REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XI, September 2003, Number 9
The Covenant Basis of
Christian Education
Adapted from Chapter 1 of the book Reformed Education
by Prof. David Engelsma.
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.
In this opening chapter, I consider the basis of Christian day-school education. I answer the question, "Why do we maintain Christian schools?" At the same time, I answer 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.
The entirety of Reformed, Christian education is really contained in this truth and can be subsumed under the heading of God's covenant, just as all doctrine is really included in theology, and the entire Heidelberg Catechism is included in its first question. I must be careful here not to follow the example of the notorious Reformed preacher who preached some seventy sermons on Lord's Day 1 of the Catechism, thus exhausting the Catechism and himself before he ever came to Lord's Day 2. I will develop some of the implications of the covenantal basis of Christian education in this chapter and postpone the treatment of others to later chapters.
It may be well to note at the outset that I use the terms "Christian education," "Reformed education," and "Protestant Reformed education" interchangeably in this book 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. By "knowledge" is meant the knowledge of conviction. 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 school boards when they wrestle with knotty problems and become involved in painful conflicts.
Also, the basis determines the nature of the instruction of the Christian school. Indeed, it determines every aspect of the school. It must be allowed to shape everything. We must be true to the basis. We must be "radical," defined as going back to the root. Associations, school 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 teaching methods. 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.
Another reason why it is necessary to know the basis of Christian education is the fact that other bases are being proposed today. This is done by fundamentalistic-evangelistic groups, by "Reformed" humanists, and by the movement in North America that today is associated with the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) in Toronto, Canada, which formerly called itself the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship (ARCS). We must be able to resist these educational philosophies. We must have Reformed, Christian schools that are founded on a different basis from those which these movements propose.
To many, the subject of the basis of Christian education in the covenant is familiar. This does not mean 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..." (1)
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, and 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 performance of our calling by grace is the fulfillment of man, what it means to be truly and fully man. It is, according to the literal translation of Ecclesiastes 12:13, "the whole of man." This is delightful, joyful activity - the work for the sake of which we eat. "Blessed is the man . . . [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night" (Psalm 1:1,2).
God's covenant is cosmic. It extends to, and brings into its compass, the entire creation of God and all creatures in the creation, organically considered. This is an aspect of the covenant that is of the greatest importance for Christian day-school education by virtue of the fact that the Christian school gives instruction concerning the whole of creation. The cosmic character of the covenant 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 the truth of the cosmic covenant 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 (Ephesians 1:9,10). Christ is the one by whom and for whom all things were created and by whom all things consist (Colossians 1:16,17; the literal translation is, "and all things in Him cohere"). In Christ the covenant is established with the creation itself or the universe, we might 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 may not renounce the created world in order exclusively to cultivate the life 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 to 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 Son-ship of God in Himself. The fact that the covenant promise refers to the elect children of believers, and that not all their 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 that parents have to teach all of their children. (2)
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, to teach "diligently" all the words that bring the children to a fear of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4 and Deuteronomy 6:1-9). On the one hand, this instruction of their children is one of the outstanding covenant responsibilities of parents, that is, 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 so that he or she becomes 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 a significant part of this calling of God to rear the children through a like-minded believer who is both called of God to this vital task and capable of the instruction that specifically 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 instructing by themselves, and they looked for help. Before long, the parents formed an association in order jointly to appoint one to rear and instruct (een opuoeder en ondertuijzer), and - with this the school was born." (3)
The Christian school therefore, arises from the covenant of grace. It is, in fact, a demand of that covenant.
Both Scripture and the Reformed confessions express this covenantal demand. It is found in Deuteronomy 6: "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children... " (v. 7); in Psalm 78: "For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them... "(vv. 5, 6); and in Ephesians 6: "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (v. 4).
The vow of the [Reformed] Form for the Administration of Baptism binds parents to "see these children... instructed and brought up in the aforesaid doctrine, or help or cause them to be instructed therein, to the utmost of your power." The "Thanksgiving" prayer of this form beseeches God that the baptized children may be "piously and religiously educated."
Article 21 of the Church Order of Dordt requires consistories to see to it that there are "good christian schools in which the parents have their children instructed according to the demands of the covenant." Article 41 stipulates that one of the questions put to each consistory at every meeting of classis shall be: "Are the poor and the Christian schools cared for?"
