REFORMED WITNESS
Volume XIV, September 2008, Number 9
The Great Value of Reformed, Christian Education*
by Rev. Russell J. Dykstra
A three-part article from the December 15, 1998, January 15, 1999, and February 1, 1999, issues of The Standard Bearer
Prof. Dykstra is professor of Church History and New Testament in the Protestant Reformed Seminary.
*Originally given as a speech at the 1998 Spring Banquet of the Reformed Heritage Christian School, Kalamazoo, Mich.
Part I
The great value of Reformed, Christian education is a topic that deserves attention.
There is little appreciation in society at large for Reformed, Christian education. There may be here and there a desire to have something generally Christian (a school that opens with prayer, teaches morals and has somewhat biblically based discipline). But Reformed, Christian education is not desired.
Secondly, there is little knowledge of what Reformed, Christian education is! What makes Christian education to be Reformed? Even less understanding exists of the basis of this education and the motives for providing it.
Thirdly, the large and growing home-schooling movement poses a threat to the Christian school in locations where schools (due to their small size) struggle to maintain themselves.
Finally, there is always the nagging voice of the flesh whispering, "This is not worth it." The pressure of finances may give it voice. As tuition costs rise or income dips, the flesh wonders, "Is it worth all this money?" When hours upon hours of arduous labor are required to establish and maintain the schools; when troubles brew and long meetings become the rule; when tensions arise among friends, the flesh cries out, "This is not worth the grief!"
In the face of all this, it is good for us to be reminded of the great value of Reformed, Christian education.
What is Reformed, Christian education? (Please note that the terms Reformed education and Christian education will be used interchangeably.)
The term Reformed historically takes us into the camp of Luther and the great sixteenth century Reformation, when God reformed His church by calling a remnant out of the apostate Roman Catholic Church and reestablished His church on the basis of the Bible. Reformed brings to mind Geneva and John Calvin, the man used by God to complete the Reformation. It takes us into the Netherlands where Calvinism flourished and developed in a unique way with a particular emphasis on the covenant.
Reformed doctrine is set forth in the three creeds: the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession and the Canons of Dordrecht.
Reformed is always biblical because to be Reformed is to be always reforming, that is always going back to God's Word in confession and walk. Since it is inherently biblical, Reformed education is also Christian education.
The term Christian has to do with Christ. Christian education has Christ at its center. Christ is the core of its instruction. He is the focal point of all Christian instruction. All Christian instruction somehow points to Him who is the Word, the revelation of God.
Christian education is first of all the work of teaching, of giving knowledge about God and His creation. Proper Christian education is more than that. It is rearing the covenant child. It is the work of molding character, developing attitudes, establishing biblical thinking patterns, right goals, and godly living in the hearts, minds, and lives of covenant children. Education is one thing more, namely the passing down of knowledge from believing parents to their children.
Reformed, Christian education then is covenantal by definition. To understand this we need to distinguish it from other forms of education. First we distinguish it from home schooling, where a mother or father or both seek to teach their children. It is not my intent to set up the Christian school against home schooling. Nor am I suggesting that home schooling cannot be Reformed. In a covenant home, such instruction obviously has a covenantal aspect to it. Still, a Christian school is something different because it involves many children from many covenant homes. Reformed, Christian education has historically been concerned not merely with the children of one covenant home but with the children of all the covenant homes in a given locale.
We must differentiate between Reformed, Christian education and state or public education. The government establishes schools to serve the state. These schools are agents for accomplishing the state's goals, to inculcate the state's thinking and morals and to give prescribed knowledge approved by the state. This is in spite of the fact that the Bible demands that parents not the government train their children.
There was a day when parents to a large degree ran the public schools. Teachers were accountable to parents and local school boards who represented the parents. But this is emphatically no longer the case. In loco parentis, the teacher standing in the place of the parents, is dead in the public school system. Christian schools are not state schools and state schools are not Christian.
