Wednesday 8 December 2010

Philosophy and its Damage


Hi Parents,


Today in my blog, I have been impressed to share with you just a brief message that the Lord gave to me this morning while in family worship. The Lord loves our children even more than we do, so we can rest assured that all of His instructions on their education is for their present and eternal good. What I am about to share is expounded upon in more detail in our HOMESCHOOL HELP! Starter Info' Pack, but due to the urgency of the times we are in, I am making this appeal in this blog.


In our morning family worship during the week days, we use the Family Bible Lesson, from the SonLight Education Ministry. For a while we have been studying the story of Noah, and the flood. A very well known children's story, however, with great implications to our future standing with God. As I was reading about the power of God being shown when the animals were going into the ark in an orderly fashion, one sentence in particular resignated deeply within my heart, and it was this:


'Philosophers were called upon to account for the singular occurrence, but in vain. It was a mystery which they could not fathom. But men had become so hardened by their persistent rejection of light that even this scene produced but a momentary impression.'{PP 97.3}


Did you catch that? Philosophers were the ones who saw the power and open demonstartion of God's Spirit working, and they couldn't make sense of it. In other words, they could not understand the things of God. We are told that it was the Philosophers who tried to make sense of Noah's message by using human reasoning. That, my friend, is the essence of Philosophy. Let me share with you what the Wikipedia has to say about the study of Philosophy:


'Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. It is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom", and was originally a word referring to the special way of life of early Greek philosophers.'


In a nutshell, Philosophy is about coming to an understanding of the things of life, including our values, through the process of rational argument: If it doesn't make sense to the human mind, it is to be discarded. That's what it teaches. So it is of no surprise that the great antedeluvian Philosophers, due to their rational arguments of the coming flood, rejected it, and so their hearts were hardened, that God's manifestation of His power, which was a sign that their probation was about to close, made little impression on them. The message of Noah took faith to accept, for to the human mind, it did not seem logical. I mean, they had never seen rain before; the earth was watered by the dew from heaven. Nature was bound by laws, and should Noah's message be true, that would mean that the earth would turn out of it's course. So surely, it can't be true, so they reasoned.


Note one more thing about the definition of the word Philosophy. It's rood word is Greek, meaning the 'Love of wisdom'. It is historically and Biblically proven that the Greeks are well known for their 'wisdom', namely the Grecian Education System. Let's see what God's Word has to say about this Grecian Education System, namely, Philosophy:


'For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom..' {1 Corinthians 1:22}


'For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.' {1 Corinthians 3:19}


God says that the 'wisdom of this world', 'Philosophy', is 'foolishness' to Him. What is a fool?


'...The fool hath said in his heart, [There is] no God.' {Pslam 53:1}


A fool is simply an unbeliever, but not so much an outward one. Note, he says in his heart, that there is no God. In other words, he may be an outward believer, but in his heart, there is unrest and doubt regarding spiritual things. That's exactly what Philosophy produces in the heart, yes, even a professed Christian. He doubts the things of God. He is what we would call today, an atheist.


Putting all this together, our loving Heavenly Father has given us a warning in strong tones of love, that Philosophy, which so happens to be the system of education taught in the schools, teaches our children to make sense of the things around us, and even our values, by using rational arguments. This type of reasoning will do one thing and one thing only, and that is create within our children the spirit of unbelief, to the point where spiritual things will not be accepted unless it can make sense to the human mind. Parents, God's ways do not make sense to the human mind, for God's ways are much higher than ours! Therefore, the Word of God will not be held as true in our children's hearts, and the signs that are thickening around us on every hand that point to probation closing, will make no impression on their hearts.


Parents, I appeal to you today, to take your children out of the schools as fast as you can before the vain philosophy corrupts their little minds and hearts, for the Bible says:


'Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.' {Colossians 2:8}


Finally, to my fellow homeschoolers, too often it is the case that parents choose to home educate, but follow the same curriculum, the same Philosophical system that are found in both state schools and many church schools. This is not true homeschooling. True home education is that which will fit our children to be useful and self supportive while on this earth; fortified and prepared for the soon coming crisis; and finally moulded and polished for the heavenly kingdom.


