# A Biblical View of Education



## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 3, 2005)

How would you explain and develop a Christian (biblical) view of education.


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## sastark (Aug 3, 2005)

Oh, *THAT* is a good question. I have recently learned something new about the reformed view of education, but I'm not going to say anything until a few more people post. I'm REALLY looking forward to what people have to say about this one!


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## Contra_Mundum (Aug 3, 2005)

*A few thoughts*

That is THE book, Paul!

Education is an act of worship, Deut. 6:5.

From Van Til, _Intro. to Sys. Theo.:_


> The Bible sheds its indispensible light on everything we Christians study. There is a philosophy of fact in the Bible that we use for the interpretation of every fact in our lives.


And from "Antithesis in Education" in _Foundations of Christian Ed._ essay/address collection w/ Berkhof (see Paul M's post above)


> If we teach religion _indirectly,_ everywhere and always, we may need less time to teach religion _directly._


Knowledge is possible predicated upon the trancendental reality and revelation of God. It is man's dependence on the Creator as the source of all meaning that makes knowledge possible (seeVan Til, IST, p.22). Since God's self-revelation is a fact, the act of acknowledgment of that fact is self-attesting testimony that knowledge is possible. Since knowledge of God is possible, then it follows that true knowledge of other God-ordained facts are also possible. Thornwell says in this regard:


> It is enough that we have the same guarantee for the truth and certainty of our knowledge of God as we have for the truth and certainty of our own being and the existence of an outer world. The knowledge of both is subject to the same limitations, the same suspicions, the same cavails. They stand or fall together.


 If this conception be false then we really can't know anything. All of the knowledge we possess of anything is predicated on the reality of the GOd of Holy Scripture. If he is false, then we are helplessly adrift in a tragic sea of relativism, and radical skepticism has won the day. "We are obliged to trust in the veracity of consciousness" (Thornwell again).

Second, education presupposes the reality of communication. God instituted communication (Gen. 1:28). Denial of communication is a denial of humanity.

Christian education has _goals_ and _unity._

The end of Christian education is Eph. 6:4: that children mught be nurtured to maturity (cf. Prov. 22:6). Eph 6:4 also contains the means to the end: being disciplined by regulations or, if necessary by blows (paideia) and lovingly corrected by words (nouthesia).

The essence of this education is "of the Lord," that is, founded and anchored upon the Law of God, mediated through the person of Jesus Christ.

The apostle Paul, also writing to the Ephesians in 4:17-23 contrasts the mind of the godless with the mind of Christians. The thinking of pagans is vain, form without substance, futile. Their understanding is darkened and their hearts are blind, because they are cut off from God in their ignorance. Thus, having extinguished their consciences, they abandon the mind altogethe rin favor of sensual gratifications in a quest for "experience." In contrast, Paul says, "But ye have not so _learned_ Christ; if so be that ye have _heard_ him, and have been _taught_ by him, *as the truth is in Jesus:* that ye ... be renewed in the spirit of your _mind._

Christian education is pervasively, from first to last, Christological.


Just a few thoughts... 

[Edited on 8-4-2005 by Contra_Mundum]


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Aug 3, 2005)

Bruce, honestly, those are some of the best thoughts I've heard, and one of the best posts you have posted.


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