We must distinguish Reformed, Christian education from parochial schools. Parochial schools are church-run. Such schools are established and governed by a church and funded by the church budget (not free-will offerings). Their purpose is to indoctrinate the children with the particular doctrines of the church. The Roman Catholic schools are the most notable example of parochial schools. Christian schools are not parochial. In fact, Christian education is not the calling of the church as church. Christ commanded His church to be occupied with three things in particular: preaching the Word, administering the sacraments and exercising Christian discipline. Christian schools must be parental, not parochial.
Finally, we distinguish Christian schools from private schools. Christian schools are not private academies established for one or another reason, perhaps to avoid the vices found in the public schools or to provide a "better" education. Christian schools are parental, not private.
A Christian school is a covenantal school, a parental school. It is set up by believing parents to fulfill the demands of the covenant vows made at baptism. Its purpose is broader and deeper than merely imparting knowledge. It is the rearing of the child that concerns Christian education. Christian education is rearing the covenant child in the fear of the Lord in order to bring him to maturity and equip him to serve God, and enable him to live as a friend-servant of God in the midst of the earth.
Thus: Reformed, Christian education must consciously be based on the covenant.
The covenant is the relationship of friendship that God sovereignly establishes with His people in Christ. God establishes this covenant with believers and their seed in the line of continued generations (Genesis 17:7). Within the sphere of the covenant, God ordinarily regenerates His elect as children. Thus, parents are able to give instruction to their children, and that instruction does not fall on dead, stony hearts but on regenerated hearts changed by the Spirit.
How do believing parents deal with their children? Because of the promise of God to establish His covenant with believers and their seed, believing parents deal with their children as covenant children. Though the parents know and believe that the lines of election and reprobation cut through families of believers, they view their children organically, in the same way that Paul addressed the church of Philippi, "To all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi." Again, as he wrote to the church in Ephesus, "To the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 1:1). Paul knew that not everyone in the churches of Ephesus and Philippi were believers. Why then address them thus? He did so because he viewed the group organically as one, as the church of Jesus Christ.
Parents view their children in the same way, as covenant children, even though it may well be that God has not established His covenant with every child.
Parents have an obligation to raise their children as covenant children. They must teach their children about God and His works. Parents are to teach their children to love God, to fear and obey Him. Children must learn to live as covenant friends of the living God in the world.
Scripture is plain in this regard. The believing parent is commanded, Teach the words of God "diligently unto thy children, and... 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). Fathers are admonished to bring their children "up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). Children are exhorted, "Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding" (Proverbs 4:1).
Most parents find themselves unable adequately to carry out their calling. There may be several reasons for this. First, the father is not home with the children on the farm as in days gone by. That means the whole burden of instructing the children falls on the mother. If she is to be faithful to her calling, she cannot do all her labors and give all the instruction to the children. Perhaps she can "make do" just as a mother who works outside the home "makes do" taking care of the material needs of the family. However, the great danger is that spiritual nurturing will suffer because the mother does not have the time to do the work of a wife, mother and teacher or to prepare herself spiritually for this high and arduous calling. The father must share in this work if children are home-schooled, and that not merely after he returns from his work.
Secondly, the technical nature of knowledge has advanced to the point that most parents find themselves unequal to the task of instruction. Children must be able to use knowledge and technology. They must both be taught the facts and have them put into a biblical perspective. This kind of teaching takes training and study, hours upon hours of preparation. Few parents have this opportunity.
These factors have led Christian parents to establish Christian schools to fulfill their covenantal obligations.
The Christian school is, therefore, an extension of the Christian home. It is not the arm of the church. The church uses catechism and preaching to teach the lambs of the flock. By these means the children are taught the doctrines of the Reformed faith.
Nor may the school be merely an arm of the state to make them literate and able to function as citizens or be productive members of society.
The Christian school is an extension of the home, because parents band together to form school societies. Societies elect boards. School boards set the policies of the school and hire teachers. Teachers then stand in the place of the parent (in loco parentis). They are to teach the children as the parents would, if they could.
What a beautiful gift the Christian school is to covenant parents! It is a means given to parents to help them fulfill their covenant obligations to bring up their children in the fear of the Lord. The school is not an adversary to the home, nor the home to the school. Rather, the school helps the parents.
What is the nature of the instruction in the Christian school that properly rears covenant children? To this we turn our attention next time by examining the distinctive characteristics of instruction in the Reformed, Christian school.
