August 18, 2009

I believe it necessary to pick up from last week's column "Who's your king?" with the recognition that while using the choice of Saul as Israel's first king as an illustration, it appeared I was making the case that he was solely the people's choice, not God's. Several e-mails from studious readers properly took me to task, so let me assert that Scripture is clear. God guided Samuel, and in His sovereign plan directed him to anoint Saul (1 Samuel 9).

What cannot be overlooked is that the entire process was a result of the people rejecting the authority of God over the nation and God granting them their first wish.

The consequences were as clear and catastrophic then as they have been in recent decades in this country as we have done the same. Many point to the U.S. Supreme Court banning prayer in government schools (Engel v. Vital, 1962) and outlawing the Bible (Abington Township School District v. Schempp, 1963) as key turning points.

Others look back to 1925 in the famous "won the battle and lost the war" case that occurred in Dayton, Tenn., as lawyers Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan clashed in the "Scopes Monkey Trial" (State v. Scopes, 1926) over the teaching of evolution in schools.

The reality is that our struggle against spiritual, moral, cultural and political decline is simply the latest chapter in the war begun when Lucifer rebelled against God, followed by persuading Adam and Eve to disobey God and introducing sin into the permanent condition of the world. Since that day man has been inventing ways to circumvent God, make Him in our image, or ignore Him altogether...

Friday, September 11, 2009
10 AM - 2 PM
Doors open at 9:30 am, Lunch included

First Baptist Church Pflugerville - Education Campus
  306 S. 10th St.
  Pflugerville, Texas 78660


------------------
CLICK HERE to register today, or to find out more information!
*Registration deadline: Monday, September 7

To view a list of speakers, click here

In 2008, ADF launched the Pulpit Initiative which is designed to restore the right of pastors to speak freely from the pulpit on any and all issues addressed by Scripture.  In 2008, thirty-three pastors from twenty-two states participated in “Pulpit Freedom Sunday.”  This year, Pulpit Freedom Sunday will occur on September 27, 2009, and ADF is continuing and expanding the Sunday in two ways...

Each year, the homeschool movement graduates at least 100,000 students. Due to the fact that both the United States government and homeschool advocates agree that homeschooling has been growing at around 7% per annum for the past decade, it is not surprising that homeschooling is gaining increased attention. Consequently, many people have been asking questions about homeschooling, usually with a focus on either the academic or social abilities of homeschool graduates.

As an organization advocating on behalf of homeschoolers, Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) long ago committed itself to demonstrating that homeschooling should be viewed as a mainstream educational alternative.

We strongly believe that homeschooling is a thriving education movement capable of producing millions of academically and socially able students who will have a tremendously positive effect on society.

Despite much resistance from outside the homeschool movement, whether from teachers unions, politicians, school administrators, judges, social service workers, or even family members, over the past few decades homeschoolers have slowly but surely won acceptance as a mainstream education alternative. This has been due in part to the commissioning of research which demonstrates the academic success of the average homeschooler.

The last piece of major research looking at homeschool academic achievement was completed in 1998 by Dr. Lawrence Rudner. Rudner, a professor at the ERIC Clearinghouse, which is part of the University of Maryland, surveyed over 20,000 homeschooled students. His study, titled Home Schooling Works, discovered that homeschoolers (on average) scored about 30 percentile points higher than the national average on standardized achievement tests...