Science to the Glory of God (838 words)

Looking back, I can think of dozens of scientific experiments I and my classmates conducted during grade school.  Whether it was as simple as mixing baking soda with vinegar, or as complex as heating some mixture over a bunsen burner until an explosion occurred, science was always a class filled with excitement, complexity, discovery and wonder.

While we often took time to celebrate after a successful [rather difficult] experiment, I do not remember ever hearing a teacher stop the class in humble adoration and reverence to the Creator of the universe.  Not one line in my science book spoke of the attributes of God as they are revealed in science.  I was never led to consider why science experiments were possible in such a diverse world.  After watching the elementary volcano erupt, I was never led to praise God for His incredible faithfulness.

Consequently, I was never taught the whole truth.  This is more than merely leaving out a simple fact - or, skipping a hypothetical chapter on how God relates to science.  To leave God out of science is less than honest (albeit a passive and often unintentional dishonesty).  It is a vital misrepresentation of the facts; a denial of true reality; and a disregard for the Person who holds all things together.

Instead of learning about God, students are often taught to believe and rely upon the existence of scientific laws.  These laws exist in the universe.  They are discovered and not invented.  Laws indicate to us that there is such a thing as regularity in the universe - regularity that can be trusted and employed and even defined as "law."  But this raises the question: What characteristics must a scientific law have in order to be a law?  And, How do these characteristics relate to God?

First, scientists think of laws as universal in time and space.  In other words, the laws to which scientists appeal (even with particular restrictions) apply to all times and all places.   Vernon Poythress states, "the law, if it really is a law and is correctly formulated and qualified, holds for all times and all places."  Baking soda and vinegar will foam every time they are mixed together (time and space) under the right environmental circumstances (restrictions).

A simple but glorious substitution is necessary here.  This "law" of time and space is nothing more than an indication of God's omniscience (space) and eternality (time).

Second, if a law remains the same through all times, then we can say that laws do not change with time.  Even if a supposed "law" did change, it would not really be the law that changed, but one temporal phase of that law in a higher regularity that would account for the lower-level change.  The concept of law itself presupposes immutability.  I would also add in this vein that laws are seen as being faithful.  We trust that they will work every time.  If something goes wrong, we are more likely to question our own faithfulness rather than the law's.

Our God is unchangeable and meticulously faithful.

Third, laws, by nature, are both invisible and immaterial.  We cannot see them or touch them in order to know them; but are bound to know them by their effects in the world.  When a scientist, or empiricist, appeals to scientific law, he is doing so, not from empirical proof, but from inference.  There is a logical bridge in-between what is empirically tested and what is law.

So is God essentially immaterial and invisible; but known through His acts in the world.

Fourth, scientific law is both transcendent and immanent.  Poythress comments, "It transcends the creatures of the world by exercising power over them, conforming them to its dictates.  It is immanent in that it touches and holds in its dominion even the smallest bits of this world.  Law transcends the galactic clusters and is immanently present in the chromodynamic dance of quarks and gluons in the bosom of a single proton."

Transcendence and immanence are characteristics of God.

While many more characteristics can be named, these will suffice for now to get the point across.
What should be attributed to God in order to bring Him the glory He is due, man has attributed to scientific law in order to bring man the glory he so enviously desires.  The exchange is both obvious and common.  It is also epidemically rebellious.

We simply cannot afford to have another generation led to believe in an impersonal, ambiguous, amoral "law".  In an obedience response, we must repent and faithfully proclaim the personal, God who is Spirit, eternal, omniscient, immutable, transcendent yet immanent, and who is meticulously precise and faithful.  As Christians we must take time, when educating our children, to give praise to God for the things as He so graciously communicates to us during science class.  Make no mistake, Science is theology.

I would also suggest picking up a copy of Poythress's Redeeming Science.  A significant portion of the material in this post was taken from this book.

Language and Grammar to the Glory of God

Communication is vital to our human experience.  It is a gateway into the inner being of those we love, are curious about, or want to get to know.  It helps us understand and learn what (and why) others do what they do and think what they think.  Communication helps us to see past the skin; to get beneath the surface, and to truly know someone or something other than ourselves.

