The Bible and Voting – Part 5

Andy Woods

SUGAR LAND BIBLE CHURCH

July 31, 2016 The Bible and Voting, Part 5

If you could take your Bibles and open them to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 6-7.  Speaking of July we started a series on Independence Day weekend on a subject that I guess is on everybody’s mind–politics and voting, although this is not going to be a political analysis like what you get on television.  This is really designed as a topical study, it’s designed not to influence you one way or the other on a particular candidate in a partisan sense but more in a biblical sense; and it’s really something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and this year I said well, I’m just going to do it.

What does the Bible actually teach about the subject of voting?  Does the Bible hold forth a set of eternal and immutable principles that Christians should look for when they exercise their rights and participate at the polling place.  And my answer to that is yes!  There’s a lot of principles in the Bible that really aren’t that important, maybe, to the pundits but they are extremely important to God.  And these are the principles I wanted to bring before you.  We have looked at some, what I would call economic issues; these are the matters that the Bible speaks on expressly.  From there we transitioned and we began to talk about what are called social issues, cultural issues if you will, things that the Bible comments directly on.  We’ve seen the mind of God on legal protection for the unborn, legal protection for the elderly, holding up heterosexual monogamy as the marital standard for any health society.

Last week we went into difficult terrain and I tried to show you what the mind of  God is on a very volatile issue of our time—the institution of capital punishment.  We even took a look last week at the subject nobody wants to talk about, the subject of pornography; we briefly dealt with that.  And as  you can see from this list we have three more social issues to cover and if time permits I’d like to cover those with you this morning.

So this takes us to number 6; these are all essentially phrased as questions that we can ask of anybody in any election what their view is on these things.  So this takes us to number 6.  Does the candidate respect parental authority over children?  Let me phrase that a different way: I want to know when I vote for someone if they understand to who do children belong?  Do children actually belong to their parents or are they the authority and the ownership and the jurisdiction over a school, a school board, or a school district?  You might be sitting here saying to yourself, well, this is a no-brainer, we all know that children belong to parents.   But that very simple principle of parental authority, to my mind, is one of the most aggressive principles in God’s Word that’s being challenged today.

For example, let me give you this quote.  This is from Melissa Harris Perry, she’s a former MSNBC contributor and she’s also a political science professor, and this is what she said not too long ago, which really caused a lot of eyebrows to be raised.  She says: “We have never invested as much in public education as we should have because we’ve always had kind of a private notion of children. Your kid is yours and totally your responsibility. We haven’t had a very collective notion of these are our children.  So part of it is we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents, or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.” [Melissa Harris Perry, MSNBC host www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3qtpdSQox0]

And when you look at this statement, and there are many others I could produce.  I started to research this through the assistance of an organization called The Homeschool Legal Defense Advocacy Fund and they produce scholar after scholar after scholar from various journal articles arguing that these children really don’t belong to parents; they belong to the collective society as a whole.  So we’re living in this time period where even the nuclear family and the authority structure of the family unit is under attack and assault and is being challenged.

How, then, if kids don’t belong to their parents how is the other side going to wrest control of children?  What is the strategy?  Well, the strategy is a strategy that’s been in play for a long time, it’s called (quote) “education,” (close quote).  Abraham Lincoln, I think summarized it the best and he said this, this is a quote typically attributed to Abraham Lincoln.  He said, “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”  [Cited in Mark A. Beliles and Stephen K. McDowell, America’s Providential History (Charlottesville, VA: Providence, 1989), 95.]

In other words, if you want to alter the direction of the society you need to start to influence what is taught in the schoolhouse because what is taught in the schoolhouse can actually be used as a tool of propaganda to sever a generation from their parents.  Now this idea of emphasis on education is something that we, as Biblicists, used to understand.   We used to understand this very clearly.  In fact, this is a citation from what is called the Old Satan Deluder Law.  This was the origin of public schools in America and this is what it says, “It” and this was originally created in the 1600’s, I think it was around 1611, this is how public schools in America started:  “It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former time…It is therefore ordered…that after the Lord hath increased the settlement…they shall…appoint one within their town, to teach all such children to read…they shall set up a grammar school to instruct youths…”   [Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S., 143 U.S. 457, 467 (1892)]

What was the beginning of public schools in the United States of America?  Public schools in the United States of America, going back to the very beginning, those early colonists, was to teach the Bible.  Now you’ll notice it makes a reference there to ignorance of the Scripture “in former time.”  What “former time” is it talking about?  You have to begin to think about this historically.  Those that came to this country to establish it, those that came to this country to set it up were the children, if you will, of the Protestant Reformation.

