My Educational Theology 3: The Government & the Church

The second institution that we see God establishing is that of the civil government. The civil government is God’s agent on earth designed and delegated by God to keep order on the earth. Human government is designed by God to protect and defend the rights and freedoms that He gave to mankind. It is not important to spend a great deal of time discussing the civil government in this paper, but it is important to recognize its institution at this point in my discussion.

The final institution we see that God sets up in the Scriptures is the local church. The Church is the community of God’s ambassadors of His kingdom on earth[1]. The role of the church is to bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ on this world that all people might have an opportunity to know God and the salvation of Jesus Christ. The church is then charged to disciple those who believe in Jesus and are saved and to teach them to obey everything that Jesus commanded His disciples[2].

Schools have historically developed as outgrowths of families training their children for vocations and churches training their youth people in the doctrines of the church (catechism). For ages parents either trained their own children in the family vocation or they made arrangements with other families to train their children in an alternative vocation. For a period in history, this developed into the system of apprentices, journeymen and masters as well as the more noble system of pages, squires, knights and lords. On the other hand, schools have also grown out of a variety of religious traditions where the religious community provides religious training for their youth—this is best exemplified by the three great monotheistic world religion: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

[1] 2 Corinthians 5:20
[2] Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18; Acts 1:8.