There is no neutrality in Education because there is no neutrality in anything. No aspect of human existence allows us to be both the servant of God and the servant of Satan. The servant of self and the servant of God.
Double minded, double tongued men who are tossed about by every wind of an idea are abhorrent to God.
John Frame, “Christians think differently from non-Christians; and when they don’t, they should. In describing the difference between Christian and non-Christian thinking, Van Til argued that the two groups of people hold different presuppositions. A presupposition, for Van Til, was the most fundamental commitment of the heart, a commitment that governed human life. Some people are committed to Jesus Christ and seek to “take every thought captive” to him (2 Cor. 10:5). The rest are committed to something else, either another religion, a philosophy, a political movement, or their own reason. There is no neutrality. To paraphrase bob Dylan, “you gotta serve somebody.” Our presupposition always commitments govern all our life decisions, indeed all our thinking. And in the end there are only two presuppositions: the supremacy of God and the supremacy of something in creation, which scripture calls idolatry.”[1]
The Fear of the LORD is the beginning of Knowledge.
1:7The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
“Knowledge” and “wisdom” are closely tied together in Proverbs: “knowledge” tends to focus on correct understanding of the world and oneself as creatures of the magnificent and loving God, while “wisdom” is the acquired skill of applying that knowledge rightly, or “skill in the art of godly living.”[2]
Augustine famously said that “unless you believe, you will not know.” As Harris Harrison explains in His book, The Christian Scholar in the Age of Reformation, “mind working by reason cannot attain to truth unless assisted by the Lumen die, the divine illumining.”
Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the truth.” If you want truth it’s not found in secular subjects. Truth and knowledge begin with Jesus and if the curriculum in any subject begins with anything else, its end is not truth.
The Gospel and the Mind, Bradley Green explains; “The intellectual life should be a life grounded in the cross, that is, rooted in and flowing from the gospel. Indeed, if Paul and Augustine are right that the knowledge of God—and ultimately all knowledge—is dependent on the reality of Christ and his cross, then to fail to embrace the centrality of a gospel-centered intellectual life is to attempt brazenly to approach God on our own terms. Biblically and historically, that is not wise—to say the least. If, as C. S. Lewis says, with every action or thought we are becoming either more heavenly or more hellish, then we must take seriously the role of the cross for the intellectual life. To become more heavenly creatures, and not hellish, is to be about the task of embracing the lordship of Christ over the life of the mind at every turn. Borrowing a Reformation slogan, we might say that if the Christian church is semper reformanda (“ always to be reformed”), then the Christian mind is semper capiens (“ always taking captive”). May we as Christians passionately and truly embrace the cross as we seek to glorify God in all that we do—including our intellectual deliberations.”
Choosing who Teaches your children therefore, is one of the most important decisions you can make.
Jesus says in Luke 6:40 “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.”
And in a system of school where teacher after teacher after teacher is not a child and disciple of Jesus but a child and disciple of Satan, what will their student become?
There is a way that leads to life and a way that leads to death. God can convert people from one road to the other – here I stand – but it says in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
And here is the test. If you are the parent who says, well I did everything I could and they still didn’t turn out right, then you are admitting you didn’t. Likewise, if you are the parent who heard that verse and said – oh thank goodness, I am – then beware – for it is a hypocrite that you are raising.
If you hear that verse and look to your efforts, then you are not raising or didn’t raise them in the way they ought to go – you were or are – on the parenting treadmill.
If you heard that verse and felt a knot in your throat, or fear rise in your gut, or pangs in your heart from knowing just how badly you didn’t and aren’t – then you are on the right path.
The way of God is not the way of man.
Raising our children the right way means its not on our merits but God’s. Not our pretensions but His promises. The right way is the way of faith.
And inordinate faith in the local school district because the state says it’s the best isn’t what I am talking about.
And putting your children in the hands of those opposed to Jesus means no matter how much they learn – how rigorous or well bred the education – they are on the sure path to disbelief.
There is no neutrality and so, Fathers, the responsibility in raising your children in the paideia of the LORD – steeped in the word of God – means that there is no neutrality when it comes to the sciences or education. Gospel believing minds are well educated. Gospel denying minds are not. Regardless of whether they reach calculus or can play three sports.
Who is teaching what to your children? It may say history on the syllabus but the fine print may be blasphemy or rank unbelief.
As a teacher, I never considered my work to be the subject I was teaching, but the person I was teaching it to. Sure they should learn about history but history was the means to shape and mold them into little Christs.
Like begets like.
Plum trees don’t produce pears. What is the fruit your kids are eating? They are what they eat.
[1]The Doctrine of the Word of God, Frame. 339.
[2]Study bible note
Locusts and Wild Honey 