What was the Protestant Reformation all about?  It was a return to the Bible, because you see, prior to the Protestant Reformation, because of illiteracy and other factors, the only people that really had access to the Bible were the clergy.  And what happened is the clergy, and this is what upset Martin Luther so much, we sang a song this morning by the great church reformer, Martin Luther, what upset him so much (in addition to unbiblical behavior of the clergy) was the sale of indulgences, which was the idea that you could spring Uncle Harry, or whoever, from purgatory if you paid the right price.  And this is what was  used to manipulate and deceive the people, making the church of Jesus Christ at that time into a money-making operation.  There was a little phrase that went something like this:  “When the coin in the coffer rings the soul from purgatory springs.”

In other words, they could manipulate the people because the people really had no access to or a knowledge of the Bible.  And what the Protestant Reformation was all about was returning to a knowledge of the Scripture.  That’s why there was such an emphasis in the Reformation on teaching people to read.  And so when the children of that Reformation came to these shores they did not want to replicate the nightmare, which by the way they called The Dark Ages, which existed prior to the Protestant Reformation, so they set  up (and it’s expressed here in this Old Satan Deluder Law) the very thing we need to do is we need to teach children how to read so they can read the Bible.  We need to teach them grammar because the Bible was written in human language, so we do not replicate the Dark Ages, because Satan’s chief objective is to keep people ignorant of the Scripture.  That’s the reference there to “the former time.”  And this was the origin of public schools in the United States.

There’s another reason the founders of this country wanted the Bible to be first and foremost in the thinking of the youth.  They wanted to create a society that was free.  And that’s one of the things that stands out when you study the United States Constitution; it only spans, including the Bill of Rights, about eleven pages.  It’s very different than laws that are passed today that sometimes stack three thousand pages.   And the United States government at the federal level, congressional level, is only authorized to do twenty things; public education and health care and other things, prescription benefits, social security, they’re not even on the list.  These are things that the government has gotten into over time.  And so they wanted to create a society with limited government that was free.

The problem is if  you create a free society with limited government power how do you control the masses?  People have to be controlled by something, don’t they?  And if they won’t be controlled by the state they have to learn to control themselves.  And that’s why there was such an emphasis on the Ten Commandments and the Bible in early Colonial America.  That was the tool that all of our forebearers understood was the instrument by which people could govern themselves and if they could govern themselves they wouldn’t have to be controlled by some overarching government bureaucracy or apparatus.   This comes out very clearly in their writings.

Here’s a quote from Robert Charles Winthrop who was our Speaker of the House of Representa­tives from 1847-1849; it captures so well this idea.  He says, “All societies of men must be governed in some way or other. The less they may have of stringent State Government, the more they must have of individual self-government. The less they rely on public law or physical force, the more they must rely on private moral restraint. Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by a power within them, or by a power without them; either by the Word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the Bible, or by the bayonet.”  Somebody’s got to control people and if we’re not going to have a police state, a surveillance society, if we’re going to have a free society something has to be in place whereby people can control themselves; it’s either the Bible or the bayonet.  He goes on and he says, “It may do for other countries and other governments to talk about the State supporting religion. Here, under our own free institutions, it is Religion which must support the State.”  [Robert Winthrop, Addresses and Speeches on Various Occasions (Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1852), 172. Speech to the Massachusetts Bible Society (1849-05-28).]

John Adams, the second President of the United States of America summed this up very, very nicely.  He said, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

[Letter to the Officers of the First Brigade of the Third Division of the Militia of Massachusetts, 11 October 1798, in Revolutionary Services and Civil life of General William Hull (New York, 1848), pp 265-6. There are some differences in the version that appeared in The Works of John Adams (Boston, 1854), vol. 9. pp. 228-29.]

This great experiment that we call liberty and freedom is only going to work in a culture that is Bible focused.  And going back to the Old Satan Deluder Law the first act of public schools is to teach the Scripture to you.  It’s amazing how we’ve lost sight of this history.

