Listen. Listen to these children. They're singing songs standing on the sidewalk of a downtown street. The children are watching a parade as they sing the songs they learned in school and in their youth group. Their parents and other adults are proud of their children as they stand with them, watching the parade. The eyes and ears of the children and adults are pleased with what they're seeing and hearing.
Scene 2
Look at this picture, a drawing of children in school, an elementary school. It's in color and you see the teacher standing at his desk as he and the children, seated at their desks, are watching and listening to a fellow student use a pointer to point to the drawings on the blackboard. The teacher and the children are well-dressed, well-groomed, and attentive.
In the first scene, the songs the children are singing are
evil. The parade is evil. The "parade" isn't a parade at all; it's a
forced march of Jews who've been rounded up by the Nazis in Germany. As the
soldiers march the Jews down the street, those on the sidewalk begin shouting
insults at the Jews and spitting on them.
The classroom in Scene 2? It's evil. It's a picture in an
anti-Semitic textbook for children published by the Nazis titled, The
Poisonous Mushroom.
How in the world could Scene 1 occur? How could children sing such songs and they and their parents spit on other people?
The answer is Scene 2, the Nazi control of education in Germany into which they introduced a core curriculum so that they could monitor at all times what was being taught in the schools. This core curriculum centered on history, physical education, geography, and mathematics with a Nazi twist.
The immersion of the children into Nazism began in kindergarten and never ever let up. The teachers taught the children to become Nazis through this core curriculum and by daily rituals and routines.
The teachers had sworn an oath of allegiance to Hitler and to teach Nazi ideals and values. They wore their Nazi uniforms to school; when they entered the classroom, they greeted the children with a Hitler salute, shouting, "Heil, Hitler!" The students responded with the same and sometimes the teacher and the students did this before every lesson, eight times a day.
Hitler's picture was in every classroom. The books the children read recounted stories of the thrill boys and girls had at seeing the Fuehrer for the first time.
Of all the professions, more teachers joined the Nazi party than any other career group.By 1936, 300,000 of them had joined the party and that was equal to 97% of all public school teachers.
All teachers had to be careful about what they said as children were encouraged to inform the authorities if a teacher said something that did not fit with the Nazi's curriculum for schools. Therefore, every classroom consisted of thirty or so spies as the students spied on the teacher and the teacher spied on the students, each at the ready to report the other.
The immersion into Nazism was so total that even the exams asked Nazi oriented questions. Here's a question from a math exam: "To keep a mentally ill person costs approximately 4 marks a day. There are 300,000 mentally ill people in care. How much do these people cost to keep in total? How many marriage loans of 1000 marks could be granted with this money?"
Here's another math question: "A bomber aircraft on take-off carries 12 dozen bombs, each weighing 10 kilos. The aircraft takes off for Warsaw, the international centre for Jewry. It bombs the town. On take-off with all bombs on board and a fuel tank containing 100 kilos of fuel, the aircraft weighed about 8 tons. When it returns from the crusade, there are still 230 kilos left. What is the weight of the aircraft when empty?"
The Nazi's tampered with history: They explained the German defeat in WWI as the work of Jewish and Marxist spies who had weakened the system from within; the Treaty of Versailles was the work of nations jealous of Germany's might and power; the hyperinflation of 1923 was the work of Jewish saboteurs.
In physical education, they humiliated those who failed the physical fitness tests and they could expel them from school. P. E. took 15% of the weekly school hours. It was mandatory that all boys take boxing and, for those who excelled, they created special schools.
The most fit went to Adolf Hitler Schools where they were taught to be the future leaders of Germany. Six years of tough physical training took place and when the pupils from these schools left at 18, they went to the army or to university.
The very best pupils went to the Order Castles. These were schools which took pupils to the limits of physical endurance. War games used live ammunition and kids were killed at these schools. Those who graduated from the Order Castles attained a high position in the army or the SS.
Well, enough of educational evil perpetrated on an entire nation and its children. As stated earlier, those weapons of mass instruction that took a nation from being cultured and civilized to having its adults and children spitting on other human beings and approving of their extermination.
The Nazis changed the worldview of a nation in a short time and the primary way they did it was through education. Through education, the media, parades, and even the games and toys of the German children, they forged a worldview that unleashed death wherever it went.
A person's worldview is the filter through which he makes decisions; it organizes all the information he encounters. A person's worldview influences his choices, thoughts, and deeds.
Research shows that a person's worldview is already formed and firmly in place by age 13. After that, it's refined through experience during the teen years and early adult hood. Then the adult passes his worldview on to others. (This means that if your child or grandchild is 11, in a mere two years, his worldview will be formed and in place for the rest of his life, apart from conversion to Christ and commitment to Him and His Word at some point.)
The Nazis so encrypted their worldview into the nation's children that even after the unconditional surrender of the Nazi regime in May 1945, some German boys continued to fight in guerrilla groups known as "Werewolves." In 1946 the Allied authorities required young Germans to undergo a process to undo what the national regime had done to them in the 12 years of enduring the Nazi weapons of mass destruction.
According to the Barna Group, their 2009 survey showed a sobering statistic: only 9% of all Americans have a biblical worldview.*
Do we need to reexamine our Christian education? Are our children learning legalistic rules, thinking those rules are Christianity? Are our kids learning the worldview of the Bible, and the application of the wisdom of that worldview to the decisions and choices of life? Are they exposed to more than churchy fun and games? Are they taught to how to think Christianly or merely exposed to churchy entertainment? Are they sitting in church filling in the blanks, completing outlines and recording bullet points? Can the Christian life be lived by an outline? By bullet points? Are they learning to think critically or to be the unthinking property of the state? Are they learning Bible stories, but have no context of God's grand redemptive purpose (the overarching story of all the Bible stories) into which to put those stories?
It's dark out there. Thirteen years is a mighty short time, and with each passing day, it becomes shorter.
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*You can find the Barna Group survey at: https://www.barna.org/barna-update/21-transformation/252-barna-survey-examines-changes-in-worldview-among-christians-over-the-past-13-years#.Us63OvYVmHk
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Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church, is also available as an E-book on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting, "The Hangar Bible Journal."
If you would like to contribute to his ministry according to the principle of II Corinthians 9:7, you may do so by making your check out to Hangar Bible Fellowship and mailing it to 65 Teal Ct., Locust Grove, GA 30248. All donations are tax deductible.
Come visit the Hangar some Sunday at 10 AM at the above address. You'll be glad you did.
Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:
notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org
clarityministries.org
Also:
Biblical Ministries, Inc.
C/O Dr. Richard Grubbs
P. O. Box 64582
Lubbock, TX 79464-4582
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