Kneeling, Public protest, and the Gospel of Jesus

We have seen increasing interest in bringing attention to the plight of perceived injustices in America. The Christian worldview is inherently sensitive and compassionate to these issues. James reminds us that pure and undefiled religion is visiting the orphans and the widows in their affliction (James 1:24). Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, pronounces blessings on the poor in spirit (Matt 5:3), those who mourn (v4), and the meek (v5). Jesus continues by pronouncing blessings on the merciful (v7) and the peacemakers (v9). Christians have always understood their role in the world to include being merciful peacemakers for righteousness’ sake (v10). 

The way Christians accomplish this is what is up for debate.  At Hickory Grove Baptist Church & School we recognize every American and believer’s right to engage in peaceful protest. At the same time, we encourage believers in Christ to avoid kneeling during the National Anthem. Here is why.

1. Your message will be easily skewed

Believers think differently and therefore act differently. As a distinctly Christian school, we work to preserve the centrality of our message, the gospel.  This does not invalidate the legitimacy of other messages. In fact, our message has a profound impact on how we understand various social issues, most particularly, racial ones (see Eph 2:11-22 & Gal 3:8). The Christian worldview, however, disagrees with the secular diagnosis of the issue. Any diagnosis that does not include the reality of human sinfulness is an inaccurate diagnosis. Given this fundamental disagreement, we encourage believers to avoid joining a protest that has a theologically different diagnosis of the problem. We must work to present an alternative diagnosis–a diagnosis informed by scripture and a Christian worldview. Kneeling during the national anthem silently affirms a secular diagnosis of a clearly spiritual problem.

2. Christians have a different solution

Our culture seeks to find the solution to human problems primarily through education and legislation. However, the Bible teaches that the root of these problems is found in the biblical teaching about human sinfulness. As such, neither legislation nor education will solve these issues; only the renewing of the heart and mind brought about by the new birth can produce real and lasting change. Our society expresses grief because they have no hope in the “broken system” to correct these injustices. As Christians, we have hope in a God who created human beings in his image with inherent dignity and value. Our God is grieved by human suffering to the degree that he embraced the full weight of it on the cross. We have a responsibility to be agents of reconciliation, armed with the good news of Jesus Christ and the insight of scripture. Our faith does not rest in a system but in a God who has taken on flesh to model how to love the poor, feed the hungry and love the broken. As believers in Christ, we will continually address these social issues through a gospel lens, while offering alternative explanations and biblical solutions.

The Mission and Vision of HG Christian's Bible Department

Hello, and welcome to the blog of Hickory Grove Christian School's Bible department. Our desire is to use this blog to provide supplemental resources to our parents and students, as well as provide a window for what is going on inside our classrooms. Therefore, it is our intention to post links to informative articles and podcast, videos of some class lectures and activities, and perhaps even lecture outlines. We strongly believe that parents are the primary disciple makers and hope this blog will encourage you and equip you to partner with us in your student's Christian education.

As such, it is only proper to begin this blog with a brief overview of how the Bible department seeks to meet the mission and vision of Hickory Grove Christian School. The vision of HGCS is "To Know Christ and Make Him Known," and the mission of the school is "To equip students to serve God in the 21st century by providing an excellent academic program founded upon a biblical worldview." Let us look at each of these statements and how we as the Bible department seek to fulfill each one.   

In Matthew 22:37-40, Jesus proclaims the greatest commandment is “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

To Know Christ 

The primary goal of the Bible department is to point students to their need for a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We desire to cultivate in our students a love for the Word of God, to hold to a high view of God and to understand the depths of man's depravity. Then, and only then, can we begin to truly appreciate the greatness of what Christ has done on our behalf. It is our prayer that students experience the regeneration brought by the Holy Spirit and place their faith in Christ, thereby being reconciled to God the Father through the atoning work of Christ the Son. We place our trust in the sovereignty of God and realize that man can do no work to save himself or others. However, we also commit to place the Gospel at the center of everything we do, and provide the resources for students to know and experience the love of Christ. While it is tragic that students will graduate without a personal relationship with Christ, we, like the sower in Matthew 13, know that our faithfulness is in casting the seed of the Gospel. May God bring the increase, and may our students seek to love God with their heart, soul and mind."

