Ergon University Blog

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. (Gen. 1:1)

This is the very first verse in the Bible. Everyone knows it, and it has virtually identical wording across the many different English translations we use today. But, even though we all know it, the obvious often escapes us. In this brief article, I want to point out two of these things and show why they are important for education.

Beginning with God

Read it again: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”

Immediately, we notice that God is creating things. But friends, if we look under the surface, we realize something startling in our modern age: the Bible does not defend the existence of God. It assumes it.

The Bible starts with God! It assumes God. The Bible does not begin with a defense or proof of God’s existence—God simply is, and is the beginning point of things. In the beginning, God.

Another way of saying this is that the Bible presupposes God. God does not deem it worth His time to defend His existence to us and tell us why we should believe that He exists. God simply begins with informing us what He did. His existence is not only non-negotiable, but He does not even present the opportunity to debate Him.

Meaning

Now, let’s look at another aspect. Genesis 1:1 says that God created the heavens and the earth. Elaborating on this, John 1:3 says, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Everything that is created, was created by Him. This is not limited to physical objects—it includes “conceptual” things like meaning, authority, law, judgment, history, and more.

Romans 11:36 says, “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.” All things revolve around Christ and must be interpreted in His light. The further they get from Christ, the further they get from their truest meaning.

So, God created all things, and all things find their definition and meaning as they relate to Christ. Apart from God, the concept of “logic” does not exist. Apart from Christ, “mathematics” does not exist because “logic” does not exist. Apart from Christ, “history” means nothing. Apart from Christ, this paragraph is worthless (actually, not even worthless, because the very concept of “worthlessness” would not exist).

Apart from God, as we see, things mean nothing. Thus, we see that just as God began with Himself, we also must begin with God and His Word when we think. Otherwise, our thoughts are meaningless.

What does this have to do with education?

Apart from Jesus Christ, education means nothing—and is worthless.

Education is only worth anything when it is understood in terms of God. Education apart from Christ means death: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction,” Proverbs 1:7 says. Proverbs 8:36 says, “All they that hate me [Christ] love death.” (This is why, in large part, our “educational” institutions today are failing: they have rejected Christ, and are now “death” institutions.)

We must begin on the foundation of God as we approach education. We must ask the following questions:

• Why does God say we need to learn?
• What does God say we need to learn?
• How should I order these subjects in terms of my calling and priority?
• How will these subjects equip me to grow in my calling/vocation/life/maturity?
• What is the long-term goal that determines why I learn these subjects?

This thinking will spark a radical shift in education. It already has begun to, in the area of home education. No longer will we teach subjects out of tradition, but we will begin with God and His Word, and go from there.

Friends, in America, we have tremendous freedom to pick and choose what our children learn. The future is very bright. As we continue to learn and grow ourselves, we will pass that onto our children. They will go farther than we are, and will build on our learning. We must give them an education built on what God says is important.

Will they build further unto death and destruction, or will we empower them to build unto life, growth, and the Kingdom of God?