Education

Introduction

Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and intelligence. In Jesus Christ abide all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound learning is, therefore, a part of our Christian heritage. The new birth opens all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge. Moreover, the cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence, and should receive along with these the liberal support of the churches. An adequate system of Christian education is necessary to a complete spiritual program for Christ’s people.

In Christian education there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly relationship of human life is always limited and never absolute. The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.

You may read this and think, “Why is this here?”

You would not be the first Southern Baptist to do so.

After trekking through rich doctrine regarding God and man and the church, we are suddenly talking about Education

When I have told pastor friends that I am teaching through the Faith and Message, a couple of them laughed and said, “You going to skip the Education article?”

And yet, this is one of the only articles in the Baptist Faith and Message that has been written, altered or edited by three different generations of Southern Baptists

That means Southern Baptists have had a lot of thoughts on Education for the last century

So we won’t skip over it—that’s for sure!

Instead, we are going to look at the Article from three angles tonight and seek to answer three questions.

Outline

1. How did Article 12 come to be?

2. What does Article 12 mean?

3. Why does Article 12 matter?

1. How did Article 12 come to be?

For the first 80 years of Southern Baptist life, there was no Convention-wide statement of faith

Not because the Convention did not care about Confessions of Faith

It was because there was widespread doctrinal consensus around two or three very similar confessions

But you must understand what sort of world the Baptist Faith and Message was born into in 1925.

1925

By 1925 there was a major threat challenging historic orthodox Christianity in the United States

The Modernist Movement had infected the church

Darwin published Evolution of the Species in 1859

His arguments for macro-evolution opened the door to a worldview that saw humanity as evolved animals—not image-bearers.

Man in his arrogance thinks himself a great work, worthy the interposition of a great deity. More humble and I believe true to consider him created from animals.

Charles Darwin

This worldview started to creep into every aspect of American life, including the church

By the early 20th century, it was a full-blown movement in American evangelicalism called The Modernist Movement.

The Modernists were known for:

Valuing reason above all

Rejecting the supernatural—including the divinity of Christ and the resurrection of Christ

Teaching Scripture as a purely human document

Theistic Evolution—marrying the biblical account to Darwin’s theory

To give you an example of how this impacted the Presbyterians...

Princeton had been the most prestigious and important theological institute of their denomination

In 1929, J. Gresham Machen and all of the other theologically conservative professors LEFT Princeton because the Modernist Movement had taken over

Machen had money. So he started Westminster Theological and hired all those guys to keep Princeton theology alive.

Westminster remains a great institution today.

Baptist life was impacted in the same way.

The Modernist Movement infiltrated the seminaries.

Then those pastors go to churches.

Now the local church is infiltrated.

This was a huge issue.

In Caleb Morrell’s book, “A Light on the Hill,” about the history of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, he tells a story about how in the early 40’s, the church was calling a pastor...

His name was Ralph Walker from Portland, Oregon.

The rumor going around was that he was a Modernist.

During the church’s town hall meeting about the candidate a Sunday School teacher named Agnes Shankle stood up and said, “It is my understanding that this man is a Modernist.”

It turned out she was right. The church rejected the candidate.

The pulpit came back with a new theologically sound man

So all of this is starting to form a tornado in 1925. THEN...EIGHT DAYS before the Southern Baptist Convention on May 5th, 1925, a man named John Scopes was arrested in Tennessee.

He was scheduled for trial in July.

It became known as the Scopes Monkey Trial

It was all over whether or not macro-evolution could be taught in public schools

Scopes was convicted in 9 minutes and given a $100 fine

But the PR backlash was a win for the Modernists

So then—as the Southern Baptists gathered, the temperature was high on this issue.

This is why they included a very short statement under an article entitled “Education”

The cause of education in the kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence and should receive along with these the liberal support of the churches. An adequate system of Christian schools is necessary to a complete spiritual program for Christ's people.

Original 1925 Education Article

It is basically just the two sentences at the end of the first paragraph of the current article

Focused on institutions and financial support

1963

In 1963 the Article was revised.

Herschel Hobbs was the President of the SBC and he chaired the committee that revised the Baptist Faith and Message.

They added theological strength to the statement and they also made a crucial statement about academic freedom.

