All posts by Samuel Adams

I've lived in Canon City my whole life. It makes me sick to think of where this country is headed. The solutions are in God's Word.
End Public School

Common Core Is Our Only Hope

For several years now, I’ve only ever heard people mocking common core. I’ve seen dozens of examples of how warped math education is in that system.

In a Facebook conversation, I pointed out that American public schools rank 24th in the world in science and reading, and 38th in the world in math.  Public education is a rat hole for money and is harmful to children.

I was a amused to see a local school board member pipe up in response, and pin her hopes for moving up in the rankings on common core.

There’s a lot to comment on there, so I’ll try to be brief.

1. I certainly wouldn’t trust the same people who have driven our education system into the dirt to devise the solution.

2. Common core is a joke, and will only take us further down in the rankings.

3. If, as she says, you don’t have the know-how to teach your children, why would you send them to the same system that failed you?

4. Home schooling can be done for free, so money isn’t an issue.

5.  I sympathize with single parents and people who are genuinely lacking in time to spend with their kids. Churches should step in to help in these situations wherever possible. But, many people who think they need two incomes need to reduce their spending and raise their children properly.

Scripture says that we should teach our children as we lie down as we sit at home and as we walk along the road (Deuteronomy 6). Nowhere is government given the job of educating children and when it educates children, it is usurping jurisdiction from its rightful owners. And it’s clear why governments would want to educate the citizens, as they have a vested interest in the docility of the population within its borders. But just like everything else government does, it does poorly and expensively.

The days are numbered for public school. Technology is going to drastically change education in the next decade or two. Public education will die a slow death as new competitors arise and drastically outperform it.

 

End Public School

Public School Teachers

A public school teacher acquaintance said that she wishes homeschool parents would pray for public schools and explain that there are many good teachers working in public school.

Here’s my response to her.

I’m not trying to be mean when I say this. I think that there are several biblical issues that are clear to me, but seem to not be understood by most Christians, and are rarely or never taught from the pulpit.
 The public school system (and all American government agencies) are forbidden from acknowledging Christ as Lord. Jesus said in Matthew 12:30 that you’re either for Him or against Him. Public school cannot be for Christ, therefore it is antichrist.
 
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 1:7). All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ (Colossians 2:3). Anyone who attempts to gain knowledge apart from acknowledging Christ is directly contradicting Scripture.
 
Nowhere does Scripture give the education of children to government. It is explicitly given to parents (Deuteronomy 6). It is funded by theft and socialism, and I will not pray for it to prosper but for it to be abolished. I will pray that you have wisdom in speaking boldly for Christ. But I’m afraid that if you speak as boldly as you ought, that you will not remain employed there for very long.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more on this topic.
I certainly sympathize with someone who spent four years in college preparing for a career as a teacher and who later sees the truth. I have found that it is hard for people who are heavily invested in something are incapable of thinking logically about it, and I’m sure I’m included in that as well.
Christianity, End Public School, Taxation

Confused Pastors

I know a guy who is a pastor in town, and has been a Christian for decades. I’m not all that young anymore, but this guy has had formal Bible education and has a lot more experience in life and in studying Scripture than I have. You would think this is someone that I could look up to and find answers from–not someone I would have to be offering correction to. Furthermore, I think that today, and hopefully for the rest of my life, that if someone offers me a logical correction that includes a lot of Bible verses that I will be open to hearing them, no matter how much younger they are.

And it’s not like his generation (or him personally) has it all together and they’ve been so successful in accomplishing so much for Christ. They (and their predecessors for generations now) have stood by and watched our culture rot. They have been miserable failures. They have zero cause for cockiness or thinking they have it all figured out.

Larry Weaver, the pastor of the First Baptist Church, has come out in favor of this property tax increase for the school district. I pointed out to him that public school is antichrist because of what Jesus said in Matthew 12:30. My comment disappeared.

