Hello PB'ers,

Does anyone have information about the Protestant Reformed Churches' latest decision on homeschooling? Good friends of mine who live in Grand Rapids said they interpreted their Church Order to require all members to educate their kids at their own Christian schools and that David Engelsma gave some sort of speech on this.

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Rev. Daniel R. Hyde
Pastor, Oceanside United Reformed Church
www.oceansideurc.org
Carlsbad/Oceanside, California

This should be interesting to hear.

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Benjamin P. Glaser
Pittsburgh, PA
Fairmount ARP Church

Student of Theology
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary
My Blog

I had not heard this, but am interested in the ruling. There are a few Protestant Reformed brothers on the Puritan Board, so perhaps they could fill us in on this issue.

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Stephen Welch
PCA Teaching Elder
Nova Scotia

It is going back to classis. There is a minister (Mitchell Dick) who has been released from his pastoral duties because he will not send his kids to the 'covenant schools'.

A couple of friends of mine have written appeals and things, but it looks like Rev. Dick is going to be a martyr for the right to homeschool in the PRC.

Englesma and Hanko are both preaching against it, and from what I hear from PR friends, they are doing some mighty big isogesis in order to 'prove' their point.

It is quite sad.

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Nathan Eshelman
Grand Rapids, MI
First Reformed Presbyterian Church

PRESBYTERIAN THOUGHTS

First Reformed Presbyterian Church

Yes, it is.

I can understand concern over the state of public education, but why the opposition to homeschooling as well? Do they desire to see catechesis and spiritual training in line with their positions integrated into the education of their children, and if so, is not that the role of the church in her preaching and teaching on the Lord's Day?

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Adam J. Myer
Back to looking for a call...
Evergreen PCA
Salem, Oregon

To me, this sounds like church totalitarianism. Although I believe that parents should be encouraged to remove their children from Statist schools, nevertheless, the matter of whether to exclusively homeschool or use a Christian school is a matter of liberty.

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Daniel Ritchie
Saintfield, Northern Ireland - Queen's University, Belfast:History/Politics
Member of Dromara Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland (Covenanter)

It is very 'fundamentalist' of them! Are they teetotalers as well?

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Is this the latest decision? Pg 309-310 http://www.rfpa.org/downloads/8413.pdf

Bill's

The PRCA in my opinion are the modern day standard bearers regarding the covenant, baptism, and the proclamation of the gospel they also have an outstanding seminary but IF THIS INFORMATION IS TRUE I find it terrible that they would silence the mouth of a man called by God to preach the gospel because he wants to train his children God's way.

January/February, 2008 at the Georgetown PRC

Classis East met at its regularly scheduled time on Wednesday,
January 9, 2008, but because of the business before it, held continued
sessions on February 13, 14, and 27, 2008. All the churches were represented
by two delegates for these sessions. Rev. C. Haak served as chairman.
Classis treated protests from four individuals and a consistory
against decisions taken by classis in September, 2007 regarding a
pastor’s calling with regard to the education of his children in light
of Article 21 of the Church Order. Classis did not uphold any of these
protests, thus allowing the original decisions of classis to stand. (For
a complete presentation of the decisions taken by the September,
2007 classis confer the Report of Classis East given in the November
1, 2007 issue of the Standard Bearer.) Classis also dealt with the report
of a special committee appointed to assist the Grace PRC in
implementing the decisions taken by classis. The discussion of this
report and of the advice of a committee of pre-advice was held in
closed session. Classis, however, decided to make its decisions public. Classis
decided 1) that, in light of the requirements of Article 21 of the
Church Order, Grace PRC’s consistory erred when they judged
valid the reasons for their pastor’s withdrawing his children from two
good Christian schools and home schooling them; 2) to advise Grace
PRC to work with their pastor to show him the inadequacy of his
reasons, and to inform their congregation of this and of the fact that
they are working with him to show him that his reasons are not acceptable
as the pastor of Grace PRC. Because of classis’ concern for the
welfare of the congregation of Grace PRC and for the restoration
of peace and unity in that congregation, it further advised the Council
of Grace PRC to consider whether their pastor can be an effective
preacher/pastor to his congregation and whether he can lead
them out of their present unrest. Classis appointed another special
committee to assist Grace’s Council and Consistory in implementing
these decisions should they desire such help. An overture to Synod 2008
re-garding Article 21 of the Church Order was considered and judged
to be an improper overture. The consistory submitting this overture
subsequently withdrew it.

Me thinks there may be inaccurate information going around.

In other words, there is concern in the Classis over division in the church about their pastor's decision to home-school instead of Christian-school his children?

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HaigLaw, ruling elder
Grace PCA, Shreveport, LA
http://www.xanga.com/HaigLaw

So, in some circles, the church is able to tell parents what to do with their children? I thought this was only the domain of the secular progressives.

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Bill Brown
Elder
Grace Baptist Church
Anne Arundel County, Maryland

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Quite true, but IMHO some mighty big eisogesis is done by those who demand homeschool or else as well.

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Chris Poe--Attending Grace Community Baptist Church, Mandeville, LA

"There never was a man in the world without a creed. What is a creed? A creed is what you believe. What is a confession? It is a declaration of what you believe. That declaration may be oral or it may be committed to writing, but the creed is there either expressed or implied."—B.H. Carroll

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Sterling Harmon
Coventry, CT
PCA
Deacon
________________

"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk

Yeah, that's an oops. Expect recanting by those demanding adherence by the pastor or hardening on their part in the near future.

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Bryan Wiley
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Reformed Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky

Hey, I had to respond to this, just to get the code! I have a Notepad file where I save some of my favorites, and recycle them.

Yeah, parental choice in education, unless it's in the school of Satan or something like that, has got to be a classic case of liberty of conscience.

If I recall correctly, part of the PRCA's argument against homeschooling is that, at least in recent history, its origin is not Christian but secular.

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BJ Mora
Grace OPC, Modesto, CA
Reformed & Presbyterian Churches & Denominations in North America

What does that even mean? Christian origin? Toothbrushes and deodorant aren't of "Christian origin." Are PRCA pastors smelly old men with toothless grins?

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Davidius
Husband of Emilia
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

This may explain the old adage about Baptists being Methodists with shoes, and Presbyterians being Baptists who can read. To round out the adage, Lutherans might qualify as Presbyterians who drink to excess, and Episcopalians as Lutherans who know when to say when. - D.G. Hart

Does Deut. 6 count as Christian origin?

That makes no sense. When I became involved in HS'ing in 1982, it was clear that about half the people were doing it for Christian faith reasons, and half for secular reasons.

So, take your pick. The question, though, is -- who decides? Does the church have jurisdiction to second guess the parents' choice in education? I think not, as long as it's not the school of Satan, or something like that which clearly violates Scripture.

Does Article 21 require the pastor to have his children in the local Christian (I assume PRCA) School?

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Chris Coldwell
Lakewood Presbyterian Church (PCA), Member
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When heresy rises in an evangelical body, it is never frank and open. It always begins by skulking, and assuming a disguise. Its advocates, when together, boast of great improvements, and congratulate one another on having gone greatly beyond the ‘old dead orthodoxy,’ and on having left behind many of its antiquated errors: but when taxed with deviations from the received faith, they complain of the unreasonableness of their accusers, as they ‘differ from it only in words.’ This has been the standing course of errorists ever since the apostolic age. Samuel Miller, Introductory essay, The Articles of the Synod of Dort (1841).

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