The Times told about a 15-year-old girl who had been identifying as a boy at school. The mom saw a boy’s name on a homework assignment: When she asked about the name, the teenager acknowledged that, at his request, teachers and administrators at his high school in Southern California had for six months been letting him use the boy’s bathroom and calling him by male pronouns. The article went on to explain that the California school “is one of many throughout the country that allow students to socially transition – change their name, pronouns, or gender expression – without parental consent.

We know that there are good teachers and good schools out there. Many teachers are Christians – they go into the profession because they love God, love children, are passionate about their subject matter and have a gift for helping children learn.
Many do excellent work, and I’m thankful for the great teachers my children had and the good schools they attended.
But at the same time, I’m very aware that our education system has serious problems. The news is filled with stories about bad things happening in public schools – and some private – across the country.
It really feels overwhelming and like we’ve reached an urgent tipping point: Parents must have educational freedom – to give their children better opportunities to learn and grow, to protect them from chaotic classroom environments and underperforming schools, and to safeguard them against radical and sexual ideologies.
Here are just a few examples of problems in education that have been reported by news outlets. They illustrate why parents need school choice and educational freedom.
Violence and Bullying
Rod Dreher, author of Live Not by Lies, recently highlighted a story from The San Francisco Chronicle. He writes:
A Ukrainian refugee girl fleeing the war in her homeland is so disturbed by violence and anarchy in her San Francisco school that she wants to go back home — to a war zone!
The Chronicle reports that the young girl, Yana, thought school in America would be like what she saw in television shows, “idyllic settings where teenage conflict and angst ironed itself out by the end.”
But when she and her mother left Ukraine, Yana was terrified by “the chaotic scenes in her middle school classrooms … the verbal abuse, hallway conflicts and classroom outbursts.” Students stole her cell phone and threatened her.
Teachers are growing concerned, and not just in San Francisco. The Chronicle reported:
Across the country, teachers say student violence overall has more than doubled since the pandemic began and that they are “increasingly the target of disruptive behavior in the classroom,” according to a survey released Thursday by education research firm EAB.
The survey also found that 84% of teachers believe current students lack the ability to self-regulate and build relationships compared with peers prior to the pandemic.
Yana’s school “offered her a security action plan to make sure she felt safe.” But she just stopped attending and is trying to transfer to a different school. “Yana just wants to go back to her hometown in central Ukraine, back to the only school she knew before the war,” the paper reported.
Lack of Transparency
The New York Times, somewhat surprisingly, recently ran a story about teachers hiding children’s “gender identity” from parents. The paper reported on parents who were upset by this, but seemed to sympathize more with school administrators and teachers.
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Another expression of the Immanuel Principle is our hope of our eternal residence with God in heaven; God himself is our eternal dwelling. Between Eden and the Incarnation, the Immanuel Principle was God’s intent, as evidenced in his appearances to man through OT theophanies. Through these appearances we see Christ Himself, manifested through revelations and visions. The OT theophanies reveal to us the God the promises of the onewho would come and dwell with us.

Introduction:  The Immanuel Principle
If we tend to think of “Immanuel: God with us” mostly at Christmas, a deeper study will show it to be a core concept throughout Scripture. As some have explained: ‘The Immanuel Principle’ is God’s intent to be with us and His creation. Understanding and appreciating the Immanuel Principle is one of the reasons why we celebrate the Christmas season. Even though Christmas observance is not scripturally mandated, we should celebrate God’s intent for us to know that he is with us through Christ’s incarnation. It is the core of our Christian hope.
The Immanuel Principle is first seen right at the beginning of God’s revelation in the Garden of Eden as God walked and fellowshipped with man in the cool of the evening. When man’s sin broke his communion with God, His still intended to be with us. Through the incarnation he would show Himself to man, to resolve and remove the sin that had necessitated the separation. As God told Moses, “No one can see my face and live” ( Ex. 33:20).
