God’s Mandate for Biblical Education
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Education can only be understood from the perspective of worldviews. God’s Mandate for Biblical Education briefly examines the components of worldviews (particularly epistemology), and then presents the Biblical worldview of education.
Nine arguments (including the absolute lordship of Jesus Christ and covenant faithfulness) are powerfully presented, demonstrating that Biblically-consistent, comprehensive, Christian education is Biblically-mandated for all subjects of study, for all Christian children. This is followed by the six necessary components of Christian education, i.e., Biblically directed: teachers, content, goals, standard, method, and motivations. Foundational presuppositions for a Biblical philosophy of history, language, and science are taught. (Most people are surprised to learn that it is philosophically and logically impossible for science to ever arrive at absolute truth!) Many other questions are answered head-on, such as: Can education ever be religiously neutral? What is the Biblical role of the church and the state in the education of children? Is “classical” Christian education Biblical? The differences between the Hebrew and Greek models of education are powerfully presented. In summary, this book does not deal with the well-documented evils in the public schools; neither is it based on the unbiblical philosophy of pragmatism; instead, it provides a hard-hitting ideology of truly Biblical education that is applicable in all cultures, forcing Christians to re-think most contemporary practices.
God’s Mandate for Biblical Education is a superb book for imparting a Biblical, covenantally-faithful vision to Christian parents for training their children. It makes a great gift for homeschooling families to give to relatives and friends to answer their questions and objections regarding homeschooling.
“God’s Mandate for Biblical Education provides a clear, comprehensive, and succinct discussion of the Bible’s teaching on this critical subject. In fact, I have read no better treatment of this topic and believe that Dr. Fugate’s book is especially well suited for the important work of introducing pastors and other Christian leaders to orthodox teaching on the question of how we are to educate our children. I hope this book is widely read by parents and other laymen, but I also hope that this book will be widely read by Christian leaders.”
Bruce N. Shortt, PhD, J.D.: author of The Harsh Truth about Public Schools
“Well-researched and well-organized...based primarily on a Scriptural foundation. I don’t know another book that has such a wealth of quotes and sources in a handy format. I heartily recommend this book and plan to continue promoting it. It deserves widespread circulation.”
E. Ray Moore, ThM
Chaplain (Lt. Colonel) USAR Ret., President of Frontline Ministries, www.ExodusMandate.org
“‘A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher’ (Lk 6:40). ... It is high time that Christians repented of walking in the counsel of the ungodly (Ps 1:1), and began treating Christian education as being at the heart of the covenant (Dt 6:4–9). I highly recommend Robert Fugate’s book, God’s Mandate for Biblical Education. Unless its radical recommendations are followed, America will be lost in a sea of paganism, like Europe was.”
Rev. Phillip G. Kayser, PhD: pastor; conference teacher; adjunct professor at Whitefield Theological Seminary
“a very valuable tool for educating coming generations...about the liberty-inspiring system of biblical education in which parents are in control. I would recommend every married couple to give a wedding gift of his books, God’s Mandate for Biblical Education and Key Principles of Biblical Civil Government, to children when they marry! Doing so would serve to build a firm foundation for restoring freedom and self-responsibility before God in our troubled nation!”