The 1963 version was a direct response to the Modernism and Theological Liberalism that was still in the classrooms of the seminaries.

In 1925, the problem was more from the outside.

Non-Baptists academics could come in and harm Baptist academics

By 1963, the problem is within

There are Southern Baptist professors openly teaching against the reliability of Scripture

So Hobbs and company tried to tighten it

Ultimately it did not have its desired effect

The language uses was broad enough that the liberal professors could hold view contrary to Scripture and historical orthodoxy, while still claiming adherence to the Article.

Life Between 1963 and 2000

The broad language ended up being pretty disastrous

There is a war for the heart of the Convention between theological conservatives and liberals

There is a war for the seminaries

There is a war for the local churches

That war is won by the theological conservatives in the 1980’s and 1990’s

Through new trustee elections and leadership changes, the Convention shifts back towards its theological roots

The seminaries are won back

It is all pretty amazing by the way...

No one else has done this

Other denominations went theologically liberal

Then the conservatives leave and go start a new thing

But in Southern Baptist life, we did not start a new thing

The old thing reverted back to Scriptural fidelity

Do you know why this happened?

I believe it is because we have a Convention and not a denomination

A Convention doesn’t rule churches

Churches rule the Convention

It was the churches and the pastors that ultimately rose up and said, “NO to theological liberalism at the academic level.”

They saved the convention.

2000

When the year 2000 rolls around, a committee chaired by the great Adrian Rogers, wrote the Article as we have it today.

Their work provides a much more full and robust look at Education from a Christian perspective

That said, I must admit that it reads fragmented to me.

It reads like an Article pieced together over 75 years by three different generations of Baptist.

And yet it is still helpful.

Let’s get into what it has to say now

2. What does Article 12 mean?

Article 12 aims to essentially make three claims with regard to education.

1. Christ is the Source of all knowledge.

Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and intelligence. In Jesus Christ abide all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound learning is, therefore, a part of our Christian heritage. The new birth opens all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge.

The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, Article XII

Compare the second sentence with Colossians 2:3

Colossians 2:2–3 ESV

that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The Baptist Faith and Message is making an epistemological statement.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge.

Augustine taught the church that “all truth is God’s truth.”

This is why the Faith and Message goes on to say that all sound learning is, therefore, a part of our Christian heritage.

It affirms what Augustine taught.

You may not think of 2+2 being God’s truth, but it only equals 4 because God made it so.

The universe is not a place of random chance.

It is a place of order, displayed to us in the brilliance of mathematics.

If something is true in this Universe, it is because God made it so.

Any SOUND learning is based in God’s truth in this world

The Protestant Reformers carried that out to an even more Christian conclusion.

They said that knowledge is not merely sourced IN GOD, but that God has chosen to convey wisdom and knowledge to us THROUGH CHRIST.

They pointed to Colossians 2:3 to make their case

When Paul wrote that to the Colossians, they were being assaulted by false teachers who said that there was some higher knowledge a human could attain that Christ won’t be able to give you.

Paul responds and says, “No—ALL the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Christ.”

Nowhere else.

You want to find them, then go to Jesus and ASK for them.

No one else has wisdom and knowledge.

This is why we can truly say that “Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and intelligence.”

ONLY THROUGH THE GOSPEL CAN YOU FIND CHRIST WHO POSSESSES ALL TRUE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE

The Baptist Faith and Message agrees with Paul and the Reformers.

And then here is the logical conclusion to this:

The new birth opens all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge.

This is not to say that unsaved people do not like to learn.

Instead, it is making a statement about the heart in learning.

Someone who is born again has been freed to approach truth without the spiritual blindness of being lost in sin.

I am going to take a pretty obvious example to show how this works.

A Christian goes to Biology class and they hear, “Every human being is born biologically — male or female. It is determined by their chromosomal makeup at the moment of fertilization.”

Because they are born again, and they have a TRUE THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE, they say, “Right—God made them male and female and that is how it is.”

But a non-Christian may go to the same class and they hear, “Every human being is born with a biological sex — male or female — determined by their chromosomal makeup at the moment of fertilization.”

Because they are not born again, and their spiritual blindness keeps some of their human faculties dull and dead, they hear this fact and they say, “Yeah, but if they feel they don’t agree with the determined sex, they should get to do whatever they want.”