Thomas Jefferson, probably the least religious of our Founding Fathers, he made some strange statements about the Trinity later in his life; he’s generally considered the least religious of our Founding Fathers, actually made a study, and very few people know this, he made an in-depth study of the great philosophers of the world, philosophers that most of us never really read.  And he compared those philosophers to Jesus Christ and Thomas Jefferson said here’s what makes Jesus different than all of those other philosophers:  “Jesus” Jefferson said, “‘…pushed His scrutinies into the heart of man; erected His tribunals in the region of His thoughts, and purified the waters at the fountain head.”  [Thomas Jefferson, Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies, 3:509, “Syllabus of an Estimate of the Merits of the Doctrines of Jesus Compare with Those of Others,” letter to Benjamin Rush, April 21, 1803.]

Jefferson said I’ve studied all of these great philosophers and let me tell you why Jesus IS the highest and the best philosopher in my estimation.  He put His principles into people’s hearts.  And no doubt Jefferson, when he made that statement was referring to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus makes the statement that if you are angry unjustifiably with your brother you are a murderer already.  Matthew 5:21-22.  [Matthew 5:21-22, “You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ [22] But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”]

If you are in lust after somebody that you are not married to, sexually you are already in an adulterer.  And Jefferson said of all of the philosophers of the world I’ve never seen anything like this man, Jesus Christ.  And so the Founding Fathers saw the Christian truth or biblical truth as the tool by which people would govern themselves, and if they could govern themselves and not steal, and rip each other off, and maim each other, and murder each other, and rape each other, then there was no purpose for a giant, giant government, a surveillant society to control people from cradle to grave.  This is the origin of America and I hear these voices today saying let’s kick the Bible out of the schoolhouse, let’s kick God out of the schoolhouse, and nothing is more 180 degrees backwards from the way that this republic was set up.

So how has this been working for us, this movement away from the Bible?  As we’ve moved away from the Bible on basic morality the state has to grow larger and larger and larger and larger to control the masses.  For example, think how many times you are on camera every single day.  Think of almost everywhere I look, in an intersection today there’s a camera monitoring my behavior.  I walk in a bank to make a basic financial transaction, a deposit, withdrawal, whatever, I’m being watched by a camera.  Where I work the security system is in place, I’m being watched by a camera.

In fact, according to one article that I read the average person in the United Kingdom (and keep in mind this is an older article, 2004) the average person in the United Kingdom is on camera 300 times a day.  Is that not a bit excessive?

But you see, this is the consequences of moving away from the Bible and a basic philosophy of self-government.  I have used this quote before by David Barton, he says:  “We all know ignorance of the law is no excuse. If you violate a law, you suffer the penalty for it… If you take the U.S. code as it exists right now, today, if you read 700 pages a week of the U.S. code,” I want to be a good citizen, right, I want to read the laws of the Land, I’ll read the U.S. code, how long would that take me to read it? “… national calculations are that you can finish the U.S. code in only 25,000 years,”  if you read about 700 pages a week.  [Erica Ricz, “David Barton Explains How You Could Be Committing Three Felonies a Day,” online: http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/11/04/david-barton-explains-how-you-could-be-committing-three-felonies-a-day/, November 4, 2014, accessed 15 December 2014.”]

What has happened in our society is the explosion of the State in terms of its growth.  The State has to get larger and larger and larger to monitor the behavior of its citizenry.  And the answer to that is why do we do it?  Because we have nothing left to govern ourselves anymore; we’ve kicked the Bible, we’ve kicked God, we’ve kicked Christianity almost out of every institution.  The Founding Fathers well understood that if you remove Christianity you remove the force of self-restraint thereby necessitating the gargantuan growth of government that we see.

So we, as Christians and conservatives, at one time, understood the importance of teaching the youth the Scripture.  We did not want a repeat of the Dark Ages of the Protestant Reformation and we want to live in freedom because after all, a self-governing society is a free society.

But let me tell you something; the other side of the equation understands this as well.  They understand what can be conducted and how a society can begin to shift through the process of education.  I’ve mentioned before the ten goals of the Communist Manifesto published in 1848.  I’ve made reference to number 1, The abolition of private property.  I’ve made reference to number 3, The abolition of inheritance rights which destroys the nuclear family.  Look at number 10 there, what do they want to do?  Free Education for All Children in Public Schools. Combination of Education with Industrial Production.  They understand what Abraham Lincoln said, that  “The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.”

And this is a strategy that the other side has been using from time immemorial to remove children from the authority of their parents.  Let’s get these children to think differently than their parents and if we can get them to think differently than their parents we can control the direction of a society.

