Education: Curriculum (1) – The Law of God and Public Policy

Education: Curriculum (1)
The Law of God and Public Policy

God’s Word must be foundational in all education.

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children….” Deuteronomy 6:6, 7

American education today operates from a different foundation than what is prescribed in God’s Law; thus, we should not be surprised that our society has taken a shape other than that outlined in the Law of love.

In God’s mind, the Law of God is foundational to the education young people require if they are to inherit and maintain a society based on justice and love. The Law of God is the cornerstone of all Scripture, the acorn to the oak of divine revelation. Thus, it makes sense that children must be instructed in it as in all the counsel of God. The Word of God—the Law, prophets, writings, gospels, Acts, epistles, and Revelation—must be the basis and guiding light for all other aspects of the curriculum in the instruction of the young.

For Americans to have allowed teaching of the Bible to be eradicated from their public school curriculum is a measure of our communal failure in affecting the shape of public policy. At the same time, it is an indicator of the foolishness which has spread like a cancer throughout our society, and to which even Christians have grown accustomed.

The efforts of churches and Christian homes to inculcate a Christian worldview in the children of the Church has not succeeded in the face of the constant barrage of materialism, utilitarianism, and pragmatism that suffuse the curriculum of American public education. Nor can we expect to make progress in such education without returning to the Law of God as the foundation for all Christian instruction.

American educational policy is not likely to realize the benefits of God’s Word as long as those to whom that Word has been entrusted evidence so little confidence in it as a core curriculum for all of life. The teaching of God’s Law is roundly neglected in churches today, and the state of instruction in all the counsel of God fares not much better. If we are ever to become again a segment of the citizenry able to affect public policy in this and all other areas of life, we shall need to become more soundly reared and firmly taught in the Scriptures of God.

Instruction in Scripture includes many things: teaching in Biblical theology, Biblical content and themes, hermeneutics, theology proper, the history of theology, ethics, and cultural criticism are only the most important components of a curriculum grounded in the Law and Word of God. Presumably, such instruction would also include developing the disciplines of personal reading and study, together with prayer and worship, which will continue to form the soul and shape the life throughout the course of a learner’s life.

That such a curriculum was foundational to early American education can be observed by even a cursory reading of a resource such as McGuffey’s Readers, which were in widespread use in the schools of early America. Education in colonial America produced leaders who, while they may not have all been Christians, understood the importance of spiritual and moral truths as the only proper foundation for civil order.

But that effort grew out of a consensus that was largely defined by a Christian worldview. That consensus no longer exists. The way back to education grounded in God’s Word is via a renewed consensus, brought about by the efforts of revived men and women and renewed churches.

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.