God Cares About Education

Courtesy of my friend Rich Poliz...

“I’m afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of youth.” –Martin Luther

When one considers the idea of education, there is a great temptation to separate the sacred from the secular. We have a natural tendency to compartmentalize our lives in such a way that separates and marginalizes the religious. So religion becomes that pesky set of rules of do’s and don’ts and church on Sunday morning, while everything else is somehow set apart from that. So then our thoughts on education become about the activity of acquiring knowledge and wisdom, and maybe in our “spiritual” moments we see this process as a reflection of God, but in execution education is purely secular.

However, this formulation on education is a modern concept. It would be naïve to suggest that Jesus’ education (“growing in wisdom and stature” Luke 2:52) was merely a community investment in teaching him, just as say, our public schools invest in our children. This ignores the second part of the verse “and in favor of God and men.” In other words education only has value if it leads the learner towards proper balance with God. The education that Jesus received was not neutral (as if any education could be). It heavily emphasized a knowledge of Old Testament law, the person of God, and what exactly He requires (absolute and perfect obedience. Yikes!).

One can have an education program that cares about our children, has great sports programs, great test scores, fancy buildings, and far reaching plans and goals. But if that system isn’t built on a foundational understanding of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the work of an all powerful sovereign God, then it is vanity. “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36).

The concept that state education is somehow neutral is false. The purpose of education is to inculcate correct thinking and encourage desirable action (from the point of view of the educator), so in its very essence it cannot be neutral. But we as Christians pursue truth in a different way than worldly “wisdom.” Indeed the man without the Spirit does not accept this truth, as it is foolishness to him (I Cor 2:13-15). All education leads to a distinct view of the world. Christians needs to ask if it is wise or foolish to entrust their children to a system that refuses God His place.

As a Christian, I am not demanding that the public schools shift to my way of thinking, although I lament that an understanding of God and morality has been lost; indeed God has been barred from the place altogether. We should pray for our public educators, and especially for those who are Christians. Every morning Christians within the state schools face a difficult decision: They can provide what they know to be the sound education with Christ at its center and thus violate law and risk vocation or they can fulfill the law of Caesar and ignore their God.

While I won’t make demands on a secular system that teaches counter to what I want my children to learn, I do make this vow: I will never place my children in a system that seeks to undermine the timeless and absolute truths of scripture. As for me and my house, we’ll seek the ancient paths. We must appeal to God in whom we move and have our being. In Him we’ll find the only true education…

--Rich Poliz is the Ashland Christian School Director of Development and Worldview