Part II
What makes Christian education to have the great value that it does? The great strength of Reformed, Christian education lies in its distinctive character. In addition to what has already been pointed out in the first segment, we note five main characteristics of Christian education:
Scripture and the Confessions
First of all Christian education is based on Scripture and the Reformed confessions. There is a movement among Christian schools away from this. It is the movement known as the Association for the Advancement of Christian Scholarship (AACS). This movement, born in the 1950s, was first known as the Association for Reformed Scientific Scholarship. Its headquarters is the Institute for Christian Studies (ICS) in Toronto, Canada. Adherents are found on the faculty of virtually every Christian college in North America, and Christian schools are widely affected.
The AACS/ICS people are disciples of the Dutch philosopher Herman Dooyeweerd and his concept of sovereignty. They sharply delineate between the spheres of home, school, and church, insisting that parents run the sphere of the home, but the teachers must control the sphere of the school. This is destructive of parental education. In turn, they assert that the church is the sphere of faith, and the confessions are appropriate for that sphere but not for the school. Schools must have their own educational creeds. The result has been that in many school constitutions Reformed creeds were removed as the basis for instruction.
Even worse, the proponents of this movement effectively take the Bible out the school by redefining the term "Word." They play games with terms. There are, say they, many different Words of God. There is the Incarnate Word, that is the Word become flesh. There is the spoken word of God (preaching). There is the Inscripturated (written) Word, by which they mean the Bible, and finally there is the Word of God in creation.
It is claimed that these different Words may be used only in their proper spheres. For instance, the Inscripturated Word is important for matters of faith. However, the Word in the creation is the proper study of the school. The calling of the school is to discover the Word of God in the different spheres. There is a word of God in math, in history, in art, in law, in business, etc., waiting to be discovered and applied. According to this view the school's search for the Word of God (or Law) in each sphere does not mean that the instructors will find principles about science, art, business, etc., in the Bible and apply the same to the study of the various subjects. Rather the goal is to discover the Word of God in the subject area (sphere) by a study of the subject itself. In this way, the Bible is effectively removed as the basis of the instruction.
This is exactly what has happened in many Christian schools across Canada and the United States. What if the particular Word of God that the class "discovered" happens to conflict with the teaching of the Bible? Objections have been met with quick dismissal. They say that the Word of God (the Bible) is for matters of faith, not for the sphere of science. Only when people woke up and realized what was happening did some societies change the school constitution to read that "the basis for instruction is the Bible, that is the Word of God contained in the Old and New Testaments."
Why is it so important to have the Bible and the confessions as the foundation of the school? First, the Bible and the confessions are the standard of truth. "Thy word is truth," Jesus said (John 17:17). The Bible is the only unchanging standard of truth. Secondly, all the creation can be understood only in the light of the Word. The Belgic Confession in Article 2 teaches that the Bible is the revelation of God that is clearer and fuller than God's revelation in the creation. The confessions set forth the same truth in a systematic way by summarizing the whole of the Bible's teaching in particular areas.
Remove the Bible and the confessions and the school has no standard for rejecting the lie. The devil does not operate only in the church. He works mightily to corrupt the home and the school. Without the Bible and the confessions, who can say what is right? The history teacher might aver, "I have studied this. This is God's word, which I have drawn out of history, namely that the kingdom of Christ is of the earth."
The science teacher might maintain, "I have studied the material carefully and have learned that the world evolved out of a mass of material over billions of years. This is God's word in the sphere of science."
Who can contradict that? Take the stance that the Bible and the confessions are only for the sphere of the church, and there is left no standard for truth in the classroom. In addition, the "clearer and fuller" revelation of the Bible is thrown out.
No, the Bible and the confessions are the essential basis of the Christian school's instruction. All instruction must be built on this foundation. All instruction must be evaluated and judged by the same.
Christ-Centered
A second significant characteristic of the Christian school is that all its instruction is Christ-centered. Since Christ is the center of the council of God and the Mediator of the covenant, the instruction must bear that out. Christ is the Creator of the universe. All things were made by Him. All things were made for Him. He is the Lord of history. He is controlling all things for His triumphant return.
