What Should We Make of the Pope's Visit?

It's been quite a spectacle to observe and listen to, hasn't it?  Seeing the crowds roll out in the tens of thousands, many of them having NO connection to the Roman Catholic Church, and listening to newscasters falling all over themselves to make us all believe this is the greatest event in US history has been, to say the least, a worrisome curiosity.

He has been called the greatest Christian leader of the world, a holy man, the vicar (representative with same power and authority) of Christ, among other examples of lavish praise.  As Christians, those who hold to the cardinal truth that salvation is by grace through faith alone, what should we make of this visit by Pope Francis?  First let's look at the obvious.

1.  He IS the leader of the Catholic church.  Since the fifth century, the Catholic church has been led by an elected pope, the first likely to be Leo I.  There is some debate on that.
2.  He is probably a very moral and decent man, certainly one who understands the need to pay less attention to pretense and more to the common people.
3.  He is addressing some things that need to be addressed to a church that has been rocked by perverse and immoral scandal, such as sexual abuse by the priesthood.
4.  He is immensely popular among the vast majority of the Catholics who are used to seeing popes that are so old and out of touch that they cannot connect with the people of the church.
5.  He has caused those who are NOT Catholic to see the church, and the papacy in particular, with a more positive view.

But, as Christians, let's not get swallowed up in the love fest that is taking place in Washington today.  We must remember that this man, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, holds tightly to the doctrines of the church, doctrines that can find no real basis in Bible truth. Among those are:

 

The Worship of Mary - Roman Catholics believe that Mary, the mother of Jesus, remained a virgin after the birth of Jesus and was sinless all of her life. She is worshiped in the Catholic church as the “Mother of God” and the “Queen of Heaven.” St. Bernard stated that she was crowned “Queen of Heaven” by God the Father, and that she currently sits upon a throne in Heaven making intercession for Christians.  She is often referred to by the church as the co-redeemer with Christ.  The Bible teaches otherwise.

  

Purgatory - The Catholic Church teaches that a Christian’s soul must burn in purgatory after death until all of their sins have been purged. To speed up the purging process, money may be paid to a priest so he can pray and have special masses for an earlier release. 

This heresy began creeping into the Roman Church during the reign of Pope Gregory around the end of the sixth century, and it has no scriptural support. In fact, Jesus warned us about this pagan practice in Matthew 23:14 when He spoke of those who devoured widows houses and made long prayers for a pretence. Psalm 49:6-7 tells us that a person couldn’t redeem a loved one, even if such a place did exist: “They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:”

Peter addresses this issue in Acts 8:20 when he says, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” God’s word is clearly against the doctrine of purgatory.


 The Mass - By perverting the Christian practice of the Lord’s Supper (Mat. 26:26-28; I Cor. 11:23-27), the Catholic Church has created the Mass, which they believe to be a continual sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

 The Catholic Encyclopedia states the following:
In the celebration of the Holy Mass, the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ. It is called transubstantiation, for in the Sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of bread and wine do not remain, but the entire substance of bread is changed into the body of Christ, and the entire substance of wine is changed into his blood, the species or outward semblance of bread and wine alone remaining.” (Vol. 4, pg. 277, Article: “Consecration”)  The Catholic Church teaches that the “Holy Mass” is a LITERAL EATING AND DRINKING OF THE LITERAL FLESH AND BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST. The priest supposedly has the power to change the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ.

Now, what does God’s word say about such practices? If you’ll read Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 17:11-12, and Acts 15:29, you will find that God absolutely FORBIDS the drinking of blood all through the Bible.  Rome teaches that the Mass is a continual “sacrifice” of Jesus Christ, but God’s word states that Jesus made the FINAL sacrifice on Calvary! This is made perfectly clear in Hebrews 10:10-12:
“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.”

 Salvation by Works - Through infant baptism, keeping sacraments, church membership, going to mass, praying to Mary, and confession (just to mention a few), the Catholic church has developed a system of salvation through WORKS. God’s word says that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not through works:
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” Ephesians 2:8,9
“But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Romans 4:5 

While the pope's visit may be a landmark occasion, it is not a visit by the greatest Christian leader of our day.  While he may be the most popular pope in history and the "people's pope", as the leader of a church that holds to totally unbiblical doctrines mentioned above, he cannot rightfully be called a Christian at all. 

The Classroom - Teacher, Curriculum or Student Centered?

