Volume 2, Issue 11

January 21, 2025

Uh oh! I offended an Instagram friend this weekend when I advised her to use discernment about a particular “Christian homeschool curriculum.”

 

I’m not arguing that Christian homeschoolers should only use Christian curriculum, First name / friend. What I am saying is that if something calls itself “Christian,” there are certain standards it should meet. And unfortunately in our society today anyone can slap the label “Christian” on something, and we are just supposed to accept it as sound.

 

First, origin is important!

 

The person who wrote the curriculum should have a Christian worldview. Whether we like it or not, our worldview will show up in our work. It would be very difficult for me, someone who has a Christian worldview, to write a credible “Muslim homeschool curriculum.” I just simply do not share that worldview.

 

And then who are they writing the curriculum for? A curriculum can be marketed as non-denominational, but do they only include other Christian denominations, or are they including other religions, holding to completely different beliefs?

 

Once you actually delve into the material itself, here are some questions to ask:

 

 

The Bible is the ultimate authority for the Christian. If there are other writings—sacred, pholosophical, etc.—placed at the same level as the Bible, the work is not Christian.

 

This doesn’t mean that no other writings can be quoted, but they must be interpreted and applied in light of Scripture, not their own authority.

 

 

Many religions will talk about God, and often God is held in the same regard as He is for Christians. But Jesus is a differentiating person for Christianity. Not only should a Christian curriculum refer to Him as the Son of God, but also as God Himself, the second person of the Trinity. 

 

If Jesus is not presented in this position, the work is not Christian.

 

 

The problem: Man is sinful. Man cannot be both the problem and the solution. It is popular to teach that we can just be better, either through morals, education, or tapping into our “divine spark.” 

 

If the material teaches that man can work his own way out of the problem, the work is not Christian.

 

This is not an exhaustive list, and I don’t think we have to agree with everything presented in a Christian curriculum, but if it is teaching the right things on these three points, then I would argue it is pretty safe. Otherwise, I would be reluctant to use a curriculum that calls itself Christian but doesn’t even understand the basics of the worldview.

If you are reading through the Bible chronologically this year, then you have recently made it through the story of Abraham and Sarah. Click the button below to read a blog post titled Lessons from the Life of Sarah in Genesis.

We have multiple covenants described in the book of Genesis, so it is a good idea to define what a covenant is. A covenant is made between two or more parties indicating a promise to fulfill or perform certain actions. Another word for covenant is testament. This would make the divisions in our Bible the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.

 

A covenant might be conditional or unconditional, in other words, in a conditional covenant, one party will only keep his promise if the other person does their part, whereas an unconditional covenant means that one party is bound to fulfill his promise no matter what the other party does. While God's covenant to make Abraham a great nation was unconditional, He often added conditions for how it would play out with the nation of Israel.

 

The New Covenant is a bit different because the indwelling of the Holy Spirit gives us a desire to be faithful, which is a perk the Israelites under the Old Covenant didn't have. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit did indwell some people, but He could also leave them (i.e. King Saul). Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant.

 

In the book of Genesis, we have an implied conditional covenant between God and Adam (2:15-17). There is a spoken unconditional covenant between God and Noah, which stated that God would never again destroy the earth with water (9:8-11). The Abrahamic covenant takes place in chapter 15, but it is also repeated to Isaac and Jacob.

 

When God made a covenant with Abraham (Abram at the time), the ceremony is a little strange to our western thinking. Abram had just rescued Lot and made enemies of the surrounding nations. God begins chapter 15 by reminding Abram that God is his protector, so he doesn't need to fear. Then God asks Abram to bring specific animals, cut them in half and lay them with a path between the pieces.This was the way a covenant was made in Abram's culture. This was not foreign to him.

 

What was strange, even for Abram, was that he did not participate in the covenant. He was asleep! The covenant didn't need Abram's participation because God would fulfill it no matter what Abram did. In fact, Abraham repeatedly put God's plan in jeopardy, but God protected it.

 

The fire pot and flaming torch that passed down the path between the pieces of the animals would have been reassuring to the Israelites, Moses' audience, because they had been wandering in the wilderness following a pillar of fire/cloud. It always amazes me how God maintains the same imagery throughout the Scriptures no matter how much time has passed.

 

There are covenants beyond the book of Genesis. Here is a list, but keep in mind that not all scholars agree on all of the covenants, whether they are conditional or unconditional, whether they have all been fulfilled or not, etc.

You can read a brief explanation of these covenants by clicking the button below.

As I was reading through the letter to the Hebrews, the theme that kept running through my head was “Jesus is better!” It seemed like everything the author discussed was good, but Jesus is better. If you’ve struggled to find a theme as you have been reading, read it with this theme in mind and see if it fits.

Some examples of this theme:

And because Jesus is better, we can trust Him, and we should strive to serve only Him!

The author of Hebrews regularly interrupts the flow of the book to warn his audience. There are five specific passages where this happens:

The author is warning his audience to persevere, to stop sinning, to not fall away. While the book does not teach salvation by works (that is contrary to the Gospel), one of the evidences of a true believer is endurance in the faith in the face of persecution and hard times.

I don’t think it is an accident that we are reading this book right now. So many of us have had our faith shaken over the last several years, and a purging of the church seems to have taken place.

Take a moment to read through Hebrews 2:14-18. I'll wait.

 

When I read this passage, the part that stands out to me for our current time is verse 15, "and deliver those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery." How timely! Do you know anyone who over the last several years has demonstrated she is a slave to the fear of death?

 

But we don't have to fear death! Look back at verse 14, "...that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil." Jesus' death not only destroyed death, but it also destroyed the one who has the power of death. Jesus took away Satan's weapon!

 

As we continue the short passage, we find there are many benefits for us in Jesus' sacrifice, but it is hard for me to get past the fact that Jesus destroyed the very thing Satan uses against us. He has rendered Satan impotent.

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