In its treatment of the parent-child relationship as taught in the fifth commandment, the Heidelberg Catechism speaks of the parents' "good instruction and correction" (Q. 104).
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 there is poor and discipline almost nonexistent. It was wonderful to behold how many people suddenly "got religion" with regard to Christian education as soon as the government forced integration in its schools.
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 charismatics.
Another basis, closely associated usually with that of evangelism, is social reform. The school exists to improve or renew society. This has different forms. Before the collapse of communism there were schools that existed to fight communism with right-wing politics. In those schools, there was 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 woes. Essentially, theirs is the position of humanism. There are also schools controlled by the dream of various postmillennialists (referred to by them as a "vision"). These schools rest on the foundation of the determination 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, for example, the Roman Catholic schools.
Rejection of these notions as bases of Christian education does not imply rejection of all the ideas that they contain. We certainly insist on separation of our children from the wicked friends and corrupt ways of life in the state 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 (Romans 13). We certainly teach our children to abhor atheistic, materialistic communism. 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 callings. It is simply part of the covenant that the children are God's and must serve Him with all they are and all they have. Certainly their education must be in accord with the doctrine of the Protestant Reformed Churches and will serve the welfare of these churches. Even though education should not evangelize the children as unregenerated little heathens, 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: the evil of the state schools. The Christian school does not evangelize; only the church does. Christian schools do not exist to reform society; it is an A-B-C of Reformed religion that society is irreformably depraved, reserved for fiery destruction. 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. The failure of Hodge, Machen, and other Presbyterians to see clearly that the basis of Christian education is the covenant may well have been the reason why Christian education never got off the ground among Presbyterians. The Presbyterian leaders certainly advocated Christian schools. But they grounded Christian schools in a certain conflict with society, on the one hand, and in a certain help of society, on the other hand. This ground proved to be inadequate to maintain a vigorous Christian school movement among Presbyterians. Repudiation of the attacks is necessary, second, in order that we not be sidetracked from faithfully pursuing the real task of Christian education.
Not only is the covenant basis attacked indirectly by those who advocate another basis, but it is also attacked directly by those who are opposed to Christian education. There are the professing Christians who deny that the covenant requires Christian schools. How they are able to maintain their denial in the face of the obviously godless character of the teaching, discipline, and life in the state's schools today is a mystery, but maintain it they do. This denial of the necessity for Christian schools was explicitly, officially, and (presumably) unashamedly made by the Reformed Church of America (RCA) and by the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. at their Synod and General Assembly, respectively, in 1957. The antipathy of the RCA to Christian schools is notorious. This was brought home to me as I was preparing for the lectures that resulted in this book. As I was checking out some basic books on Christian education from a Christian college library in Western Michigan, the librarian asked me who I was. When I told her that I was a Protestant Reformed minister, she remarked, "I knew you were not a Reformed minister, because they would never read this kind of book."
Questioning of the covenant basis of the Christian school is not altogether unknown in our own circles. Some cannot see that Christian schools are necessary. They think that good training at home and good instruction by the church are enough and that these exhaust the demand of the covenant.
