REFORMED WITNESS
Volume III, August 1995, Number 8
The Covenant Basis of Christian Education
Adapted from chapter 1 of the book Reformed Education by Prof. David Engelsma.
This is one of several books we offer this month on the theme of Christian education. This book is available from our bookstore or from the Reformed Free Publishing Association.And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. - Deuteronomy 6:7
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In this opening lecture, we will be considering the basis of the Christian day school education. We answer the question: "Why do we maintain Christian schools?" At the same time, we will be answering the question: "What are we really doing in this education?" I want to show that the basis is God's covenant, the one covenant of grace in both Old and New Testaments, and that, therefore, Christian education is and must be, through and through covenantal.
It may be well to note that I use the terms, "Christian education," "Reformed education," and "Protestant Reformed education" indifferently in these lectures, since to me they are all one.
It is of the utmost importance that there be knowledge among us of the basis of Christian education -- and by "knowledge" is meant the knowledge of conviction, i.e. the parents and teachers alike should know the basis: the entire endeavor of Christian education depends on it! And a large endeavor it is, in terms of time, money, energy, and struggle. Especially when the going gets tough, knowledge of the basis is crucial. It is crucial for parents who must sacrifice to pay tuition. It is crucial for teachers who may have heavy work loads, suffer thanklessness and criticism, and, in some cases, be paid little besides. It is crucial for Boards when they wrestle with knotty problems and become involved in painful conflicts.
Also, the basis determines the nature of the instructions of the Christian school; indeed, it determines every aspect of the Christian school. It must be allowed to shape everything. We must be true to the basis; we must be radical, i.e. going back, and being faithful, to the root. Associations, boards, administrators, and teachers must answer all questions in the light of the basis and must make all decisions in accord with that basis. All instruction, from bodily exercise to geometry, must be founded on and shaped by that basis. Nor may we be averse to examining our entire system from the viewpoint of the basis: grades and grading; values and emphases; subjects; and ways of teaching. To be reformed is to be constantly reforming. We certainly may not uncritically accept "standard procedures" of education either in the world or among other Christians.
There is a third reason why it is necessary to know the basis of Christian education. This is the fact that other basis are being proposed today for Christian education. This is done by fundamentalistic-evangelistic groups; by "Reformed" humanists; and by the A.A.C.S (Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship-editor). We must be able to resist their influence, and we must become more and more convinced of the necessity of our schools.
To many of you -- I hope, to all of you -- the subject of the basis of Christian education in the covenant is familiar. This does not mean, may I remind you, that our repeated study of it is unnecessary. The Dutch educator, T. Van Der Kooy, gives us a warning:
If in the welter of our routine studies and activities, we do not, even though it be only occasionally, devote ourselves to the consideration of educational principles, there is great danger that the enthusiasm which was at one time felt for the Reformed principles, will finally be extinguished. And then, too, the danger is no less real that we lose ourselves in a superficial Christianity; that we look with contempt on all argument about principles, and in practice sing the praises of a Christianity above all creeds. It is beyond question that then our Christian school movement would be dealt a mortal blow. Or there would result a cold and petrified conservatism, a subsisting on the capital acquired in the past, without renewed contact with contemporary life ... (The Distinctive Features of the Christian School, p. 14).
The Basis Explained
The covenant is the relationship of friendship between God and His people in Jesus Christ. It is a vibrant relationship of mutual knowledge and love, represented in Scripture, not as a lifeless contract, but as a marriage, or as a father-child relationship. For us men, women, and children, it is the enjoyment of salvation and life itself; it is the greatest good, the chief end of man, and the purpose both of creation and redemption.
In the covenant, God is our God, and we are His friend-servants. This implies that we have a calling in the covenant, that we have work to do. The calling is: Love Jehovah your God, serve Him; glorify Him. This is not something arbitrarily added to the covenant, but an integral part of the covenant itself, just as a wife's submitting to and helping her husband is an integral part of marriage and as a son's doing the will of his father is an integral part of the father-child relationship. Our doing of our calling, by grace, is the fulfillment of man, the being truly and fully man. It is, as Ecclesiastes 12:13 literally states, "the whole of man." This is delightful, joyful activity -- the work for the sake of which we eat. "Blessed the man ...(whose) delight is in the law of Jehovah; and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Ps. 1:1,2).
God's covenant is a cosmic covenant; it extends to and brings into its compass the entire creation of God and all creatures in the creation, organically considered. Here, I will only mention that this is a truth, an aspect of the covenant that is the basis of Christian education, which is of the greatest importance of Christian day-school education, i.e, education in the various facets of creation. It is a truth that is not sufficiently stressed, explained, or understood among us. Usually, it comes up in an apologetic, negative way: when we rightly argue that the world of John 3:16 is not "all men," and when we rightly argue that the covenant of Genesis 9 is not a covenant of common grace. There is need for a positive development of this truth in its own right and for an application of it to the Reformed life in general and to Christian education in particular.
