Dear Mike,

Something has come up in the last few days that has made this an urgent matter of the spirit. I searched your website to see if anyone else had asked this question, and I didn’t find anything. Of course, my keywords might have been off, and it’s possible that this subject has already been addressed. If so, I apologize for taking up your time, and please direct me to the articles that can answer this question for me.

I mentioned in my email to you last week that we home school our three children. As part of our home school experience, we belong to a professing- Christian home school support group. To belong to this support group, we must sign a statement of faith, a statement that just about any professing Christian could sign. This statement of faith includes belief in the trinity. As I have studied more and more of your writings, I see that the trinity is another false doctrine of orthodox Christianity and, as you have written, it is tied inwith the false beliefs in free- will and the fall of man. Until I began to read your writings in October 2005, I did not understand these things. Therefore, we signed the statement of faith last year without knowingly committing a falsehood.

So. . . I get all of that. We need to withdraw from this organization. That is now abundantly clear. However, it didn’t even occur to me that we would have to withdraw from this organization until I received a call from a fellow member last week asking me to take on more administrative duties in the support group. At first I was going to say yes to her request. I always want to help out, and the person who asked me to help her is clearly overwhelmed right now with home school, home, and organizational duties. So to refuse to take on these extra duties will probably be seen as unfriendly, but so be it.

But God’s spirit really knockedme hard last night; I “heard”, not with my ears, a voice say, You can’t do it; meaning, you can’t take on these extra duties. At first I thought it was just because God wanted me to keep myself free to concentrate more on His Word (which is the truth — right now my number one concern is to become more fluent in the Word); but today, as I was reading your latest essay, “If We Come Out of the Church, Are We Still in the Church?” (isn’t God’s timing just awesome?!), suddenly I realized that this “other Jesus” is being preached in more than just the typical church building on a typical Sunday morning. AND, it occurred to me that the other members and I are not of one accord on the doctrine of Jesus Christ. The members belong to different churches, different denominations, but none of those churches preaches the doctrine of Jesus Christ! So when we open our meetings with prayers, I am unequally yoked! Ahh. . . merciful LORD for showing me this today!!!! I’ve been doing the same thing that you, Mike, are telling us not to do, that all of Christianity does today: agreement on the major things, tolerance on the “minor” things.

I imagine that others who read your writings and website are home schoolers, and perhaps theybelong to Christian home school groups. It might be wise of them to examine any statements of faith that they have signed.

But this brings up another question that I have had. What about secular organizations such as 4- H, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc.? Even if they don’t have statements of faith to sign, they still get caught up in Christmas, Easter and (ugh!) Halloween! When we withdraw from the Christian home school support group, we will have to give up participation in field trips, gym class, socializing with peers, and so forth. Am I able to offer my children membership in secular organizations to make up for this loss, even if these organizations have Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny? Are we able to join a secular home school group? I hope these questions don’t sound trite. Please also confirm for me that we need to withdraw from this para- church home school support group. I would be happy to hear of how you approached these matters with your own children, even if you were less mature at that time.

Thank you, Mike, and God bless you!

N____

Hi N____,

We, too, are counting down the days. Sandi and I are looking forward to meeting as many as are able to make the trip. It is such an encouragement to see how God is changing people’s hearts.

Sandi really is looking forward to meeting you and your husband. You seem to be cut from the same cloth; that cloth of course being the new garment of Christ in us.

I cannot think of anything I have written which would cover your question, so we will both answer it as best we can here. I always point out to anyone with questions like these you pose that I have no dominion over your faith:

2Co 1:24 Not for that we have dominion over your faith , but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.

We all must walk in the “measure [ and] proportion of faith” which God has given us:

Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Rom 12:4 For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
Rom 12:5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
Rom 12:6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;

So I, like Paul, want only to be a “helper of your joy.”

You are being led by Christ in recognizing that continuing in this ‘church sponsored’ activity would not be adhering to God’s command to ‘come out of her, my people’. In so doing you are not partaking of her sins nor receiving her plagues (Rev. 18:4). Our first command as parents is to “bring them [ children] up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” Eph 6:4). The bible does not give us a blow by blow itinery of what we should do with our time as either children or adults. So everything we do, of course, should be done “to the Lord.”

