What is the Purpose of a College Education

“How many of us, wherever we might be in the educational process, now know God aright? How many of us sufficiently love Him, imitate Him, are like Him? When we understand this purpose of education, we in turn understand that graduation happens when we die, our death certificate is our diploma. When we understand this purpose, this end, suddenly our means change as well.”  R.C. Sproul, Jr.

Read the rest…

What’s Wrong With The Shack: 13 Heresies

I’m sure to get some virtual tomatoes thrown at me for going here, but such is always the case when the truth of God’s Word is exposed.  The Shack is a New York Times Best Seller (can anyone say “HUGE red flag”?)  and churches and Christians everywhere (some of my own friends) heavily endorse it.  These 13 heresies about The Shack were noted by Dr. Michael Youssef (he’s not the only brave, solid Bible teacher willing to speak against it), so if you’re angry, at least know that I didn’t write these  

If you liked the book, be willing to be a Berean and look at it carefully in the light of Scripture. Don’t be carried away by every wind of doctrine (which includes reading and embracing the whole counsel of Scripture)…but be sober-minded, pursuing sound doctrine.  Feelings can not dictate whether a book is truthful or not.  

13 Heresies in The Shack

1. God the Father was crucified with Jesus. Because God’s eyes are pure and cannot look upon sin, the Bible says that God would not look upon His own beloved Son as He hung on the Cross, carrying our sins (Habakkuk 1:13; Matthew 27:45).

2. God is limited by His love and cannot practice justice. The Bible declares that God’s love and His justice are two sides of the same coin — equally a part of the personality and the character of God (Isaiah 61:8; Hosea 2:19).

3. On the Cross, God forgave all of humanity, whether they repent or not. Some choose a relationship with Him, but He forgives them all regardless. Jesus explained that only those who come to Him will be saved (John 14:6).

4. Hierarchical structures, whether they are in the Church or in the government, are evil. Our God is a God of order (Job 25:2).

5. God will never judge people for their sins. The Word of God repeatedly invites people to escape from the judgment of God by believing in Jesus Christ, His Son (Romans 2:16; 2 Timothy 4:1-3).

6. There is not a hierarchical structure in the Godhead, just a circle of unity. The Bible says that Jesus submitted to the will of the Father. This doesn’t mean that one Person is higher or better than the other; just unique. Jesus said, “I came to do the will of Him who sent me. I am here to obey my Father.” Jesus also said, “I will send you the Holy Spirit” (John 4:34, 6:44, 14:26, 15:26).

7. God submits to human wishes and choices. Far from God submitting to us, Jesus said, “Narrow is the way that leads to eternal life.” We are to submit to Him in all things, for His glory and because of what He has accomplished for us (Matthew 7:13-15).

8. Justice will never take place because of love. The Bible teaches that when God’s love is rejected, and when the offer of salvation and forgiveness is rejected, justice must take place or God has sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for nothing (Matthew 12:20; Romans 3:25-26).

9. There is no such a thing as eternal judgment or torment in hell. Jesus’ own description of hell is vivid … it cannot be denied (Luke 12:5, 16:23).

10. Jesus is walking with all people in their different journeys to God, and it doesn’t matter which way you get to Him. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one will come to the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

11. Jesus is constantly being transformed along with us. Jesus, who dwells in the splendor of heaven, sits at the right hand of God, reigning and ruling the universe. The Bible says, “In Him there is no change, for He is yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 11:12, 13:8; James 1:17).

12. There is no need for faith or reconciliation with God because everyone will make it to heaven. Jesus said, “Only those who believe in me will have eternal life” (John 3:15, 3:36, 5:24, 6:40).

13. The Bible is not true because it reduces God to paper. The Bible is God-breathed. Sure, there were many men through 1,800 years who put pen to paper (so to speak), each from different professions and different backgrounds, but the Holy Spirit infused their work with God’s words. These men were writing the same message from Genesis to Revelation. If you want to read more about the place of Christ in the Scripture, read “We Preach Christ” (2 Timothy 3:16).  

To watch the message by Michael Youssef on The Shack, click HERE.

To watch one from Mark Driscoll, click HERE.

College…A Waste of Time?

New subject. Frankly, I’m all “Palined out”

I’ve been mulling over this societal farce for a long time–THE COLLEGE DEGREE.