God has established His covenant with Christ, not only -- although chiefly -- as Head of the elect Church, but also as Head of creation. Christ is the One in Whom, according to the mystery of the eternal will of God, all things in heaven and on earth are to be gathered together (Eph. 1:9,10). Christ is the One by Whom and for Whom all things were created and by Whom all things consist (Col. 1:16,17 -- literally, "and all things in Him cohere"). In Christ, the covenant is established with the creation itself, the universe, we would say. This is the explicit teaching of Genesis 9 and of Romans 8:18-22: God's covenant is with the earth and every living creature, and the creation itself shall share in the glorious liberty of the children of God. This is one solid reason why a Reformed man cannot live a life of the renunciation of the created world and of the cultivation exclusively of his soul. Not only is the creation the sphere of operations for God's love and salvation of us and for our love and service of God, but also there is a relation between God and the creation. God knows and loves His creation, and the creation knows and loves its God -- not apart from man, but through the Man, Jesus Christ, the Last Adam.
Still another essential aspect of the covenant is that God graciously establishes His covenant with believers and their children, in the line of continued generations. This is a fundamental element of the covenant in both Testaments. It is the Divine "way of the covenant in history." Like the covenant as a whole, this aspect is grounded in the Being of God. The covenant, as a bond of fellowship, reflects the triune life of God: the living communion of knowledge and love of Father and Son in the Spirit. That the covenant runs in the line of generations reflects the Fatherhood and Sonship of God in Himself. The fact that the covenant promise refers to the elect children of believers and that not all the children are graciously received by God into the covenant does not overthrow the truth itself, does not detract from the great significance of the truth, and does not affect the calling parents have to teach all of their children.
The Place of the School in this Covenant
God commands believing parents to rear their children in the education and admonition of the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 6:4), to teach diligently to their children all the words that bring the children to a fear of the Lord (Deut. 6:1-9). On the one hand, this instruction of their children is one of the outstanding covenant responsibilities of parents, i.e., one aspect of their calling as God's friend-servants to love, serve and glorify God. On the other hand, it is the means by which God brings the reborn covenant child to spiritual maturity, to a developed man or woman of God, capable of a life of good works.
The Christian school is an association of believing parents carrying out this calling of God to rear the children, in a certain respect, through a like-minded believer who is both called of God to this vital task and capable of instruction that peculiarly pertains to the school. Dr. H. Bouwman has described the origin of the school thus: "And according as humanity broadened out, and the need of intellectual development arose, the parents felt that they could not fulfill the task of rearing and instruction by themselves, and they looked for help. Before long, the parents formed an associations in order jointly to appoint one to rear and instruct, and -- with this the school was born" (Gereformedeerd Kerkrecht, Vol 1, p. 518, in the chapter, "Scholen.").
The Christian school, therefore, arises from the covenant of grace; it is, in fact, a demand of that covenant.
The Covenant Basis Defended
The covenant basis of Christian education is attacked by attempts to put other bases under the Christian school. There are several such attempts. There is the basis of dissatisfaction with the public schools: opposition to integration; fear of the moral evils that infect the public schools, such as drugs, violence, swearing, and sexual filth; and the realization that the education is poor and the discipline almost nonexistent.
More significant is the basis of evangelism. The school exists to get the children saved. This is the basis of the schools of the fundamentalists and Pentecostals.
Another basis, closely associated, usually, with that of evangelism, is social reform. The school exists to improve or renew society. This has different forms. There are schools that exist to fight communism with right-wing politics; in these schools, there is a heavy emphasis on patriotism. There are schools dominated by apostate, nominal Calvinists who have reduced Calvinism to a means of social improvement. They suppose that Reformed, Christian schools exist to produce men and women who will alleviate this world's woe. Essentially, theirs is the position of humanism. There are also schools controlled by the delusion of the A.A.C.S. (Referred to by them as a "vision"). These schools rest on the foundations of the demand to make a grand, earthly kingdom.
Then, there is the basis of inculcating church doctrine and retaining the children for the church. This has often been the motive behind parochial schools, e.g., the Roman Catholic schools.
Rejection of these notions as bases of Christian education does not imply rejections of all the ideas which they contain. We certainly insist on separation of our children from the wicked friends and corrupt ways of life in the public schools. This is inherent in the covenant. Our children are distinguished from the children of the world by Baptism, the sign of the covenant. We certainly require our children to walk uprightly in society, which includes that they submit to our government as a power that is ordained of God (Rom. 13). We certainly desire our children to have a good education, the best possible; to develop their abilities to the utmost; and to prepare themselves to take their place in life, according to their calling. Also this is simply part of the covenant; the children are God's and must serve Him with all they are and all they have. Certainly, the education must be in accord with the doctrine of the Protestant Reformed Churches and will serve the welfare of these churches. Even though the education does not evangelize the children, it certainly is not divorced from their salvation, not if it is covenantal education.