Woodrow Wilson, who was probably one of our most progressive Presidents ever, the father of The League of Nations, somebody that was very racist at his core, said this, and he was actually the President, at one time, of an Ivy League Institution.  Notice what he says: “I have often said that the use of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible.”  [Woodrow Wilson, “The Power of Christian Young Men,” in Selected Addresses and Papers of Woodrow Wilson(New York: Boni and Liverlight, 1918), 49]  In other words, education itself will become the tool by which we can steal the children away from the value system of their parents.

And so what is now the public religion of America.  It’s not Christianity; it’s what’s called humanism.  Humanism is something you can read about in a book called Humanism 2000, there was a Humanist Manifesto published early on in 1933, it was published again in 1973.  I would encourage you to find those documents, they are easily accessible online, and to read them.  It’s been kind of updated a little bit in a document called Humanism 2000; it reads almost like a doctrinal statement of a church.

This is what we believe, these are our doctrines, and so here they are:  Number 1, The non-existence or irrelevancy of God.  God, if He exists, the humanists say, is irrelevant.  If God is not the center of all things when who becomes the center of all things.  Man now becomes the center of all things.  That’s why this is called “Humanism.”  Of course these folks believe in the reality of evolution, “from the goo to the zoo to you” is a scientific fact.  They believe therefore that man is a naked ape or an evolved animal rather than a special creature made in the image of the Creator.  They do not believe in absolute morals or values; they believe, for example, that values are situational or need to be clarified depending upon what the circumstances may be.   So a universal principle like don’t steal, don’t murder, is not something that is binding on everyone, it pertains to the situation.  This is called values clarification.  So they believe in the absence of any absolute morals and values.

They have complete confidence in the scientific method to solve the world’s problems, even though evolution itself is not a scientifically proven fact.  For something to be scientific it has to be observable, testable and repeatable.  Since evolution allegedly happens over billions of years no one has ever seen one species turn into another.   They believe that the goal of humanity is a one-world government, globalism is the answer to all of our problems.

Now what are these?  These are faith propositions.  These are doctrines that are being taught over and over and over again to the youth of America.  You see, a lot of people look at education today as if it’s morally neutral.  Let me tell you something; nothing is neutral.  Neutrality is a myth; if you vacate biblical truth it’s got to be replaced by something else and this actually is what is happening.

And the humanist, a long time ago, telegraphed what they were going to do.  They said we’re going to take over the school system and we’re going to use the school system to ban your religion and teach our religion.  Now here’s a quote from Charles Francis Potter, it’s entitled Humanism, A New Religion.  And notice the publication date, 1930.  This is what he says, a very open statement in his book.  He says, “Education is thus a most powerful ally of Humanism, and every public school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday-schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?” [Charles Francis Potter, Humanism: A New Religion (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1930), 128]

And we look around at our conservative Bible churches and we see a lot of gray hair; we often wonder why the youth are not attracted more to our message.  And the answer is these people got to the youth before we did.  The humanists told us what they were going to do and they went out and they did it.  In fact, I was looking at one particular study and in that particular study it indicated this, it’s from a book called Who Controls Your Child, and it says this: “During twelve years of schooling a children spends more than 11,000 hours in the classroom.”  That’s not even including extra-curricular activities, and it’s almost as if the school system itself has become, to a degree a replacement of the church.

Here’s another quote from a humanist, John Dunphy, this was made in 1983 and he writes…  and it’s interesting to me that you get into the literature how open these people are about their true intentions.  He says: “I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won” where? At the ballot box?  No!  Through protests?  No!  He says it “must be waged and won in the public school classrooms by teachers who correctly perceive their role as proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects the spark of what theologians call the Divinity in every human being.”  Look at this last line.  “These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers.”  [John Dunphy, “A Religion for the New Age,” The Humanist  (January/February 1983): 26]

He’s indicating here that we’re going to turn schools into churches and instead of having a rabid fundamentalist, like Dr. Andy Woods for example, in front of us teaching the Word of God we’re going to have rabid fundamentalists teaching a new kind of religion, the religion of humanism.

This is a citation from Charles M. Pierce, a Harvard psychiatrist.  He made this statement in 1973 to a think-tank, a public presentation.  And notice what he says to this educational group.  He says:

“Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill” now you’ll notice that I underlined “age of five” because what you constantly hear from politicians, we need the kids earlier and earlier and earlier.  And the motive always masquerades as we need to prepare them for life, prepare them for education.

