WHY A CHRISTIAN SCHOOL?
/
I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. —Martin Luther
Martin Luther's bold admonition reflects the teachings of both the Old and the New Testament. Throughout the Bible, God differentiates between light and darkness, wisdom and ignorance, and saved and unsaved. Jesus said, "he who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters" (Matthew 12:30).
In other words, nothing and no one is neutral. Everything, every person, and every idea either honors Christ or dishonors him, is either consistent with biblical teaching or inconsistent with it, and is either true, good, and beautiful or false, evil, and ugly.
The education our children receive is never neutral. A student’s education reflects the educational institution's worldview and that of each administrator, teacher, and coach. A worldview is a way of looking at everything in the world. It is the overall perspective from which one sees and interprets everything in life. A worldview is like a pair of mental sunglasses that colors everything we see. It comprises the beliefs we use to interpret the world around us. We all observe the same world and the same information. But how we understand and explain that information depends upon our worldview. As one theologian put it, "We may think wrongly upon right principles, but forever do so upon wrong ones, for how can the stream flow pure when the source of truth is polluted?”
This means that education does not stand in isolation from the prevailing philosophies or worldviews of the day any more than a river stands in isolation from the tributaries that feed it. Education is inevitably connected to a broader worldview, and therefore, is never neutral. Embedded deeply within, and fed by various worldviews, every school, and every classroom reflects a comprehensive worldview designed to shape the thinking and values of students.
As parents, whether we have been committed to Christian schooling for years or are just now exploring the possibilities, we must answer the question: "How can we best fulfill our biblical obligation to teach our children to love and obey the Lord?"
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise (Deuteronomy 6:4–7).
Misconceptions about Christian Education
A Christian school is not a place where a few "ornaments" like prayer, chapels, and Bible classes merely adorn an otherwise secular education. Instead, genuine Christian education weaves God's Word into every facet of the curriculum and all co-curricular activities. As the theologian, Charles Bridges, writes in his commentary on Proverbs, "Religious training must not be the border of the garment, which might easily be cut off. It must be the pervading substance throughout."
Second, the phrase "Christian education" should encompass more than the study of religion. Unfortunately, many professing Christians have too narrow a definition. Christian education, they think, takes place only in Sunday School, during Bible studies, or at home during family devotions, but this view is too limited. The Apostle Paul exhorts us to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5). St. Augustine writes that "every good and true Christian should understand that wherever he may find truth, it is the Lord's." Reflecting the same conviction, John Calvin declares, "We shall neither reject the truth itself, nor despise it whenever it shall appear, unless we wish to dishonor the Spirit of God." Proper Christian education relates God's Word to every aspect of life.
Third, a Christian school is not a "safe house" from the world. Many well-meaning parents think the Christian school offers protection from the world's evils. A Christian school is not a guarantee against sin. The difference, however, is the Christian school disciplines students by teaching them God's Word and his restorative, redemptive forgiveness, grace, and mercy.
Finally, the Christian school is not a reform school for families who have exhausted other options to solve their problems. Instead, the Christian school should be their first choice, where Christian families, the church, and the school can partner together in preparing students for practical lives of service in every area of their lives.
The Necessity of Christian Education
We are living in what some have labeled a Post-Christian Age. It is a time when the Judeo—Christian worldview and value system are under assault. Secularism has become the dominate worldview of our times and is wrecking lives, families, and communities. Throughout our culture we see those, who in the words of Isaiah, “call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20ff). As the late Cardinal wrote, “Strive to understand that secular modernity causes multiple forms of suffering … Not health or peace of mind or communities united beneath and beyond their differences, but a tribal, fretful void, anxious, divided and regularly frightened.”
How Should Christian Families Respond?
We should never despair, for the Bible teaches that "the earth is the Lord's" (Psalm 24:1), that God's Word will "not return . . . empty" (Isaiah 55:11) and that the "gates of Hell will not overcome" His church (Matthew 16:18). God's purposes and plans cannot be thwarted.
But we can and must do more than hope and pray — this is the role of Christian schooling. Our mission is to explicitly declare Christ as Lord over all, including over every thought and subject. We are called to integrate God's Word into every action, acknowledging God as the source of all truth, goodness, and beauty. Anything short of this, in the words of Jesus, "scatters" from that which is true, good, and beautiful.
