Hardingville Bible Church in Monroeville, New Jersey, resolves to warn this nation that "whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matthew 18:6). Adults ought to "suffer the little children to come unto [Christ] and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:14). We, therefore, encourage Christian parents to find alternative education for their children, whether in private schools or in the home. God will reward the home that brings up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4, Jeremiah 10:2, Romans. 16:19, Psalm 78:1-8).

References:

1. See the 2014 ACCC Resolution on Young Earth Creationism, the 2014 Resolution Concerning Marriage and Sexual Morality, the 2012 Resolution on Liberation Theology and Socialism, the 2020 Resolution on Honoring Heroes of the Faith, the 2019 Resolution on Critical Theory, and the 2020 Resolution on Morality and Voting.

2. Dr. Elliott is a member of the ACCC's executive committee.

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