THE BIBLICAL INFLUENCE ON EDUCATION

Shepherd's Guidance 15/2020

13 May 2020 
 
 
The Biblical Influence on Education

(Scripture Reference: Deuteronomy 6:1-9) 
 
The traditional Jews will recite Deuteronomy 6:4-9 every morning and night. This confession in the Old Testament Scriptures does not contradict the later revelation of the doctrine of Trinity, because the Hebrew word "God" (Elohim) is a plural word and the word "one" is also used in the marriage of Adam and Eve. The people of God started a kind of education from home and then to religious meeting place like the tabernacle, temple and synagogues later.  
 
The education of the world by and large are indebted to biblical teachings. Many schools we see nowadays had its origin in the Christian faith. Christian faith helped to start kindergartens, schools, colleges and universities. Of course we are not saying every school is Christian. But the idea of education for the common people has its root in Christian faith. There were quite a number of schools before the Christian faith, but they were for the upper-class society only. The spread of Christian faith helped to promote the concept of education for everyone. It is observed that many famous universities are unfriendly to biblical Christianity but they are indebted to the Christian founders. Some of these universities were started for gospel purposes. 
 
Since the beginning of the Christian faith, there was an emphasis on the teaching of the Bible. Like the Jews in the Old Testament, the Christians stressed the teaching of the Old and New Testaments. Even during the period of dark ages in the church history, whereby most people were illiterate, it was the church leaders who kept the learning alive. They copied many precious writings from the past. Many languages in the world today were set to writing by Christian missionaries in order to help the people to read the Bible for themselves. William Carrie had contributed much to the Indians. The tribal people in China and Southeast Asia are indebted to the Christian missionaries for the codifying of their languages. Worldwide literacy is a by-product of missionary movements. Even the nations that denied the existence of God also uses the alphabets developed by Christian workers. 
 
The invention of the printing press helped to speed up the pace of education for everyone. Even though Johann Gutenberg (1398-1468) was not the first man in Europe to develop a movable type printing press, he was the first to do it in a way that made the mass production of books possible. Gutenberg said, "I know what I want to do: I wish to manifold the Bible”. In order to achieve his purpose, he converted a wine press, so that it pressed pages onto the type blocks. The American educator Samuel Blumenfeld found out the modern idea of popular education first arose in Europe during the Sixteenth Century Reformation. The Protestant leaders recognised the necessity of biblical literacy at all levels of society. Actually Blumenfeld was converted to become a Christian while he read through the "Institutes of the Christian Religion” written by John Calvin. It was amazing. 
 
The Academy of Geneva established by  Calvin had influenced the set up of many Christian colleges in America. The Calvinistic Concept of education is for people to know God and honour Him as God who is the Creator and Redeemer. His idea of education covers the study of God’s Book and His creations. The gospel of Christ is needed to lead the students to repent towards God and faith in Christ. Otherwise, education will only make the unrepentant sinners commit worse crimes like Nazi Germany in history. In 1941  Germany was the nation having the top class education in the world. Look what they did to the helpless Jewish people! Six million lives were lost under their merciless rule. 
 
The Scriptures taught the parents to impart their faith to their next generation, line upon line, precept upon precept. Such an approach was recorded in the book of Isaiah. The Lord used Martin Luther and John Calvin to influence European countries to promote popular education. That is how these nations became leaders in mass education. The percentage of literacy ranged from 94 to 99.9 percent in those Protestant countries. Those who were under the control of Roman Catholicism had 40-60 percent of literacy when a survey was conducted around the 19th Century. When the Pilgrims and Puritans first arrived in America, they made education a high priority legally. In 1642 they passed a law to require education for all children. The purpose was to make these children be able to read Scriptures for themselves, as simple as that. They used Bible themes to teach the alphabets. The following are the examples: A - In Adam Fall, We sinned all; B - Heaven to find, The Bible Mind; C - Christ crucified, For sinners died; D - The  Deluge drowned the Earth around. The first Congress of The United States in 1787 declared: “Religion, morality, and knowledge, being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged. "For 217 years (1620-1837) virtually all education in America was private and Christian. Their literacy percentage was 70-100 percent based on research done. 
 
We thank the Lord for using the godly people in the past to impart the knowledge of Christ. There is a remnant of the godly in those countries. They are standing for the cause of biblical teachings. May God help them to lead some to repentance and faith. The anti-Christian movements are strong in the present age. God save us from the disbelief and departure of the biblical truth. May the Lord uphold those publishing houses that print faithful Bible translations and sound Christian books. Such publications are important to continue the education for Christ. God save us from the onslaughts of the enemies of the gospel. 
 
Rev. Lee Kim Shong