Granted, a lot of communication is unspoken.  We may give a certain facial expression or a particular bodily motion to add texture to what we are saying.  The expression may even speak for itself.  But for the most part, we communicate through words. Words articulate what we are thinking and feeling about ourselves, about others, and about things. 

Simply put, clear, meaningful, and thoughtful communication, expressed through words, is a significant way by which we love others.   Therefore, words are extremely important.  They are vital to community, relationship and thus to the progress of humanity toward the Promised Land. 

Because words, by nature, are representatives, we must make sure that we are using them correctly.  We must use the right word, or construction of words, that best represents the facts.  On the same note, we must also refrain from using words that do not represent the facts correctly.  Misrepresenting the facts breaks the 9th commandment at least.

But there is more.  Words are a means by which we know that we are loved.  The greatest example being God, who decided to communicate to us through His Word.  I understand that He communicates to us in other ways (i.e., general revelation); but His children come to know His special love for them through His written Word.

Through this Word, expressed in many Words, we can know and understand the One who made us.  Through His Word (and by His Spirit) we can know His thoughts - even the deep things of God (1 Cor 2:9-13).  This truth is given fuller expression in Hebrews where we read that God "spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son..."  And the words that are spoken by the Son, Jesus Christ, are not merely ink on a page, they are life (Jn 6:63); yes, even eternal life (v.68).  

This is why language and grammar is so vitally important.  It is for this ultimate reason that we strive to teach our children (and ourselves!) how to communicate properly - to communicate unto the glory of God.  I never heard that growing up:  "Scott, you must communicate properly because this glorifies God...So, go do your English homework and do it well!"

Our children will soon usher in and lead a new generation.  We must love them and others by educating them unto the glory of God.  Miscommunication breeds strife, frustration, lies and needless controversy.  It is not glorifying to God.  But when we communicate properly, we love well.  We impart, in words, the things freely given to us by God (1 Cor 2:13).  Nothing is perhaps more loving than the Gospel communicated through words saturated with clarity, faithfulness, love and truth.

We are not teaching merely language and grammar.  We are not educating our children so that they can get high marks on some test; or even get some great job in the future.  We educate our children in language and grammar because we want to see our children, and all of their friends, in heaven.

Great Illustration to Show the Difference Between Belief and Unbelief

Cornelius Van Til, in The Foundations of Christian Education, gives a wonderful illustration to show the antithesis between the believer and unbeliever.  We say that we see the truth, while the unbeliever is quite sure that we do not.  Van Til gives a well-known story to illustrate the point:

There was a country where most of the inhabitants were blind, including the philosophers.  But there were a few simple people whose eyes were not sealed, and they spoke of the joy of seeing the sun.  'But,' said the philosophers, 'you must not talk in that excited metaphorical strain.  There is a diffuse warmth, as we all know, but your talk about a visible luminous body is an antiquated objectivism.  There is no sun.'

Yet the simple people asserted all the more that they saw the sun, and a psychological committee was appointed to investigate the matter.  They made many experiments and in the course of time they discovered that whenever those whose eyes were not sealed said they saw the sun, they had opened their eyes.  

The blind psychologists felt over the seeing faces and they made sure that there was a precise correlation between the openings of their eyes and the visions of the sun.  'Dear friend,' they said, 'you are suffering from an illusion; the image of the sun that you speak of somewhat unintelligibly is produced by this trick of opening your eyes.  Be honest now and tell us if you ever behold the image of the sun except when you open your eyes.'  

The simple seers said, 'No' and the committee was well pleased with them and hoped that they would recover from their sight.  But the simple seers smiled to themselves, and went away saying, 'We see the sun.'

Van Til comments on the story: "This story illustrates the point that our opponents cannot make their position of doubt or negation reasonable to themselves unless they seek to show that we as well as they know nothing of the matter at all.  If one should argue that airplanes are the illusions of the heated imagination while Lindbergh [an American aviator] was flying overhead, he would have to give good reasons for his faith.  So our opponents are driven to appoint psychological and philosophical committees to prove that we are self-deluded.  And the woeful plight of the world gives them a lenient and favorable jury."

This is why I read Van Til.

