YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Necessity of Christian Education | Douglas Wilson (School of Practical Christianity #10)

Necessity of Christian Education | Douglas Wilson (School of Practical Christianity #10) — Transcript

by Christ Church · 3,014 words · 453 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00[Music]
0:13we live in a time when the world seems
0:15to have lost its Collective mind as a
0:17consequence more than a few things
0:19previously thought to be more than
0:20stable are starting to wobble and this
0:23means we need to ask ourselves some
0:25pointed and difficult questions what is
0:27going on why are these things happening
0:30to us I want to submit that we are in
0:32the dire condition we are in because
0:34Christian parents have for far too long
0:36ignored numerous cautions admonitions
0:39and warnings with regard to the
0:40education of our children the issue of
0:43Christian education is obligatory for
0:45Christian children is one that needs to
0:47be pressed home now more than ever back
0:49in the 80s a few farsighted thinkers
0:52were telling everyone to make sure they
0:53kept a fire extinguisher around now that
0:56we have a Towering Inferno going the
0:58admonition comes back to mind
1:00[Music]
1:09few realize that the greatest
1:10Commandment found in scripture the
1:13requirement to love God with all that we
1:15have and are Deuteronomy 6 4-9 is a
1:18Commandment that comes to us in a
1:20passage that is talking about the
1:21education of Covenant children Moses
1:24required parents to bring up their
1:26children in an environment dominated by
1:28the word of God you you shall teach your
1:30children the law diligently the law
1:32which addresses all of life and you are
1:34to do so when you're sitting in your
1:36home when you walk along the way when
1:38you lie down and when you rise up in
1:40short the instruction was to be constant
1:43ongoing and
1:45all-encompassing if adults are expected
1:47to love God with all their heart soul
1:49and strength Deuteronomy 65 then they
1:52will first need to learn how to start
1:54doing this when they are children when
1:55Jesus applies this commandment Mark
1:5712:30 he adds an additional aspect to
2:00our love for God he says that we are
2:02also to love God with all our minds we
2:05are to love God with all our brains in
2:06other words and we learn how to do this
2:08in the process of what we call
2:11education and when it comes to the
2:13education of our covenant children the
2:15Old Testament and the New Testament
2:16speak with one voice appealing to
2:19exactly the same promise in the chapter
2:22prior to the one just cited above we
2:24find the second giving of the Ten
2:25Commandments the fifth commandment is
2:27the one requiring children to honor
2:29their parents and we should remember
2:31that these parents are the ones who in
2:32the very next chapter were instructed to
2:34bring their children up surrounded by
2:36the words of Jehovah honor thy father
2:39and thy mother as the Lord thy God hath
2:41commanded thee that thy days may be
2:43prolonged and it may go well with thee
2:45in the land which the Lord thy God
2:47giveth thee Deuteronomy
2:505:116 this commandment is addressed to
2:52Israelite children gathered around the
2:54base of Mount Si they were told that if
2:57they obeyed this commandment then God
2:58will prolong their day days in the land
3:01which God was going to give them and
3:03centuries later the Apostle picks this
3:05commandment up and quietly applied it to
3:07Gentile children in Ephesus and he
3:10explicitly stated that the promise was
3:12still good the promise is greatly
3:14expanded in fact quote children obey
3:17your parents in the Lord for this is
3:18right honor thy father and mother which
3:21is the first commandment with promise
3:22that it may be well with thee and thou
3:24mayest live long on the earth Ephesians
3:276 1-3 here the promise is expanded to
3:30include Gentile children and the promise
3:32is also expanded to include the whole
3:34earth which remember the meek will
3:36inherit so just as in Deuteronomy the
3:39command with a promise is followed by a
3:41requirement that Godly Parents provide
3:43their kids with a Christian education
3:45The Identical pattern is followed here
3:47in Ephesians Paul brings up the fifth
3:49commandment and right after that he says
3:51this to fathers and ye fathers provoke
3:54not your children to wrath but bring
3:56them up in the nurture and admonition of
3:58the Lord if Ephesians 6:4 one of the
4:01words underneath nurture and admonition
4:04here is the Greek word pidea to
4:06understand the importance of this we
4:08have to distinguish between different
4:10kinds of nouns we have nouns that refer
4:12to everyday items things like salt or
