“I am much afraid that schools will prove to be the great gate of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scripture, engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which men are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must become corrupt.”
Martin Luther
These insightful words, spoken by Martin Luther in the 16th century, are no less appropriate today. There is a constant battle taking place for the minds and souls of today’s youth – between the world’s view of right and wrong and God’s view, between the world’s ideas of what is truth and what is fiction and the unerring, indisputable truths found in the Bible. As parents or guardians of those who will help shape the moral and spiritual future of the world in which we live, it is a battle none of us can afford to lose.
It is our opinion that God has charged parents with the responsibility and command to educate their children according to the truths of God, which apply to and govern all life. Home schooling would be the most ideal way of obeying that command and assuring that your children learn what you believe God wants them to learn. However, for a variety of reasons, home schooling is not practical or even possible for the majority of today’s population, and alternative approaches, methods, tools, and resources must be considered. We agree with the quote from Martin Luther asserting that any alternative considered must be based on God’s truth if it is going to fulfill God’s command. The question then becomes which of those alternatives that profess to be based on God’s truth most closely teach and follow that truth? We believe God has called Celebration Church to establish that alternative which most closely teaches and lives that truth. It is that goal to which we are committed, and it is that goal to which we ask you to be committed as a supporter of Crescent City Christian School.
THE GOAL
Knowledge is the myriad of facts that surround us and impact lives and God’s creation.
Understanding is seeing the relationships between those facts as they affect our world.
Wisdom is the ability to effectively and accurately make application of that understanding to enhance our lives and benefit our world.
All education is based on knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. The vital key is that unless the facts are rooted in truth or the understanding is faulty and the wisdom is distorted. “There is a way that seems right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Proverbs 14:12, 16:25) “Every man did what seemed right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6) All truth is found in God, as is all true, “pure” wisdom. (James 3:17; John 1:17, 16:13) Jesus said He IS the truth. (John 14:6)
THE CHALLENGE
Since the ideas espoused by noted educational reformist John Dewey and others, our educational system, philosophy, and curricula have been moving away from God little by little, almost undetected. This division was accelerated during the Madelyn Murray O’Hare court battles era and the 1963 Supreme Court ruling on prayer in public schools and their further ruling in 1971 that all education is to be divided into secular and sacred. It has been expedited by a series of judicial and legislative actions that not only have made the American educational system devoid of Godly teaching but also have at times been actively anti-Christian and anti-God. The system has become humanistic, or man-centered (based on man’s ideas), rather than theistic, or God-centered (based on God’s Word), as it was originally.
There are still many fine Christian teachers and administrators in our public system, and we need to lift them up in prayer because they are greatly handicapped and prevented from teaching the truth from God’s perspective due to the system, philosophy, and curricula within which they are required to function. There are still many fine Christian young people striving to live for Christ in our public schools, but they are daily being bombarded with a humanistic system, philosophy, and curricula, resulting in distorted truth, half-truth, and even non-truth. Therefore, they gradually form faulty understanding, which leads to distorted application and de-sensitivity to an ongoing lowering of societal values and standards. The result becomes wrong values, weak convictions, and poor decisions, making the Christian community less distinctive from the world and less effective as “salt and light.”
With each generation, we have become less impacting as the Body of Christ and more accepting of the world’s values. Christian education is based on God’s truth, which results in accurate understanding, Godly wisdom, right decisions, and effectiveness as “salt and light,” which is God’s plan for His children.
THE COMMITMENT
As a discipleship school, Crescent City Christian School is committed to excellence in every aspect of your student’s education in order to help him/her reach his/her highest potential for Christ in whatever calling He places on his/her life. We will succeed to the degree that we keep God as our focus and His truth as our foundation. If you desire God’s best for your student, we ask you to join hands with us to “Train up a child in the WAY he should go.”
In His Service,
Dave Jochum, CCCS Administrator
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