In Christ’s incarnation we would look on Christ and live, in the same way as Israel did when many were bitten by deadly serpents in the wilderness; Moses was instructed to place a serpent made of brass on a pole so any who looked at it would be healed and live (Num 21/Jn 3: 14-16). This anticipates the unmistakable divine providence pointing to the cross of Christ.
Another expression of the Immanuel Principle is our hope of our eternal residence with God in heaven; God himself is our eternal dwelling. Between Eden and the Incarnation, the Immanuel Principle was God’s intent, as evidenced in his appearances to man through OT theophanies. Through these appearances we see Christ Himself, manifested through revelations and visions. The OT theophanies reveal to us the God the promises of the onewho would come and dwell with us.
The God Who Sees Finds Hagar (Gen 16)
In the OT world, Hagar was a least of the least position. As an Egyptian slave woman, and surrogate mother for Abraham’s family at Sarah’s insistence, Sarah came to despise Hagar even though she gave Abraham a son.  Sarah chased Hagar out of the house through her hostile treatment. Gen 16:7 tells us, “The angel of the LORD” went and found her by a spring of water in the desert wilderness.
The Angel of the LORD asked her a question: “Where are you coming from, and where are you going?” The Angel also promised, “I’ll  give you offspring unable to be numbered,” beginning with the child she was now carrying.  Only God Himself could make such a promise.
The text reveals no fear in Hagar of this Angel; the conversation with Him appears quite normal to Hagar. He appeared ordinary to Hagar, much as Christ in His incarnation “has no majesty or beauty that He would stand out” (Isa 53).  During his earthly ministry, people spoke with the Christ, the God-man, “as a man speaks with his friend.” The Gen. 16:13 account tells us Hagar called the name of the LORD who spoke to her “El Roy,” that is, “You are a God of seeing,” for she knew, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”
While the omnipresent Father sees and knows all, He wants us to know that He knows and sees. It is the Incarnate Christ who tells us, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). As Hagar said, “I have seen him who sees me.” God sees us as “in Christ.” God cares for us in the Person of Christ, who loved us and gave Himself up for us” ( Eph. 5:2).
Jacob Wrestles with God…and Wins (Gen 32)
If God’s appearance to Abraham (in Gen 18, the promised birth of Isaac to Sarah) reveals a God and Savior who keeps His promises, the appearance of Christ to Jacob even more clearly reveals a Savior who shows us God, not only in His holiness, but in His mercy.
Jacob had run from Esau, his brother, having deceived their father to steal Esau’s birthright.  He had gone to his relative Laban in a far country. Eventually, he wore out his welcome there, too, both men agreeing to set up a pile of stones that neither would by-pass, to harass each other. Jacob was anticipating the reunion with Esau, going so far as to prepare for battle by dividing his family and possessions into two separate caravans.
In this fearful mood, Jacob would encounter the pre-incarnate Christ.  Having sent even his wives away, Jacob spent the night alone. As the Scripture tells us, he wrestled all that night with “a man,” a physical confrontation with an incarnate being, of some sort. The two fought to a draw, eventually the Christ- figure damaging Jacob’s thigh socket to break free from his grip.
Even then, Jacob demanded God’s blessing and received it. Christ changed Jacob’s name to Israel saying, “You have striven with God, and have prevailed.” We too have prevailed with God, through the Person of Christ. Later, Jacob summed up the encounter, “I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.”
In addition to Christ’s encounter with Hagar that revealed Him to be the one who cares for us, Jacob’s encounter with Christ reveals Him to be the One who shows us God and yet we live, not just in this lifetime but forever.  As Christ said, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). In the person of Christ, we see God, and since Christ paid the penalty for our sin we receive life.
Manoah’s Barren Wife: The Sacrifice for Sin that Saves (Judges 13)
In biblical history, as man’s sin deepens, The Immanuel Principle becomes more essential, and in the case of Manoah’s wife, more detailed. While many OT theophanies can leave out details that render the historic account somewhat ambiguous, perhaps no theophany reveals more about the incarnate Christ than this, to Manoah’s wife. During the time of the Judges, Israel had again fallen into great sin, and God had again sent the Philistines to draw them back to Himself.