4:15shoelaces or chair or keyboard but we
4:18also have nouns that refer to large
4:19Concepts that are very important to a
4:21culture's understanding of itself a noun
4:24like this for us would be something like
4:25democracy because of this importance you
4:27wouldn't be surprised to find in a
4:29library somewhere a three volume set
4:31that was entitled democracy it would be
4:34the kind of work that had lots of
4:35footnotes and you might even think that
4:37three volumes might not be sufficient
4:39but if you also found a three volume set
4:41entitled table salt a historical review
4:44you might think you'd come across an
4:45author with a serious personal problem I
4:48began using this illustration years ago
4:51because I have in my library a three
4:53volume study of the word pidea and this
4:55is fitting because pidea described for
4:57the Greeks the entire process of
5:00inculturation what did it take to
5:02incorporate a child just born into the
5:04ways Customs laws morals and worldview
5:07of his people what we call education was
5:10just part of this process and thus it is
5:12quite significant that the Apostle Paul
5:14instructs Christian fathers to bring up
5:16their children in the pidea of the Lord
5:18now if pidea is the process of
5:20enculturating children into the entire
5:22culture of their people for Paul to tell
5:25parents to provide a Christian form of
5:26this means that he had the establishment
5:29of a Christian culture in
5:31[Music]
5:38view this process works in the other
5:40direction also if a largely Christian
5:43culture which is what we once were
5:45absent-mindedly drifts into an
5:47acceptance of a secular pidea then it
5:49will just be a matter of time before
5:51they wake up and find that the culture
5:53they remember from their childhood is
5:55entirely gone we are in that position
5:58now
6:00the rampant paganism that we see around
6:02us manifesting itself in countless ways
6:05is a paganism that came from somewhere
6:07and the answer to this puzzle is that it
6:09came from the schools the culture of one
6:12generation is the culture that was
6:14instilled when that generation was in
6:15the process of being educated this is
6:18not to single out the schools as the
6:20solitary culprit there were other
6:22players obviously one large contributor
6:24would be the entertainment industry for
6:26example the ancient Greeks would have
6:27included the plays put on in the amp
6:29theater as part of the pidea alongside
6:31what was being learned in the course of
6:33formal academic instruction and so in
6:35the same way what a child is being
6:37taught by his secularizing teachers is
6:39reinforced by the catechism of his
6:41Spotify
6:43[Music]
6:53playlists one of the reasons that
6:56Christian parents neglect this very
6:57plain instruction is that they've been
6:59encouraged to believe that epistemic
7:01neutrality is a possibility in other
7:04words they imagine knowledge as a
7:06neutral kind of intellectual nutrition
7:08like a bowl of cold porridge it is all
7:10pretty
7:11nondescript 2 + 2 equal 4 water flows
7:14downhill George Washington was our first
7:16president all non-controversial and
7:19therefore neutral right no not right at
7:21all the idea is that knowledge is
7:23somehow neutral and that all worldviews
7:25share this common ground of neutral
7:27knowledge all the children come to the
7:29second government school in order to
7:31receive their neutral porridge which
7:33they can then take home so that it can
7:34be flavored according to taste the
7:36Christians add milk and brown sugar the
7:39Muslims add mustard the Buddhists add
7:40Curry and the secular atheists eat it
7:42cold the problem with this picture is
7:45that knowledge is in no way neutral the
7:47fear of the Lord is the beginning of
7:49knowledge but fools despise wisdom and
7:52instruction Proverbs 1:7 ultimate
7:55commitments matter and they always have
7:57an impact on the details of what we
7:59think we know how can two and two make
8:01four if two and four are all Maya
8:04illusion as the Hindu believes how can
8:06we add and subtract when all is one what
8:09many people falsely describe as neutral
8:11ground is actually the residual
8:13consensus of a formerly Christian world
8:15that world was largely in the west but
8:17as a result of the Age of Exploration
8:19and colonialism the assumptions of the
8:21West were largely and gradually adopted
8:23everywhere else in the world this
8:25happened while the Christian foundation
8:26in the west was being eaten out by the
8:28termites of belief and also while the
8:30western style house was being built on
8:32Sand everywhere else Matthew
8:367:24 this was clean contrary to the
8:38Lord's teaching on this very subject and
8:40it is not surprising that what we just
