Although the term Christian education does not occur in the Bible, the Bible speaks of the moral and spiritual instruction of believers in general and of children in particular. It places a high value upon knowledge, both of God and of His works. It describes the moral and spiritual fruits of this knowledge and defines its ultimate purpose.
From the moment a child is born, certain forces are at work influencing his development. As his inherited powers and tendencies surface and interact with his environment and his will, he takes on the characteristics of his adulthood. Human growth, however, does not end with physical maturity. Some faculties of the personality are capable of expansion and refinement into old age. Education, whether of child or adult, is the directing of this total ongoing process of development toward specific objectives.
The purpose of Christian education is the directing of the process of human development toward God's objective for man: godliness of character and action. It bends its efforts to the end "that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works" (II Tim. 3:17).
This goal of godliness presupposes the experience of regeneration. As education in general begins with physical birth, Christian education proper begins with spiritual rebirth, when the life of God is communicated to the soul. To say that Christian education proper begins with the new birth is not, however, to say that it is pointless before regeneration. The student can be provided with necessary awarenesses of God and responses to His Word so that when the Holy Spirit brings conviction of sin he will readily and with full understanding accept Christ as his Saviour. Timothy from childhood knew "the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus" (II Tim. 3:15). To make children and even unregenerated adults "wise unto salvation" is no less a legitimate function of Christian education today.
Growth in godliness proceeds step by step from regeneration toward full maturity "in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (II Pet. 1:5-8). This growth, like regeneration, is made possible by divine grace (Titus 2:11-13). It results from the emulation of Christ, who, as "the express image" of "the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3), is the visible manifestation of the divine nature that God has ordained for man's imitation. As regenerated man continues to occupy his mind with the truth of God revealed in Christ, he is "changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (II Cor. 3:18). His full conformity to the image of God in Christ--his Christ-likeness--is the goal of Christian education (Rom. 8:29). This goal is pursued with the recognition that its complete realization awaits the full view of Christ in the life to come, when "we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is" (I John 3:2).
Christians have a Biblical mandate to educate in their homes and in their churches. In order to reinforce the educational ministries of these institutions or to protect their ministries from secular interference, Christian parents or church members, acting either individually or in concert, may elect to form a Christian school. In doing so, they are acting from religious conviction. To deny them their choice of means in carrying out the Biblical mandate of Christian education is to deny them the exercise of their religious convictions.
It follows that the education of children is the prerogative not of the state but of the parents or church members. Furthermore, it is evident that allowing the state to dictate the standards and procedures of Christian education jeopardizes the ability of parents and of church members to carry out their responsibility to God for the education of their children. The subjection of the Christian school to the control of the state or of any other secular agency is, in effect, the subjection of the Christian homes and churches to secular domination. It is rightly regarded as vicious, for secular control (even that which may appear benign) is incompatible with the aims of a spiritual ministry.
The work of the Christian school is an extension of the Christian educational ministries of the Christian home and the church. Its purpose, therefore, is the development of the student in the image of God. This purpose determines both the content and the means of instruction.
This selection is an excerpt from Christian Education: Its Mandate and Mission
Grace and Peace,
Ed
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