Tom Rose: President, American En
Dr. Robert E. Fugate
Robert Fugate is an author, pastor, and theological mentor. He earned a Ph.D. in Christian Intellectual Studies and a M.Div., both from Whitefield Theological Seminary.Dr. Fugate has written over twenty books and booklets that have been used by pastors and church leaders in over sixty countries. His writings include: The Bible: God’s Words to You; The Foundation and Pillars of the Biblical Worldview; Psycho-Heresy: Christianizing Pagan Psychologies; Key Principles of Biblical Civil Government; God’s Mandate for Biblical Education; Biblical Patriarchy; Toward a Theology of Taxation; Tyrants Are Not Ministers of God; God’s Royal Law: Foundation of Moral Order; A Biblical Philosophy of Truth with Contemporary Applications; Biblical Curses: Divine and Demonic; A Brief History and Critique of Natural Law Theory; and Biblical Imprecations: Christians’ Secret Weapon (among others). His book, The Bible: God’s Words to You, is a nearly 900-page treatment of the doctrine of Scripture. It may be the only comprehensive text on bibliology written from a presuppositional/Biblical-worldview perspective. Dr. Fugate’s materials are available at LordoftheNations.com.Dr. Fugate co-authored the position paper “Sanctity of Human Life” for the International Church Council Project/Coalition on Revival, as well as being a major contributor to their position papers “God’s Law for All Societies,” “Education of Christian Children,” and “The Biblical Perspective of Environmental Stewardship.”Dr. Fugate mentors pastors, pastoral or missionary candidates, and young adults in Biblical worldview, presuppositional apologetics and systematic theology.His website is LordoftheNations.com
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God’s Mandate for Biblical Education - Dr. Robert E. Fugate
God’s Mandate
For Biblical Education
Proclaiming the Crown Rights of King Jesus over Education and Keeping Covenant with God
Robert E. Fugate, Ph.D.
Lord of the Nations, LLC
Omaha, NE
LordoftheNations.com
Copyright 2014 Thy Word Is Truth, LLC
P.O. Box 641592, Omaha, NE 68164
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
ISBN: 978-0-9847422-4-0
Published by Lord of the Nations, LLC, Omaha, NE
Ebook Edition
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked NASB
are taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission (www.Lockman.org).
Scripture Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996–2006 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. www.bible.org. All rights reserved. Quoted by permission.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
ADDITIONAL MONOGRAPHS AUTHORED BY DR. ROBERT FUGATE
The Bible, God's Words to You: A Presuppositional Guide to the Reformed Doctrine of Scripture
Key Principles of Biblical Civil Government
Psycho-Heresy: Christianizing Pagan Psychologies
Toward a Theology of Taxation
God's Law: Foundation of Moral Order
A Brief History and Critique of Natural Law Theory
Biblical Imprecations: Christians' Secret Weapon
Modernism and Postmodernism: Their History, Beliefs, Cultural Influence—and How to Refute Them
Some Continuities and Discontinuities Between the Older Testament and the Newer Testament
Antinomianism in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries
God's Revelation: He Wants You to Know Him
Available at: LordoftheNations.com
What Others are Saying
"A Christian worldview education in all areas of knowledge for children at the K–12 level must be part of a Church-wide strategy to maintain the identity of the Christian Church in the next several decades. Robert Fugate argues soundly for just such in God’s Mandate for Biblical Education. Well-researched and well-organized, God’s Mandate, develops the critical arguments for K–12 Christian education and home schooling, based primarily on a Scriptural foundation. This foundation, the forte of Fugate’s work, presents a strong biblical basis for K–12 education as only antidote for the plethora of current, secular-education fads, such as Common Core.
God’s Mandate urges Christians to appreciate the biblical basis as the paramount anchor for their educational practice. Additionally, Fugate maintains that part of the Christian family’s walk of faith and obedience to Christ consists in the Christian education and discipling of our children.
Sadly, over 80% of the children of evangelical Christians still attend K–12 government-funded public schools. Serious growth of K–12 Christian education and home schooling, therefore, can not materialize unless we create a culture in all our churches that considers K–12 Christian education part of thus saith the Lord.
Fugate asserts that Christian education is not a choice but a command from the Lord. Although many Christian families are doing the right thing with their children, they need their biblical convictions bolstered and reinforced. God’s Mandate could be a helpful study guide for Christian families in home-school support groups or Sunday school classes, or for pastors, too many of whom lack any theology of Christian education. He cites many leading scholars and theologians, such as J. Gresham Machen, A. A. Hodge, Gordon Clark, R. J. Rushdoony, Francis Schaeffer and Cornelius Van Til. His careful use of their works supports his overall argument and added a special blessing to the book. Reading Machen’s speech from 1933 on the Necessity of the Christian School
in this context offered me an epiphany, although I have read it several times before. I don’t know another book that has such a wealth of quotes and sources in a handy format. I heartily recommend this book and plan to continue promoting it. It deserves widespread circulation." —