Christ is the wisdom that children are exhorted to "get" in Proverbs 4:7. He is the Word. This has obvious implications for teaching English and literature. Christ is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, and thus is the reason why 2+3 = 5 every day of the year.
He is Life. He not only gives spiritual life to His own, He gives also natural life, and controls both the beating of the heart and the movement of the individual blood cells to every part of the body.
Christ, the Son of God, sees all our actions. He condemns the evil word and the cruel mocking on the playground. He demands love and obedience from covenant children. He is also righteousness, sanctification and redemption for them.
Is there any area of the school curriculum or the school life where Christ can or may be excluded? There is none. This is what makes Christian education to be Christian. It is not merely prayer at the appropriate times in the school day. It is not merely having a Bible class in the curriculum, nor is it the fact that teachers require students to memorize Bible verses or emphasize good morals. What makes the school to be Christian is that every aspect of the school's instruction and life is truly Christ-centered.
Covenantal Instruction
A third characteristic of Christian education is that it is covenantal in its instruction, that is, covenantal both in content and with respect to the manner of instructing and dealing with students.
That the content of the instruction be covenantal is possible and necessary because the whole purpose of Christian education is to equip the child to live in covenant fellowship with God. All the instruction in the Christian school will be affected, because the covenant is all encompassing. It defines the child's relation to God, to the world, and even to the creation. The covenant child is a friend of the living God, even an adopted child of God. Consequently, he is the enemy of the wicked world.
We should add that the covenant of God includes the whole creation. This is plain from Genesis 9, which records the fact that God established His covenant with Noah and the creation. Romans 8 speaks of the creation groaning unto the day when it will be delivered from the curse. Thus the study of the creation involves the covenant. God created all things with an eye to His covenant. The creation is designed to be the place where the covenant will be realized in and through the fall of man, the salvation of the elect in the cross, and the gathering of the covenant people out of the fallen race. In the end God will save the creation through fire and recreation (II Peter 3).
The Christian schoolteacher must begin his task with a clear understanding of how each subject fits into the whole body of the truth of God, the covenant God. When the Christian schoolteacher makes lesson plans, he should face the question, "How does this knowledge equip the students to serve God as members of His covenant?"
Secondly, the instruction is covenantal in the manner in which teachers deal with students. That is to say, the students are viewed as covenant children. They are not treated as unbelievers, those who need to be regenerated. Rather, the students are considered to be what the Bible calls them, namely, Jehovah's heritage (Psalm 127:3) and God's children (Ezekiel 16:20-21).
Christian schoolteachers thus deal with their students as regenerated, believing children. They know assuredly that these children still have their evil natures. They are sinners. Christian schoolteachers know that their students will sin. They will need the rod and reproof.
At the same time, these children have been redeemed from sin. They are sanctified by the blood and Spirit of Christ. They have within them the principle of a new and holy life. They can and must be called to a life of thankful obedience.
Antithetical
A fourth characteristic of Reformed education in the Christian school is that it is antithetical. Antithetical instruction sets forth the truth over against what is false (the lie). The term antithesis is a Reformed concept; and therefore, begins with God. God is the thesis, for God is truth. The believer is called to live antithetically by saying "Yes" to God, and to all that is pleasing to God.
However, there is a corresponding "No" in antithetical living. The covenant people are called to say "No" to all that stands opposed to God and to all that God hates. God set this calling before His people from the beginning - even in the garden of Eden. Part of God's purpose for the two special trees in the middle of the garden was to show Adam that he must say "Yes" to the tree of life, and say "No" to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is what it means to live the antithesis.
The world in which we live is opposed to God and His Word. The calling of the believer is to live antithetically in the midst of this world. This is the reason why common grace is the death of sound Reformed education. It bridges the gap between the world and the church, between the Thesis (God) and the opposition (lie), between the life-style of the righteous and that of the ungodly.
If the Christian school will equip the covenant child to live antithetically, the instruction must be antithetical. Such a school will not merely teach a literal six-day creation, it will reject evolution. Truly Christian education will not merely teach the facts of history, it will expose the vanity (emptiness) of the philosophies of men and their kingdoms.
