This presentation examines evidence from the “Education Fallout” which is one of several impact areas that Jesus and His followers have had over the last 2000 years. Looking at the history of education in the common era, we find the greatest influence comes from Jesus followers! The passion to share the teachings of Scripture and the ministry of Jesus ignited the educational model we see today, from Monasteries to Universities! This Christian influence is deeply embedded in the educational history of our own country, yet the progression to secular humanism as the dominant education philosophy over the last century has darkened the original intent to the point of obscurity, and this philosophy has reared its ugly head in the culture of the generation we see today.

Watch the class presentation on this topic:

Overview Notes from the Presentation

Person of Interest

The Education Fallout

Objection:

Christians are opposed to modern education

Quick answer to the objection:

Christians are not opposed to modern education, in fact Jesus followers were the founders of the modern educational system.

What Christians oppose is the methodology and curriculum presentations that are blatantly anti-Christian.
Jesus followers led the modern education revolution, and they did so because they wished to advance the values and teachings of their Master Teacher, Jesus.

Six major education “igniters”

Jesus followers ignited education in the common era…

Igniter #1
Jesus followers celebrated the life of the mind

“But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.””

-Matthew 22:34-40 (NASB)

Igniter #2
Jesus followers collected and protected knowledge

“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

-Deuteronomy 6:1-9 (NASB)

“Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

-2 Timothy 3:10-17 (NASB)

Igniter #3
Jesus followers were called to make disciples

The Great Commission:

“And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””

-Mathew 28:18-20 (NASB)

Igniter #4
Jesus followers embraced a teaching culture

Jesus was both a learner and a teacher:
As a child he sat at the feet of instructors in the Temple ((Luke 2:46)
Jesus prepared and taught his disciples to share the truth with others
Jesus’ disciples then taught others

“A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” –Luke 6:40 (ESV)

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom.” -Colossians 3:16 (ESV)

Igniter #5
Jesus followers embraced their responsibility

This ignition began what we know today as “Christian Missionaries” who took their responsibility to teach and train seriously – even to those who could not read, or whose language was different
The teaching of ”the word” helped transform the believer by learning the truth and by using their minds to continually evaluate the will of God as it was described in ”the book”

“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.”

–Romans 12:1-3 (NASB)

Igniter #6
Jesus followers educated the world to share the Gospel

Bible translators have been foundational in education by helping those who could not read, read the Bible.
Jesus followers/missionaries like Cyril for example, invented an alphabet to translate the Bible into the Slavic language, and this laid the foundation for future education.
More than 200 million people, representing more than one hundred languages spoken around the world, still use the Cyrillic alphabet.
The invention of an alphabet such as this opened the door for education on a global level – according to Wycliff Global Alliance:
- At least part of the Bible has been translated into 3,415 languages, representing 7 billion people
- The complete Bible has been translated into 704 languages, representing 5.7 billion people

106 of 108 of the early U.S. Universities began as Christian Universities to teach the Scriptures and share the Gospel (Harvard, Yale, etc.)
Harvard’s original motto was Veritas (truth) and their charter included this statement:

“To consider well the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life.”

The “Old Deluder Satan Act” of 1647

“All towns of 50 or more must have a school to teach the Scriptures to keep Satan from deluding the people… it be one chief project of the old deluder Satan to keep man from the knowledge of the Scriptures.”

Eighteenth-Nineteenth Centuries:

The movement from a Christian society to a secular culture

Philosophical changes in the universities lead to a trickle-down effect in our public schools resulting in a culture shift:

The Enlightenment Period (early 18^th century)
Scientism/Inductive reasoning (late 18^th century)
Modernism/Evolutionary theory (19^th century)

Twentieth Century:

Secular Humanism

By this time universities are under the influence of a secular humanist worldview in all of the major educational disciplines affecting the public schools by the mid 1900’s:

From the Humanists Manifesto II (1973 updating 1933):

“No deity will save us; we must save ourselves.”

The progression:

1925 Scopes trial (evolution vs. creation)
1933 Dewey’s educational theories based on humanism
*1947 Separation of Church and State (exactly 300 years after Old Deluder Satan Act!)
1961 Secular humanism was ruled a religion (they received tax benefits), yet it was allowed to be the reigning philosophy in education because it was deemed ‘non-institutional.’
1962 No school prayer
1963 No Bible reading in public school
1980 No Ten Commandments (or other religious postings) allowed in public places

The Result:

Public Education expelled Christian thinking and therefore God:
Christian thinkers retreated to the pulpits and seminaries
Academic Scholars who held to a Christian worldview in their fields of study begin to be blackballed: (See the movie “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed” by Ben Stein)

The trickle-down effect from the universities to our public schools has led to the overall change in culture and world-views that we see today…where God is nowhere to be found!

