Which Story is Shaping Your Home-Education?The Biblical Story and Education

Michael GoheenBurnaby B.C.

Romans 12.1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of

God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is--his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

Mark 1.14-15

‘ . . . Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.” ’

Announcement of kingdom

God is now acting in love and power through Jesus and by his Spirit to restore all of creation and all of human life to again live under the benevolent reign of God himself (Bartholomew and Goheen).

Four observations

Power of God unto salvation Climax and centre of a story God’s people essential in its transmission Restoration of all human life and creation

First observation

Gospel is power of God unto salvation Provides empowerment for home-educating task

Power of God unto salvation‘. . . the Kingdom of God is the redemptive reign of God dynamically active to establish his rule among human beings, and that this Kingdom . . . has already come into human history in the person and mission of Jesus to overcome evil, to deliver people from its power, and to bring them into the blessings of God’s reign’ (Ladd).

The Gospel . . . is an announcement about what God is doing in history in Jesus Christ through the Spirit is the announcement that God is active to restore all of creation and all of human life to live again under his rule is the power to transform the whole of our lives

Second observation

Gospel is climax and centre of a story Provides ultimate context for home-education

Gospel as . . .

Centre, climax, and fulfillment of Old Testament story Revelation of goal of universal history (kingdom) Accomplishment of end of universal history (kingdom)

Bible as one storyI do not believe that we can speak effectively of the Gospel as a word addressed to our culture unless we recover a sense of the Scriptures as a canonical whole, as the story which provides the true context for our understanding of the meaning of our lives—both personal and public.

- Lesslie Newbigin

The Bible tells one unfolding story of redemption against the backdrop of creation and fall.

Story of the whole world

. . . the whole point of Christianity is that it offers a story which is the story of the whole world. It is public truth (Wright).

Bible as universal historyI can't understand why you missionaries present the Bible to us in India as a book of religion. It is not a book of religion-and anyway we have plenty of books of religion in India. We don't need any more! I find in your Bible a unique interpretation of universal history, the history of the whole of creation and the history of the human race. And therefore a unique interpretation of the human person as a responsible actor in history. That is unique. There is nothing else in the whole religious literature of the world to put alongside it (Chaturvedi Badrinath).

Biblical story . . .

Universally valid: True for all people in all times and places Comprehensive scope: Story claims the whole of human life

Importance of reading Bible as one story

‘If we allow the Bible to become fragmented, it is in danger of being absorbed into whatever other story is shaping out culture, and will thus cease to shape our lives as it should. Idolatry has twisted the dominant cultural story of the secular Western world. If as believers we allow this story . . . to become the foundation of our thought and action, then our lives will manifest not the truths of Scripture, but the lies of an idolatrous culture. Hence, the unity of Scripture is no minor matter: a fragmented Bible may actually produce theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious idol worshippers!’ (Bartholomew and Goheen).

Drama of ScriptureAct 1: God establishes his kingdom: CreationAct 2: Rebellion in the kingdom: FallAct 3: The King chooses Israel: Redemption

initiatedAct 4: The coming of the King: Redemption

accomplishedAct 5: Spreading the news of the King: The

mission of the churchAct 6: The return of the King: Redemption

completed

Third observation

Church and its mission central to the gospel Provides purpose for home-education

Our place in the story Kingdom already here but not yet fully arrived Continuing Jesus’ mission (John 20:21: As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.) Embody the end of the story and invite others into it Witness to the kingdom

Education for witness

Given foretaste of salvationActual taste of salvation of future kingdom nowPromise of salvation in future

Charged to be previews of kingdomActual footageInterest viewer of coming attraction

All of life

Sacred/Secular dualism undermines kingdom witness

SacredPrayerWorshipMinisterMissionaryChurchFamily

SecularSpending habitsEntertainmentJournalistPoliticianUniversityGovernment

A c t iv it i e s

P ro fe ss io n s

R e a lm s

Purpose of our educational endeavours

Pass along insight into God’s world in light of gospel To equip children for witness in God’s world To live whole life under Lordship of Jesus Christ Curriculum: What do they need to live faithfully in today’s world?

Lord of all creation‘There is no thumb-width of the entire domain of our human life of which the Christ, the Sovereign over everything does not proclaim: ‘It is mine!’ (Kuyper)‘There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.’ (CS Lewis)

Educating to form a contrast communityA community of justice in a world of economic and ecological injusticeA community of generosity and simplicity (of ‘enough’) in a consumer worldA community of selfless giving in a world of selfishnessA community of truth (humility and boldness) in a world of relativismA community of hope in a world of disillusionment and consumer satiationA community of joy and thanksgiving in a world of entitlementA community who experiences God’s presence in a secular world

Fourth Observation

Gospel is about the restoration of all of human life in the context of the whole creation Lens for home-education

Most basic structure of Biblical story

Creation: God creates a good world giving humanity a special place Sin: The creation is polluted and twisted by human rebellion Restoration: God sets out on the long road of redemption to restore the whole creation and all of human life back to its original goodness.

Salvation is restoration Salvation is not salvation from the creation Salvation is salvation of the good creation (including human life) from sin Salvation is the restoration of all of human life and the whole creation to live again under God’s rule

Salvation is comprehensive For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him [Jesus] and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things...” (Col. 1.19-20). He [Jesus] must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything...” (Acts 3.21). Cf. Eph. 1.10; Rev. 21.5; Rom. 8. 19-21.

Comprehensive scope...for if redemption does not go as far as the consequences of sin, it is a misnomer, and fails to be redemption... The salvation of any number of individuals... is not the redemption of what fell but the gathering up of a few splinters... Satan’s mischief goes further than Christ’s restoration (Seiss).

Salvation reducedThe early Christian belief that the Fall and Redemption pertained not just to man, but to the entire cosmos, a doctrine already fading after the Reformation, now [under secularism of 19th c.] disappeared altogether: the process of salvation, if it had any meaning at all, pertained solely to the personal relation between God and man.

-Richard Tarnas (unbeliever!)

Disaster of reduced salvation Reduction of salvation to a personal relationship with God has been disastrous to our witness to Christ’s Lordship over all Gospel reduced to future, otherworldly salvation Gospel not brought to bear on much of life Church shaped by idolatrous cultural story

Part of a kingdom battle

KingdomKingdom

of darknessof darknessKingdomKingdom

of Godof God

CreationCreation

Nothing matters but the kingdom . . .

. . . but because of the kingdom

everything matters!

To be transformed by the renewing of our mind in education we . . .

need to know story of Bible, our place in it, and how it shapes the educational taskneed discernment to reshape educational forms by the gospel to achieve Christian education

Further informationwww.biblicaltheology.ca www.genevasociety.org

mike.goheen@twu.ca

Books available

Books available