I wrote him a message saying it looks like my comment was deleted and that was fine, but I’d like to discuss this issue because there are serious biblical issues with this. He wrote me back and said that he didn’t delete the comment, his friend hid the comment. I don’t really know what the difference is, but there’s that clarification. Neither has the comment reappeared, so I don’t think there’s any difference. He said he’s not interested in discussing it with me online or in-person.

In his message, he said that there are enough Christian teachers doing good work that he doesn’t consider the school system to be antichrist. Well, that’s nice, but I don’t remember having any openly Christian teachers in my time in public school. Maybe the whole thing has been completely Christianized since then (ha, ha, ha). Also, public school is funded by socialism and theft–things frowned on in Scripture. If Christian teachers are taking advantage of a socialist system to advance Christianity, they’re attempting to advance Christianity by the sword, by government power. If they’re not attempting to advance Christianity, they’re advancing humanism.

I also pointed out the injustice of property tax and I said that anyone who votes for this is guilty of covetousness, which is covered by the Tenth Commandment. If someone personally objects for whatever reason, the people voting for this are in favor of using government force to make them pay. They aren’t standing up for the weakest among us, but for the principle that might makes right. It’s disgusting to me.

And the vast majority of Christians think that we can vote however we want  on issues like this. They think that Scripture must not dictate and we shouldn’t get into politics. But the truth is that every area of life is moral and religious and a spiritual man is able to discern the truth, and judge rightly by God’s standard (1 Corinthians 2:15-16). Pastors and the previous generation have failed us miserably, and there are very few who can judge properly.

Basic Economics, Capitalism, Christianity, End Public School, Reject Socialism

Good Conversation

I wasn’t planning on posting this, but these conversations have had a habit of being deleted lately, so I decided to start saving them. This one got deleted, so you can read it below.

I have seen so many shocking comments in conversations on this topic. This Patty Armfield Witkowsky woman is someone I thought was a Christian (I could be wrong about that), but you can see she has no concept of the golden rule, what the Bible says about how to educate children, the antichrist nature of our government and public school (Matt. 12:30) or seeing covetousness as a sin. And I don’t really blame her. You could sit through thousands of hours of sermons in the typical church and never hear anything about these topics. No wonder our country is going down the tubes when we have ignorant Christians and ignorant pastors. This woman’s soul is at stake, and her pastor is heinously negligent.

In another conversation a woman said, “I will never understand the grouchy people who don’t understand this concept!” The concept being that we should invest in our children’s future by voting for this socialist ballot initiative. I’m no psychologist, but I would say the inability to show a little empathy is a sign of some sort of disorder. She really can’t understand why someone might disagree with her and not care to be threatened and forced to pay for a cause they don’t believe in? It seems pretty simple to me.

And in some deep recess of Patty’s mind the thought sprung that people refraining from eating dinner out  is going to help business. She must have been publicly educated.

End Public School

Who Should Homeschool?

I hear many people say that not everyone can homeschool. Here’s a great way to answer that.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9, Ephesians 6:4, Psalm 1, and Proverbs 22:6 (and others) tell us how our children are to be taught. God has given us clear instruction! Christian education is not an alternative. It is not a luxury. It is not even just a good idea. It is the law of God.

Too many Christian parents say, “The Bible might teach this, but my circumstances make it next to impossible. My circumstances excuse me from my responsibility to God. I do not have to obey the Lord in this matter because of my situation.”

I would add that the church should be helping any family in need to get their children out of government schools.


Christianity, Conversation, Reject Socialism, Taxation, Theonomy

Property Tax is Theft

So there are at least two tax hikes on the ballot for Canon City. One is a property tax increase for the school district…for the children. I’ve posed this objection several times, and no one has answered yet, because there is no rational answer. Here’s the objection, and the response of someone who is normally reasonable, logical and successful in life.