It has often been said that change is a part of life.  We know that to be true.  Some things, such as technology, change rapidly.  The hot tech gadget today is cast onto the obsolete trash heap tomorrow. Some things change much more slowly and educational processes is one of those.  In many educational circles the teaching philosophies that grew out of industrial revolution of the mid to late 19th century have changed very little in the last 150 years.  One of those philosophies is the teacher centered classroom. What is meant by that term, "teacher centered classroom"?  It is a simple fact that the educational activities of the school classroom revolve around something.  In most cases it is one of three things:  the teacher, the curriculum, the student.

For centuries in most schools, the classroom was teacher centered. He/she was the constant.  His/her teaching methodology was static, based in lesson plans that focused on primarily one learning style and the goal was to get the students, all of them, to come to learning by the method determined by the teacher.  Teachers who had been teaching many years were set in their method and often resisted change, still using lesson plans written many years before.  Sure, the curriculum may have changed, supplemental materials and technology may have driven some adaptations, but the methodology was pretty much the same from year to year. Far too often the unspoken attitude was, "I am the teacher.  I am a professional educator.  I know the best way to do it.  You come to learning through the style I present."

A few decades ago the educational gurus of America came to the conclusion that the classroom needed to be more curriculum centered.  Since it is the curriculum that lays out the material the brightest educational minds had determined needed to be mastered, everything needed to revolve around the curriculum.  We know how that worked out when phonics based learning was replaced by the whole language program and an entire generation of students failed to learn to read well.  Not surprisingly, phonics or phonetically based learning has returned to the classroom in the majority of elementary schools in America.

The student centered philosophy holds that in a classroom of 24 students there could be as few as four and as many as eight different ways students learn most effectively.  It doesn't mean they CAN'T learn any other way.  It simply means that they can learn faster, more effectively, with greater retention, even in their most difficult subjects, when the material is presented in a way that connects to their learning style. There will also be students with varying degrees of cognitive ability, cultural experiences and background knowledge and the teacher must use various methods of presenting the material to meet the needs of all the students in the class.  This is called differentiated instruction and it creates great challenges for a teacher who has the "my way or highway" attitude about the way he/she teaches.  But, make no mistake.  It IS the only way we can effectively reach a level of academic excellence in our schools as they become more and more diverse.  Gone is the day when a veteran teacher can continue to employ one old "tried and true" teaching style.  The challenge now, a challenge that will only become more daunting in the future, is not just WHAT do I teach, but HOW do I teach this material so ALL my students have a chance to learn and master the work?

Here at ACS we are working with our teaching staff to develop the student centered classroom environment we know our increasingly more diverse student body requires.  I am thankful for our teachers who have been willing to re-tool and re-create their methods to reach all the students they  are blessed to teach each day.  We have more work to do, but day by day we are making great strides.  We have a tremendous teaching staff.  Pray that God will continue to bless their work!

The Wise Parent Builds His Child Upon the Rock

This title sounds quite biblical doesn't it?  Of course, you know I'm using a play on words from a portion of Jesus sermon on the mount, the parable of the builders.  Permit me a few minutes of your time to explain the connection.

Building has always fascinated me.  The whole process is so orderly and well planned from a piece of bare ground to a complete house or building.  That is because successful building is based on a set of engineering laws that find their roots not only in the records of ancient builders but, as all natural laws, are based in God's plan of order.  Every successful and lasting building begins with a well engineered and laid foundation.  This was the teaching of Jesus in his parable of the builders.  The foolish builder cut corners, for whatever reason, and did not dig into the soil and pour or lay a solid foundation (we call it a footer today) for his house so when the storms came, the unstable ground shifted and slipped and the house collapsed. The wise builder, however, took the time to plan and went to the extra expense to build a rock solid foundation and the house could withstand the shifting sands and storms that would beat against it.  It's simple, right?  Just plain old common sense, correct?  Not so common as you might think.

Let me share two illustrations and then an application and you can determine what makes the most sense.

A parent walks into our school and says to us, "I have a four year old child and I want him in a Christian school now because I want them to have biblical foundation. As he goes through school, our home, our church AND our school can build on that solid foundation together.  That way, if I can only afford a few years of Christian education it will be at the most crucial time for my child, when the foundations are being built,"

Another parent walks into our school and says to us, "I have a twelve year old child who is about to go into middle school and middle school is a dangerous time. I don't like what goes on over there at the public middle school.  I bringing him to you to give them a safe place to go to school.  The public elementary school was safe. There were good Christian teachers and we didn't see any problems with him being there the first six years of school."