8:42assume as quote unquote neutral
8:44knowledge is actually residual
8:46Christianity but Christian assumptions
8:48that are no longer gratefully
8:50acknowledged at some point they might be
8:52acknowledged after they're completely
8:53gone on the assumption that you don't
8:55miss your water until your well runs dry
8:58neutrality is not not possible Moses
9:00told the people that God had delivered
9:02them from bondage in Egypt Exodus 21:2
9:06and jeroboam told the people that the
9:08golden Caves at Dan and bethl had
9:10delivered them from Egypt First Kings
9:1212:28 so it makes a difference does it
9:15not whether Moses or jeroboam writes the
9:17history curriculum when Congress
9:19approved the final language of the First
9:20Amendment the terms of which have been
9:22Twisted to mean that our federal
9:24government is supposed to be radically
9:25secular that same day Congress
9:27established a day of prayer and thanks
9:29Thanksgiving it makes a difference who
9:31writes the history curriculum and
9:33secularists like to say that in keeping
9:35God out of the classroom they are not
9:37teaching anything about him one way or
9:39the other but in keeping him out of the
9:41classroom they are in fact inculcating a
9:43very pernicious error which is that of
9:45teaching the children that if there is a
9:47God his existence is irrelevant to what
9:50we are doing here in this classroom he
9:52therefore becomes something of an add-on
9:54extra but of course if the Living God of
9:56the Bible is actually there he's nothing
9:58at all like and addon extra he would not
10:01be just one additional fact in the
10:02universe of numerous facts rather he
10:05would be the Everlasting and eternal
10:06fact he would be fact itself upon which
10:09every other fact must rest this is
10:11another way of saying that if the
10:13Christian God exists his existence is
10:15not a trivial thing his existence
10:18charges the world with meaning and
10:20without him we would just have a
10:21meaningless cataract of Adams banging
10:23down through history and hence no way of
10:25trusting our thoughts as they were part
10:27of this Cascade of Adams and thus we we
10:29would have no reason for trusting our
10:30thought processes made up as they are of
10:32rushing atoms and that means we have no
10:35reason for believing them to be made out
10:37of rushing atoms in short in the Folly
10:39of attempted neutrality we have made
10:41everything meaningless our schools our
10:43lesson plans our graduation requirements
10:45the lot we are just meaningless bits of
10:48protoplasm sitting behind desks
10:51[Music]
10:59in order to build anything straight it
11:01is necessary that the foundation be
11:04straight and the scriptures teach us
11:05that the foundation of all knowledge and
11:07the foundation of all wisdom is the fear
11:09of the
11:11Lord the fear of the Lord is the
11:13beginning of knowledge but fools despise
11:15wisdom and instruction Proverbs 1:7
11:18Proverbs 9:10 the fear of the Lord is
11:21the beginning of wisdom a good
11:23understanding have all they that do his
11:25Commandments his praise endureth forever
11:28Psalm 111 verse 10 and what is the goal
11:31of Education the whole point of
11:33education is to gain knowledge wisdom
11:35and understanding this being the case
11:37then what Foundation must our schools be
11:39built on our schools must be built on
11:41the fear of God we sometimes speak of
11:44the issue of quote unquote prayer in
11:46school as though it were a separate
11:47issue not connected to everything else
11:50it was simply one of the controversies
11:51back in the day and so we still tend to
11:53think of it as a standalone issue but it
11:55was more like the question of whether or
11:57not Concrete in earthquakes hones should
11:59have rebar in it or whether houses on
12:01the beach Should have deep footings that
12:03go down to rock I can still remember
12:05prayer at the beginning of the day in
12:06the government school I attended as a
12:08boy whatever the quality of the prayer
12:10it was still an acknowledgement on the
12:12part of the school that we are not gods
12:14and there is a God above us this is not
12:17an acknowledgement that the educators of
12:19the present day are still willing to
12:21make this is not a complicated point we
12:24have only complicated it for ourselves
12:26through our reluctance to do what it
12:28takes to Prov provide a thoroughgoing
12:30Christian education for our children the
12:32government schools are free we tell
12:34ourselves and this is much more of a
12:36selling point for us than it ought to be
12:39but in a broken world like ours free
12:41things often turn out to be attached to
12:43a hidden price tag it is no different
12:45here that hidden price tag comes at two
