Not far away, in the center of town, stands a large church.
The sermons are replete with Scripture, and the congregation has a reputation
as “Bible-believing” people. This is why what I’m about to say is so hard to
believe.
The difficulty isn’t obvious to most, and many who
attend the church don’t even realize there’s a problem.
It has to do with the Sunday School.
You see, the Sunday School teachers don’t teach the
children and youth that the biblical truths taught in the sanctuary are actually true, and applicable to all of
life. They don’t want to “impose” Christianity on the next generation, or sway the
youth one way or another when it comes to the Bible.
There is no discussion about how the Bible relates to all
of life, provides a standard for moral order, or brings meaning to all human
endeavor. This sort of teaching is appropriate for the sanctuary, they say, but
not for the Sunday School. The rule-of-thumb for Sunday School is, “neutrality in
all.”
This matter is never addressed from the pulpit, lest
Sunday School teachers take offense. Besides, the vast majority of parents don’t
have a problem with the Sunday School. They figure if they do their job
at home, there’s nothing to be concerned about.
Does such a Sunday School really exist? No Bible-believing
church would tolerate such a program! Yet most churches, and the parents who
attend them, see no problem with a Monday-through-Friday educational system
that does the very same thing, five days a week, six hours a day.
Let me explain.
If it is not OK for 1 hour on Sunday to give young people the idea that God’s Word plays a “neutral” role in life, and does not provide the overarching Light and Truth by which all other things are to be understood and measured, why then is it OK to give them this message on Monday through Friday?
If it is not OK for 1 hour on Sunday to give young people the idea that God’s Word plays a “neutral” role in life, and does not provide the overarching Light and Truth by which all other things are to be understood and measured, why then is it OK to give them this message on Monday through Friday?
Why does the church in general see no problem with
schools that provide instruction in academics divorced from God’s Word, where teachers make no connections whatsoever
between the Lordship of Christ and math or history, or literature and biology, and
where the Light by which all things are to
be understood has been thoroughly put out?
The outcome is not necessarily atheism, but surely dualism: the toxic notion that Jesus is Lord of the Church, but nothing more.