Dominion Mandate Education
by Dr. Richard A. Jones
9/5/2007

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Supporters have been happy with American Vision over the last 25 years because of its resolute goal of seeing God’s Kingdom advanced. And, we have confidence (but not smug overconfidence) that more God-honoring achievements will continue for many decades to come. This upbeat conviction is solidly grounded on two key factors: The first is the fundamental principle held personally by the entire AV staff, whether on or off duty, that 24/7 obedience to Him (John 14:15; Ecclesiastes 12:13) is the key ingredient in any winning formula for success. Our dedication to obedience comes as close as possible to guaranteeing we’ll continue to enjoy His abundant blessings, not just directly at AV, but—most importantly—we’ll also see them spread to the nation we are trying hard to influence.   

The second pillar is the hard-won insight that Christianity will prevail here and in the West only if the next generation of Christians is passionately dedicated to the command details of God’s “Dominion Mandate,” but—and this is the hard part—the new replacements will need to be made of sterner stuff than that exhibited by the last half century’s church-goers and leaders. Sadly, Christian pollster George Barna’s exhaustive and disheartening findings are exhibit A of dwindling Christian influence in the public square and of overall Christian reluctance to step up and make a difference. In fact, even without professional polling, who of us can’t tell of direct experiences with an imploding culture, and who of us hasn’t noticed the obvious absence of “fighting Christians” out there in the trenches where the battle for hearts and minds is being waged? While the broad path to dysfunction becomes more and more apparent, and with the truly important victories defaulting over to humanist groups on the left as instigated by malevolent forces in media, education, pop entertainment, government and more, the Christian community’s failure to exert positive influence means we’ve earned the embarrassing label—“no longer relevant in culture.” Nonetheless, AV’s critical analysis of the problem indicates that temporary Christian reluctance to work for a more biblically oriented culture can be turned around, the disease cured, a nation saved and God obeyed.

AV, along with a still too small cadre of friends, is convinced that the best repair game-plan lies within the increasingly respected educational initiative of Christian homeschooling or CHS. When enough Christian parents become biblically serious about their responsibilities, it will be in those academic and spiritual boot camps within their homes that well-trained youth activists will be turned into the kind of rugged scholars, leaders and biblical worldview transmitters that God desires and requires. AV’s overall goal, strategy, and tactics format has zeroed in on the fact that home education, with the all-important commitment of parents—especially dad—creates the best chance for taking back our kids and our culture. God knows this plan can’t fail and American Vision plans on doing all it can to bring millions of American parents alongside us in that conviction. 

 We all can be encouraged by 2 million homeschoolers (out of approximately 45 million nationwide) who are yielding God-honoring fruit. But, in spite of optimistic trends, two serious problems remain. The current CHS start-up rates and graduation numbers are still inadequate given the magnitude of the struggle, and second, far too many in what should be leadership slots are manifestly risk averse in facing up to the dysfunction and religious hostility inherit in the public schools and to the profound “obedience challenge” God is relentlessly pestering them with regarding youth education.   

The purpose of these columns will be to equip and inspire far-sighted readers about homeschooling and encourage you to share the CHS message with others (for exponential growth progression purposes) whether you are still single, married, and planning to have children, already gifted with them or if you are a grandparent who understands that we win this battle only when today’s youth are trained not just for academic excellence but also to become tomorrow’s inspired community leaders and to do it as a matter of routine biblical obedience. Using personal testimonies, articles, interviews with CHS pacesetters and your emails, we’ll be encouraging you to think of home schooling as God’s strategy of choice for setting right a culture that was once—and can again be—dedicated to Him. There will also be special emphasis on hesitant pastors, a core factor in this endeavor, as we exhort them to rise to the occasion and make nationwide spiritual transformation a Colossians 3:17 reality:

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