His response is that voting gives the government the ability to steal. I don’t know whether voting turns stealing into not stealing, or just means that government can steal. But what a silly answer. Clearly this is a religious view for him. He thinks there is some sort of magic that takes place at an election that causes property tax to be acceptable.

Pastors need to be talking about this from the pulpit. There is stupidity in America, because pastors are not doing their job. They’re not preaching against covetousness and theft, or explaining that the government is accountable to the law of God.

The second tax hike is a lodging tax, and someone went around and put up an obscene number of bandit signs around town. The slogan on the signs says, “The tax someone else pays.” I hope there is a pastor in this town that points out the obvious violation of the golden rule being promoted on those signs to every man, woman and child in this town, but I’m not holding my breath.

Abolish The Police, Christianity, Resistance to Tyranny is Obedience to God

Eric Garner Is An American Hero

Image result for eric garner
I wrote about Eric Garner when he was choked to death on the street for selling loose cigarettes and resisting arrest. His murderer, an NYPD officer, was found not guilty, of course. I’ve been thinking about it off and on ever since.

So many people (mostly brain-dead conservatives and Christians) hold the theory that you should never resist arrest, yet nearly seem to worship the founding fathers who resisted arrest attempts of British authorities.  There is no reconciling this in any logical fashion. Shockingly, it is vogue among Christians who have seen this contradiction to say the founding fathers were in sin. Regardless, both camps would hold that anyone resisting arrest today gets whatever they deserve.

Eric Garner was placed under arrest for selling loose cigarettes. The main issue is that he was not paying the proper taxes. The question is whether that is a just law or an unjust law. Justice is an absolute, and the only basis for determining whether a law is just is to compare it to the standard of God’s law. Certainly, under God’s law, this was neither a crime or a sin. Therefore, Garner had every right to resist his arrest, for this law was nothing more than tyrants making up arbitrary laws based on their own idolatry.

I certainly wish that Garner hadn’t died that day, but as far as I’m concerned he’s an American hero on par with the founding fathers. He stood alone against tyranny. I hope that someday there will be streets named after him.

American conservatism and Christianity seems to be anything but conservative or Christian. I hope that someday all of these duped “conservatives” will recognize their inconsistency and pastors will start preaching the whole counsel of God’s law.

Christianity, Reject Socialism

What is Covetousness?

The Tenth Commandment is, “You shall not covet.”

I mentioned recently that I’m starting to recognize a lot of covetousness in the public sphere. For a long time, I didn’t really comprehend what covetousness is. I would define it as wanting something so badly that it is a sin, or being willing to steal something, or prompt someone else to steal it. The woman in that post certainly demonstrated covetousness. I will give some other examples.

I went to a Planned Parenthood rally yesterday in Colorado Springs to remind them that abortion is murder with several friends. The Colorado Springs socialists showed up, and they were kind of like Antifa wannabes. One dude covered his face with a bandanna, they blocked the sidewalk, and stole signs.

They said that they want to seize the means of production so that it can be owned by the workers. The one young guy said he works 40-60 hours a week for $25,000 and his eeeeevil boss makes hundreds of thousands by owning the company and exploiting him. He covets more free time and money to the point that he wants the government to steal the means of production from the current owners.

Another example of covetousness was a letter to the editor during the last election over the issue of whether the Canon City sales tax should be raised to pay for new roads. A guy wrote that he wants new roads, and the sales tax would be a way for out-of-towners to help pay for them. He revealed his sinful covetousness to the whole town.

I can’t remember the last time I heard a pastor explain this. What if Christians were taught to apply the Bible to their politics and voting? What if the guy who wrote the letter to the editor knew that Christians would immediately recognize his sinful attitude? Why does he feel no shame in expressing his sin in public? Because Christians haven’t taught God’s law.

There are enough Christians in this country that if covetousness in politics was taught to be a sin, very few tax increases would ever pass again. Is covetousness in the voting booth less of a sin than covetousness in day-to-day life?