Time Out of Mind
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

My children are Pittsburgh Steeler fans. They wouldn't know Jerome Bettis or Terry Bradshaw if they ran into them. (They would probably be unconscious if they ran into them.) They know none of the rules of football, do not know the Steeler's record at this time, (5-2 for those of you keeping score at home.). They don't even know the difference between a football and a tennis ball. But they love the Steelers because Daddy loves the Steelers.

Now suppose you were a Tennessee Oiler fan. I know it's painful, but do it for a second. It's for the kids. And suppose you had my children with you seven hours a day, five days a week, 180 days a year. Your training and your calling in life would be to raise up Oiler fans. You're a real pro. You would be paid for your labors. Who would my children end up rooting for? Of course in the evenings when we sat down for dinner I would extol the virtues of the Steelers to my children. And once a week they would go to the meetings of the Steeler fan club, and maybe even attend the Little Steeler Fan Club, meetings on that one day. Which team do you suppose would have their loyalty?

Now I know it doesn't matter who if anyone, my children root for. As long as they aren't Oakland Raider fans, they're not in sin. But if it mattered to me that they purll for the Steelers. (OK, it does matter to me, though I know it shouldn't) I would be kidding myself if I thought I could undo in just a little time what they were being taught in a lot of time. And you know what? Even if I could undo it, how could I justify the wasting of God's precious time while they're being taught to root for the wrong team?

What is at stake in educating our children isn't which football team the kids align with, but whether they will be members of the seed of the woman or the seed of the serpent. And the consequences of being on the losing team are eternal. Many professing Christian government school parents argue that the difference in the world view between their local government school and their local church is a slight one. If they're right I shudder for the church. But many actually take the above tack. They actually believe that thirty minutes of debriefing over the dinner table will undo the damage. Of those that believe such, I venture to guess that most are not even terribly faithful in that thirty minutes. As long as the teacher didn't stand on her desk and announce that God is dead, well, then it was probably a safe day at school.

Some might quibble with me about the time frames. There is, after all, Sunday School, church, WWJD meetings at school before or after hours, and youth group. Oh, and don't forget VBS in the summer. You will note, by the way, that the parents are noticeably absent from these churchy activities. You will note also that most of these amount to nothing more than clean Christian fun, not training in righteousness.

To perhaps better illustrate the reality of the time differential, consider that most parents tell their children that the "Job" of the child is being a student. That is what they do. And, by the way, they know this. Any child in a government school will conclude that religion is a hobby, studying whole language is the real deal.

The Scripture, in dealing with educating children, gives us not only a curriculum, not only a description of the most fundamental quality of a teacher, but also the school schedule. The curriculum is this. Our children are to be taught who God is, what He requires, and how that requirement was met by His Son. In short the basics are not the three R's, but law and gospel. The necessary prerequisite for being a teacher is not a BA in education, but an MA or more clearly, a PA in biblical childrearing. That is. the job is given to parents, and more specifically to fathers. The schedule goes like this, "...and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and you 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" (Deuteronomy 6: 7). No time for recess here, let alone time to send them off to have someone else teach them how not to love God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their might.

We don't have the time needed to teach our children these things if their time is taken up with the teaching of the opposite of these things, and our only time together is when we're trying to undo what we've already invested too much time in. And how much worse is it when we miss any time together because of our heavy load of government school based activities. Your son may be learning how to hit a curve ball or set a pick. Your daughter may be learning lessons in fair play, and the hardships of losing, but they will not be learning the statutes of God.

Our calling as parents is to redeem the time because the days are evil. And that wickedness has encamped at your local government school. A.A. Hodge understood this long before the NEA came around when he said in 1887, "I am convinced that a comprehensive and centralized education separated from religion will prove most appalling and will promote atheism, nihilism... individual, social and political such as the world has never seen." Even a Presbyterian can prophesy.