3. Humans use what they have
discovered to imitate God through
“secondary creations” made out of
God’s “primary creation.”
4. God is glorified through all voca-
tions that imitate Him well.
“
The purpose of education is
to equip the next generation
to govern well over all of
God’s creation and to glorify
Him in the process.
Shoemakers and furniture makers
imitate God by making beautiful and
functional “secondary creations” out
of God’s primary creation. The shoes
and furniture serve the needs of
people and glorify the Prime Creator
through the imitation of Him, thus
bringing glory full circle from God
back to God through vocation.
Bankers, lawyers, and businessmen each glorify God by
serving the financial needs of people, bringing justice to the
world, and creating employment for the community through
the imitation of God via their respective occupations. As a
result of this, their communities flourish.
The Puritan Circle of Knowledge was a way of aligning
both the works of God and the Word of God with educa-
tion as human beings used their understanding of God’s
works and God’s Word to glorify Him through all sorts of
human vocations or “callings” from carpentry to shoemak-
ing and farming to homemaking. It was the Puritan Circle
of Knowledge that brought about a purpose for education
far greater than “building democracy” or getting a high-
paying job. The purpose of education is to equip the next
generation to govern well over all of God’s creation and to
glorify Him in the process.
All legitimate work, at its core, is an act of governance.
Governance over wood, metal, and cabbage. Governance
over sound waves, electrical currents, and wind. Gover-
nance over computer keyboards, fiber optics, and digital
images. Governance over people. Governance over things.
Governance over ideas.
Work worth doing is any expenditure of energy, mental
or physical, for pay or not, that rightly manages God’s stuff
and employs one’s God-given abilities to benefit others, or
prepares one to do so. This brings remarkable meaning and
purpose to the study of mathematics and science. It brings
meaning and purpose to learning how to govern over words,
whether written or spoken. It brings meaning to the study of
history, economics, and civics.
When students solve math problems, they are governing
over that part of God’s stuff we call “numbers.” When they
create a piece of art, they’re ruling over that part of God’s
stuff we call “paper,” “charcoal,” and “watercolor.” When they
write an essay, they’re governing over that part of God’s stuff
we call “language” and “logic.” When they do science exper-
iments, they’re managing that part of God’s stuff we call
“chemicals” and “electricity.” When
they play a game of soccer, they’re
ruling over that part of God’s stuff we
call “legs and feet,” not to mention
soccer balls and goal posts.
TEXTBOOKS ARE NEVER NEUTRAL
Textbooks that never mention the
true reason for learning serve only to
produce students who think the Bible
may be relevant to church and person-
al piety but not relevant to business,
law, manufacturing, farming, or civil
service. After all, if the Word of God
isn’t relevant to any academic subject
taught in school, how can it be relevant to what comes after
graduation? This is a problem.
Christian students reading textbooks that never make
any connections whatsoever between the first commission
of Genesis and the subject of the textbook may not become
atheists, but they will certainly learn to think like dualists. A
dualist is one who reads the Bible, prays, goes to church on
Sunday, and yet doesn’t make a connection between God’s
Word and what is studied in school because they think faith
is a personal, private matter while academics are separate.
When it comes to textbooks, the worldview of the writ-
er will come through, either by design or by default. If the
writer has no concept of the first commission of Genesis,
the commission will certainly not be found in the text. And
we must remember that textbooks should be measured not
only by what is stated but also by what is not stated. Text-
books are never neutral. The unspoken thoughts of the writ-
ers influence the text, and this includes implied secularism,
which happens when there is total silence on essential bibli-
cal truths. This is the underestimated power of silence. The
fact is, you will not find God’s purpose for learning anything
stated in a secularized textbook.
I recently saw the question “Why do science?” in a secu-
larized science text. 2 Three reasons were given: (1) finding
out information that can be applied to improve our lives,
(2) discovering new information that will lead to scientif-
ic investigations in the future, and (3) satisfying curios-
ity. What’s the problem here? First, none of these reasons
answer the “to what end” question. It may sound nice to
“improve our lives,” but to what end? Who determines
what is an improvement? By what standard? Second, are
all scientific investigations God-honoring investigations?
Again, we must ask, by what standard? Is discovering new
information for future investigations in and of itself a good
rationale for doing science? It depends on what those inves-
tigations might be. Third, satisfying curiosity is not always a
God-pleasing thing. Again, we must ask, by what standard?
“
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