Good afternoon to you all from Evangel Classical School (in very early stages of development, but still a send-off point for my greetings, nonetheless)! I hope yours has been a good week. Before I try to encourage you all with a few thoughts on the teaching of truth, I offer a request for your input.
Many of you were at the introduction and information meeting on January 30, where we mentioned our plan to have a follow-up meeting on Monday night April 30 at 7:00 at the Marysville Seventh Day Adventist Church (that’s at 12012 51st Ave NE • Marysville, WA, 98271). So first, consider this your formal invitation to that meeting.
At that meeting we intend to announce more in the way of plans and logistics for next year, including which classes we’ll be able to offer and when. But in order to do that, we need your help.
We are asking folks who are interested in our school to indicate as much on the school Interest Form. It only takes a brief moment. This expression of interest does not commit you to enroll your children; neither does it guarantee your children a place in the school; it’s only for the purpose of data collection. But it’s very important; as you can imagine, it will go a long way in determining how we proceed.
We are asking that families fill out that form by MONDAY APRIL 2. That will give the Committee four weeks to make the needed decisions, whether clear or difficult.
You may also be interested to know that we plan to have another time of conversation, Q&A and fellowship after the TrinityEvangel Church evening service on Sunday March 18. The location is still to be announced, but the conversation will center chiefly on questions or thoughts that may have been triggered by the booklet Classical and Christian Education by Gregg Strawbridge. It’s a loaded ten pages, and if you don’t yet have a copy, you may buy one of your own or let me know, and I’ll try to get you one.
And of course, feel free to pass along this information – or even this email – to your interested and like-minded neighbors and friends.
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Who’s Using Whose Truth?
In epistula, an email newsletter of Veritas Press, Larry R Stephenson, superintendent of Veritas Press Scholars Academy, wrote a pretty spirited email from which I draw the following quotation of Augustine:
Augustine said, “It is like what the Israelites did when they left Egypt and took all their gold with.” We take what God has revealed to pagans and give due recognition to the One who created it.
I thought that was a powerful statement. The world – and by default, public schools – teach lots of truth with a failure to “give due recognition to the One who” has revealed the truth…the Truth Himself. Sure, two plus two is four, but is that the whole story?
It’s fair to ask whether an intentioned withholding of truth is truthful at all. We don’t let our kids get by with this. “You didn’task me if I stayed there the whole night, Mom, so why am I in trouble?” Yet we give the benefit of the doubt to schools, television stations, libraries…. They all have good intentions, just wanting what’s best for our kids right?
Probably not. Because what’s best for our kids is a knowledge of God as He has revealed Himself in His Word and in Creation. The world tries to explain away one, and militantly ignores the other. (Side note: I watched about 90 seconds’ worth of a TV special that actually tried to use “science” to explain away the plagues of Egypt, and how they “naturally” triggered one another. Is that neutral? Well-intentioned?)
We can teach all the truth that the world teaches (incomplete as it is), because it’s borrowing truth from us in the first place. And more than that, we can teach the whole thing because we intentionally glorify the Giver and Source of that truth.
The world is working hard to undo what you’re doing. We’d much rather be tag-team partners with you.
Risus est bellum!