Early Twenty-first Century:

The Isms

Philosophical changes over the past century are responsible for many of the ‘isms’ we see in today…

In science

Naturalism, Materialism, Physicalism, Evolutionism

In society

Secularism, Relativism, Hedonism, Anarchism

In faith

Pluralism, Skepticism, Agnosticism, (New) Atheism

In culture

Modernism, Postmodernism, Modernity, Scientism

Mid to late Twenty-first Century (the future):

Modernity

According Os Guinness, DPhil, Oxford and Christian Apologist:

“The terms modernism and postmodernism are sets of ideas, but modernity refers to far more than ideas. …Modernism as a philosophy may oppose faith outright, but modernity does not. Its damage is not through opposition but through seduction and distortion. It doesn’t say, for example, ‘No faith allowed here’ but ‘No faith is needed here.’ Contrary to Jesus and the Torah, modernity claims that man can now live ‘by bread alone,’ or rather by science, technology, management and marketing alone. Secularists do not want God, whereas the secularized [the result of modernity] have no need of God, and that is only one of the many seductions and distortions of modernity.”

-Os Guinness, “Impossible people” pgs. 62, 65

In this current age we must pray and then act…

Teach me Your way, O Lord; I will walk in Your truth; Unite my heart to fear Your name.

-Psalm 86:11

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

–2 Corinthians 10:5

Going Deeper:

“Expelled, No Intelligence Allowed,” by Ben Stein (Movie/Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoSr_EtsUc4

“Saving Leonardo,” by Nancy Pearcey (book)

http://www.nancypearcey.com/saving-leonardo.html

“Christian Church History Outline – from the time of Jesus to the 21^st Century,” by CARM (Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry)—Ryan Turner (article)

https://carm.org/church-history-outline

Reflection: Memorization Practice

To practice your memorization skills, and to improve your Biblical knowledge, practice memorizing the following things…

Review the “Big Picture” of the Bible for both the Old and New Testaments (see notes from session two) Practice memorizing the main topic of each of the 12 points in order to tell the “story” in a couple of minutes.
What are the three main fuses we’ve looked at so far, pointing to our Person of Interest? Pick one or two examples from each fuse.
What are the fallout areas we have looked at so far (from session six, seven and eight)? Pick one or two examples for each fallout area.

Bible Study

(Review answers will be posted during the week so you can have a “leader’s guide” for your own studies)

Always remember to pray before you study and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you and lead you into the truth found in God’s Word – pray for protection from the evil one who will try to discourage, distract and deceive us when we commit to growing closer to the LORD.

NOTE: Questions are taken directly from the chapters, and answers should be found and cited from the Scripture text in order to be Biblically accurate (unless asked to summarize in your own words). Study Bibles, commentaries and your own thoughts can be used for “Discussion” or “Going Deeper” questions.

Read Acts chapter 23 then, to the best of your ability, answer the following questions:

Paul before the Council; and a conspiracy to kill Paul

1. Read Chapter 23:1-11 with your table group

In the first part of this chapter, Paul is allowed to speak before the Council (having previously been seized in the Temple):

a. What did Paul say to the Council, and to Ananias, that got him in trouble; and what Old Testament verse did Paul cite as his apology?

b. What tactic did Paul use to cause conflict between the Sadducees and Pharisees (what was the difference in the two group’s beliefs)?

c. What happened to Paul because of this uproar, and then what did the Lord say to Paul to comfort and encourage him?

d. Going Deeper: What can we find, historically, about this man Ananias?

2. Read Chapter 23:12-35 with your table group

In the second part of the chapter, a conspiracy is formed:

a. What was the conspiracy planned against Paul, and who planned it?

b. Who overheard the conspiracy and what did he do?

c. What did the commander do, and who did he send Paul to?

d. Going Deeper: What can we find, historically, about Felix, and also the city of Caesarea?

Join us next week as we continue our “Case for Christianity, Person of Interest” and a study in the book of Acts!

———————————————————————

You will not find this material in the public school curriculum even though it is based on solid evidence and grounded in research. It is ironic that following the evidence to where it leads stops at the door of our public schools as they will not let a “Divine footprint” in! Join us as we examine evidence for Christianity and learn how to become a thoughtful defender and ambassador of your faith.

Click into the resource page of this website to view many of the top Christian thinkers and apologists along with some of their work; connecting to these types of resources is essential in your Christian growth.

Please let me know what you think: Give feedback, ask questions or send concerns in the comment section of the blog.

Teri Dugan

TeriDugan@truthfaithandreason.com

1 Peter 3:15