Education Unto The Glory of God

I have been asked to write a series of posts concerning education.  I do feel a bit hesitant to do so as I am no expert on education and have much to learn.  I do, however, believe that the issue is essentially religious.  In other words, it is our creed that Christ Himself is the Rock upon which every bit of our life flows - especially our educational methodologies, premises, and conclusions.  It is because of this momentous fact, that I feel I should at least offer something.

Due to the nature of this subject, this post may fall outside of my typical 500 word limit!

It is obvious from the current state of things that we, as a nation and society, are becoming more secular.  Secularity involves the whole person - mind, heart, emotions and all that.  It is not merely intellectual, but also highly ethical.  A person cannot fill his mind with what "is" without proceeding to make conclusions concerning what "ought" to be.  The indicative precedes the imperative.  And in our secular society, the imperatives are all jacked up.  We must conclude, therefore, that the indicatives are all jacked up as well.  This involves education.

In this series, I will not focus on methodology as much as philosophy.  I will not concentrate on the facts or the means by which we reach facts, but more so on the presuppositions that interpret them and give them contextual value.  In other words, I will not discuss the multiplication table, or how two times two equals four; but rather, how mathematics in general ought to bring the child face to face with the personal God who created him/her.

The first principle that we must understand is that all education is personal - that is, there are no propositional truths that fall outside of the Personal purposes of God.  Every fact is, and must be, interpreted theistically.  Mathematics is an act of, and must ultimately lead one to, worship.

How do we know this?  Because the Scriptures tell us: "For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible...all things were created through Him and for Him...and in Him all things hold together" (Col 1:15, 17).  And, "So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31).  The most fundamental, intrinsic value of every fact is found in that it is from Him, through Him, and to Him.  Yes, even mathematical "laws," historical data, logic, science, english and grammar.

Secular education provides us with a stark antithesis.  It would have us come face to face with an impersonal universe.  We can learn about this universe independently of God.  As a matter of fact, the more we learn about this impersonal universe, the more we can understand whether or not there is a God and if we ought to obey Him.

It is detrimental to the image of God within every person to teach that one is able (and ought!) to think independently of God.  Why?  First, this just isn't true (breaking the 9th Commandment).  It is impossible to think independently of God.  Everyone presupposes God in every facet of life.  Second, it teaches that one ought to trust in some other point of reference for all predication (breaking the 2nd Commandment).  The reason then becomes the ultimate trustworthy source that places God in the dock.  Third, it teaches pride - that we are able to know things independently of God (breaking the 1st Commandment).  There are more reasons, these three should get the point across.

Think about it.  When is the last time you have heard a science teacher stop to give praise to God for His faithfulness after conducting a successful experiment?  On the other hand, how many times have we heard scientists use scientific consistencies in their attempts disprove God?  This is the cultural bend - the secular agenda, which teaches its pupils that science is simply an independent means by which one can find or not find God.

This didactic persuasion is not ethically neutral, untainted by the deep stain of sin.  Therefore, it stands in dire need of Redemptive intervention through proper education (Rom 1:16).  I wonder how much error could be prevented if we would base our educational processes upon this fundamental understanding - that we must bring our children face to face with the Personal God,  upon whom we are all completely dependent for everything in life - especially learning and communicating.

Understanding education this way sheds a completely different light upon reading, writing and arithmetic.  These subjects are not simply a means by which children gain information.  Christ is not only taught in Sunday School.  He is not only preached in the sermon.  As Christians, we must understand the faithfulness of Christ communicated in Science; the consistency of Christ presupposed in logic; the providence of Christ seen in history; the strength of Christ displayed in astronomy; and the love of Christ vocalized in language, grammar, and rhetoric.

Disclaimer:  This post, along with those that follow, are not a direct "attack" on any one educational preference, whether public, private, Christian, or home schooling.  I feel that any educational methodology that does not 'honor Christ the Lord as holy' should be redemptively confronted and corrected.

More importantly, these posts are meant to encourage, inform and to promote Gospel-centered growth.  I understand that I have just introduced a philosophical "elephant."  It is my goal to share ways in which parents can teach, and help their children learn unto the glory of God.  I'm not an expert; but I am a parent.  I'm struggling through this thing along with many of you.  I hope these posts will be helpful.  My plan, Lord willing, will go something like this:

1.  Reading/Grammar unto the Glory of God.
2.  Science unto the Glory of God.
3.  History unto the Glory of God.
4.  Math/Logic unto the Glory of God.
5.  Language/Rhetoric unto the Glory of God.

