Home schooling in Britain is growing rapidly - and with good reason.

It is August and the schools are closed for the holidays. Traditionally, this has been a time when children are with their parents, whether at home or on holiday – that special time of the year that offers opportunities for families to be together.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 comes to mind: a mandate given by God long ago, that all might go well with us. We can picture parents and children considering the beauty of God’s Creation on summer days when, walking and talking, they learn together about him.

Yet in this continuing season of political tension and upheaval, it is much more likely that we will be encouraged to dwell on the new Prime Minister’s tactics to win parliamentary battles (especially the battle to come out of Europe) than on how we might bring up the nation’s children in the ways of God.

Indeed, when September comes round and the schools re-open, for Christian parents the prospect of what will be taught to their children is of ever-growing concern. Watchmen in our nation, such as our own team at Prophecy Today and Issachar Ministries and others such as Christian Concern, inform us of more and more examples of the danger posed to our children through agendas at work within our educational establishments.

Godless Agendas

Unbiblical agendas such as those that have been imposed by the LGBTQ+ movement are impacting even the youngest primary school children, who are being driven to question their God-given biological gender.¹ The movement to eradicate belief in the God of Creation has long imposed itself and now we move on to the consequences, clearly outlined in Romans 1.

For Christian parents the prospect of what is being taught to their children in schools is of ever-growing concern.

Ungodly forces are being allowed to influence the teaching of our children and take them off that wonderful, God-given path for each one. “Train a child in the way he should go” (Prov 22:6) is the mandate given to parents, for which a sensitive, protected, God-given educational programme is needed whereby a child, nurtured first by parents and helped by teachers, learns how to walk with God themselves. Woe to those who perpetuate godless agendas in our schools. Jesus had these words of warning for them:

If anyone causes one of these little ones, those who believe in me, to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matt 18:6)

Pressure Upon Pressure

The latest LGBTQ+ pressures on children add to others already well-established and highlighted in Prophecy Today for many years. The bigger picture, over the longer term, is of powers of darkness at work to divide up families and destroy the faith of an entire generation.

For example, before our eyes are growing numbers of teenagers being drawn into gang warfare and knife crime, to the extent that MPs are now recommending police officers in schools.² Does this not illustrate a society that is increasingly unguarded against the seductive powers of evil?

Even Christian schools are under pressure, as central Government has taken it upon itself to impose pressures to conform to secular humanist ideals, especially through Ofsted. If Ofsted were encouraging biblically-based curricula and putting in measures to protect our children by reinforcing the God-given mandate that parents have been given, then we could be grateful. If instead, we find an increasing departure and enforcement of ungodly educational content and strategy (dubbed ‘muscular liberalism’ by Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman), then it is time to be very concerned.

The bigger picture, over the longer term, is of powers of darkness at work to divide up families and destroy the faith of an entire generation.

Enough is Enough?

Many Christian parents are alarmed at what is happening in schools because of Government pressures to conform, and are saying, ‘enough is enough’. According to Ephesians 6:4 and elsewhere in the Bible, it is parents who have responsibility for their children. In the coming days, I do not doubt that many will seek to withdraw from or avoid the growing corruption of the world, including that which is in many schools.

Home education of children is an obvious, and still legal, option, that has much support in the USA and which many Christian families in the UK are already pursuing with great success. The number of home-schooled children in Britain has doubled in the last four years.³ It could become even more widespread here if those of us with experience in education can help make it an attractive and meaningful possibility.

If there is not a major move of repentance across the nation as a whole, home education could be a vital means to strengthen Christian families for the days ahead. Education of our children in a Christ-centred way should be a central priority in this, and will require those with expertise to seek the Lord in considering how to provide support. Could this be part of God’s strategy for safeguarding faithful families in future? What part might you play?

References

1 It is interesting to note the furore which has broken out in Birmingham primary schools between school staff intent on imposing a radical LGBTQ+ agenda and concerned parents. Most of the parents protesting are Muslim, prompting some difficult questions for the Government on how to negotiate the competing demands of these two minority groups, Islam and LGBTQ+.

2 MPs call for police in schools to cut youth violence. BBC News, 31 July 2019.

3 See here. This is for a variety of reasons, one of which is undoubtedly the impulse of Christian parents to protect their children.