What is this person revealing?

“I do not believe science or God or anyone gets to tell humans what they do with their sexuality.”

And in Romans, Paul tells us why people would be eager to hold on to such a sentiment:

Romans 1:18 ESV

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

Though they hear the truth, they are actively suppressing aspects of it or all of it so that they can continue on in sin, feeling at peace with it in their seared conscience.

Because Christians are born again, we believe Wisdom has a name—it is Jesus Christ.

That compels us, with new, Spirit-filled hearts, to truly thirst for knowledge in a way the unbeliever doesn’t—even if they love to learn.

2. Education is a priority in the Kingdom.

Moreover, the cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence, and should receive along with these the liberal support of the churches. An adequate system of Christian education is necessary to a complete spiritual program for Christ’s people.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article XII

This is a strong statement about Education and how the Church should feel about it.

It places it on par with the “cause of missions” and “general benevolence.”

In other words—missions and mercy ministries.

This may seem surprising to you, but it actually makes complete sense.

The church is charged with making disciples who are taught to obey Jesus’ Word

Meaning—the Great Commission can only be accomplished THROUGH teaching

This is why Acts 2 says this about the early Christians:

Acts 2:42 ESV

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

The Apostles taught them to obey all Christ had taught the Apostles to obey.

So what does this look like in our lives?

It starts primarily in the home—Christian parents are to raise their kids in the Lord according Deuteronomy 6:7-9

Deuteronomy 6:7–9 ESV

You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

In the house.

Coming and going.

At the bedside.

At the breakfast table.

The home should be a disciple-making center.

It is supplemented and reinforced by the local church.

Sunday morning worship

Midweek discipleship

Sunday School

Discipleship Groups

We use these to supplement what the Christian parent is teaching at home.

We use these to reinforce what the husband and wife are learning together at home.

In some cases, where unbelieving children attend on their own, the local church has to take up even more of the responsibility

But the bottom line is the the local church should be a TEACHING CENTER in view of MAKING DISCIPLES WHO MAKE DISCIPLES.

It is advanced through Christian education.

Homeschooling

Micro-schools

Private Schools

Universities

Bible Colleges

Law Schools

The church has invested itself in specifically Christian education dating back to the 1st and 2nd centuries

Notice that the Faith and Message expects Christian churches to be liberal in their support of such things.

We should give to Christian education like we do to missions and mercy ministries.

We are doing this through our CP giving each week.

I think the church should always be open-minded about how they can be a blessing to Christian education endeavors.

It is advanced through Christian schoolteachers.

I do want to say a word here about something the Faith and Message is essentially silent about.

Public school teachers can also have the effect of impacting hearts with Christian truth.

I experienced that.

I came to Christ in the summer after 9th grade.

Three important things led up to that:

My dad was saved.

My mom was saved.

And I had a 9th grade history teacher who displayed Christian character and talked about faith as much as he could and remain within the boundaries set for him as an employee of Powhatan County Schools

They may have to be subtle.

They may often WIN others with their CHARACTER first and foremost.

But Christian public school teachers are of great use by God in the Great Commission, even if they are not in a specified Christian education setting—which is what the Faith and Message is primarily concerned with

Ultimately, whatever the means God is using, at the end of the day, the principle remains.

We should view Christian education as an important Kingdom priority inside and outside of the local church.

3. Academic freedom in a Christian education is not unlimited.

In Christian education there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly relationship of human life is always limited and never absolute. The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.

The Baptist Faith and Message, Article XII

This might be the most important part of the article for the moment that we are living in.

I say this mainly because of our seminaries—Southern Baptist life will go the way of its educational institutions.

The way that the Faith and Message talks about academic freedom is different than the way the world talks of it

The secular framework essentially argue that scholars must be free from institutional constraints in their research and their teaching

In this mindset, The best way that an institution of higher learning can be for the common good is being a place of unconstrained academic freedom.

The Baptist Faith and Message—and Protestant educational thought in general—does not reject academic freedom.

It qualifies it.

Because this is God’s world...

Because all truth is God’s truth...

Because all knowledge and wisdom is hidden in Christ...

...We do not say that the best thing is unconstrained academic freedom, but academic freedom that is informed and guided by the Word of God.

Here are the boundaries put in place by the final paragraph.