E. Ray Moore, Th.M.
Chaplain (Lt. Colonel) USAR Ret., President, Frontline Ministries, www.ExodusMandate.org
"The decline of Christian culture over the last 150 years is inextricably intertwined with the failure of Christian families to provide their children with a Christian education. That failure has been largely the result of poor teaching and failed leadership within the church and para-church organizations. Today, relatively few pastors or other Christian leaders even know or understand what the Bible has to say about education. So, it is not surprising that pastors and others in leadership positions effectively embrace the heresy of educational antinomianism: ‘Government school, Christian school, homeschool — whichever parents do is fine.’ The only antidote for educational antinomianism is to reach Christians, and especially Christian leaders, with a clear exposition of what the Bible says about the education of our children and why providing a Christian education is important. Dr. Robert Fugate’s God’s Mandate for Biblical Education provides a clear, comprehensive, and succinct discussion of the Bible’s teaching on this critical subject. In fact, I have read no better treatment of this topic and believe that Dr. Fugate’s book is especially well suited for the important work of introducing pastors and other Christian leaders to orthodox teaching on the question of how we are to educate our children. I hope this book is widely read by parents and other laymen, but I also hope that this book will be widely read by Christian leaders." —
Bruce N. Shortt, Ph.D., J.D.: author of The Harsh Truth about Public Schools
"Robert Fugate has written a very valuable tool for educating coming generations about the evil and anti-biblical system of government schools, and about the liberty-inspiring system of biblical education in which parents are in control. I would recommend every married couple to give a wedding gift of his books, God’s Mandate for Biblical Education and Key Principles of Biblical Civil Government, to children when they marry! Doing so would serve to build a firm foundation for restoring freedom and self-responsibility before God in our troubled nation!" —
Tom Rose: President, American Enterprise Publications; economics professor; author
According to recent studies, more than 80% of Christian youth are leaving the church by their sophomore year of college. And it is no wonder! Their parents have been sending them to pagan government schools to be intensively trained by the priests of the Messianic State five days a week from the time these children were six years old. It would be surprising if they did not follow in the footsteps of their teachers. But even those who stay in the church do not have a consistent Christian worldview. They have never been taught how to think Biblically about math, science, history, logic, time, stewardship or a host of other topics. Many argue that we must send our children into the schools as missionaries. But Jesus is quite clear,
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher" (Luke 6:40). It is not the teachers who are being discipled by the students, but vice versa. It is not the teachers who will become like the students, but vice versa. It is high time that Christians repented of walking in the counsel of the ungodly (Psalm 1:1), and began treating Christian education as being at the heart of the covenant (Deut. 6:4–9). I highly recommend Robert Fugate’s book, God’s Mandate for Biblical Education. Unless its radical recommendations are followed, America will be lost in a sea of paganism, like Europe was." —
Rev. Phillip G. Kayser, Ph.D.: pastor; conference teacher; adjunct professor at Whitefield Theological Seminary
Table of Contents
Education is always part of a worldview
Three necessary components of any worldview
Epistemology
Metaphysics
Ethics
Epistemology: Achilles heel of non-Christian thought
Empiricism
Rationalism
Irrationalism (mysticism)
Comparisons and contrasts
Divine revelation
Comparison of three worldviews
The Bible is foundational to education
The Bible is the criterion or standard of truth
The doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture applies to education
Jurisdictions: family, church, state
Education is outside jurisdictions of civil government and church
Public education is funded by theft
Education of children is outside church’s jurisdiction
Christian education is Biblically mandated
Epistemological necessity of the Bible necessitates Christian education
Ethical necessity of the Bible and Christian character necessitate Christian education
Biblical antithesis necessitates Christian education
Unity and comprehensiveness of Christian worldview necessitate Christian education
The comprehensiveness of the Lordship of Christ necessitates Christian education
Covenant faithfulness necessitates Christian education
Extent of Creation Mandate and Great Commission necessitate Christian education
Biblical commands regarding protecting faith and morals necessitate Christian education
The Biblical jurisdiction assigned to the family necessitates parental education
Summary
What constitutes Biblical education?
