Among the issues about which there is increasing confusion and division in our churches, one concerns educa tion. In this case also let’s try to see the situation more clearly by considering side-by–side (1) the historic, Biblical Reformed view and (2) the emerging, changing, broadening view held by an increasing number in our churches.
(1) The Biblical, Reformed View
The Lord’s promised salvation is not only for individual believers. In promising and giving it He establishes a “covenant” relationship between Himself and believers and their children (Gen. 17:7; Acts 2:39; Gal. 3, esp. v. 29). We may not expect the promises and privileges of that covenant to be automatically realized. They demand that believing parents train their children in God’s Word or Book of the Covenant (“Testament”) in order to experience its blessings (Gen. 18:18, 19; Romans 2:25–3:2; Eph. 6:1–4). God commands us to earnestly and continuously train our children in the way of the Lord. The Lord showed us how important He considered this responsibility to be when He said, “Whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me” (Matt. 18:5), and added, “But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe in me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea.” This Divine command forbids our turning the responsibility and control of our children’s education over to the government or community and tolerating an education from which God and His Word are excluded. It requires us to insist on an education directed and disciplined by God’s Word (Prov. 22:6; Ps. 119:105) to cover as far as possible every area of life (2 Tim. 3:13–17; 1 Cor.10:30; Deut. 6:5–7). Such education is necessary both for the welfare of our own children and to equip us for genuinely Christian missionary and social influence in the world.
(2) The Broadening View
We must live in the light of God’s revelation not only as given in the Bible but also as experienced by all mankind in its growing and improving understanding of man and his universe. The notion of a separate and different Christian school is largely a product of our narrow, ethnocentric immigrant mentality and history. It has impoverished our understanding of and sympathizes with others and has handicapped our missionary outreach and social influence. It has tied us to antiquated, authoritarian and traditionalistic methods of education and inhibited our children from the free development of their potentials and the happy, unrestrained lives to which we today are beginning to realize everyone has an inherent right. The Bible, a product of a certain era of history, must be interpreted and applied by us as we live in a quite different era of history. To regard its culturally conditioned traditions, laws and even scholastically misinterpreted “doctrines” as being unchanging and permanently valid is to radically misinterpret it and them. We must both for ourselves and our children and in order to make a Christian contribution to our age and society, learn to appreciate and show others that Christ was the Great Liberator from every kind of inhibition and constraint. If we are to have any Christian influence or missionary impact in our time and society we must address the present felt need for such liberation and teach our children, through really “progressive” and “open” schools, following the discoveries of “developmental psychology,” to choose and find their own way in today’s world.