May I just say  to you that there’s something far more pernicious taking place; it is the alteration of a worldview; it’s the way to change one generation’s values so that it’s different than their parents, what Woodrow Wilson said.  “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill” why? “because he comes to school with certain allegiances”  to what? Number one, “to our founding fathers,” number 2, “toward our elected officials,” number 3, “toward his parents,” number 4, “toward a belief in a supernatural being,”  number 4, “and toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It’s up to you as teachers” speaking to a public educational group as a psychiatrist, “It’s up to you as teachers to make all these sick children well by creating” what? “the international child of the future.”  [Chester M. Pierce, Harvard psychiatrist, speaking as an expert in public education at the 1973 International Education Seminar.]

I’m not saying that everybody, and I have relatives in public education, everybody in public education somehow has some kind of evil motive.  What I’m saying is the system itself has been intoxicated with a philosophy and people could be very faithful in their role in public education but they are under a system which I would argue is anti-God.  Why are these children mentally ill?  Well, first of all, they love America; they love our Founding Fathers, they love their parents and they love Jesus.  So what we have to do is we have to take their values, which were obviously instilled in them by mom and dad and we have to, over the course of 11,000 hours of the classroom begin to alter these values.

You remember the good old Pledge of Allegiance.  By the way, I’m the product of public schools, I saw a lot of things in public education I didn’t like but let me just say to something to you, I graduated from high school in 1985, looking at some of the things that are happening now in public education shows me what a world of difference it is than it was even back in 1985.  I remember waking up or coming to class every day saying the Pledge of Allegiance.  You remember the Pledge of Allegiance. “ I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”  That was just a given.  Do you want to see the new Pledge of Allegiance.  This was reported by Kerby Anderson, coming out of some of the school districts in Boulder, Colorado, 2007.  Here’s the new rendition; you ready:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes.”  Wait a minute, hold the phone, I thought our rights came from God.  You’ll notice how God Himself has been removed from the new pledge of allegiance.  Our rights come from a document, our rights come from the earth of something of that nature.  And once you remove God from the equation of your rights your right could exist one day and the next day it could disappear.  That’s why this is such a subtle alteration in the way a new generation thinks.  “I pledge allegiance to the flag and my constitutional rights with which it comes.  And to the diversity, in which our nation stands, one nation, part of one planet, with liberty, freedom, choice and justice for all.”  [Globalist Pledge of Allegiance in U.S. School, Boulder High School, October 2007, Kerby Anderson]

Notice this “one planet” business.  Remember this quote from Pierce, “The goal of public education is not to create an American who loves America’s Founding Fathers, loves the United States Constitution, who is steeped in documents that our Founding Fathers wrote,” like the Federalist Papers or the anti-Federalist Papers, all that is so far gone.  We want to create an international child, a global child of the future.  We want to create children that know a lot more about other nations of the earth than their own distinct Judeo-Christian heritage coming from America because after all, at the end of the day the humanist manifesto clearly states that the goal is not nationalism but globalism.”

What an environment we find ourselves in.  Everybody today is upset about Common Core, O.B.E. Outcome-Based Education.  Let me tell you something, Common core, Outcome-Based Education, Goals 2000, all of these are natural and logical emanations from humanism.  The humanist’s told us back in 1930 what they were going to do and they’ve gone in and done it.  The problem isn’t Common Core, the problem is an overarching philosophy that gives rise to new educational philosophies like Common Core.  This is something right out of paganism.

Notice, I had you turn to the book of Deuteronomy, hold your place there but go over to Daniel 1 for just a minute.  Daniel 1:3-7, I want you to see what Nebuchadnezzar did.  Nebuchadnezzar, of course, being that King of Babylon who came to power and took the children of Israel, the youths of Judah, into captivity and immediately when he took those teenagers into captivity, Daniel being one, Daniel’s three friends being among the others, he began to reprogram their minds.

It says in Daniel 1, verses 3-7, “Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, the chief of his officials, to bring in some of the sons of Israel, including some of the royal family and of the nobles, [4] youths in whom was no defect, who were good-looking, showing intelligence in every branch of wisdom, endowed with understanding and discerning knowledge, and who had ability for serving in the king’s court; and he ordered him to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans,” right there at the end of verse 4.  Nebuchadnezzar said we’ve just taken Judah as a vassal state and what I want to do is I want to find the best and the brightest  youths, not the adults, the youths, and I want to reprogram the way they think.  And I’m going to put them under an extensive program of indoctrination, in this case it lasted three years, because I’m going to use the best and the brightest to talk the rest of the population into coming along peaceably.

