“No teaching of any sort is possible except in Christian schools,” Cornelius Van Til once said. He was right. There is no learning without a universal standard by which to judge knowledge. Without this standard, knowledge is reduced to mere data without order. Christianity looks to God as the source of truth and so we have a foundation for knowledge. Christianity gives learners a true place to stand and it is also a call to be humble in that position. Having a place to stand means there is solid universal truth that never changes. But we must also be humble in exploring the world and what we think we know.  

“No teaching of any sort is possible except in Christian schools,” Cornelius Van Til

Christianity makes true learners because it accurately teaches what a man is. It is impossible to be a good learner unless one first knows what it means to be human. The first step in all knowledge is self knowledge but that knowledge cannot be found apart from knowledge of God. Calvin writes, “It is certain that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God’s face, and then descends from contemplating him to scrutinize himself.” It is only through knowledge of God and his word that we gain true knowledge of ourselves and the world around us. God’s word is the first school learners must attend if they are to advance to higher levels of knowledge. 

God’s word is the first school learners must attend if they are to advance to higher levels of knowledge. 

Two Ditches to Avoid

Education from a secular materialist worldview stunts people and hinders them from gaining true knowledge of the world. This program hinders education in two different ways.  

The first error is the Modernist/Enlightenment worldview which seeks for 100% certainty in all areas of knowledge. Descartes and others tried to achieve this. He doubted everything until he found that thing that cannot be doubted and then tried to build off that foundation. But he never fully succeeded in that quest.  

His quest fails to deal with the reality of human nature. We are not infinite and we cannot have pure 100% certainty in knowledge. Human reason is a powerful tool that should be used and understood but it is not made for that kind of knowledge. In fact, much of our knowledge is based on authorities that we trust and data that we can only partially know. This is the way that God made us and it is how we know. Our knowledge is a combination of experience, reason, and authorities that we trust. This is not to say we cannot know. It is to say that we know in a finite way as humans. 

We must know that true knowledge does not come from us.

The other error is the Postmodern/Intersectional worldview which sees that we cannot have 100% certainty in our knowledge and so makes all knowledge provisional. They claim we only ever have partial truths and half truths and so there must be no other entity that has that kind of knowledge. This also stunts students because it takes from them the ability to check claims of authority by the higher authority of truth. It also tears apart the ability to identify with others and read across time and culture. The Postmodern/Intersectional model is a dead end. 

Both worldviews claim a partial truth about human nature but fail to paint a full picture. It is true that we cannot have exhaustive knowledge but our knowledge is still real. The key then is to see that we are creatures made by God and so he is the standard we need in order to move beyond our limited knowledge. We must know that true knowledge does not come from us.

Knowledge is a Gift from God

The key then is to recognize our frame and trust in God. He has exhaustive knowledge and we can trust Him. Trusting God as our foundational source does not mean we should give up on scholarly research and work. Rather, we should do scholarly work in a humble spirit before God. He is the author of knowledge and he loves to give this gift to his people. This truth is the real impetus behind education. 

He is the author of knowledge and he loves to give this gift to his people. This truth is the real impetus behind education. 

God has made the world and He has called us to explore it and investigate it. This quest is a real quest that He has set before us. But we cannot achieve a full exhaustive knowledge of the world. This is why the quest is so thrilling. We must gather what we know and consider how we know and then construct plausible ways to organize that knowledge. We should be comfortable with our human limits and also excited to see what we can discover in God’s world. 

We work and do research because we know God who is infinite and unchanging. He is sure and certain and we can trust him. He knows it all exhaustively and so we can work with our partial knowledge knowing that God is not tricking us or deceiving us. He loves to give his children good gifts and one of those good gifts is wisdom.  

Less Data, More Wisdom

Partial knowledge is not a bad thing. In fact, partial knowledge is sometimes best. Richard Weaver writes, “…the fewer particulars we require in order to arrive at our generalization, the more apt pupils we are in the school of wisdom.” For example, drawing a straight line. You do not need all the points on the line to make it straight. If you have two points, then you can reason out the line from those two points. It would be foolish to mark out hundreds of points to confirm the reality of a straight line. The student, who can make a straight line with two points, has learned the lesson. 

Wisdom is seeing that we actually need less data than we realize. A wise man does not require every possible instance of a situation in order to learn wisdom. The wise man is the one who can draw the right lesson with the least amount of data necessary. The fool is the one who won’t learn the lesson even though he is flooded with data. 

The wise man is the one who can draw the right lesson with the least amount of data necessary. The fool is the one who won’t learn the lesson even though he is flooded with data. 

A pile of data won’t help us gain true knowledge. We gain true knowledge when we can sort the data out and make connections. We can only do this work when we have a pattern of knowledge already in place. God is the one who gives us the pattern for knowledge. In knowing God, we learn how to place things in the right place. This is wisdom. This is the foundation of true education.   

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