1Co 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God
Pro 2:10 When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul;
Pro 2:11 Discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee:

If we are seeking to serve God in ALL we do, then as students of His Word, we will know whether an activity for ourselves or for our children is worthy. With knowledge and understanding, we KNOW Halloween, being blatantly ungodly in origin, should not be indulged in. We KNOW that teaching our children to hunt fertility symbols on Easter (a holiday dedicated to the pagan goddess Ishtar who was worshiped as goddess of fertility and sexuality and guardian of prostitutes!) is not pleasing to our Creator.

By the same token, common (godly) sense will tell us whether an activity for our children is healthy. As we are told:

1Ti 4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

The Greek word for little in this verse, denotes ‘puny’ or of short duration. (Strong’s) It doesn’t say there is NO profit in exercise. God made our bodies to need to move. We are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ But the emphasis shows that godliness is more profitable for the long run. Our granddaughter plays softball in the school league. The exercise she receives profits her physical body. The interaction with her teammates helps her learn to get along with other people. The instruction of her coach teaches her to respect her elders and follow orders. Her coaches admonish the players to win or lose graciously, so she learns good sportsmanship. She struck out repeatedly in a recent game, though she is usually one of the better players, so she learns humility. But she is not required to adhere to a statement of faith contrary to scripture. If she were, then for the sake of a godly example, she would not be allowed to play.

Many children express an interest in learning to play musical instruments. One need only look at the Psalms and elsewhere to see that God looks on music with favor. Again, music varies greatly from demonic lyrics advocating ungodly activities – murder, fornication, stealing, etc. to lyrics which do indeed praise him. Does that mean only gospel music should be played or sung? A lot of gospel music has unscriptural lyrics. And beautiful music with or without words glorifies God as He created the ability in us to be able to form the instruments, play them or sing the notes.

Your question is not trite in any way. As a youngster, I (Sandi) was not allowed to engage in any activity which was outside the parameters of our church. I have since been given the grace of God to see their doctrines were totally in error. I had to drop art class in high school as all our projects centered around various pagan holidays. I had to drop chorus for the same reason. I had to scale back much of my beloved 4- H projects as so many of the events occurred on the ‘sabbath.’ My 4- H projects with my livestock, sewing, canning and rifle did not in any way involve pagan holidays, so that was not at issue. (By the way, Austin probably gets more ‘field trips’ than regular schoolers. He has toured the local ice cream factory, gone on nature walks at the botanical gardens, taken piano lessons, played volleyball with large groups of people, gone with his big brothers on hiking weekends, been part of an adult rock and gemstone club and other opportunities that would not have been possible in the confines of traditional schooling.)

Though at times I was saddened at these restrictions, I learned to put God first in all aspects of my life. Had my parents known the truth of scriptures at the time, I would have actually had more freedom to engage in activities that were educational, satisfying and just plain fun! The truth of God frees us from the bondage of ritualistic restrictions placed on people by some religions, and at the same time deepens our commitment to Him in all aspects of our lives.

If you can join with a home school group that has no such requirement of beliefs, that would be good. If you can’t find anyone, then so be it. When we first made the commitment to totally home school our youngest, the biggest opposition stated by friends and family was that Austin would not learn to be ‘sociable’ by being with his peer group. Believe me, that stance is overrated! When one sees what an influence of ‘peer group’ pressures can do to undermine a child’s thinking, one sees that is not a valid argument. You will be meeting two of our children at the conference. Judge for yourself whether homeschooling will make for a socially unadjusted child. If that were true, Austin would be the most maladjusted child in the country. He not only has never attended public school, but he is considerably younger than his four close- together- in- age siblings. He is very much his ‘own’ person, not following the dictates of other teenagers as far as dress, musical taste, or improper attitude toward authority. I am thankful to God that Austin puts the things of the spirit ahead of such events as begging for candy (Halloween), playing with fertility symbols (Easter) or making a ‘want list’ for no other reason than society says do it and human vanity wants ‘stuff’ (Christmas). “All is vanity” (Ecc 1:2) and “all flesh is grass” (1Pe 1:24), but (Isa 40:8) The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand forever. The best teaching you can give your children is the Word that stands forever. A widely varying plethora of activities can fit into that, the ultimate curriculum.

I hope this is of some help to you. We have never observed Pagan holidays, and our children knew why. They coped quite well even though they were, at that time, still in the public school system. The need for community spirit is vastly overrated. And at the same time the strength and good of a strong family is either underrated, ignored or ridiculed.

I wish I could be of more help to you. I will pray that God will give you the wisdom to make sound and proper decisions concerning the welfare of your own family. I believe that that is exactly what you will do.

Mike and Sandi