And what you have to begin to understand is Nebuchadnezzar was nobody’s fool.  Nebuchadnezzar did not come and immediately subjugate the population of Judah as he came from Babylon but he came, the Bible tells us, in three waves.  He came first in 605, that’s when Daniel was taken into captivity.  He came, second, in 597, that’s when the prophet, Ezekiel, was taken into captivity.  And then finally he came in for the final hit job against the Solomonic temple and destroyed the city and the sanctuary in 586.

But prior to the destruction of the temple Nebuchadnezzar first, all the way back in 605, went for the kids.  He went for the youth because he knew that if he could get the youth on his side and reprogram their values they could be used as propaganda tools to talk the rest of the population into settling peaceably in Babylon and submitting to the authority of the state.  Daniel 1:5, “The king appointed for them a daily ration from the king’s choice food and from the wine which he drank, and appointed that they should be educated” you might want to just underline that word “educated” and write the word “propagandized” instead, “they should be educated for three years,” so a three year indoctrination course, “at the end of which they were to enter the king’s personal service.”

Verse 6, “Now among them from the sons of Judah were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah.”  You say this is weird, I thought those guys were named Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.”  You’ll notice that the Bible does not give them the name Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego, those are pagan names.  Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were their Jewish names.  Now I have studied under a lot of Hebrew scholars and some of the very best of them, like Edwin Yamauchi and others, will tell you linguistically that each Jewish name brings out a different feature of God.

In other words, these three Hebrew youths and Daniel came out of families in Judaism that honored Yahweh, and they named their children appropriately.  Verse 7 says, “Then the commander of the officials assigned” watch this, “new names to them; and to Daniel he assigned the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abed-nego.”  Edwin Yamauchi and these other scholars will tell you that each name that was altered was designed to bring out a different element or attribute of Babylonian paganism—polytheism.

So you’ll notice what Nebuchadnezzar did; he went after their minds and then he actually re-named them so they would have no remembrance or no vestige or no connection to their heritage.  And let me tell you something else; in the Bible when you name something that’s a sign of authority.  God, all the way through early Genesis, is naming the things that He had created because He had authority over what He had created and that’s the whole significance of animals being brought to Adam, (Genesis 2:18 and following) animals being brought to Adam so that Adam could name the animals.  God was saying Adam, I have authority over the animals, now I’m putting you in authority over the animals.

So Nebuchadnezzar comes along with this renaming and Nebuchadnezzar says I’m the boss now; I’m an authority over these youths.  The rest of the book of Daniel, though, says you’re not the authority; there is a God in heaven that rules, whose principles transcend your pagan belief system.  What I’m simply trying to describe is a strategy or a philosophy that the youth of America are currently under, the philosophy of alteration through education, the philosophy of altering values, this is not the first time Satan has ever tried something of this magnitude; it’s the strategy that dates all the way back to the book of Daniel, perhaps even earlier.

And what I want to communicate and get across in this message is this: that is NOT the design of God, that is NOT the plan of God.  That is not something that God ever abdicated to another source.  The Bible is clear from Genesis through Revelation that parents, not institutions, not even churches, have authority over children.  You say well where are you getting this from?  That’s why I originally had you open to Deuteronomy 6:6-7, this is what God said to Moses just before the nation of Israel was ready to enter Canaan in the days of Joshua.  Now notice he doesn’t say here I want you to take all your kids and I want you to enroll them in Canaanite schools to learn the ways of the Canaanites.  He doesn’t say that.

What He says is this: after you eradicate the Canaanites here’s what I want you to do, this is called the Hebrew Shema, which is a Hebrew word that means listen. “Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one.  [Deuteronomy 6:4]   When it says “Hear” that’s Shema, in other words, listen up folks, this is important.  “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.”  What “words”?  The Word of God.  [7] “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”  The assignment of transferring spiritual knowledge from one generation to the next is the responsibility of parents.  It’s so clear, “You” that’s the parents, “shall teach them diligently to your sons” and daughters; there’s nothing here about a secondary source teaching them, the parents are to teach.