Our defense of Christian education takes the form, first, of pointing to the history of the zeal of Christian parents for Christian schools, especially the history of such zeal on the part of Reformed parents. All of the instruction of children, both in the Old and New Testaments - instruction not only in "spiritual" matters but also in "earthly" matters - was godly instruction. The early, postapostolic Christians insisted on Christian schools during the reign of Emperor Julian the Apostate, who attempted to paganize all of the schools in the Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon tells us that during the persecution by Emperor Julian, "The Christians were directly forbid to teach, they were indirectly forbid to learn; since they would not frequent the schools of the Pagans." (4) The schools of the middle ages were Christian schools. The Reformation unanimously called for and established Christian schools. (5) 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." (6)
The present willingness of Christian parents to permit their children to be educated in nonChristian (in reality, antichristian) schools is a novelty. This was the judgment of the Presbyterian theologian Charles Hodge:
"The whole system [of education in the public schools] is in the hands of men of the world, in many of our states, and is avowedly secular. Now with regard to this scheme it may be remarked that it 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. Again, it is obvious that education without religion, is irreligious. It cannot be neutral, and in fact is not neutral. The effort to keep out religion from all the books and all the instructions, gives them of necessity an irreligious and infidel character." (7)
In our defense of Christian education, we point, in the second place, to the obvious fact of the ungodly, antichristian character of the education in the public schools. Not only is there a lawless environment, a lack of discipline and false, demonic instruction - evolutionism, humanism, hedonism - but there is also a concerted effort to mold the children into a certain kind of man and woman and to build a certain kind of kingdom. This man is not the man of God thoroughly furnished unto all good works, and this kingdom is 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 light of Holy Scripture and in their relationship to God 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 . . . Religion must not be something added to our life, but it must be the heart of our life. Religion must not be something that is added to our education, but it must be the heart of our education. The precepts of the Lord must be the basis from which our entire education must proceed." (8)
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, which, for the most part, as far as we are concerned, are 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 by criticism of Holy Scripture and approval of theistic evolution; the ethical atmosphere is polluted by the promotion of movies and drama; the very purpose of the education of our children is perverted by making them social reformers - and that of the "liberal" stripe, or ICS kingdom-people. Even if these evils were not present, the Christian Reformed schools would be unsatisfactory because of their lack of strong, sound, distinctive, positive, Reformed instruction. These 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," that is, the pure Reformed faith as handed down to the Protestant Reformed Churches and developed by them. Only Protestant Reformed teachers, under the oversight of a Protestant Reformed school board, can satisfactorily carry out this mandate.
The Christian Reformed Church has committed itself, in its 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, his life as a covenant friend of God is undermined. The antithesis is abolished, and the culture of the ungodly swallows up the children of God. The doctrine of common grace is destructive of Christian education.
Home schooling
Home-schooling is not an option for parents who have access to a good Christian school or who are able, with others, to establish one. The very recent home-schooling movement in North America did not arise out of the covenant among Reformed saints, as did Christian schools. Its origin was the dissatisfaction of unbelieving parents with the education and physical security of the state schools. Evangelicals and fundamentalists, who had until then cheerfully used the state schools, were quick to follow suit.
With the rare exception, parents do not have the time to give a good, solid, thorough liberal arts education to their children. Supporting his family and the kingdom of Christ is full-time work for the husband and father. So also is the mother's carrying out of her calling to manage and care for the household.
Neither do most parents have the ability to teach their children the subjects of the grade school and high school curriculum. Reformed Christians have not been fools for the past hundreds of years when they required rigorous training of those who would be Christian schoolteachers. To teach the subjects that the children must know in order to live and work in North American society at the beginning of the twenty-first century, one must know both the material and the right way of imparting the truth and content of the material to children. This demands formal, concentrated, disciplined study. In the Christian school, every child may benefit from the learning and ability of a number of teachers who have been thus trained - the learning of this one in math, the learning of that one in science, and the learning of another in history.
Lack of knowledge on the part of home-schooling parents of many, if not most, of the subjects taught at school results in their depending heavily upon educational materials, kits, and programs produced by various companies for this purpose. But these companies are seldom, if ever, Reformed in theology. They are certainly not Protestant Reformed. Now the danger becomes real that the children in fact receive a Baptist education, or a fundamentalist, dispensational education, or a reconstructionist ("Make America Christian") education, or a politically right-wing education.
There is also a threat to the home-schooled children in the vital matter of their companionship. Children need friends. They will have friends. The only question is, "Whom will they have as friends?" The home-schooled child is removed from the good Christian school, which has always been a center of the godly friendships that believing parents ardently desire for their children. Then the home-schooled child is invariably thrown into close contact with other home-schooled children, for even the education of home-schooling calls for field trips, music, sports, and often classes in which many students study together under a teacher with competence in a certain field. There is fellowship with other children. But the principle of the child's fellowship is not mutual membership in the covenant, oneness in the Reformed faith, or common membership in the true church. Rather, the principle is agreement in home-schooling, regardless of the covenant, faith, and church. This is as intolerable as unreformed teaching.