Boundary 1: The Pre-eminence of Jesus Christ.

If an institution is Christian, then it has a Lord.

It is not some sort of free-for-all, marketplace of ideas.

It is a place where Christ’s authority decides what is acceptable in belief and behavior.

Teachers in a Christian institution much teach under the authority of the Lord

If they do not, they are actually undermining the One who ultimately RULES the institution

So Christ’s rule is a the strongest possible boundary to be considered in academic freedom.

Boundary 2: The Authoritative Nature of the Scriptures

As the first article of this confession states, we count Scripture as totally true and trustworthy.

Like the churches who fund them, our seminaries hold to the inerrancy and sufficiency of Scripture.

This means that when you have a Christian institution—particularly a Southern Baptist institution—they should be found treating God’s Word as the FINAL SAY on all matters of belief and behavior.

If someone is teaching at one of these institutions, they are not free to treat the Bible as one source among many.

They are not free to treat it as literature to be criticized and interpreted in light of the preferences of the present culture

They must treat the Scripture as God’s Word

Boundary 3: The Beliefs and Purpose of the School

The first two limits are divine.

The third limit is man-made.

It is an institutional limit that will differ from school to school

Just about every Christian school has a Confession of Faith

And just about every Christian school has a scope and a purpose

Some may be more of a grade-school to produce a Christian adult, educated and ready to tackle the world

Some may be a university with a wide-spectrum of academic offerings from a Christian perspective

Some may be a seminary specifically designed to train up pastors

Some could be small Bible Colleges that exist to send young people off into the mission field

When a teacher is in the classroom, they are not free to teach whatever they want

They are not even free to teach whatever they want in the classroom

They are free to teach within the beliefs and toward the purpose of the school they are employed by

Southern Baptists must expect professors at our institutions to teach in accordance with and not contrary to the Baptist Faith and Message, to defend the faith rather than subvert it, and to inculcate in the next generation a reverent and mature understanding of Christian truth.

Richard Land and Albert Mohler

It is absolutely crucial that Southern Baptists dogmatically hold the line on this.

Powhatan County is where I am from.

Rural.

Conservative place.

There are probably 10 fairly well-attended Baptist churches in the county.

Three of them are places I would send you.

I wouldn’t encourage you to listen to a word of a sermon in those other churches.

Why?

Because they don’t teach the full counsel of the Gospel.

They have been compromised with the moral standards of the world in sexuality.

They send their money to support things that are not Baptist and in some cases, barely Christian.

And they have pastors who do not count the Bible to be the pure Word of Heaven—

WHICH reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

How did that happen in Powhatan County?

Those churches were taken into theological liberalism by men who came out of SBC seminaries when the boundaries on academic were not clear

The churches go the way of the seminaries.

Our seminaries are very healthy right now.

You can’t sleep on that.

This is the main reason I go to the Southern Baptist Convention every year.

It is to guard the door.

The Conclusion

Some may say that this sort of thing is heavy-handed, but that really is not the case.

If I am hired by Hershey’s to make candy, I have limits to what I can do.

I can’t put rat poison in it.

I can’t make toy boats.

I have to do what I agreed to do when I became an employee

The Christian approach to academic freedom is actually in line with this common sense way that we work in the secular world everyday

It is not that a professor is not free to teach certain things.

They just can’t teach them in a particular Christian institution if what they are teaching is out of step with Jesus, His Word or the institution’s standards—or all three!

3. Why does Article 12 matter?

Well we have already seen one reason—it helps protects academic institutions and seminaries.

But here are three final thoughts for you about Article XII as we go.

1. Article XII demonstrates that Christianity is anti-intellectual.

The anti-intellectualism of Christianity is a myth.

This article shows that Christ is the source of all wisdom and that Christian people thirst for knowledge.

2. Article XII designates Christian education within the mission of the church.

Teaching IS discipleship

That means that the Church is going to be interested in Education by her very nature

We have seen tonight that it should be a serious value of the church body

3. Article XII draws boundaries in academic freedom.

This isn’t just policy

This is a worldview about education

It is born out of:

Our understanding of The nature of God and Christ

A reverence for the Bible

Being made alive and given a new nature in Christ

And a passion for trustworthy, disciple-making institutions

Let the church educate until her Lord returns!