In the HOMESCHOOL HELP! Starter Info' Pack, I speak about this and many other topics at length. It will definitely inspire nd equip you to give your children the education that God originally designed for them, and is still possible and practical today. I can email it to you for the price of only $30.


God Bless, and Happy Homeschool!


(Principal of Harper Bell Academy)

Monday 6 December 2010

Bible History in the Homeschool


Dear Fellow Homeschooler,


In this blog post, I would like to give you a sneak preview into the world of our school at Harper Bell Academy, by sharing with you a piece of work that was produced by a nearly eleven year old student. If you noticed the title, you will see that our History lesson is a Bible History lesson. This simply means that we study the great empires of the world in times past, and see what the Bible has to say on these things. We at HBA, believe that when students study historical events, and see that they were predicted, prophesied in God's Word hundreds of years before, the Bible becomes alive to them as their faith is built upon the reliability of every Word that proceeds out of God's mouth. This is one of the reasons why God gave to us prophesy, for He said that He has told us these things before, so that when they happen, we might believe.


Not only is Bible History a great faith builder in the promises of God's Word, but the student gets a revelation of what is to shortly take place in the future, for God tells us that the thing that has been shall be. The child already has witnessed how God's Word was fulfilled in the past, and so when they are taught that those events will happen again, as found in such and such verse, they will believe it, and seek a readiness of heart and mind for such a time.


The portion of work that I have posted here, is from our class today, where Rachel did her written review on the Battle of Actium, which begun the reign of Pagan Rome. For this subject, I used the book, Daniel and the Revelation, by Uriah Smith. I made sure I studied and understood it first. Then I re-packaged it for the understanding of my fourth grader. It was fun in class, because it was like reading an adventure story.


Here is the written review from Rachel A. Wells (Without my editing the needed corrections):


'In the past, nations would conquer areas by war and conquest. But Rome was to do what the nations before him didn't do- to conquer nations by letting them surrender their land to him. He would conquer the "fattest place of the province", or the areas that were rich in resources. And all that Rome conquered, the spoil, the prey, and riches were given to them. They were treated kindly.


Three men, Mark Antony, Augustus Caesar, and Lepidus swore to avenge the death of Julius Caesar. Mark Antony was sent on government business to Egypt. (Antony was Augustus' brother-in-law by marrying his sister Octavia.) While there, he fell in love with Cleopatra, Egypt's queen. He divorced Octavia, celebrated triumphs at Alexandria instead of Rome, and gave provinces to Cleopatra. (By this time, Lepidus was out of the triumvirate.) Augustus had no difficulty in getting the people to be on his side. At last, Augustus decided to war against 'Egypt', but it was directed at Antony. Antony's fleet had five hundred ships, bearing men who had no experience in war. Cleopatra's ship was like a palace of gold with purple sails, with Antony still following behind.


Augustus had a trained army, although less in number, and not so beautiful. Antony assembled his fleet at Samos. Next spring, he and Augustus met on the Sea at Actium, Egypt. Antony's counsellors told him not to war at sea, but send Cleopatra to Egypt, and trust the issue to his land forces. Antony didn't take this advise. The contest was decided when Cleopatra ran off, carrying her fleet with her, Antony still following her. At last, the land forces deserted him, going to Augustus for surrender, who received them. Antony, seeing that the battle was lost, killed himself. Octavia married Antony so that he and Augustus could be reunited. But neither were content with half of the kingdom.'
For more information on how to make the Bible the foundation of your school lessons, and more, I would suggest you get your hands on our Homeschool Help! Starter Pack, for just $25, emailed to your account. Contact me at:evergreenchilded@yahoo.co.uk