Antithetical, Christian education will both develop the taste for good music, and condemn ungodly music. Such instruction will not merely teach some physical skills in sports, it will also put sports in the Christian perspective. Christian education condemns the worship of athletes and sports. The Christian school likewise fights to keep its own sports program in the proper perspective with respect to the time required and the emphasis given.
The Christian school develops the student's ability to think and evaluate. It teaches him to live by principle, not by mere laws. It warns against the current forms of evil, but also equips him to face the unknown future development of evil.
Reformed, Christian education is antithetical.
Progressive
Finally, Christian education is progressive. Man keeps growing in his knowledge and technology, developing the powers that God has imbedded in this creation. Natural man uses every new discovery to sin and to develop the kingdom of man. The Christian school must keep abreast of these developments if it is properly to train covenant youth. This demands that teachers continue to study and grow.
It means also that the Christian school must provide the teacher with the material needs for progressive classroom instruction. Computers, for instance, are a necessity for properly equipping the covenant child to serve God in today's world. Think of the tremendous power unleashed by the computer - for good and for evil. Churches are using it for printing publications and for spreading the truth even on the Internet. Godless men are using the computer to establish communication for the one, worldwide kingdom of man (Antichrist's) and to spread vile filth on the same Internet.
This is not to say that the Christian school must be as well equipped as the public school. In most instances, they neither can nor need be. At the same time we must not simply ignore the advances in knowledge and technology. In every area where there is development or new discoveries (though not necessarily with every new invention) there is a good use, and there is an evil use. The purpose of totally depraved man is for evil. The covenant child must be equipped to press the new discovery or technology into the service of God, if it is possible to use it at all.
To accomplish its task; therefore, Christian education must be progressive.
This kind of education - Reformed, Christian education - is of the greatest value. That value we will examine concretely next time, the Lord willing.
Part III
Solid, Reformed, Christian education is of inestimable value.
Believing parents and grandparents, and spiritually minded students give thanks to God for the Christian instruction given in a Reformed school. Yet it is also true that parents and children and the church as a whole are not always so conscious of the specific blessings of the Christian school. It is good for teachers, parents, and students alike to be reminded.
First of all, the Christian school is a tremendous gift from God to assist believing parents in fulfilling their obligations. These obligations are summed up in the baptismal vow. Believing parents "promise and intend to see [their] children ... instructed and brought up in the aforesaid [Reformed] doctrine, or help or cause them to be instructed therein, to the utmost of [their] power."
The Christian school is only a help to parents. Schools must not try to do the whole job. The parents can better instruct in many important aspects of the covenant child's training, as for example, teaching children to pray, instruction on matters of sexuality, and training in everyday practical living skills. Moreover, parents are not to think they have fulfilled their obligations by sending their children to a Christian school. The school is a help to the parent, not a replacement of the parent.
When teachers are truly in loco parentis, are rearing children, instructing in the light of the Bible, and giving Christian nurture, the school is a vital aid to the parents in the monumental calling to instruct their children "to the utmost of their power."
Secondly, Christian education is so valuable because it provides the covenant child with a firm foundation on which to stand. The foundation is the Reformed truth, it is the Bible itself. The foundation is well established for the covenant child because he is taught the same things in home, school, and church. Ecclesiastes 4:12 speaks of a threefold cord - "And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken." For the covenant child the united, harmonious teaching of the home, school and church is a threefold cord. By God's grace, the strength of that instruction will last throughout his entire life.
Thirdly, Christian education prepares the covenant child to live in this world as a friend-servant of God. He has received the necessary training to function in the world. He can earn a living - for the cause of the kingdom of God. He can live and work as a believer, properly representing God's cause. That because the child knows God; he knows what God requires; he is equipped to seek God in all that he does.
Fourthly, Christian education is of great value because it gives the child a Reformed world and life view. A child so trained can think biblically, that is in a Reformed way. He has the right view of the world. He correctly sees the world as a spiritual desert, as a battlefield, as a world set against God - not as a playground; not as a basically good or harmless or friendly place. He has the right view of history as the unfolding of the counsel of God. He has the knowledge of the principles needed to make right decisions.