Therefore, the question is: does a secular education enable a student to think biblically about the world? The answer is no. By its very nature, a secular education excludes the biblical worldview and biblical values. At worst, a secular education energetically opposes a biblical worldview. At a minimum, it ignores biblical truth and God as irrelevant to education, having nothing to do with science, history, mathematics, literature, athletics, or art. But this is false. God created the world, sustains the world, and will judge the world. He has, as it were, an "opinion" about everything. God calls us to strive to understand everything in this world as He has revealed it to us in the Bible and nature or "to think God's thoughts after him”. As J. G. Machen wrote:
False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of the nation or of the world to be controlled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion.
Under such circumstances, what God desires us to do is to destroy the obstacle at its root ... What is today a matter of academic speculation begins tomorrow to move armies and pull down empires.
In that second stage, it has gone too far to be combated; the time to stop it was when it was still a matter of impassioned debate. So as Christians we should try to mold the thought of the world in such a way as to make the acceptance of Christianity something more than a logical absurdity …
The Basics of Christian Education
A genuine Christian education provides a rigorous liberal arts education that glorifies Jesus Christ and prepares students for lives of faithful and obedient service to Him. The Bible is the integrative force, and all administrators, faculty, and staff personally know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Specifically, Christian schooling is an acknowledgment, an attitude, and an ambition:
Christian education is an accurate understanding of God's world. He created it; He holds it together; He rules it, and we must learn all that we can about it. We aren't simply learning about math, science, and history; we are learning about God's world. Christian schools seek to produce competent graduates who know the world and the One who created it.
Christian education is an attitude related to God's Word; therefore, studying God's world from the perspective of the Word is critical. We can rightly understand life only as we view it through the perspective of Scripture, "For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light" (Psalm 36:9). Seeking to bring all thought and activity under the lordship of Christ, we want our students to be passionate about their God, their lives, and their callings.
Christian education is an ambition to do God's will. Because it is a life-long process of transforming our minds, Christian education spans "the cradle to the grave." We want our students to be "in the world but not of it," to see the sin in themselves and in the world, and to commit their lives to the pursuit of holiness, justice, love, and integrity.
As students study God's world from the perspective of the Bible, it will enable them to do God's service. "We want to serve our culture," writes Harry Blamires in The Secularist Heresy, "we want our culture to work -- not because it is the only good we can conceive, and not because we are finally and securely at home in it -- but because it is a great drama that we have been staged in, and it is good that we should play our parts well."
Some object to Christian schools, saying:
"We want our children to be in the 'real' world."
What is the "real” world for Christians? Is it a world informed by Secularism or one dominated by the love, reconciliation, and forgiveness of Jesus Christ?
"We don't want to abandon the public schools. We want our children to be a witness."
Should the young children and adolescents of Christian parents be on the front lines, or is it wiser first to train and prepare them spiritually and intellectually for the challenges they will face in college and their careers?
"We would like to have our children in the Christian school, but we can't afford it."
What better stewardship of personal and church finances than to use them for the education of Christian children? "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7). Christian schools offer generous financial assistance to help ensure that Christian parents who genuinely desire a Christian education for their children will have access to it.
"The Christian school is hypocritical."
Christian schools do not claim to be perfect or without their share of sinners any more than churches do. The difference with the Christian school is how it deals with sin, models restitution and accountability, and encourages repentance and restoration.
The Mission of the Christian School
The Psalmist, writing to God's people, summarizes the mission of Christian education:
We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which he commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands (Psalm 78:4-8).
The Psalms also declare:
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night [which includes the classroom]. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers (Psalm 1:1-3).
The Christian school, working with the Christian home and the church, exists to fulfill these scriptural promises. The Christian school longs to introduce its students to the source of all truth. Christian education is the best choice a family can make.
Over 450 years ago, Martin Luther preached a powerful sermon encouraging his listeners to stand firm in their faith and reminding them of the nature of spiritual conflict in this world—a conflict of worldviews:
Christendom must have people who can beat down their adversaries and opponents and tear off the devil's equipment and armor, that he may be brought into disgrace. But for this work, powerful warriors are needed, who are thoroughly familiar with the Scriptures and can contradict all false interpretations and take the sword from false teachers . . . Each Christian should be so armed that he himself is sure of his belief and of the doctrine and is so equipped with the sayings from the Word of God that he can stand up against the devil and defend himself, when men seek to lead him astray.
This is the mission of the Christian school.
This article is an adaptation from an original written in 2016 by Dr. Jim Drexler for the Christian Schools Association of St. Louis.