Manoah was from the tribe of Dan; his wife was barren. Judges 13: 3 tells us the Angel of the LORD appeared to her alone with a message: “You shall conceive and bear a son.” If this rings familiar, recall Isa 7: 14 and Luke 1:31, both foretelling the virgin birth of Christ. Manoah’s wife was instructed to commit to the Nazarite vow of no alcohol or eating unclean animals, as this son would “begin to save Israel from the Philistines,” to save Israel from the consequences of their sin.
This too would find a greater Immanuel Principle fulfillment. As a virgin, Mary would bear a son, and was told to call His name Jesus, for He would fully “save His people from their sins.” After a while, it occurred to Manoah this Angel of the LORD was God Himself, for he said to his wife, “We shall surely die, for we have seen the LORD.”
But her response was insightful, and theologically brilliant. She replied: “If the LORD had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and a grain offering at our hands, or shown us all these things, or now announced to us such things as these” (13: 23). She knew about the purpose of sacrifices, what Isaiah would also tell Israel hundreds of years later, of the Incarnate Christ on the cross, “He shall see the anguish of His soul, and be satisfied.” Christ was the intent and fulfillment of all the OT sacrifices, the one sacrifice that would fully satisfy the Father.
After the construction of the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, the theophanies would largely cease, for God was dwelling among them.  It would take the Incarnation, that greatest of miracle of all, to show us all that God intended us to know about his dwelling with us.
Before the birth of Jesus, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream saying:
“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us) (Matt 1: 20).
The incarnation of Christ demonstrates the fullness of God coming to his people to dwell with them. Jesus assures all who believe:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-30).
Today God is dwelling with us by His indwelling Spirit. And one glorious day, Christ will return to earth, to raise the dead with the living, “and so we will always be [dwell] with the Lord” (I Thes 4).
Mark Kozak is a Minister in the Presbyterian Church in America and is Pastor of Providence Reformed PCA in Lavalette, WV.
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Only the Doctrines of Grace, based on God’s sovereignty, are bound to His glory. Pelagianism and Arminianism, based on Man’s common sense, deceive their adherents into believing God is powerless to save anyone unless they agree to decide for Christ. The Bible teaches that saving faith is a gift of God He gives to those He chooses by His grace. Man’s responsibility is to believe and obey. The main point God used to break through my own resistance to the Doctrines of Grace was they are the only ones that glorify Him in every part. No other form of Christianity does that.

Samekh113 I hate those who are double-minded,But I love Your law.114 You are my hiding place and my shield;I wait for Your word.115 Depart from me, evildoers,That I may observe the commandments of my God.116 Sustain me according to Your word, that I may live;And do not put me to shame because of my hope.117 Uphold me that I may be saved,That I may have regard for Your statutes continually.118 You have rejected all those who stray from Your statutes,For their deceitfulness is a lie.119 You remove all the wicked of the earth like dross;Therefore I love Your testimonies.120 My flesh quakes for dread of You,And I am afraid of Your judgments. Psalms 119:112-120 (LSB)
There are really only two religions in the world. The first is God-based Christianity. The other includes all other religions in the world including all forms of Man-based Christianity. Man-based Christianity is heretical. What is the difference? All religions except God-based Christianity are false. The false religions’ focus is on Man’s performance in an attempt to do good works to attain salvation.
Not all forms of Christianity are truly Christian because the basis for some of them is unbiblical doctrines. This makes them heresies and they have been invading the Church from the beginning. For example, parts of the New Testament attack Gnosticism. Paul also wrote against the false teaching of some Jewish believers that all Gentile believers must become Jewish proselytes. Both are heretical views because they teach false views of God and Man. The history of Christianity is replete with heresies. Heresies spring from pride, which is the root of Man’s rebellion against God. Pride causes Man to come up with false doctrines that attempt to elevate Man’s ability to accomplish salvation. Natural Man has a problem grasping the wonderful truth that the shed blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient to cover Man’s sin. The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is a merciful gift from God to Man by His grace through faith. It also clearly teaches that Man is completely incapable of coming to salvation without it.
