THE FOUNDERS' WORLDVIEW
AUTHORITY AND EDUCATION
INSTRUCTING OUR NATION
With the Mayflower Compact, the first document of its kind in history, the people created a "civill body politick" under the authority of God. The people gave the civil body politic limited authority and then voluntarily submitted to it. As our charter document, the American Declaration of Independence followed the procedure prescribed by the Mayflower Compact. More particularly, the Declaration acknowledges individual God-given unalienable rights to be protected by the people-created government which is bound by the laws of the nature and nature's God.
The Biblical principles embodied in the Mayflower Compact and the Declaration of Independence are the bedrock for the various state and federal Constitutions forming the God-centered authority framework of our American Constitutional Republic. With the ascendancy of a man-centered State now dominating the civil government landscape, our American Constitutional Republic is struggling in a flood of confusion, anarchy and change. If our nation is to restore the operating principles of the American Constitutional Republic, we must obey the Lord and restore His commandments as the absolute standing rule. To obey His marching orders, we need to know how His commandments apply to our nation, and, in turn, teach our nation to obey those commandments.
"Instruction [is] the act of teaching or informing the understanding in that of which it was before ignorant" (Webster 1828). Instruction includes direction, order, command and mandate and, thus, means something more than bringing up or training. Before a child has reached the age of reason, the father's responsibility is to teach and discipline the child (Eph. 6:4) and comprises drawing the boundary within which the child is taught to act. Inside the boundary, good and light prevail. Outside the boundary are evil and darkness.
The boundary, then, represents the line between the absolute truths of right and wrong. When the child crosses the line into wrong, evil and darkness, the father is commanded to discipline the child with physical punishment; namely, the rod (Prov. 13:24; 19:18; 20:30; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15,17). Similarly, when nations do not observe the commandments of God, they experience physical punishment such as drought, locusts and pestilence (II Chr. 7:13); war, famine and wild beasts (Eze. 14:21).
The law of nature holds that a child will not depart from the way he should go, if properly trained-up. Thus, a child's reason should be developed around a set of absolutes which will constitute the ancient boundary within which he or she will continue to be governed by his or her own reason and conscience. A child trained up in the way he should go will use his own reason to adopt the strait gate and narrow way.
In short, a God-centered education produces a person capable of self-government and whose reason performs the legislative function, the conscience performs the judicial function and the will administers the executive function of that government. With a God-centered education, a child learns how to exercise power with authority. A man-centered education leads to a breakdown of self-government because such man-centeredness adheres to no truth or absolutes. A child with a man-centered education is unable to set fixed standards, cannot make rational judgments and, accordingly, is not equipped to use his or her will for exercising power with authority.
The core purpose of values clarification used throughout public education today is to advance the cause of man-centered education. God-centered values are ridiculed along with parents who adhere to them. The purpose is to "unfreeze" any God-centeredness in our children's thinking. Questions challenging any authority are then raised in our children's minds. This creates a vacuum into which man-centered (Humanistic/Atheistic) values are introduced. A "refreezing" process ensues producing a transformed, behaviorally modified individual prepared to respond to the proper stimulus.
Our nation reflects the education of its people. Restoration of the Declaration's principles to public education will restore greatness to our nation.
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Neil F. Markva 16