In those two scenarios, who was the wisest parent?  Understand, it is great for kids to enroll at ACS or another good Christian school anytime, but where are the foundations being built?  At the risk of becoming somewhat clinical, let me explain.  Children will have developed their basic cognitive belief system (worldview) between the ages of four and twelve.  Theythen spend much of their adolescent and adult years seeking confirmation of their worldview.  This explains much about the social interaction of teens and why they tend to seek out those who see the world like they do and "hang with that crowd."  So, with that in mind, IF a parent can only afford Christian education for, say, six years, where should they place that investment? In pre-school/elementary OR middle/high school?  I'll answer that question with two additional questions.  Where are foundational worldviews established?  Do you want your child's educational worldview established from a biblical or secular point of view?  The WISE man built his house on the rock and when the winds blew and the storms raged the house on the rock stood fast.  IF you can only afford a few years of Christian education, give us your children young, when the foundation is being built.  That way their chances of withstanding the storms of Satanic attack and humanistic teaching are greatly increased. The profound simplicity of common sense.

The Unwise Trend Toward Child Centered Homes

Okay, a little warning at the outset.  Some who read this are not going to necessarily like what I'm about to say, but if they will take time to think about it they may come to agree with my basic thoughts.

What do I mean by "child centered homes" and why is it an unwise trend?  The child centered home is exactly as it sounds.  Everything revolves around the child(ren).  Major decisions are often left up to children.  Family schedules are built around activities of the children.  If a child struggles in school it's the failure of the teacher.  If the child gets in trouble in school it's someone else's fault.  If another student looks at the child funny he/she is being bullied.

I sat with a family who was looking to enroll their first grader in our school.  After giving them a tour and answering many questions, I asked the parents what they thought about enrolling and was astounded at the answer, "Well, we'll go home and talk about it and see if he wants to come to school here."  Really?  They were going to let a six year old make education decisions for himself?

Recently a parent met with me about a discipline issue and when I suggested that perhaps the story their child had told them might be just a bit suspect, the response I got, while not surprising, was a bit disappointing.  "I can't believe you're suggesting my child would lie.  I'll not have you attacking my child and calling him a liar.  My child would never lie like that."   My thought was, "This child has his dad right where he wants him."

Who of us hasn't heard, "My kids come first in my life"?

Now, let me say, I have three very good Christian kids and five wonderful grandkids.  I love them more than my own life.  Their mother and I raised them in a home filled with love, support and the best guidance we could give them.  We tried to give them opportunities to succeed and encourage them to get up and keep going when they failed, and they did fail from time to time because they are not only human, but they still have a carnal fleshly nature.  My kids had no sense of entitlement because we tried to constantly remind them that the world didn't revolve around them and our home didn't revolve around them.  If they wanted to succeed they had to work at it, nothing was going to be given to them.  We insisted that they work and pay a sizable chunk of their own college costs.  Their mom and I weren't going always be around to fight their battles for them so they should not come home whining about homework or a mean teacher or someone picking on them and they didn't.  Our kids didn't come first in our home and our lives didn't revolve around our children.  They knew they were loved, they knew we were going to pray for them and provide their needs.  But we also knew they had to learn to get along in a world where they were NOT always going to get what they wanted, never felt disappointed, never felt mistreated, never got their feelings hurt and didn't have things handed to them. Now before some who are reading this pass out or brand us terrible parents, let me tell you the result.  Our kids are all born again believers.  They are all independent, hard working, great parents, love the closeness of their family unit.  They've gone to college, had their own kids, raised them as they were raised, to stand up on their own two feet and don't waste their time bellyaching or whining about how tough and unfair life is.

There is a danger that comes with this "my child comes first" mentality, a culture that has taught kids that they are entitled to be the center of attention.  It has begun to create generation after generation of teens and adults who can't handle failure, live on antidepressants because they were never forced to face disappointment with courage and strength, expect someone else to provide for them and sue anyone who looks at them sideways They look for a handout because they had pretty much everything handed to them their whole lives.  I encourage you who are parents reading this, start or continue teaching your kids that the the world does NOT revolve around them and they are only entitled to what they work for.  Love them, encourage them, give them a safe place to fall. Let them experience disappointment even though it will make you sad. Teach them a good work ethic and make them earn some of their way.  When things get tough in school, in life, don't step in and bail them out.  Let them figure their own way to get through it. They'll have to do this the rest of their lives.  We ALL want our kids to have good lives.  Well, a good life comes with hard work, common sense and a determination to face failure head on and get up and keep going!  THAT, my friends is both taught and caught!