Knowing God Rightly Leads to Knowing Everything Else Rightly

I am taking the advise of one of my seminary professors and continuing my study in the “old books.”  Currently I am working through Richard Baxter’s, The Reformed Pastor.  I must say that I am more filled now by it than when I read it a few years ago.  I’m not sure why, but I praise God for it.

In today’s section, Baxter is writing about how we cannot detach our study of theology from our study of philosophy.  To put it more plainly, if we do not first know God [rightly], we cannot know anything rightly.  It is important to note that he wrote this book in 1656, at a time when human reason was presupposed to be dependent on God and not independent of Him.  These men followed in the footsteps of the church fathers; more particularly, Augustine, who wrote that one must first believe before he/she could ever understand.   Faith precedes understanding, not vise versa.

Enlightenment thinkers of the 18^th century abandoned this order.  As far as they were concerned, God was placed in the dock, while man (with his independent reason) was seated on the judicial bench.  They thought understanding preceded belief.  Their anthem, “Let us first understand the universe, and then we will believe in a god (or not).”  Little did they know that in claiming rationality, they became irrational.  In “claiming to be wise, they became fools…” (Rom 1:22).  And we are still drunk with this poison.

Baxter saw the danger in this and was not afraid to speak on the matter.  He writes, “A world of business they make themselves about nothing, while they are willful strangers to the primitive, independent, necessary Being, who is all in all.  Nothing can be rightly known, if God be not known; nor is any study well managed, nor to any great purpose, if God is not studied.  We know little of the creature, till we know it as it stands related to the Creator: single letters, and syllables uncomposed, are no better than nonsense.  He who overlooketh Him, who is the ‘Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending,’ and seeth not Him in all who is the All of all, doth see nothing at all.  All creatures, as such, are broken syllables; they signify nothing as separated from God.  Were they separated actually, they would cease to be, and the separation would be an annihilation; and when we separate them in our fancies, we make nothing of them to ourselves.  It is one thing to know the creatures as Aristotle, and another thing to know them as a Christian.  None but a Christian can read one line of his Physics so as to understand it rightly.  It is a high and excellent study, and of greater use than many apprehend; but it is the smallest part of it that Aristotle can teach us.”

And later he adds, “…that to see God in His creatures, and to love Him, and converse with Him, was the employment of man in his upright state…and therefore the most holy men are the most excellent students of God’s works, and none but the holy can rightly study them or know them…Your study of physics and other sciences is not worth a rush, if it be not God that you seek after in them.  To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight in God, as exhibited in His works – this is the true philosophy; the contrary is mere foolery, and is so called again and again by God Himself…they [fools] study the creature before the Redeemer, and set themselves to physics, and metaphysics, and mathematics, before they set themselves to theology; whereas, no man that hath not the vitals of theology, is capable of going beyond a fool in philosophy.  Theology must lay the foundation, and lead the way of all our studies.  If God must be searched after, in our search of the creature, (and we must affect no separated knowledge of them) then tutors must read God to their pupils in all; and divinity must be the beginning, the middle, the end, the life, the all, of their studies.  Our physics and metaphysics must be reduced to theology; and nature must be read as one of God’s books, which is purposely written for the revelation of Himself.”

Every human being was created for the glorification and enjoyment of God.  The mind was not and is not excluded from this marvelous purpose.  Therefore, to reject the Creator in order to embrace the creature (whatever creature that may be – mind, math, science, dogs, cats, jelly beans, or whatever) is the height of irrationality.  And when I say the height, that is what I mean.  There is no greater contradiction in human experience than to say and believe that there is no Triune God.  And to function in every day life with any sort of consistency is not indicative of man’s rationality (while holding this position), but every indication of God’s common grace.  

I say this to confront those who say that because an atheist can conduct physics correctly - that is, work the problem so that the right answer is produced - this is indicative that they can know the creature rightly without faith in God.  Again, I answer that just because the answer to the problem is correct, does not mean he is doing his physics correctly.  If it is not done unto the glory of God, it is not rightly done.  

