Thesis 32- We must teach our children the things of God.
It is true enough that all truth is God’s truth. When we affirm this we are affirming that we have not left God when we explore any truth, wherever it may be found. To study history or engineering is not somehow less spiritual than studying the Bible or theology. But there is a corollary we tend to miss. No truth is separate from God. That is, while we are not leaving God when studying “secular” truths, we are leaving truth when we study these truths separately from God. That all truth is God’s truth means that nothing, in the end, can be rightly understood outside of God. There is no body of knowledge out there that God loosely holds title too, but that we can understand apart from Him.
Moses understood this well. As he prepares to say goodbye to the people he ministered to for decades, as he delivers his farewell sermon, he impresses upon the people this simple truth, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 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” (Deuteronomy 6:4-7). Not only is all truth only in context when understood in relationship to the glory of God, but so is all teaching of this truth done in the context of life. We are to talk of these things with our children all day every day. We do not add “religious” instruction to the “secular” education they receive during the week. Instead it must be a part of the warp and woof of our lives.
For too long we have taught our children that they could understand the world without Jesus. We have taught them the decidedly diabolical “truth” that some truths were “neutral.” We have taught them, by our actions, that God is something we take into account on Sundays, and perhaps on Wednesday nights. We have taught them how to be idolaters.
One of the great blessings of speaking of these things with our children when they lie down and when they rise us, is that it helps us remember these things when we lie down and when we rise up. We need to teach our children to seek to see the world as God sees the world so that we will better see the world as God sees the world. When we teach our children that all truth is God’s truth, we are better able to see all truth as God’s truth.
An education that leaves God out of the picture cannot be fixed by drawing Him back in later. An education that leaves God out of the picture is not only an abomination to God, but is a lie to our children.