Parent-led teaching in family context
Biblical curriculum/content
Biblical goals
Biblical standard: the Bible
Biblical method: discipleship
Biblical motivations: love and fear of the Lord
A Biblical philosophy of history, language, and science
A Biblical philosophy of history
14 key tenets of a Biblical philosophy of history
Litmus test for American history textbooks
A Biblical philosophy of language
A Biblical philosophy of science
The Biblical worldview produces science
God created the cosmos and everything in it
The sovereign Creator’s providential rule vs. deism
Scientists must not be autonomous
Limits of science
Value of science
Origin of state-controlled education in America
Public education is weapon of tyrants and destroyer of liberty
Public education is a false religion!
Classical Christian education?
Summary of problems with classical education
Lessons from history
Warnings quoted
Four common objections to home-schooling
Quotes from Bible reference works regarding education
Educational advice from Christian authorities
Anti-Christian quotes
What about Christian schools?
Christian schools in a missional context?
Concluding exhortation
Additional Biblical worldview resources by Dr. Robert Fugate
Endnotes
God’s Mandate for
Biblical Education
My wife and I home-schooled our four children over an eighteen-year time span. Like many home-school parents, we had our reasons why we home-schooled, for example: to avoid negative peer influence, violence, drugs, sex education (that promotes sexual immorality and sexual perversions), and new age occultism; to teach phonics-based reading vs. the look-say method; etc.[1] But it was not until we had home-schooled for about seven years that we began to grasp God’s mandate to all Christian parents regarding the education of their children.[2] We have come to realize that even if the public schools were academically superior, and even if all the violence, drugs, sex education, relativistic ethics, eugenics, occultism, rebelliousness and peer dependency were removed from them, the public schools would still not be fit for our children! In this book we will examine the reasons for this seemingly extreme position.
Education is always part of a worldview
Education, like every profession, must have an underlying philosophical foundation to provide the theory of knowledge (epistemology), an understanding of the nature of reality (metaphysics), and ethics. In other words, a philosophy of education cannot stand alone. It is part of a worldview. A worldview is a network of basic assumptions or presuppositions by which we (consciously or unconsciously) place or fit everything we believe and by which we interpret and judge reality.
Ultimately, there are only two basic worldviews: the Christian and the non-Christian. These worldviews provide the framework by which people determine: the nature of mankind and the universe; what constitutes moral behavior; the right kind of socialization; what is included in the study of history; and what role civil government should have in education. In this book, I will be presenting the Christian worldview.
Sometimes it is objected that education merely deals with commonly recognized and agreed upon facts. However, even simple sentences involving the observation of facts
require a worldview. Let’s consider an example. A simple sentence like I see a ladybug on a rose
is filled with complex presuppositions. This sentence presupposes: the meaning of certain English words; one’s personal identity; the reliability of sense perception (including: the normalcy of one’s eyes; the normalcy of one’s brain stem; and theories of light refraction); categories of bugs and flowers; the reality of the external world and spatial relations; one’s linguistic competence; one’s entomological and botanical competence; shared grammar and semantics; the laws of logic; etc. Thus even a statement regarding simple facts
presupposes a worldview.
This example shows that beliefs people hold are always connected to other beliefs. The one by one
myth is the mistaken idea that people accept beliefs one at a time.[3] The beliefs people hold are always connected to other beliefs by relations pertaining to linguistic meaning, logical order, evidential dependence, causal explanation, indexical conception, self-conception, etc.
Now consider how a person’s religious commitments affect his interpretation of facts.
The facts of the physical universe differ widely for a humanist, a Christian, and a Hindu. For the humanist, all factuality is a product of chance evolution; all facts are thus ultimately meaningless, and their only reality is a physical one, and an irrational one. For the Christian, all factuality is God-created and the product of His eternal purpose; all facts are thus totally rational, because the mind of God is behind them, and their reality is thus more than physical and natural. For the traditional Hindu, all factuality is really illusion, because nothingness is ultimate; all things are burdened with Karma, and their goal is release from the illusions of this world into final nothingness. What we call facts is determined by our faith.[4]
The facts
of the universe are very different for a Buddhist, an existential humanist, and an orthodox Christian. For the Buddhist, all is