But none of these truths is the basis of Christian education. The Christian school is not founded on a negative: beware of the public schools. The Christian school does not evangelize -- only the church does. Christian schools do not exist to reform society, because, as is the A, B, C of the Reformed religion, society is irreformably depraved, reserved for fiery destructions. Nor do Christian schools exist for the intellectually elite, to advance heady hubris.
Firm, knowledgeable repudiation of the attacks on the covenant basis of Christian education is necessary. It is necessary, in the first place, in order that the people of God will continue to take hold of the cause of Christian education, support it zealously, and maintain it through thick and thin. It may well have been the failure of Hodge, Machen, and other Presbyterians to see clearly that the basis of Christian education is the covenant and their grounding of the Christian school -- which they advocated -- in a certain conflict with society on the one hand and in a certain help of society on the other hand that was the cause of Christian education's never getting off the ground among Presbyterians. Repudiation of the attacks is necessary, secondly in order that we not be sidetracked from faithfully pursuing the real task of Christian education.
Our defense of Christian education takes the form, first, of pointing to the history and the zeal of Christian parents for Christian schools, especially the history of such zeal on the part of Reformed parents. All of the instruction both in the Old and New Testaments, instruction not only in "spiritual" matters, but also in "earthly" matters, was Godly instruction. The early, post-apostolic Christians insisted on Christian schools during the reign of the emperor Julian the Apostate, who attempted to paganize all of the schools in the Roman Empire (cf. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, The Modern Library, New York, Vol. 1, chapter XXIII). The schools of the middle ages were Christian schools. The Reformers unanimously called for and established Christian schools (cf. my series on "The Concern of the Reformation for Christian Education," beginning in volume 47 of the Standard Bearer, p. 20). From the very beginning of their history, the Dutch Reformed exerted themselves on behalf of Christian education. Already in 1574, a Reformed synod called on preachers to see to it that there were good, Christian "schoolmeesters" (cf. Bouwman, Geref. Kerk., Vol. 1, pp. 517ff.).
The present willingness of Christian parents to permit their children to be educated in non-Christian (in reality, anti-christian) schools is a novelty. This was the judgment of the Presbyterian theologian Charles Hodge: "... it (i.e., the secular education of the public school -- DE) is a novel and fearful experiment. The idea of giving an education to the children of a country from which religion is to be excluded, we believe to be peculiar to the nineteenth century" (Church Polity, p. 452).
We point, secondly, to the obvious fact of the ungodly, anti-christian character of the education in the public schools. Not only is there a lawless environment, a lack of discipline, and a false, demonic instruction -- evolution, humanism, hedonism, but there is a concerted effort to mold the children into a certain kind of man and woman and to build a certain kind of kingdom -- emphatically not man of God thoroughly furnished unto all good works and not the Kingdom of God.
In the third place, we point to the command of the covenant itself. The covenant command is absolutely all-embracing; the one child is to be reared entirely in the education and admonition of the one Lord of all life. Implied is that all of truth is religious. Also the truths of creation must be taught and learned in the light of Holy Scripture and in their relationship to Jehovah and His Christ. As Herman Hoeksema wrote, against the objection that Christian schools were unnecessary, "the Lord our God is one Lord. He is Lord, Lord over all, Lord over every sphere of life. His precepts cannot be excluded from any sphere. Therefore, Israel had to educate His children only in His precepts. Not in one part of life the precepts of the Lord, and in another part these precepts excluded, but in all life, these precepts acknowledged. And thus also with our preparation for that life. Not the precepts of the Lord in one part of the education and another part nothing to do with this law of God. But all our education permeated with the precepts of the Lord." And a little later: "Religion must not be something added to our life, but it must be the heart of our life. Religion must not be something added to our education, but it must be the basis from which our entire education must proceed" (Standard Bearer, Vol. 3, p. 536).
In this connection, we may consider the question that sometimes arises, whether the covenant requires Protestant Reformed schools. Can we be satisfied with the existing Christian schools, i.e., for the most part, as far as we are concerned, the Christian Reformed schools? Do they adequately fulfill the demand of the covenant for us, so that the admittedly heavy burden of establishing our own schools is not warranted?