Someone asked me, when I spoke at a homeschool meeting recently, “What about college? Will your children go?”

And before I could form a more tactful answer, I just said, “I hope not!”

As soon as you make a statement like that, the hearers assume you are against higher education. Quite the contrary. I’m am for REAL higher education…the kind that doesn’t cost a gazillion dollars and often affords the student little more than a piece of paper that says “I’m in”, and a beer gut.

I ran across this brilliant article that offers a look at the crisis and a possible solution. Got to admit…makes me wonder if we ever get off the hamster wheel long enough to ask, “Does this make any sense?”

Murray writes

“Our obsession with the BA has created a two-tiered entry to adulthood, anointing some for admission to the club and labeling the rest as second-best.”

Read the rest HERE.

Then COME BACK! And share your thoughts!

Response to Reader

Upon the suggestion of a reader, I have posted my answer to another reader, Jennifer, who asked the following question regarding my last post:

“Okay, when you mention the pastors wife asking the girl “what she is going to do” Do you mean that you are against college or working till she meets a husband?”

Jennifer,

Thank you so much for your comment/question. It is a very common one, but a difficult answer awaits.

In essence (there’s no use beating around the bush!), yes I am against young women leaving the home, whether to go to college or pursue an “outside” career. I AM NOT, however, against a young woman pursing an education, or a means of making money. But there is a huge difference in the way we go about it. It is a slippery slope (a VERY slippery slope). If we embrace the biblical truth that women are to be full-time help-meets to their husbands (which is indeed a FULL time job), isn’t it silly to “program” their thinking in a different direction, only to suddenly switch gears again when they get married?

Am I against higher education–absolutely NOT! But when a young girl leaves her home and the protection of her father (unheard of in Bible times), and pursues a college education, where she will be inundated with feministic ideas(secular or Christian college), spends all of her time, money, thoughts, etc. pursuing this career, it is unlikely that when she gets married she will suddenly drop all of that investment and “new thinking” and be content with her role as home-maker. And even if she does, boy has she lost a lot of training opportunities! (No wonder there are so many wives that don’t even know how to cook a decent meal)…homemaking is an ART. One that must be treated seriously, cultivated, and refined. It takes time, energy and effort. Until we take the role of homemaker seriously, we will continue to undermine its need for preparation.

HOWEVER, a young woman, until she is married, CAN pursue a world of knowledge through alternate forms of higher education (a much better education than a stale college classroom can offer), remain under the protection of her father, train daily for her role someday as helpmeet (there is a lot of training if it is done right–one of which is being a helpmeet to her Dad), and she may very well pursue means of bringing in income. I know many, many young women who are flourishing in their gifts, and making great money at it while they are “in waiting”. We have leaned on the college degree(another lie we’ve been told) as the ONLY key to making money, or being successful, or preserving us in a tragedy. What a lie! There are so many other avenues of industry and provision, (which is one of the points I was making in my post), that we have virtually forgotten because we’re too busy pursing what someone said we needed to make it in the world.

This may come as a shocker and stir up a whole new debate, but I pray my sons seek an alternate route to college. There are so many superior ways of getting an education (and cheaper too!) and making a living!We are so bent to the culture’s ideas of what women are “supposed” to do, that we can’t even think outside that box. This issue has many questions and discussions which I don’t have time to even touch in this response. I will suggest an EXCELLENT resource for answering such questions as “what if a woman’s husband dies, and the wife never got a college degree to support herself?”, and other such hypotethical unlikelys.

The book “So Much More” written by two (highly intelligent) young women (age 15 and 17) is one of the most well-written arguments and thorough explanations of this topic that I’ve ever read. I highly recommend the book.

The bottom line is, if you want an apple tree to bear apples, you have to plant apple seeds. We can’t exercise the world’s methods right up until our daughters marry, then expect them to suddenly change courses and become the godly wife, mother and helpmeet we never trained them to be.

This is a sticky issue…and it’s one that is so hard to wrap our brains around because of our own brainwashing. I know, I was blown away when I first heard the suggestion that girls should not be encouraged to go to college. But just like so many issues, when there’s a slippery slope, we can’t step on and jump off mid-slide.

We have to trace our current problems (women leaving the home in droves with no desire to be there), back to the source of the problem (our sending our daughters off into a feminist culture to be stripped of all the godly training we have instilled) and do something drastic about it. That’s my short , yes, short answer.