12:47different levels one is that instead of
12:49tuition payments we all pay an
12:51exorbitant amount in our property taxes
12:53but the money still goes out but the
12:55real cost the second thing is one we are
12:58just now starting to real I in the lives
13:00Souls minds and bodies of our children
13:03so the point is a simple one and that
13:05point remains constant Christian kids
13:07must receive a Christian
13:10[Music]
13:17education one what is the source of much
13:20modern cultural craziness the source of
13:23this craziness is that our system of
13:25education has sought to teach students
13:27how to live without reference to God and
13:29his Christ as a consequence they don't
13:31know how to live two where in the Old
13:34Testament does it require Godly
13:36education for Covenant children this is
13:38required in Deuteronomy 6
13:414-9 three what is highly significant
13:43about this passage it is the passage of
13:46the Old Testament that contains the
13:48greatest commandment of all the command
13:50to love the Lord your God with all that
13:52you have and are is a command that is
13:54nestled within the context of
13:56instruction on biblical education for
13:58Covenant children
14:00four where in the New Testament does it
14:02require Godly education for Covenant
14:04children this is required in Ephesians 6
14:071 through3 fathers are instructed to
14:09make sure their children are brought up
14:10in the pidea of the Lord five what is
14:13significant about this word
14:15pidea it is the word that was used in
14:18that world to describe the entire
14:20process of enculturation what we call
14:22formal education would simply be a
14:24subset of this
14:26process six what was the promise given
14:29to the Israelite children and to whom
14:30was it also given the promise is part of
14:33the fifth commandment which requires us
14:35to honor our fathers and mothers in the
14:37Ten Commandments the promise is given to
14:39the children of Israel and the promise
14:41is that life will go well for them in
14:43the land that God was giving them
14:45centuries later Paul picks up this
14:46promise expands it and applies it to
14:49Gentile children in Ephesus saying that
14:51the promise was that life would go well
14:53for them in the earth seven what has
14:56been the role of the schools in the
14:58deterioration of our culture schools are
15:00the place where the next generation is
15:02prepared to take on the role of the Next
15:04Generation and if this generation is
15:06burning everything down then we should
15:07ask where and how they were
15:09educated eight what is the nature of the
15:12error that has led Christians to remain
15:14in the government schools the error can
15:16be described as the myth of neutrality
15:19this is the assumption that bare
15:20knowledge is neutral shared in common
15:22between all worldviews while the things
15:24that distinguish different worldviews
15:26are added to that raw knowledge as
15:28though they were
15:29condt nine what is one example of the
15:32myth of neutrality and education Moses
15:35told the people of Israel that Jehovah
15:37had led them out of Egypt Exodus 20 1:2
15:39while jeroboam said that the golden
15:41calves at Dan and bethl First Kings
15:4312:28 should get the credit for the
15:45Deliverance so it makes a difference
15:47whether Moses or jeroboam writes the
15:49history
15:50curriculum 10 what is our answer to the
15:53secularists who say that they just
15:55impart basic knowledge in the government
15:56schools and that they don't say anything
15:58one way or the other about the existence
16:00of God the answer is that they are
16:02making a huge Claim about God they are
16:04teaching a subject and by implication
16:06they are saying that whether or not God
16:08exists has no relevance to the subject
16:10the students are studying 11 what is the
16:13end of the road if we seriously try to
16:15live out of pretended neutrality the end
16:17of the road is meaninglessness if we act
16:20as though God does not exist and if we
16:22teach students to try to understand the
16:24world without reference to him then the
16:26necessary end of that line of reasoning
16:28is that there's no no point to anything
16:3112 what should the starting point for
16:33every form of Education be the starting
16:35point for True education must always be
16:37the fear of the Lord without that
16:39accumulation of disconnected pieces of
16:42information will be nothing but vanity
16:44and chasing after wind
16:49[Music]

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Necessity of Christian Education | Douglas Wilson (School of Practical Christianity #10) by Christ Church, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 3,014 words across 453 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.