Notice as  you go about a book or so to the right, notice Joshua 4 and notice, if you will, verses 19-23, same strategy, same generation.  Joshua 4:19-23 says, “Now the people came up from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month and camped at Gilgal on the eastern edge of Jericho. [20] Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. [21] He said to the sons of Israel,” now watch this, not if, but “‘When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ [22] then you shall inform your children, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’”  Verse 23, “For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan before you until you had crossed, just as the LORD your God had done to the Red Sea, which He dried up before us until we had crossed; [24] that all the peoples” notice verse 24, “all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, so that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

God says here’s what I want you to do now that you’ve crossed the Jericho miraculously: I want you to take twelve stones and I want you to set them up as a monument because the day is going to come when these little kids, that weren’t here to see My hand or maybe even children that weren’t even born yet, are going to ask who?  Their Sunday School teacher?  It doesn’t say that!  They’re going to ask their fathers, hey dad, what are these stones doing here?  And now is your teaching moment, father; you are to explain to them how the hand of the Lord dried up the Jordan and then if you want to get into history a little bit you are to explain to them how forty years before that the Lord brought the nation of Israel miraculously out of Egyptian bondage and captivity, passing through the Red Sea.

How in the world was a child ever supposed to know what God had done with the Jordan, with the battle at Jericho, and with the crossing of the Red Sea.  It was supposed to be transferred from parent to child.  That’s how it’s supposed to work.  Sadly we learn from Judges 1 and 2 that there arose a generation that did not know God or what God had done for Israel.   The ball got dropped.  The channel of communication got shut down.  Dads got too busy with other things, working, watching the Super Bowl, important things like that, materialism, keeping up with the Jones’ and the knowledge wasn’t being transferred.  And a whole generation wandered away from God because of parental neglect.

Proverbs 22:6, notice that, Solomon says… about 400 years later, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old he will not depart from it.”  You say well, these are all interesting Old Testament passages, does the New Testament teach this?  I’m glad you asked.  Notice the book of Ephesians, chapter 6 and verse 4, it’s a divine principle from Genesis to Revelation.  “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,” in other words, pile things on top of them that are unreasonable, “but bring them up in the discipline and the” what? instruction, “instruction of the Lord.”  That’s New Testament.

All the way through the Bible you see a channel of spiritual knowledge is to take place as the husband takes his role in God as the discipler of his family.  And if a man in a Christian home will not do this God is holding that man responsible.  That’s what the Bible teaches.

Now I, as a father, can loan, if I want to, my child to a school district, to a school system, if God leads me that way I might say to myself well, I don’t know a lot about algebra or trig or geometry, maybe someone can teach that better than I can so I will loan that child to a school system but biblically the Bible states you may loan them to a school system but you NEVER relinquish authority and control over those children.

And yet what you have happening here is Satan is at work using this ancient system of education outside of biblical priorities, outside of biblical parameters to re-program children.  So when I am getting ready to vote for someone or not vote for someone I want to know something clearly.  I don’t care if they’re running for President or dog catcher; I want to understand, do you grasp the fact that my child belongs to me?  Do you grasp the fact that any tentacles  you put into the mind of my child through video games or propaganda or education I’m responsible to God for? Do you get that?  Do you understand that?  Because if I go and cast a vote for you and you don’t understand that basic thing I am voting against a basic principle of God.

And I have my ear to the ground, Mr. or Mrs. Candidate, are you going to empower parents or are you going to go the way of some of these individuals I quoted earlier, where you’re usurping parental authority, you’re filling my son’s or daughter’s mind with concepts or ideas that are antithetical to my value system.  Do you think that’s  your right to do that?  Because if you think it’s your right you’re not getting my vote.  I’m going with God and what He says.

Are candidates empowering parents?  Yes or no?  Simple question.  There are simple ways they can do this.  If my son or daughter is being subjected to material in a classroom that I find objectionable are you going to allow me to opt my child out of that?  Or how about this one—who does the money follow?  Should my child follow the tax money wherever it goes? I think that’s an outdated and antiquated philosophy; I think it should be the other way around.  I think I ought to be able to pick where I want to send my child to school, public, private, parochial, religious, and I think the money ought to follow the child, not the child following the money.  And see, there are basic core and fundamental questions we could ask concerning the value system of particular candidates, whether we embrace them and their message or not.

And it’s so frustrating to see our political scene being turned into a food fight and something out of a reality TV show that nobody ever gets around to asking and answering these basic fundamental questions.  These are the questions I have.