Aurelius Augustine was the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa in the fifth century A.D. The Roman Catholics call him Saint Augustine. He was a godly man who was a first-line theologian. His books, City of God and Confessions remain with us today. He published a book of prayers, which contained one that incited a tremendous controversy. The offending prayer was rendered thus, “O God, command what you wouldst, and grant what thou dost command.” I have prayed prayers similar to that many times. I have asked God to help me obey Him by commanding me to do whatever He willed and to empower me to obey Him. That was the essence of that prayer. The one who took offense to that prayer was a British Monk named Pelagius. He was living in Rome. He saw that a lack of morality was the cause of that city’s corruption. He began looking for ways to inspire those citizens to seek to elevate their standards. His solution was to teach a theology based on legalism called Moralism. This teaches salvation by good works. It sees people coming to God by being good. When Pelagius read Augustine’s prayer, he took offense because it was the antithesis of what he taught. It seemed to defeat his efforts in cleaning up Rome. He protested and appealed to the Bishop of Rome to have Augustine’s prayer censured. He was not arguing against the first part of the prayer, “Command what you wouldst.” His problem was with the second part. Pelagius contended God, who is just and righteous and holy, would never command people to do something unless they already had the power within along with the moral ability to obey. He logically concluded that moral responsibility always and everywhere implies moral capability. He was offended at Augustine’s appeal for God’s grace to empower us to obey Him. He said that simple request offended God. However, his motive was to have the Bishop of Rome declare salvation by works as valid.
This debate eventually led to the Council at Orange, which declared Pelagianism a heresy. Prior to the convening of the council Pelagius’ disciples had time to prepare their own doctrinal statement. The essence of their doctrine was there was no such thing as original sin via Adam and Eve. They stated all of Adam’s descendents were responsible for their own sin. Augustine made it clear in his writings that sin entered man via the original sin and all of us are helpless to save ourselves without God intervening. Pelagianism contends any one of us is capable of not sinning and thereby living perfect lives, which would allow us to earn eternal life. What Bible were they reading?
Why am I going over all this ancient history? This heresy is still with us. Arminianism is a form of semi-Pelagianism. It states Man is capable of coming to salvation on his own accord. It states there is enough righteousness left in each of us to seek God and salvation. On top of that, it teaches that after salvation we can live perfect lives, but if we sin, we lose our salvation. Pelagianism and Arminianism are doctrines of men and of devils. They are contrary to what the Bible teaches. Their roots are in pride and they are false gospels, which portray a false Christ. They are the culprits behind the Western Church’s spiritual bankruptcy. They have infiltrated the church so well they appear to be orthodox. On the other hand, most church people see the Doctrines of Grace as a suspicious interloper. Some theologians, pastors, and Bible teachers believe the reason the present form of evangelism has supplanted the Doctrines of Grace is that the Holy Spirit has moved on. They contend it is a silly, sentimental mistake to seek to return to these old-fashioned doctrines. They think those who seek return to the form of Christianity that was the essence of the Protestant Reformation are actually seeking to return to the 16th Century way of doing things. That conception is misinformed and missing the point. Let us be honest. Which glorifies God? Only the Doctrines of Grace, based on God’s sovereignty, are bound to His glory. Pelagianism and Arminianism, based on Man’s common sense, deceive their adherents into believing God is powerless to save anyone unless they agree to decide for Christ. The Bible teaches that saving faith is a gift of God He gives to those He chooses by His grace. Man’s responsibility is to believe and obey. The main point God used to break through my own resistance to the Doctrines of Grace was they are the only ones that glorify Him in every part. No other form of Christianity does that.
