Education that Runs Deep

The need for true and proper learning in the Christian family unit and to the ends of the earth

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. - Prov. 1:7

In the world of missions, most Christians still think primarily of humanitarian work among tribal people or the impoverished. At PMc, we challenge that notion as we support biblical missions proper among sophisticated but unreached people groups such as Italians (and Europeans more broadly). As a missionary and homeschool parent, I ponder education often. Here are some observations worth considering as they relate to learning, teaching, and missions.

Most would agree that when missionary families serve Jesus in jungle, poverty-stricken, or tribal settings, they should not hand their children over to the natives to be instructed and educated. It would be negligent on many levels. Their ways are often crude. Their knowledge of God's world (and especially the Bible) is extremely limited. Often, they are guided by pagan traditions or even ill spirits.

The lost live in darkness, and whether they realize it or not, they are slaves of Satan and at his service^[1]. It would be absurd to think the frontline missionaries in these contexts would choose to educate their children through the natives' system, however sophisticated (or not) it may be.

The Truth That Might Hurt Some

Ironically, this is exactly what passes for standard in Italy. Christians and missionaries sent to Italy typically do not think twice about handing their children over to the state school system to be "educated". Missionaries to places like Italy, myself included until about five years ago, assume that state-run education in first-world contexts is an acceptable solution. The reality, however, is that even though the Italian people are very different than those in the tribes or third-world settings, they are nonetheless living in darkness, slaves to sin and Satan. This is true of all who have not yet been regenerated. Furthermore, the majority, just like in the US in recent decades, have been discipled by the state.

The state school system is not neutral. Christian children, and the Kingdom of God at large, suffer tremendously when our children are taught and discipled by a godless institution. Italy is extremely secular and less than 1% evangelical. The churches are small and scattered. Most Italians have never met an actual Christian. They've never seen an evangelical church. The situation in Italy is truly dire and dark. The people here are far from God, and the godless state aims to keep it this way. The school system is the primary means.

Some Insight From RC Sproul

There is no such thing as a neutral education. Every education, every curriculum, has a viewpoint. That viewpoint either considers God in it or it does not. To teach children about life and the world in which they live without reference to God is to make a statement about God. It screams a statement. The message is either that there is no God or that God is irrelevant. Either way the message is the same. - Sproul

What Sproul warns about in this citation is that there are severe consequences to assuming education and learning are neutral endeavors. Ultimately, as I see it, no one can know anything with certainty unless he knows the only One who knows all things. God alone has infinite and full knowledge. He never learns anything new.

The point: we can know things with certainty only when we know God as revealed in Scripture, the living and unchanging word of God. Only in the Christian worldview can we account for the laws of logic, the uniformity of nature, reason, morality, and the like.^[2]

Sending our children to the state school, run predominantly by those with a secular godless worldview, teaches them that God is not needed for obtaining knowledge and skills to live in His world. The results of this are tragic. Secularism, ultimately, as we see today in the West, leads to chaos, confusion, deception, despair, and even death.

Some Insight From Martin Luther

I am much afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures, and engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his child where the Scriptures do not reign paramount. Every institution in which means are not unceasingly occupied with the Word of God must be corrupt.

In Luther's view, Scripture should be at the center of all true learning and education. The reality of state schools is often the opposite. The Christian religion is often shunned, despised, and even ridiculed by the secularist teachers.

One can only imagine what he might think if he were to see the school systems of our day.

Some Insight From J. Gresham Machen

Machen was a world-renowned New Testament scholar who repudiated the erroneous liberal theology that slowly but surely plagued the church of his day. Here are some of his thoughts on the importance of educating children in the Christian life. Note how he foresaw the danger of a school system becoming monopolistic and an instrument of tyranny.

A public school system, if it means the providing of free education for those who desire it, is a noteworthy and beneficent achievement of modern times; but when once it becomes monopolistic it is the most perfect instrument of tyranny which has yet been devised.

Place the lives of children in their formative years, despite the convictions of their parents, under the intimate control of experts appointed by the state... and where the mind is filled with the materialism of the day, and it is difficult to see how even the remnants of liberty can subsist.

Insights From Andrea Schwartz

Schwartz is a leader in homeschool education that enables families to fulfill their God-given purpose of seeing the Kingdom of God advance and transform culture^[3]. She does particularly well at identifying the state's misuse of its authority. Her words here below can come across as harsh to some, but in reality, as I see it, they are a loving warning.

If we give our children to state or private schools which are not systematically Christian in all their curriculum, we are then giving the future to God’s enemies, and He will hold us accountable for laying waste our heritage.

Because education means the training of the generations to come in the basic values, goals, and standards of a society, control of education is a central key to power … To control the future requires the control of education and of the child.

The modern educational system, influenced by ‘experts,’ has led parents to believe they are incapable of teaching their children, resulting in a loss of enthusiasm for learning and a focus on mere academic achievement.

Insights From Voddie Baucham

Baucham was a strong advocate of homeschooling and true education. One of his primary focuses in his life was to better equip families to live like Christians in our secular age. Listen to these powerful words from a strong figure of our day.