The covenant requires of us that we establish Protestant Reformed schools to the utmost of our power. We must defend the covenant-basis of Protestant Reformed schools. There is, first of all, the obvious fact of the alarming deterioration of the Christian Reformed schools, from the top (college) to the bottom (kindergarten). The instruction itself is corrupted, e.g. criticism of Holy Scripture and theistic evolution; the ethical atmosphere is polluted, e.g., the promotion of movies and of the theater; and the purpose of the education with our children is perverted, e.g., to make them social reformers -- and that of the "liberal" stripe! -- or A.A.C.S. kingdom people. Even if these evils were not present, the schools would be unsatisfactory because of their lack of strong, sound, distinctive, positive, Reformed instruction. The schools seem to be embarrassed by the historic Reformed principles set down in the Reformed creeds.
But our defense of the basis of our schools is positive. We have the calling to rear our children in "the aforesaid doctrine," i.e., the pure Reformed faith as handed down to and developed within the Protestant Reformed Churches. Only Protestant Reformed teachers, under the oversight of a Protestant Reformed board, can satisfactorily carry out this mandate.
The Christian Reformed Church has committed itself, in the doctrine of common grace, to principles that subvert Reformed, covenantal education. The sovereignty of God is compromised, both in the history of salvation and in the history of the world. The history of the world is viewed, not in terms of God's grace (for the Church) and God's wrath (for the wicked world), but in terms of universal favor. The child of God is encouraged to live in the world on the basis of common grace, rather than on the basis of the grace of God in Christ; thus is his life as a covenant friend of God undermined. The antithesis is abolished, and the culture of the ungodly swallows up the sons of God.
The doctrine of common grace vitally affects education.
The Covenant Basis Applied
If the basis of Christian education is the covenant, it follows that the Christian school is and must be parental. God's covenant is with believing parents and their children, and God's command to rear the children comes to parents. The State must be kept out entirely. It has neither the mandate nor the ability to carry out the mandate. The wedge, of course, by which the State always attempts to intrude itself into the school is financial support. To the State that offers aid, we ought to reply as Zerubbabel and Jeshua did to their sly foes in Ezra 4:3: "Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel...." We do well to remember that it was dependence on the State that spelled the doom of Luther's noble movement for Christian education. By remaining free of the State, we may very well keep our schools right up to the time of Antichrist, and from then on the time will be short.
Parochialism is also to be avoided. The danger is not so much that an apostatizing church will also corrupt the schools -- for inevitably a decaying church corrupts even the free schools of its members -- as it is that the parents simply "let the instituted church do it." It is possible that parochialism contributed to the failure of the Christian school movement among orthodox Presbyterians in the 1800's and early 1900's.
From the covenant basis, it also follows that the school is for covenant children. Children outside the covenant are not to be accepted, i.e., children of unbelieving parents. In my judgment, we should accept children from outside the Protestant Reformed Churches, and even from outside the Reformed denominations, but only on the condition that the parents evidence true faith in Christ and are motivated by the desire that their child get a Christian education.
The school is for all the covenant children. It is not for the bright or college-bound children only. The covenantal character of the school would demand that special attention be paid to the inferior student; in the Kingdom, the law is that we "bestow more abundant honour" on the "less honourable" member of the body (I Cor. 12:23). Are our schools for all the children? Or is the instructions, the pressure of assignments, the grading, and even the attitude of the teacher such that some, perhaps even a sizable percentage, are virtually excluded? In our standards and procedures, or perhaps in our adherence to the States's standards, are we true to the basis, the covenant of God, specifically His demand to rear all the children?
This is no plea for vocational education for some, say in high school, for I hold that all children should have a thorough "liberal arts" type education, at least through high school. In fact, I warn against watering down this education by giving in to the clamor for vocational training either in the school or outside. Gordon Clark rightly excoriates many (public) high schools as "glorified vocational nurseries" (A Christian Philosophy of Education, p. 155).
In keeping with the fact that the schools are for covenant children, the teacher must view and approach the children as covenant children, i.e., as those who are fallen in Adam, but sanctified in Christ -- although imperfectly! That not all are sanctified does not weigh against this injunction. The difference that this view of the student makes for all of the education, in distinction from other views of education - e.g., Rousseau's view of the child as inherently good; the modern's view of the child as religiously indifferent; and the fundamentalist's view of the child as a heathen to be wooed to Christ -- is simply incalculable. One important implication of such a view of the student is that the teacher demands that the child behave as a covenant child. Discipline is called for. In the case of older children, expulsion from school may be in order -- which then must be followed by the discipline of the church. Laxity and disorder are out of the question.
A final application of the truth that the basis is the covenant, one to which we will return, is that the teacher is to rear the child in the education of Christ; teach the child diligently the words of love for Jehovah; and bring the child up in God's fear. The teacher does this in the peculiar respect that belongs to the realm of the school, to be sure. But he must do this, for the very basis of the school, and of his office, demands that this be the work that is done: "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children..."
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