–– Paul Schlehlein

Audio version of this article is available here: YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

Satan has always tried to wrest the role of education from parents and place it into the hands of the State. In a 1933 speech, Adolph Hitler said: “When an opponent declares, ‘I will not come over to your side,’ I calmly say, ‘Your child belongs to us already.’”

Recently South African political leader Julius Malema encouraged a gathering of low-income men and women to bear more children. If you can’t afford them, he said, there’s nothing to worry about. That’s why government exists. He promised his political party would take care of their children by doubling the child-support grants.

When it comes to Africa’s educational problems, the solution is not more government intervention but less, and not less Christian influence but more. 

Christian schools, no doubt, possess many hazards. Their academic results can be low, their morals are too often similar to the world’s and the costs of time and money are steep. 

Nevertheless, parents and churches should pursue Christian education for the following four reasons. 

Christ’s Commission

First, Jesus gave the church a Christ-centred commission to make disciples (Mt. 28:19-20), which certainly includes Christian education. The only kinds of schools that deserve to be perpetuated are institutions that are unapologetically Christian and look totally different from their government counterparts. Sadly, many Christian schools today are nothing more than government schools with a once-a-week chapel. 

Christians shouldn’t be defensive when others charge them with indoctrinating their students. All schools do this. Contrary to popular belief, all education is religious because religion is a system of worship. Christian schools worship Christ, Muslim schools worship Allah and secular schools worship man. No education is neutral because all education has a worldview. R.C. Sproul said: 

“There is no such thing as a neutral education. Every education, every curriculum, has a viewpoint. That viewpoint either considers God in it or it does not. To teach children about life and the world in which they live without reference to God is to make a statement about God.”

Similarly, C.S. Lewis said: “There is no neutral ground in all the universe: every square inch, every split-second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.” This perspective began with Jesus, who said in Matthew 12:30: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

Thus, Christian parents educate their children from a robust, biblical perspective because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Pr. 1:7). They seek to place every subject—science, history, math, literature—under the Lordship of Christ. God’s Word should be like symbols on our hands and signs on our foreheads (Deut. 6:7), an impossible task if secular humanism indoctrinates our children for 40 hours a week. 

Crisis

Second, there is an educational crisis today. Few parents are satisfied with the state of education for their children. 

Violence, drunkenness, condom distribution, illiteracy, depression, out-of-wedlock births, disrespect, and drugs are common among youth today. This is because most of Christianity has been removed from schools, and replaced by humanism and Darwinian evolution.

If at all possible, parents should take their children out of public education and away from the humanism that would influence their children for 10,000 hours over the course of their education. In its place, Christians should strive to either homeschool or establish Christian schools antithetical to the world’s pedagogy.

Common sense

Third, establishing Christian schools is often just plain common sense. Most churches teach their people about 2-3 hours a week. In a culture steeped in paganism, doesn’t it seem logical for Christians to try and infiltrate young, mouldable minds with Christianity for, say, 30+ hours a week?

Church History

Finally, believers who promote Christian education stand in a long line of godly men. The history of the Church is littered with believers who started schools. One unique mark of Christian education is that it taught everyone, including girls and the poor. German Christians started kindergartens. Christians were the first to formally educate the deaf. Robert Raikes started Sunday schools to teach children how to read the Bible. John Calvin founded schools, making Geneva a leader in education around Europe. John Knox said that every church should have qualified schoolmasters. 

Missionaries usually are often the first to put a language into print. The history of missions records the almost inseparable link between planting churches and establishing schools. From William Carey to John Paton to Amy Carmichael, schools have long been a part of their gospel work. 

Norris Groves established a school soon after arriving in Baghdad as a way to reach a Muslim community that was resistant to the church. Alexander Duff and Karl Rhenius famously established hundreds of schools in India. The 19^th-century missionaries in India, if they found initial gospel interest in a particular village, would often start a small school as a way to reach the community. Some schools may only reach the grammar stage, where your chief goal is reading and writing. Over generations, the hope is that Christian schools reach the rhetoric stage, where they produce students who can articulate the Scriptures clearly. 

Conclusion

Martin Luther got it right when he said:

“Where the Holy Scriptures are not the rule, I advise no one to send his child. Everything must perish where God’s word is not studied unceasingly. I greatly fear the high schools are nothing but great gates of hell unless they diligently study the Holy Scriptures and teach them to the young people.”