Which Story is Shaping Your

Home-Education?
The Biblical Story and Education
Michael Goheen
Burnaby B.C.

Romans 12.1-2
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of
Gods mercy, to offer your bodies as living
sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is
your spiritual act of worship. Do not
conform any longer to the pattern of this
world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what Gods will is--his good,
pleasing, and perfect will.

Mark 1.14-15
. . . Jesus went into Galilee,
proclaiming the good news of God.
The time has come, he said. The
kingdom of God has come near. Repent
and believe the good news.

Announcement of kingdom
God is now acting in love and power
through Jesus and by his Spirit to
restore all of creation and all of human
life to again live under the benevolent
reign of God himself (Bartholomew
and Goheen).

Four observations
Power of God unto salvation
Climax and centre of a story
Gods people essential in its transmission
Restoration of all human life and creation

First observation
Gospel is power of God unto salvation
Provides empowerment for homeeducating task

Power of God unto salvation

. . . the Kingdom of God is the redemptive
reign of God dynamically active to establish
his rule among human beings, and that this
Kingdom . . . has already come into human
history in the person and mission of Jesus to
overcome evil, to deliver people from its
power, and to bring them into the blessings
of Gods reign (Ladd).

The Gospel . . .
is an announcement about what God is
doing in history in Jesus Christ through
the Spirit
is the announcement that God is active
to restore all of creation and all of
human life to live again under his rule
is the power to transform the whole of
our lives

Second observation
Gospel is climax and centre of a story
Provides ultimate context for homeeducation

Gospel as . . .
Centre, climax, and fulfillment of Old
Testament story
Revelation of goal of universal history
(kingdom)
Accomplishment of end of universal
history (kingdom)

Bible as one story

I do not believe that we can speak effectively of
the Gospel as a word addressed to our culture
unless we recover a sense of the Scriptures as a
canonical whole, as the story which provides
the true context for our understanding of the
meaning of our livesboth personal and
public.
- Lesslie Newbigin

The Bible tells one unfolding story

of redemption against the backdrop
of creation and fall.

Story of the whole world

. . . the whole point of Christianity is
that it offers a story which is the story
of the whole world. It is public truth
(Wright).

Bible as universal history

I can't understand why you missionaries present
the Bible to us in India as a book of religion. It is
not a book of religion-and anyway we have plenty
of books of religion in India. We don't need any
more! I find in your Bible a unique interpretation
of universal history, the history of the whole of
creation and the history of the human race. And
therefore a unique interpretation of the human
person as a responsible actor in history. That is
unique. There is nothing else in the whole
religious literature of the world to put alongside it
(Chaturvedi Badrinath).

Biblical story . . .
Universally valid: True for all people
in all times and places
Comprehensive scope: Story claims
the whole of human life

Importance of reading Bible as one

story
If we allow the Bible to become fragmented, it is in
danger of being absorbed into whatever other story is
shaping out culture, and will thus cease to shape our
lives as it should. Idolatry has twisted the dominant
cultural story of the secular Western world. If as
believers we allow this story . . . to become the
foundation of our thought and action, then our lives will
manifest not the truths of Scripture, but the lies of an
idolatrous culture. Hence, the unity of Scripture is no
minor matter: a fragmented Bible may actually produce
theologically orthodox, morally upright, warmly pious
idol worshippers! (Bartholomew and Goheen).

Drama of Scripture
Act 1: God establishes his kingdom: Creation
Act 2: Rebellion in the kingdom: Fall
Act 3: The King chooses Israel: Redemption
initiated
Act 4: The coming of the King: Redemption
accomplished
Act 5: Spreading the news of the King: The
mission of the church
Act 6: The return of the King: Redemption
completed

Third observation
Church and its mission central to the
gospel
Provides purpose for home-education

Our place in the story

Kingdom already here but not yet
fully arrived
Continuing Jesus mission (John 20:21:
As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.)
Embody the end of the story and invite
others into it
Witness to the kingdom

Education for witness

Given foretaste of salvation
Actual taste of salvation of future kingdom now
Promise of salvation in future

Charged to be previews of kingdom

Actual footage
Interest viewer of coming attraction

All of life

Sacred/Secular dualism undermines

kingdom witness
Sacred

Prayer
Worship
Minister
Missionary
Church
Family

Secular

A c tiv itie s
P ro fe ss io n s
R e a lm s

Spending habits
Entertainment
Journalist
Politician
University
Government

Purpose of our educational

endeavours
Pass along insight into Gods world in light
of gospel
To equip children for witness in Gods
world
To live whole life under Lordship of Jesus
Christ
Curriculum: What do they need to live
faithfully in todays world?

Lord of all creation

There is no thumb-width of the entire
domain of our human life of which the
Christ, the Sovereign over everything does
not proclaim: It is mine! (Kuyper)
There is no neutral ground in the universe:
every square inch, every split second, is
claimed by God and counterclaimed by
Satan. (CS Lewis)

Educating to form a contrast community

A community of justice in a world of economic and
ecological injustice
A community of generosity and simplicity (of enough) in
a consumer world
A community of selfless giving in a world of selfishness
A community of truth (humility and boldness) in a world
of relativism
A community of hope in a world of disillusionment and
consumer satiation
A community of joy and thanksgiving in a world of
entitlement
A community who experiences Gods presence in a secular
world

Fourth Observation
Gospel is about the restoration of all
of human life in the context of the
whole creation
Lens for home-education

Most basic structure of Biblical story

Creation: God creates a good world giving
humanity a special place
Sin: The creation is polluted and twisted by
human rebellion
Restoration: God sets out on the long road
of redemption to restore the whole creation
and all of human life back to its original
goodness.

Salvation is restoration
Salvation is not salvation from the
creation
Salvation is salvation of the good
creation (including human life) from
sin
Salvation is the restoration of all of
human life and the whole creation to
live again under Gods rule

Salvation is comprehensive
For God was pleased to have all His
fullness dwell in Him [Jesus] and through
Him to reconcile to Himself all things...
(Col. 1.19-20).
He [Jesus] must remain in heaven until the
time comes for God to restore everything...
(Acts 3.21).
Cf. Eph. 1.10; Rev. 21.5; Rom. 8. 19-21.

Comprehensive scope
...for if redemption does not go as far as
the consequences of sin, it is a
misnomer, and fails to be redemption...
The salvation of any number of
individuals... is not the redemption of
what fell but the gathering up of a few
splinters... Satans mischief goes further
than Christs restoration (Seiss).

Salvation reduced
The early Christian belief that the Fall and
Redemption pertained not just to man, but
to the entire cosmos, a doctrine already
fading after the Reformation, now [under
secularism of 19th c.] disappeared
altogether: the process of salvation, if it had
any meaning at all, pertained solely to the
personal relation between God and man.
-Richard Tarnas (unbeliever!)

Disaster of reduced salvation

Reduction of salvation to a personal
relationship with God has been disastrous to
our witness to Christs Lordship over all
Gospel reduced to future, otherworldly
salvation
Gospel not brought to bear on much of life
Church shaped by idolatrous cultural story

Part of a kingdom battle

Kingdom
of darkness

Kingdom
of God
Creation

Nothing matters but the kingdom . . .

. . . but because of the kingdom

everything matters!

To be transformed by the renewing of our

mind in education we . . .
need to know story of Bible, our place
in it, and how it shapes the educational
task
need discernment to reshape
educational forms by the gospel to
achieve Christian education

Further information
www.biblicaltheology.ca
www.genevasociety.org
mike.goheen@twu.ca
Books available

Books available