To Make Christ Known

In his book Let the Nations be Glad, John Piper boldly proclaims "Missions Exists because worship does not."¹ Our desire to see the one true God get the praise and worship he is due by all of his creation is that which fuels our missional efforts. Furthermore, the greatest display of the love for one's neighbor is seen in proclaiming the Gospel to him or her. Once we have experienced being reconciled with God, do we not desire that anyone who has not experienced that same reconciliation. We are commanded to make disciples, and Jesus reminds in John 20:21, "as the Father has sent me, so I send you."

We want students to live missional lives, not simply go on mission trips. After all, the verb in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) is not "go" but "make." Therefore, we commit to encouraging and equipping students to lift the name of Christ above all others and make disciples in all nations and in all spheres of their lives, whether it be their home, their job or even their school!

To Equip Students to Serve God in the 21st Century

A mission statement describes the processes by an organization intends to fulfill its vision. Here, I will describe some of the intentional steps we are taking to meet the vision of HGCS.

• Providing an excellent academic program

Our courses are designed to challenge students both academically and volitionally. HG's Bible courses are unapologetically rigorous, and they serve to supplement your student's walk with Christ, not to replace church attendance, daily Bible readings or quiet times. Our goal is not to become a high school version of a seminary, but we want students to be able to think biblically about the truth claims of the Bible. We want students to know what they do (or do not) believe, why they do (or do not) believe something, and why what they believe matters. 

We offer honors courses at every level (9-12) as well as electives such as Comparative Worldviews and Religions and we have intentions to expand electives to offer additional electives such as Greek. Students taking honors level courses have the opportunity to earn college credit through our partnership with the College at Southeastern's Dual Enrollment Program. 

We are extremely proud of our faculty in the Bible department, and you should be too. Between the three of us we have over 200 hours of Master's level credit, and our newest faculty member is currently working on his final project before earning his Doctorate of Education.

In 9th-grade, students undertake a study of the metanarrative Scripture using the textbook Living God's Word. This is done by surveying the Old and New Testament and identifying major themes and events, all of which finding their terminus in Christ. Our 10th-grade course is a hermeneutics course based on the textbook Grasping God's Word. Here, students will learn how to study and interpret the Bible by arriving at the meaning the Author intended by examining the historical-cultural context. In 11th grade, students study systematic theology to understand what historically orthodox Christians believe. They examine how the doctrines are intertwined and rooted in the biblical texts. Our 12th-grade courses serve as the capstone of a student's biblical studies by focusing on the construction and application of a biblical worldview. Students will be encouraged to think biblically through apologetics and ethics. Honors Bible IV includes a survey component of Western Philosophy in addition to the study of worldviews, apologetics and ethics.

• Founded upon a biblical worldview

We firmly believe that in the days to come students need to be able to think along the lines of a biblical worldview that is rooted in Scripture. As such, the Bible is central to everything we do, and we will uncompromisingly teach it as the inerrant, authoratative, verbal plenary inspired, self revelation of God.

In a few years, our students will find themselves face to face with a myriad of situations that call for a proper biblical response. Therefore, they must be able to integrate biblical truths into all facets of their lives, and not compartmentalize their faith to specific days of the week. Because such situations are challenging, we believe that students are better served to think through those issues now with people who can help them rather than to wait until later. We receive countless emails from former students describing the challenges they are facing in college and incorporate such information into our courses.

Extra-curricular activities

We are not simply about academics. As mentioned before, your student's participation in an academic environment is to supplement their walk with Christ. The Bible department partners with other departments so that students have the opportunity to worship through chapels, athletics, fine arts, mission trips and many other events throughout the year. We want students to live out their faith, not simply affirm doctrinal statements.

Thank you for entrusting your student to us. It is our prayer that your student grows to love God and serve him in ways your or I could have never imagined.  We covet your prayers and partnership. May we share in Paul's prayer for the church at Ephesus found in Ephesians 3:20-21:

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

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1 Piper, John. Let the Nations Be Glad!: The Supremacy of God in Missions. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1993, 1.^↩