State Schools, the Truth, and Discipleship

Before the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and sat down at God the Father’s right hand to rule His followers in the midst of His and their enemies through the church, He commanded them visibly and physically to go and make disciples of all nations. “Make disciples” is the meaning of “teach," in Matthew 28:19, the Greek word, matheteuo. A major aspect of making disciples of Jesus Christ is the truth. Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is both synonymous with and parallel with being a disciple of the truth.

You can’t be a disciple of Jesus Christ and also a disciple of lies. We can and do know the foundational or fundamental truths that buttress and cover everything we need to know to be everything we need to be and to do everything that we need to do. In other words, we have all the truth necessary in scripture to succeed in life, which Paul calls in 2 Timothy 3:17, “throughly furnishing unto every good work.”

Being made a disciple of Jesus fits the language of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:29, conforming to the image of the Son. Conforming to Jesus Christ is also what Jesus said in John 17:17, that is, to be sanctified by the truth, about which He says that the Word of God is truth. For everyone to be made disciples of Jesus Christ, the children in families need to hear, know, be disciplined in, and live the truth. Their school curriculum then must be the truth.

On the most important, vital truths to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, the public or state school not only does not have those in its curriculum, but it teaches the opposite of them. These are not just “religious truths” as opposed to “secular truths.” These are just truths. Part of separating necessary truths from the state schools, the state called these, religious. No, they’re just the truth, these truths, and everyone needs to know them to succeed.