Even though home-schooling of their children might be possible for a few, specially gifted parents whose circumstances provide the time that is needed, home-schooling is still not an option. In the covenant, all ought to work together in establishing and maintaining good Christian schools for the benefit of all the parents and children in the covenant community. To maintain these schools is a hard struggle. Our numbers are small. Our financial resources are limited. Our teachers still do not receive the wages that they should have. When some parents withdraw into home-schooling, the cause suffers. The question for us parents should not be, "What can the two of us do for the teaching of our own children at the present time?" Instead, our question should be, "What is good, not only for our children but also for the entire covenant community of which we are a part?" We must be concerned that there is good Christian education for all the children.
Covenantal thinking reckons with the future good of coming generations. Perhaps we can adequately educate our children at home. But will they be able to educate their children - our grandchildren - at home? Should we not do all in our power now to ensure that there will be good Christian schools for our children's children in years to come?
Article 21 of the Church Order of Dordt is right, still today, when it insists that the covenantal demand of Christian education requires good Christian schools and the use of them by Reformed parents; and consistories shall see to it.
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. 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. But the danger 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 1800s and early 1900s.
This by no means implies that the total financial responsibility is allowed to fall on parents whose children happen to be in the schools at any given time. In the covenant, grandparents have a responsibility towards, and delight in, the covenant rearing of their grandchildren. Young married couples and even young people desire the school to be available when their children are of school age. Indeed, all of the covenant people should take an interest in this basic aspect of the covenant of God.
From the covenant basis, it also follows that the school is for covenant children. Children outside the covenant, children of unbelieving parents, are not to be accepted. 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 receive 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" members of the body (I Corinthians 12:23).
Are our schools for all the children? Or is the instruction, 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 state'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 the children should have a thorough liberal arts 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 H. Clark rightly excoriates many public high schools as "glorified vocational nurseries." (9)
In keeping with the fact that the schools are for covenant children, the teacher must view and approach the children as covenant children, that is, as those who are fallen in Adam but sanctified in Christ, although imperfectly! (10) 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 taken in education, such as Rousseau's view of the child as inherently good, the modernist'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 this covenantal 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 God, and bring the child up in God's fear. To be sure, the teacher does this in the manner appropriate to the sphere of the school. But he must do this, for the very basis of the school, and of his office, demands this work and nothing less: "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children..."
FOOTNOTES
- T. van der Kooy, The Distinctive Features of the Christian School, translated by three members of the Calvin College faculty (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1925), 14.
- For a more detailed description of the covenant of grace and the place in it of the children of godly parents, see David J. Engelsma, "The Covenant of God and the Children of Believers" (South Holland, Ill.: Evangelism Committee of the Protestant Reformed Church, 1990) and Herman Hoeksema, Believers and Their Seed: Children in the Covenant, rev. ed. (Grandville: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 1997). On the source and pattern of the covenant in the triune being of God as family-fellowship, see David J. Engelsma, "Trinity and Covenant" (Th. M. thesis, Calvin Theological Seminary, 1994).
- H. Bouwman, "Scholen," in Gereformeerd Kerkrecht, vol. 1 (Kampen, Netherlands: J. H. Kok, 1928), 518. The translation of the Dutch is mine.
- Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 1 (New York: The Modern Library, 1960), 783.
- On the Reformation and Christian schools, see F.V.N. Painter, Luther on Education (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1889) and David J. Engelsma, "The Concern of the Reformation for Christian Education," Standard Bearer 47 (October 1, 1970): 20-22; 47 (November 1, 1970): 58-59; 47 (December 1, 1970): 110-112; 47 (January 15, 1971): 180-182; 47 (February 1, 1971): 213-214; 47 (March 1, 1971): 257-259; 48 (October 1, 1971): 11-13; 48 (November 1, 1971): 61, 62; 48 (January 1, 1972): 153-155; and 48 (April 15, 1972): 329-332.
- Bouwman, Gereformeerd Kerkrecht, vol. 1, 517ff.
- Charles Hodge, "Parochial Schools," in The Church and Its Polity (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1897), 452.
- Herman Hoeksema, "Christian Education," Standard Bearer 3 (September 1, 1927), 536.
- Gordon H. Clark, A Christian Philosophy of Education (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1946), 155.
- On the Reformed approach to and view of the baptized young children of believers, see Engelsma, "The Covenant of God..." and David J. Engelsma, "As a Father Pitieth His Children: Reformed Child Rearing" (Grand Rapids: Evangelism Committee of the First Protestant Reformed Church, 1998 reprint).
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