Melville-Knox, a Christian school established in Aberdeen, Scotland, officially opened in August 2023 after years of prayer, planning and organisation. We give thanks to the Lord that we have been able to reach this significant milestone! The vision and drive to establish this school has been grounded upon Scriptural conviction and the desire to establish a valid option for Christian parents in an increasingly alarming spiritual climate in our country.
The History of our Nation
There are fewer than ten Christian schools in a nation with such a rich Christian heritage. Scotland has previously been described as the ‘land of the Book’ due to the courage of Biblical men and women since the days of the Protestant Reformation; in times like the Covenanters where blood was spilled, and lives lost to uphold Biblical truth and Christian liberty. Our nation was once grounded upon the authority of God’s Word, where households served the Lord (Joshua 24:15) and children were raised in the discipline and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). What has happened to our nation? What has happened to the church? What has become of Christian education?
Today, Scotland has become a pagan nation that has rejected the Word of God leading to a rapid moral decline across our society. A careful study of previous generations will see that the established church not only failed to uphold Biblical truth in the face of societal reforms that sought to attack Biblical truth, but the church increasingly became an additional voice of liberal confusion and false doctrine. The subject of education and raising children has been systematically targeted, with parents being deemed incompetent to teach, instead, requiring education professionals to do that job in a secular environment.
The church has abdicated her responsibility to teach and invest in families raising their children Biblically with the effeminising of men and the notion that women can pursue a career at the expense of being a wife and mother. Children are increasingly seen as a hindrance to families and to society, where they cost too much money and are deemed a burden on young healthy adults living their lives and having their careers. This has largely contributed to a booming abortion industry, and it is the underlying reason why the church currently has effectively willingly handed our children over to Satan.
Christian families today
The average evangelical Christian family consists of fathers and mothers working in employment while ‘professionals’ indoctrinate children in state schools that deny God’s creation, promote paedophilic gender ideologies, and undermine parental authority. The social environment for children consists of developing friendships with peers who are submerged in the same, likely worse sexual and godless immorality. The notion that children who are called to be ‘trained’ by their parents (Proverbs 22:6) can be ‘salt and light’ as untrained, unregenerate young souls is one of the devil’s great deceptions.
As a child reaches the teenage years, parents have not won the hearts of their children (Proverbs 23:26) and any sense of Christian teaching and parental influence seems utterly disconnected and redundant, where church and Christian life has become a banner of hypocrisy. Therefore, by the time children have left the family home, many have abandoned church, they start or continue drinking alcohol, they become sexually active, if not already, soon they’re living with the boyfriend/girlfriend. Meanwhile, the parents are still going to their church distressed and asking that the church prays for their salvation.
The sympathetic church is very sympathetic and even discusses innovative ways to reach this next generation by going to the pubs and clubs and pleading that these young people ‘give church a try’. However, this pragmatism masquerading as evangelism does not glorify God and many of these young adults already left this brand of Christianity devoid of any genuine Biblical substance and backbone.
The call to Christian parents
The current spiritual climate of our nation has enforced a great urgency in the subject of Christian education. However, the underlying fight relates to the authoritative framework of the Word of God in governing how we live in obedience to God, and this should be the foundation to produce change in this crucial area for the next generation.
In Ephesians 6:4, Paul uses the word ἐκτρέφετε (bring them up), and this term literally means to ‘take out from’ in order to feed and nourish children in the ‘discipline and admonition of the Lord. There is an emphasis in this verse that the child is to be brought up in an environment and culture that is different and set apart from this world. This is built upon the foundation of a world value of absolute truth from the Scriptures. This is driven by a desire that children will grow up to understand that there is a perfect, Creator God, that man has sinned against this God and our only hope is repentance of our sin and faith in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is alive and enthroned today.
The implications of such a weighty calling and responsibility of parents in a culture where the education system has abandoned and attacks the foundations of Scripture is clearly an increasingly urgent issue for all Christian parents to address.
As a Christian parent and as a pastor, I whole-heartedly support and encourage Christian parents who look to home educate in a manner that adheres to their Biblical values and convictions. It is also why I am passionate about seeing Christian schools rising throughout our land as another valid option for Christian parents. This is why so many years of prayer, toil and labour have gone into our work to establish a Confessionally Reformed Christian school in our city.
Despite all the challenges and current setbacks, I am still very thankful that the Lord has enabled us to get to the stage where we have fourteen pupils enrolled and two staff members employed by the school. It is likely that we may face new challenges of requiring a larger building if demand grows and we certainly hope and pray that there will be an increase in prayerful and financial support of this work by churches and ministries in the local area and further afield.
Christian education is something greatly needed in this nation and a big part of claiming back what the churches almost willingly gave up to the state: our children. Our children are a heritage from the LORD (Psalm 127:3) and we pray that churches, Christian schools, and crucially, Christian parents, will invest in the rising up of a generation that will be shaped and governed with a Biblical worldview to the Glory of God.
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