Change Movement Sermons Series

TWO KINDS OF SCHOLARS

Christian schools were founded to provide quality education for young people from Christian homes in a Christian environment.  They are promoted on the basis that they will reinforce and strengthen the faith of those who enroll as students and groom them for a life of service in the church.  They also provided training for young men desiring to be gospel preachers so they would be equipped for constructive and successful work in the kingdom of Christ.

Satan, the great enemy of God's church knows the value of Christian schools and the influence teachers therein have for good or for evil. He has a long and successful record of getting men into teaching position in those schools who use their position and influence to weaken and corrupt the faith of their students.

Over the years we have observed two distinct types of scholars at work in our Christian schools.

There are those who pursue their higher education in order to provide their students the best possible education.  They are masters of their field but they are also faithful Christians who love the church.  They honor and respect her faith, worship and practices.  They see their purpose to be to confirm and strengthen the faith of their students as they educate them.  They pay attention to and help those who are weak in faith and do all they can to strengthen and stabilize them.  They seek their approval from God, from fellow Christians and from the parents who entrust their children to them.

There is another group of teachers who seem to feel their mission is to challenge the faith of their students.  They raise scores of questions without giving them helpful Biblical answers.  They feel compelled to prove the church wrong in its faith, worship and practice.  They exhibit no sense of loyalty to the church nor to the parents whose children they are teaching.  Their loyalty seems to be to the secular or denominational schools where they received their advanced degrees.  They wish to impress their academic peers far more than their fellow-Christians and the parents who entrust their youngsters to them.

One wonders why this latter type of teacher accepts a position in a school funded and operated by members of the Churches of Christ? But, when we consider the spiritual conflict in which we are engaged and that the souls of young Christians are at stake, then we understand that Satan has everything to gain and nothing to lose by placing such false teachers in our schools.