The Who, What & How of Education, Part 1

Driving home: Seeing the parental relation is what the Scriptures describe it, and seeing Satan has perverted it since the fall for the diffusion and multiplication of depravity and eternal death, the education of children for God is …

Martin quotes Dabney's peroration from an 1879 sermon, stating that 'the education of children for God is the most important business done on earth,' to underscore the sermon's central theme and the gravity of the topic.

The Lecture jokes on gutenberg Based on the period in your hearing was parental responsibilities and after setting for a compelling biblical case for the responsibilities that God has laid upon responsibility particularly manifested in the issue of the education of their children the seas his message to a conclusion, what the rhetoricians would call his peroration, where he was seeking to bring home into the consciences of his hearers the moral and ethical demands of his exposition, Dabney spoke the following words, and I quote, Seeing the parental relation is what the Scriptures describe it, ...

1:58 - 3:16 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He explains how Dabney's convictions led to the founding of Trinity Christian School in 1986, detailing the church's corporate support through facility use and an annual…

The founding of Trinity Christian School in 1986 by like-minded parents is presented as a concrete example of implementing biblical convictions about education, illustrating the practical outworking of Dabney's principles.

Now, it was similar convictions that caused a number of like-minded fathers and mothers in this congregation a number of years ago to implement their biblical convictions concerning the education of their children by establishing in the fall of 1986 an educational enterprise called Trinity Church. The enterprise was built on the premises of this Church building, with some 40 children and a full-time staff of four . The enterprise is now an enterprise with approximately 20 staff members and a budget in the coming year for a total size of $650,000. Dabney's presentation was recorded in honor of ...

5:25 - 6:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Intelligently inform yourselves about the 'what, who, and how' of educating the rising generation, regardless of whether you are currently a parent.

Martin uses the analogy of going to ShopRite to buy a beef roast to illustrate the need for a clear definition of 'education.' Just as one needs to know what kind of roast to buy, one needs to know what 'education' entails to pursue it effectively.

What is education? More particularly, what ought we as Christians to think in answer to the question, what is the educational mandate, mandate for the rising generation? Well, in a masterful essay entitled Secularized Education, this same R.L. Datney, in volume three of his discussions, argues that we will not think correctly concerning the task of education until we first of all define what education is or ought to be. What is this thing that you ought to get? If you tell me, pastor, you ought to go down to ShopRite and get you a good beef roast. Well, I go and I look down, well, I want a rou...

13:00 - 13:53 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not hold back on any facet of holistic education (physical, mental, social, spiritual) just because God alone can regenerate, but pursue this task on all fronts.

Martin shares a personal anecdote about his mother teaching him to scrub floors and Miss Reynolds teaching him English grammar before his conversion, illustrating how early discipline and training provide a 'scaffolding' that is useful when God regenerates a person.

I'm so thankful that long before Christ became the pearl of great price to me, I had a mother who followed me into the corner when I was scrubbing the floor saying, son, wrap the cloth around your finger and dig the dirt out of the corner of the Lord. She sees the corner as well as the middle of the floor. So glad I had a mother and a father dealing with my consciousness of right and wrong and duty and responsibility and the honor and dignity of human relationships. And I had a Miss Reynolds pounding into me English grammar long before those were matters of conviction before the face of God. S...

36:28 - 37:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not hold back on any facet of holistic education (physical, mental, social, spiritual) just because God alone can regenerate, but pursue this task on all fronts.

Martin recounts his mother's wisdom in encouraging his passion for football, even though it was his 'god' at the time, because she knew it taught disciplines that would later serve him when Christ became precious, illustrating the holistic and long-term perspective of parental training.

You talked about football. You spent your energy in football. And I didn't see you excited about the Lord Jesus. And it grieved me.

37:35 - 37:42 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God has not given to the state the responsibility nor the right to educate the rising generation.

Martin uses the example of his property taxes supporting public schools that teach things antithetical to his faith (e.g., multiculturalism, evolution) to illustrate the moral problem of state-mandated education and its financial extortion.

In spite of the constantly repeated words, the federal government ought to! The state government ought to! And then some educational writer comes along. In spite of the money extorted from me by my local property taxes, about half of which supports the local public schools, they have no right to do that.

41:58 - 42:21 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The theory that the children of the Commonwealth are the charge of the Commonwealth is a pagan one derived from heathen Sparta and Plato's heathen republic and connected by regular logical sequence with legalized prostit…

Martin quotes R.L. Dabney's argument against state-controlled public schools, calling the idea that children are the 'charge of the Commonwealth' a 'pagan one,' to reinforce his point about the state's lack of divine mandate for education.

That's the responsibility and the obligation of the state. It is not. The education of the children. Listen to Dabney in another very profoundly insightful series of essays called State Free School System.

44:22 - 44:38 Read in full sermon