We must look at one other heresy. It, too, is pride based. On one extreme, we have Pelagianism and Arminianism supplanting the sovereignty of God with Man’s responsibility. This other heresy supplants the responsibility of Man with the sovereignty of God. Both extremes are heretical. This heresy is Hyper-Calvinism. It takes the Doctrines of Grace and logically extends them to the extreme thereby exterminating Man’s responsibility to believe. Hyper-Calvinism suppresses evangelism. It teaches that all of the elect will come to salvation eventually no matter what so we really should not share the gospel freely because that would expose the non-elect, the reprobate, to it. Many Arminians falsely believe all adherents to the Doctrines of Grace are Hyper-Calvinists. That is not true at all. Many Calvinists have fought hard against Hyper-Calvinism. Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Bunyan, and Charles Spurgeon were Calvinists who were evangelical to the extreme. True adherents to the Doctrines of Grace teach the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of Man. They do not teach that God does His all to save us and we do nothing or that He does His part as we do our part in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. No, they teach what the Bible teaches. God saves us by grace through faith. His regeneration of our hearts enables us to believe. However, we must believe. That is our responsibility. We must exercise that faith He gives us for salvation to come. God does all, we do all. It is not cooperation. Salvation is surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ by the new believer. This surrender is our recognition that we are sinners and, in turn, trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ to cover our sins. Jesus is the Lord and savior of all who do this.
God’s sovereignty is the basis for the Doctrines of Grace. They glorify God in every part as they reveal Man’s utter helplessness to come to salvation by his own initiative or ability. The Born Again believers who are adherents to the Doctrines of Grace should not be the proud. Instead, they should walk humbly before God fully recognizing they are unworthy of His grace. There is no reason to become puffed up with pride about being one of the chosen of God. He did not choose anyone based on any trait inherent in him or her. He chose whom He chose according to His sovereignty. With this fully understood the path to becoming a Spirit-led believer opens up because humility is a key component in our becoming Christ-like.
Those who reject the Doctrines of Grace may come to salvation, but it is via a watered-down gospel, which does not teach anyone to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Since these believers do not know to do that, they have a huge chance of remaining Soul-led and frustrated in their powerless religiosity. The path to becoming a Spirit-led believer from this gospel is going to be much more difficult since they do not understand the importance of humility in their walk. Those who come to salvation via Hyper-Calvinism are in even worse shape. They think they have no responsibility at all. God saved them because of who they are and He will mature them as He sees fit. It should be obvious how both extremes are out of balance with the precepts from sacred scripture.
In this post, we are looking at the stanza titled, “Samekh.” The first line in this stanza is, “II hate those who are double-minded, But I love Your law“ The King James translates this passage as, “I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.” The Hebrew word translated as “double-minded in the LSB and “vain thoughts” in the KJV means “divided mind.” What sort of person is the psalmist describing here? The person the psalmist is describing is the opposite of the believer who has an undivided heart. The undivided heart is one that is Spirit-led. The Spirit of that believer is predominate over his or her Soul. That believer’s Soul is performing its original function of expressing and reflecting God. The psalmist expresses it correctly that the Soul-led condition where the Soul is predominate over the Spirit produces a heart that is full of vain thoughts. All adherences to false doctrines, heresies, come from these vain thoughts.
The Hebrew grammar in this verse shows us the psalmist was not referring to other people that he hated. He was stating to God how he hates for his own mind to be dominated by double-mindedness or vain thoughts. If we are honest with ourselves, we must admit we struggle with this as well. However, if we cultivate and maintain a clear conscience there will be no peace with double-mindedness in our being. It is our enemy and it must be mortified. We must hate it and seek to kill it. Of course, when we are Spirit-led we are walking in the Spirit and are wearing the full armor of God. We do not have these vain thoughts when we are walking in the Lord’s light communing with Him as we pray continually. However, the step out of His light back into flesh-dominated darkness is very short and quick. When that happens, we must repent and turn back to God. If we do not do this, our vain thoughts will dominate us.
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