With this history in mind, we have dire need at present to resist the bewitching influence of secularism in the education of our children. Though God has not mandated a specific form of education (i.e., homeschooling, private schooling, or public school), He does command us to diligently instruct our children with a consistent and all-permeating Christian theism. This means more than simply taking our children to church and to a youth group. It means training them to think about all subjects in light of the triune God who gives shape and meaning to all that He has established in the world He has made and which He upholds. In 1923, J. Gresham Machen articulated the essence of this principle when he wrote,
A Christian boy or girl can learn mathematics, for example, from a teacher who is not a Christian; and truth is truth however learned. But while truth is truth however learned, the bearings of truth, the meaning of truth, the purpose of truth, even in the sphere of mathematics, seem entirely different to the Christian from that which they seem to the non-Christian; and that is why a truly Christian education is possible only when Christian conviction underlies not a part, but all, of the curriculum of the school. True learning and true piety go hand in hand, and Christianity embraces the whole of life.
This call for a consideration of the blessing and benefit of Christian schools and distinctively Christian education falls sqaurely within the realm of spiritual warfare. In his essay, “The Christian School Today (Part 2),” Cornelius Van Til explained,
The reason why we are willing as Christian believers in general, and as Christian parents in particular, to sacrifice so largely for the sake of having Christian schools is that we want our children with us to see the vision of the all-conquering Christ as he wrests the culture of mankind away from Satan and brings it to its consummation when the new heavens and the new earth on which righteousness shall dwell, at last appears. We would have our young men and women become true soldiers under Christ as with him they go conquering and to conquer every domain of life for Christ. When they thus become good soldiers of Christ, they will be free and be truly themselves. They will share in the trophies which Christ wrests from Satan’s power.
Regarding the importance of Christian schooling to help advance a consistent Christian theism, Machen again explained,
I believe that the Christian school deserves to have a good report from those who are without; I believe that even those of our fellow citizens who are not Christians may, if they really love human freedom and the noble traditions of our people, be induced to defend the Christian school against the assaults of its adversaries and to cherish it as a true bulwark of the State. But for Christian people its appeal is far deeper. I can see little consistency in a type of Christian activity which preaches the gospel on the street corners and at the ends of the earth, but neglects the children of the covenant by abandoning them to a cold and unbelieving secularism. If, indeed, the Christian school were in any sort of competition with the Christian family, if it were trying to do what the home ought to do, then I could never favor it. But one of its marked characteristics, in sharp distinction from the secular education of today, is that it exalts the family as a blessed divine institution and treats the scholars in its classes as children of the covenant to be brought up above all things in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Minimally, all of this means that Christian parents are responsible to resist the myth of neutrality regarding what our children are taught in secular schools, on television, on the internet, and under the influence of friends. If we decide to send our children to secular institutions, we had better do so with our eyes wide open to the worldview their minds will be filled with on a daily basis. If we send our children to public schools, we must be aware that the bewitching influence of secularism runs swift and strong. Maximally, this is a call for Christians to seriously consider the need for Christian schooling. What a blessing it is for believers to commit together for the Christian education of their children. While I am painfully aware that Christian schools do not, de facto, ensure that our covenant children will have regenerate hearts, and that many have sent their children to Christian schools only to see them abandon the faith, it is my sincere conviction that a consistent Christian theistic education is honoring to God and most formatively beneficial to our children, as we seek to help them escape the bewitching influence of secularism in the realm of education.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