We must all be diligent to guard ourselves from the “empty and deceitful philosophy of this age” (Col 2), and run to Christ, our Lord and our Master – the One in whom all things hold together, are consistent, orderly and rational.  God is best known, and the creation is best studied while we stand upon the Rock.  All other ground is sinking sand.  Reasoning while sinking is clumsy, hurried, polluted with fretting and riddled with fear.  When it is conducted on the Rock however, it is so under the umbrella of sovereign protection, divine instruction, with all knowledge at its disposal, and with glory as its goal.

Addendum to the Last Post on Education

Allow me to offer an addendum to my last post.  I understand that many reading this blog send their children to public schools.  This blog is for you as well as those who send their children to Christian schools and those who homeschool.   The post was not aimed at a particular method of education, but toward parents.

My aim was not to condemn those who choose to send their kids to public school; but rather to challenge and bring to light the fact that we, as parents, are the ones who must make sure our covenant children are indeed being educated in the Lord.  Secular education does not exempt the parents of its students from their duty to educate.

Tragically, secular education does not offer this.  I am not prepared to make an argument that one should not therefore send children to public schools.  But I will argue that the parents who do so, must spend a lot of time and energy (as well as every parent!) contextualizing and correcting what they have and have not learned in the public school setting.

I hope this helps.

2X2=4...This Is Not Just Math, It is Theology!

Many of you know that Katie and I have decided to homeschool our children.  There are many reasons for this - many which I may reserve for another post.  Because we feel this is God's will for our lives, I have been trying to read all I can on Christian Education.  The question I have constantly lingering in the back of my head is this: What makes a Christian education fundamentally different from a non-Christian education?

Well, I am learning that there are many major differences.  For a brief primer on some of the most foundational and fundamental differences, I highly recommend Foundations of Christian Education: Addresses to Christian Teachers by Louis Berkhof and Cornelius Van Til.

Some of the language in this book is a bit steep, but overall it is well worth the time pondering the concepts and looking new words up in a dictionary!

A simple prayer, memory verse, and/or a Christian ethic has very little to do with what distinguishes Christian education from secular education.  These things are important; but unless they are accompanied by a deep understanding of the Christian worldview, they will provide little ammunition for us and our little ones during this current cultural crisis.  Secular education realizes this, and has therefore formulated an assault that aimes at the depths of our being.  It does this behind the mask of neutrality, claiming that it has as its primary agenda to educate the child so that he may understand and encounter the world with an open mind.

As Christians, under the Lordship of Christ, we must call a spade a spade.  There is no such thing as neutrality.  And there is certainly no such thing as an open mind.  If the science teacher gives no praise to Jesus Christ when the experiment works, he/she is ultimately not telling the whole truth.  If the math teacher does not give praise to the faithfulness of God after teaching the multiplication table, he/she is robbing our children of the ultimate reason and substance of all education - a personal, absolute and faithful God.

The purpose of education is to bring our children face to face with the Triune God - not to help them understand that they can know this or that fact without Him!

Van Til puts it this way, "The whole point in dispute between a theistic and a non-theistic interpretation of reality is this question, whether "facts" can be facts without being theistic.  It follows then that to say that the facts are facts without saying anything further is to give yourself over soul and body to the mercy of your enemy, who likes nothing better than that you should give up the battle before the first blow has been given.  As theists our contention is that there are no facts but theistic facts, while the contention of our opponents, expressed or unexpressed, is that facts are facts whether God exists or does not exist.  For us to admit this at the outset would be complete admission of defeat and would spell utter bankruptcy as well as the uselessness of Christian education."

To teach a child (whether actively or passively) that God is not absolutely necessary in education, is to create arrogance and autonomy, not Lordship and humility.

Whether your kids are in public, Christian, or homeschool, our understanding and commitment, as parents, to raise our children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord is our Biblical duty (Deut 6; Eph 6:4).  It is simply not enough to know how to read, write and do math.  We and our children must know why.

Similarly, history is most essentially theology.  Science is most importantly a monumental lesson on the faithfulness of Yahweh!  And yes, as teachers, our aim is to bring our children to His throne of Grace, even by means of Algebra, so that they will respond to such an education with repentance and faith in Christ the Lord.