Fifthly, much of the value of Christian education derives from the fact that it is communal rather than individualistic. Home schooling misses this communal aspect. The intent of this article is not to assail home schooling. We are well aware that some parents home school their children out of necessity. However, the purpose of the article is to demonstrate the benefits of the Christian school. We ought to note that there are advantages to the Christian school over home schooling, and this is one of them.
That Christian education is communal means that covenant children have the opportunity to interact with each other. This has great value socially, particularly in the sphere of the church. These children are a part of the church. They must deal with fellow saints all their lives - the good and pleasant interaction with people, as well as the unpleasant confrontations and even the sins of their fellow saints. School is preparation for living in the church. In fact, life in school is part of the communion of saints for the youth of the church.
This communal aspect of education has value academically because the classroom gives the students the opportunity to learn from each other. Students who help other students with the material currently taught in class come to know the material far better themselves. Class discussions make the facts and figures of the book or lecture to come alive, and thus to be remembered. Besides, students' questions open exciting areas of learning and discussion that profit the whole class.
In addition, communal education develops the thinking processes because there will be interaction in the classroom. In the classroom, students have the opportunity to formulate and express their views. They hear and evaluate the expressed thoughts of others, beyond those of their own family. Sometimes their own views are challenged by other students. This helps students think through issues. In such an atmosphere, their reasoning powers can develop, while they avoid a narrow view on all issues.
The benefit of the school is that interaction can take place in a controlled arena. Boundaries, as to the content and nature of the discussion, are determined by the Bible and the confessions. A trained leader and guide - the Christian school teacher - can and must direct the discussion and put it into the proper biblical perspective.
We might add, this communal aspect of the Christian school is good preparation for life in the kingdom, for God deals with His people covenantally, not individualistically. For the child this means not only living as a member of a covenant family, but also being part of the broader body of the church. In a school, the students are part of the whole, and learn to live and work together with other youthful saints for God's glory. Here the covenant children learn corporate responsibility as well.
Finally, and most importantly, Reformed, Christian education obtains the goal of II Timothy 3:17, "That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." This text summarizes the goal of Christian education.
What does this text mean?
To be perfect means to be complete or mature. In all areas of life, the covenant child receives Reformed, Christian instruction. The Reformed doctrines that he learns in catechism and through the preaching are applied to all areas of life in the Christian school. He is nurtured in that instruction. No aspect of his rearing has been neglected. By God's grace the covenant child matures physically, mentally and spiritually under such instruction.
He knows God and he knows God's will. He is equipped to serve God. He is thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Such a believer is not set on building a kingdom of God on earth. Rather his desire is to serve God in whatever station and calling God gives, as a husband and father or as a wife and mother. He is equipped to serve God wherever God calls him to labor - on the farm, in the office, or on the scaffolding. She is supremely equipped to be a mother in Israel rearing covenant children; he to serve as an office bearer in the church. All are prepared to glorify God in all their lives.
This is the goal of Christian education: Equip the covenant child to praise God - now in this life, but also in eternity. The baptism form reminds us of that preparation for eternity. The concluding prayer asks that God bless these covenant children "to the end that they may eternally praise and magnify thee... the one only true God."
This is the chief end of man, to glorify God forever. This is the supreme value of Reformed, Christian education. What a difference this makes in the view one has of the child's education! Christian education is not self-centered as in, "What do I get out of Christian education?" Nor is it focused on this world as in, "How will Christian education help my child succeed?" Rather, the greatest value of Christian education is recognized and demanded as in, "How are covenant children being equipped to serve and glorify God?" This is the great value of Reformed, Christian education.
It is our calling, our solemn duty, to provide such instruction for our covenant children. It is not an option. God commands it. May believers (both parents and teachers) be encouraged to persevere as they recognize the great value of their labors.
| Back to top | Back to main Reformed Witness page |
The Reformed Witness newsletter is published monthly under the auspices of the Evangelism Committee of the Hope Protestant Reformed Church of Redlands. This newsletter is available to anyone who is interested in the Reformed Faith. If you would like your name added to our mailing list, please write to:The Reformed Witness
Hope Protestant Reformed Church
1307 E. Brockton Ave.
Redlands, CA 92374-3802
or email us: