Homeschool News & Views
Issue 73, June 15, 2008
From Homeschool Helpers
In association with Pass It On Ministries
By Dan L. White
Sometimes we talk about pusillanimous pastors. Is that too harsh?
Pusillanimous –
Church pastors are nice guys. That’s why they’re pastors.
They’re personable and easy to get along
with. They don’t
rub people the wrong way. People like
their church pastors. They’re
nice guys.
That can also be their
biggest shortcoming. They don’t want to offend people.
Pastors tend to be cuddlers, not
correctors. So
when people need correcting, pastors usually cuddle.
The only time the word
pastor appears in the New Testament in is the old King James Bible is in
Ephesians 4. Some say that the original
Greek word there should be accurately rendered as
shepherd, not pastor. That will give a
different connotation. Pastor refers to
putting out to pasture, while shepherd is someone who not only feeds the sheep,
but guides them and protects them.
Psalm 23 is the shepherd
psalm. Verse 3 of that psalm says that
the shepherd guides in the paths of righteousness. That means that the sheep have to be corrected when they head off in the wrong direction.
Others say that the pastor
system, having one man in charge of a congregation, is incorrect. Paul said to ordain elders in every church,
meaning that the church would be run by elders, not just one
elder. That way, one man does not
have to take all the pressure when correction is necessary. Pastors have a high burnout rate.
The reality is that, given
the spiritual condition of America today, the pastor system has not
worked. The people have
not been corrected. They have
headed off in the wrong direction.
The Christian researcher
George Barna has written about this extensively. He has done repeated surveys
which show that most who call themselves Christian don’t read the Bible,
don’t know the Bible and don’t have a Bible view of life. The people who do attend churches have been greatly affected by the common problems of
society, such as adultery, divorce and pornography. They have not been guided
in the paths of righteousness.
A prime example of pastor pusillanimosity is
education. Most Americans know how
anti-Christ the public schools are. The
pagans revel in that. Most Christians do
not rebel against it.
Here’s an easy test.
The public schools are filled with all sorts of
evil. They train 90% of America’s youth
in that evil. Almost all of America’s youth absorb that evil, and then become
evangelists of evil themselves. This is
turning America into an evil, Christ hating country.
Does your church stand
against the public schools?
If Christian parents want
to avoid that evil, all they have to do is take their kids out of the public schools. There is currently no persecution. It’s not even a real
hassle anymore. Just do it.
Does your church and its pastor guide the people in the
paths of righteousness, by telling them to get away from that big government
institution of anti-Christian education?
Does your church actively and vigorously support Christian education? Does your church pastor absolutely and
unequivocally tell the members to get their children out of the public schools?
Or does he pusillanimosize?
There are some pastors and
congregations which do make a strong stand against the
sins in the public schools. It is very
inspiring to see that. Some have
homeschool support ministries which they will share
with other congregations who are interested.
Some have proven plans for starting an easy co-op homeschool-church
school program. A few churches are just
full of homeschool families. May they be
greatly blessed in their stand for God and against Satan. May Christ draw them ever closer to Him.
We heard of one pastor locally
who gave a sermon urging the congregation to get out of the public
schools. However, some of the
congregation -- including church officials -- just got out of that church.
Many would think that is
bad. Oh, no – they left the church. People must never be offended, or they will
leave the church.
A spiritual group is like
a burning fire. When someone is joined
to that group, they either add fire or water to the
group. If the person is spiritually
growing, shown by being willing to stand against sin, then he adds more fire to
the fire of the group. If he is
spiritually dead, not willing to stand against sin but tolerating it, then he
adds water to the spiritual fire of the group.
Get enough of those in a group and all the spiritual fire goes out.
So in that instance, those public school people took
their buckets and went elsewhere.
There
are very, very few pastors and congregations who stand against the sins of the public schools. If they won’t stand
against obscenities, sex, drugs, violence and now homosexuality, what will they
stand against?
Driving around in the
Ozarks in June, we see many huge, elaborate church buildings with big banners
out front – Vacation Bible School. They
try to dress their Vacation Bible Schools up by making them like video games or
space trips or some such, since they are assuming the young people will not be
interested in – the Bible. So what if
all those big churches taught the Bible to their young people not just during
vacation, but all year round?
But they don’t.
And most church pastors don’t give strong
sermons against the sins of the public schools.
They just give positive messages full of pusillanimuck.
Look at what we are facing
in the near future.
From Yahoo news, June 15:
“[Several historians see] Barack Obama’s prospects
as the most promising for a Democrat since Roosevelt trounced Hoover in 1932.
“This should be an overwhelming Democratic
victory,” said Allan Lichtman, [one historian]. Lichtman, whose
forecasting model has correctly predicted the last six presidential popular
vote winners, predicts that this year, “Republicans face what have always been
insurmountable historical odds.” His
system gives McCain a score on par with Jimmy Carter’s in 1980.”
[Another historian] compared McCain’s prospects to
those of Hubert Humphrey, whose 1968 loss to Richard Nixon resulted in large
part from the unpopularity of sitting Democratic president Lyndon Johnson.
“It is one of the worst political environments for
the party in power since World War II,” added Alan Abramowitz, a professor of
public opinion…. His forecasting model — which factors
in gross domestic product, whether a party has completed two terms in the White
House and net presidential approval rating — gives McCain about the same odds
as Adlai Stevenson in 1952 and Carter in 1980 — both of whom were handily
defeated in elections that returned the presidency to the previously
out-of-power party.””
If the liberals control
the presidency and both houses of Congress, Christians will face trials they
have never faced in America. These
trials will be financial, because taxes will be raised,
particularly on families. These trials
will be religious, as there will be active persecution of any who do not bow to
the liberal religious dogma. These
trials will be personal, as the nation gets absolutely
overrun with pornography and filth, sucking many down into the pusillanimire.
And all those pusillanimous pastors and churches –
what will they do then?
The same thing they are
doing now. They will just go along,
saying nothing, doing nothing, just having pusillanimeetings.
Does your church make a
stand against the public schools?
If you attend a church
which does not stand against the public schools right now, then for spiritual
food you’re just getting dead meat -- pusillanimeat. That won’t apply
just to education and schools, but to everything they say and do. If they don’t have
the faith to stand in one area, they will not have the faith to stand in other
areas.
If you eat enough of that,
it will kill you spiritually.
The parable of the talents
in Matthew 25 and the parable of the pounds in Luke 19 are similar. You recall the stories, where Christ’s
servants were given a weight of money to use for
increase. Some servants used their gift
for increase and some just did nothing.
Notice that there are two
groups who receive Christ’s condemnation:
those who are His outright enemies and don’t
want Him to reign; and those who are His servants but do nothing.
The sad reality is that
most churches have not helped teach young people about Christ, but have
actually hindered that. If you want to
draw closer to Christ, you will not do so through such a group.
As we near the end of this
age, Christ is drawing His people closer to Him. Just like the original disciples, Christ’s true
followers have the faith to stand for Him.
That faith comes from Him.
Christian homeschool families have made a monumental choice,
in deciding to follow a homeschool Christ centered lifestyle. Almost surely your
church or your pastor did not urge you to do that. They may have even hindered you in doing
that. But you
followed Christ directly, not going through any group or any man.
Keep doing that.