Beyond that I want to know, are you going to harass home schooling, because if I choose to educate my daughter or my son in my home am I going to be put under governmental suspicion because of that decision.  You say well gee, Andy, you’re really stepping out on a limb here; I mean, this is Texas after all, this is the United States of America, certainly you understand you have the right to educate your children in your home.  Let me tell you something; there is a global war taking place as I speak on home schooling.

Let me cite to you an article, this article was written by Thaddeus  Baklinski, the title of it is A German Judge Bars a Homeschooling Family From Leaving the Country. It’s dated November 2013.  Notice what it says?  “A German judge who ordered the forced removal of the children of a homeschooling family in August has blocked the parents’ request to let the family emigrate to another European country where homeschooling is legal, according to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). On August 29^th, a team of 20 social workers, police officers, and special agents stormed the Wunderlich” if I’m pronouncing that German word right, “the Wunderlich family’s residence near Darmstadt, Germany and forcibly removed all four of the family’s children, ages 7–14.  The stated reason for this action was that the parents, Dirk and Petra Wunderlich, continued to homeschool their children in defiance of a German ban on home schooling.  The German high court is on record ordering suppression” watch this, “of  ‘parallel societies,’ mentioning homeschoolers specifically.”

Notice this vocabulary, “parallel society.”  Here is what the New World Order Globalist folks are trying to prevent; we don’t want a kingdom within a kingdom.  We don’t want children holding to a certain set of immutable values and characteristics which are not embraced by the State.  And so they have this little word that they use to describe such activity as a “parallel society.”

Let me tell you something. When we educate at home, which is the decision  the Lord, we believe, led, my wife and myself to do, we are not interested in teaching a bunch of values clarification, neo-Marxist, paganism wrapped up in a green package.  We’re interested, not in teaching social justice, we’re interested in teaching the Word of God.  We’re interested in teaching my daughter how to read, how to write, how to do arithmetic, and all of the other stuff related to social justice and social engineering and values clarification, all these things we just are not going to include.  And that’s the decision we make.

So Mr. and Mrs. Candidate, I have a question for you; do you honor that?  Do you respect that?  Because you might be able to give a great speech but let me tell you something; if you can’t answer this core question you are outside of the domain and the jurisdiction of God; you do not understand the first thing about biblical priorities and biblical concepts.  I don’t care what party you’re a part of, I’m just not going to vote for you.  I’m going to go find someone that thinks the way God thinks.  A fundamental question folks; parental authority over children.

Well what about theses others, public expressions of Christianity, oh my gosh, look at number 8, right to keep and bear arms…is that in the Bible?  Good grief.  Well, that will probably take me two sermons to get through those so I’m going to go ahead and close in prayer.  But I’m just trying to educate the body of Christ, Sugar Land Bible Church, that God has priorities.  Ideas matter!  And when we vote in any election are we really embracing biblical priorities.

Of course it’s possible someone could be here today that may not know Christ personally.  Our strong exhortation here at Sugar Land Bible Church is simply to believe the gospel so that you can have the gift of eternal life.  Jesus, through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension bridged the gap between God and man.  He’s done all the hard work and what we do is we trust and rely upon what He has done, rather than rely upon ourselves.  And the moment that happens we are given the gift of eternal life.  The whole package is as simple as the Gospel of John, chapter 5 and verse 24 where Jesus articulated so beautifully the gospel.  “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

If the Spirit of God is placing you under conviction, if there’s some sort of tugging taking place in your heart, you’re not clear about where you would spend eternity, go ahead and receive, right there where you’re seated, the free gift of eternal life.  You receive that by believing or trusting what Jesus Christ has done.  If it’s something you have done or something you’re now doing then on the authority of the Word of God you have just altered your eternal destiny.  If it’s something you need more information on I’m available after the service to talk.  Shall we pray.

Father, we are grateful today for a different set of messages than perhaps what we’re  used to. We’re thankful, Father, that the Word of God is not silent on things taking place in the culture.  I do pray, Father, that You would allow the full counsel of the Word of God to be taught here in such a way that we would be informed, not just about how to get to heaven, as important as that is, but civic life and involvement.  Bring, Father, a refreshment and a rekindling to our souls as we go through some of this material that may seem to some as controversial, but remind us of Your value system and the things that You have set in place long ago.  We ask that  You will do this great work in our minds and our hearts.  We lift these things up in Jesus name.  And God’s people said….