We cannot continue to send our children to Caesar for their education and be surprised when they come home as Romans.

More importantly, we cannot continue to use Caesar’s methods in our Christian schools and expect a different outcome. Education is inseparable from discipleship (Luke 6:40).

Here’s what we can say clearly from Scripture: we are obligated to give our children a Christian education. There’s no doubt. So, while I do not say, and would not say, everybody has to homeschool, I do say nobody should use government school. No Christian should use government school, unless there is some circumstance in your life that forces you to do so. ... But when we get what education is, allowing the government to do it is not an option.

How can I effectively ‘make disciples’ of my children if I send them off to the government school forty-five to fifty hours per week? ... There is a big difference between sending fully trained disciples into enemy territory and sending recruits [children] to our enemy’s training camp. If we do the latter, we shouldn’t be surprised when they come home wearing the enemy’s uniform and charging the hill of our home waving the enemy flag.

So much more could be said on the importance of this conversation. After sharing some citations above, I pray that by now you get the idea and why this is of great concern for the body of Christ and for the work of the Great Commission.

On a side note, I know Christians who teach in public schools. They are a light for Christ in a dark place and often the only Christian that many of the kids will ever meet. This blog post is not intended in any way to belittle their work or calling.

In the work of missions, in any case, this topic is generally understood. Many a missionary from times past would even send children off to boarding schools to ensure their kids received a quality education. Looking back, we can safely say they probably should have homeschooled. It's a strange thing in our time that missionaries to secular nations would somehow assume that the state school is sufficient.

Taking initiative as Christian parents to understand true education/discipleship leads us to joyfully make efforts to train our children while also teaching others to do the same. Italy, for example, will never be discipled for Christ until Christian parents grasp this and begin making a way to raise their children according to God's standard. Only then can the church begin to lead the way in true knowledge found only in Christ and true education rooted in Scripture. Only with generations of Christians who know how to think "Christianly" can steps be taken to adequately impact the culture at large with the radical message of the gospel.

Love God, Take Initiative to Teach and Equip

Brothers and sisters, frontline workers for the Lord, do not overlook the requirements of the Lord and the high calling for us to educate/disciple our children. We are called to impart the whole counsel of God's Word to our children. We must train them to live as salt and light in God's world and to be productive in Kingdom work.

The Kingdom of God advances in a dark world as we impart a true education that runs deep. When we neglect our responsibility to raise up the next generation according to God's standard, we forfeit ground to the enemy. As followers of Christ, we have a high calling. Every day is filled with purpose, meaning, and opportunities to serve others and glorify God. The Christian family that takes the initiative to robustly disciple and train their children is one of the key ways that God has chosen to advance the gospel and transform the world.

Why have we assumed that the lost can adequately train and equip our children according to God's standard? We wouldn't dare hand our kids over to the lost tribes (even those recently converted to Christ). Why do we hand them over to the godless state and all its humanistic doctrine for 40 hours per week?

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. - Deut. 6:4-9

A Joyful and Fruitful Labor

Friends, this is no small matter. The future is in the hands of our youth. The task before us is beyond our natural abilities, as is the Great Commission, but the Lord is with us. He has given us His Spirit and His Word. To obey the Lord in raising our kids according to God's standard will cost us much labor and fatigue, but it is also our greatest joy and high calling.

Fellow missionaries, let us lovingly and sacrificially set the example to other Christians living in barren lands. The family institution is a crucial part of God's mission in our world. Our children are being discipled, one way or another. Let us be sure that we are giving them, and the Kingdom, our best efforts. In Italy, we don't have Christian schools (good ones or bad ones). Homeschooling from a Christian world and life view, in my humble opinion, is our best option today.

The Great Commission demonstrates that the task of education is embedded in the very nature of our calling as witnesses. People cannot believe and apply what they have not heard. To this task we must be faithful. This mandate begins with our own children as Christian parents. - Joe Boot, The Mission of God^[4]

A Prayer

Father God, we thank You for how You place man at the pinnacle of Your creation. You made us in Your image to enjoy You and glorify You forever. Forgive us for how we have neglected the high calling to raise our children according to Your standard. Grant us wisdom to navigate our times where the secular humanists have indoctrinated for so long and caused many of the body of Christ to miss the mark. Grant us energy to apply ourselves to knowing, teaching, and applying Your law-word to all of life. Amen.

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Footnotes

1. 2 Timothy 2:25-26 - correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. ↩︎

2. For more in-depth teaching on this subject, check out some of our book recommendations on apologetics: https://www.practicalmissions.org/books-on-apologetics↩︎

3. These quotes come from her book, The Biblical Trustee Family: Understanding God's Purpose for Your Household↩︎

4. In his book, The Mission of God, Joe discusses in great detail the role of education in the Christian life and the Great Commission in chapter 12, Let My Children Go: The Christian Mandate to Educate

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Written by Jesse Schreck | founder, director, and missionary church planter in Italy with Practical Missions Cohort

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