–– Tim Cantrell
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If Christ is Lord of all of life, He is Lord of all learning and education. The “first and greatest commandment” is not only to love Him with heart and soul, but also with “all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Both Deuteronomy and Proverbs provide detailed examples and much instruction on the role of parents and teachers in the formation of young hearts and minds: “Hear O Israel…”, and “Listen, my son….”.
Yet here in South Africa, the battle rages for educational authority. Recent headlines show ongoing efforts to implement the controversial BELA bill that indoctrinates children with sexual perversion, undermines parental authority, and, in the name of neutrality, promotes aggressively the religion of secular humanism. Previous TARIFs have warned about the BELA agenda and made a clear case for Christian education. But what further lessons and examples does church history offer us for Christian education in our African context today?
16th century reformer, John Calvin, modelled how a biblical worldview transforms education and permeates society with the leaven of God’s kingdom, as it slowly spreads, one student at a time (Matt. 13:33). Calvin was zealous for the light of truth to conquer darkness in every realm, and for the extensive spread of Christian knowledge.
Literacy was educational goal number one for Calvin, so that people could understand Scripture, be converted, and participate rightly in Christian worship and forsake superstition.
Calvin knew the Reformation could not succeed without well-educated leaders and an informed laity, which is no less true today in the African Church.
Calvin saw Christian education as a tool to shape a godly, disciplined society, to instil moral values and civic duties. Students flocked to his academy from all over the world. When Calvin died, the school had 1,200 junior and 300 senior students. He saw the Academy as the “crowning achievement” of his ministry. May God raise up many more such ministries on this continent in the present hour.
Marks of a Good Model
Here is an inspiring list of just a few of the colossal changes God used Calvin to bring about in education – so that Christian leaders across Africa would also be inspired:
(1) Calvin shocked the world of his day by offering education to all, irrespective of age, gender or wealth. He wrote, “We must not neglect the instruction of the poor, for the knowledge of God belongs to all, both great and small.”
(2) Calvin was so convinced of the God-given role of parents in education that his church disciplined parents who deprived their children of learning. In contrast to the Renaissance focus on the study of man as the highest goal, Calvin pointed to the glory of God as the chief aim of education.
(3) Calvin ensured that schooling was done under gifted, godly teachers. Their job was no less sacred than the minister’s job in God’s eyes, as they were shaping young souls for eternity. He required that their academy teachers also know theology, and be of mature and godly character, and that they be well paid for their diligent labours.
(4) Calvin was clear that the outcome of a truly Christian education was not only pure religion, but also the public welfare. It was about preparing faithful church members and responsible citizens.
South African Application
Lebeloane and Madise’s research in South Africa has shown that true Calvinistic principles of education were ignored by the past apartheid government, while claiming to be Reformed. How different might be the present state of our country here if the Geneva model had been followed, and offered to both rich and poor, upholding human dignity, along with accountability, good communication, obedience, orderliness, and the rule of law.
Yet there are also many encouraging signs lately of an educational awakening in South Africa and beyond. As Voddie Baucham loves to say, “Send your kids to Caesar and don’t be surprised when they come home as Romans.” In recent years, God has especially used COVID lockdowns, wokeness, transgender insanity and other cultural assaults from the left to jolt parents out of their slumber.
Many government (public) schools are mere mouthpieces of secularism, so Christian parents are looking elsewhere to educate their children. Homeschool co-ops are bursting at the seams and multiplying. God is raising up an army of homeschool moms labouring tirelessly and selflessly to impart a biblical worldview to their children. Private Christian schools are also sprouting up and bearing much fruit. May this become a mass exodus out of worldly schools and into godly education – as Christians learn to submit to Christ’s lordship in “every square inch” of life.
O that God would give us even a fraction of the fruit that He gave Calvin in the number of world-changers who graduated from his Geneva Academy. In 1625 (some 50 years after Calvin’s death), a list was drawn up of famous men of the age across Europe, and one quarter of those men had studied in Geneva! R.C. Sproul said, “Between the influence of a mere two schools – the graduates of the small university at Wittenberg (with Luther) and the graduates of Calvin’s one Academy of Geneva, the world was changed.”
I close with the strong exhortation of Pastor Gideon Mpeni in Zambia:
In light of the BELA Bill…, Christian parents should think more carefully about whether they should send their children to public schools, it’s time for more parents to courageously take charge of the education of their own bambinos. The church must equally rise to the challenge by equipping parents, supporting families, and offering alternatives. Schools have surely become engine rooms of indoctrination of the young. Let us take back the reins and indoctrinate them with the timeless truths of a Biblical worldview.