Education is Warfare | By Esther Edmonds

The Peg and the Pen: "Penning words in order to shape culture and to train women to hammer with a peg the tyrants that the Lord has placed in their path of obedience."

This article was originally published in Issue Two of The Keeping the Citadel Magazine.

C. S. Lewis preached a very insightful sermon titled “Learning In War-Time”. In it he was engaging with the idea spreading around during his time that one should not be pursuing an  education during World War II because after all, what is the point if you are just going to die?  Lewis quickly cuts this argument’s legs out from under itself by simply bringing to light that we  as finite human beings are in a battle all of the time. Except we are on the precipice of an even  bigger and more sobering battle, Heaven or Hell? Lightness or Darkness? This world is not safe!  We are never living in a “peaceful time” and occasionally God in His mercy provides us a wake  up call to stop sleeping in the trenches and get on the front lines. We experienced this recently  with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. We are shaken up when things like this happen and the  churches flood because we are reminded of that inherent fact that we are indeed in the middle of  a war zone and there is no age requirement for recruitment. But the questions of the hour are why  is education warfare and how can education prepare students to be effective for this battle?  

I shall first address the why because let’s face it, like your children that ask you that “Why mommy?” question on a never ending time loop, we still love even as adults to have that question  answered. So, why is education warfare? Education in particular is warfare because we are fighting over the ammunition used in the battle. Children are arrows (Psalm 127:4) and these  arrows that are placed in your possession are either going to be placed in your quiver or in  someone else’s (Psalm 127:5). The late Voddie Baucham said “Education is discipleship.  Whoever is educating the children is discipling them.” Your children are going to be discipled by  their teachers (Prov. 22:6, Luke 6:40), the arrows are going to be sharpened. But what we need to  be concerned about is by what standard they are being sharpened. When the education is over  and they have officially graduated, are those arrows going to be pointed at the darkness or are  they going to be pointed at the light? Are they going to be trained with a biblical worldview or not? Are they going to be brought “up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4) or are they going to be given over to the world? Are they going to be given to Caesar or are they going to be given to Christ?  

Now, let’s assume that the general consensus is that no one here wants this ammunition to  be handed over to the enemy and we all would like the children of this coming generation to be  sharpened for Christ. Jolly good! I suppose the next logical answer would be how then would  you prepare your students to be effective arrows for the battle? How do you train and educate them in such a way that they are ready to give their all to Christ, to spend their life for Christ, to die by living for Christ?  

The first way to prepare your students to be effective for the battle that we are all in, is to teach them the laws of God (Deut. 4:9-14, 6:1-9, 11:13-21). The law of God is the standard. His ways are the ways that dictate to us how we ought to live and there is a command to teach these things all of the time (Deut. 6:7). Now, why is this important? The reason this is so important is because this is the foundation for everything else that your children will stand for. This world was created by God and these are the rules we have been given to know how He wants us to operate in them.  

The next way to sharpen your arrows to be effective, is to tell them of the Greatest Story of all time and good stories that reflect the Greatest Story. Learning God’s stories and how He delivered His children from the darkness and how He writes stories trains your children how to respond when it is their turn to write the next chapter of their life in the concrete of time. It teaches them what kind of a character God loves and it teaches them how to imitate the best Character of all time: Christ!  

Another way to make your ammunition effective, is to teach them to fear the Lord and  nothing else! “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov. 1:7). Do you want  arrows that are “wise as serpents” (Matt. 10:16)? Then, we need to teach them to ONLY fear  God! For if they only fear God and He is the standard, then they will seek to obey Him and  defend His ways because it would be far better to suffer the wrath of those on earth that can only  destroy the body than to disobey “him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt.  10:28) Their loyalty needs to lie with Christ and Christ alone!  

The fourth way to train your children to be effective for battle is to teach them to love  what Christ loves and hate what Christ hates. If children are trained to hate their sin which is  what God hates, then they will spare no effort in making sure that their sin and the sin of others  is crucified (Gal. 5:24). Also, if you teach them to love what God loves then they will have no  second thought in giving their all for that love (i.e. creation, life, God’s Word, God, etc.) Teach  your kids to have a love and respect for the things of God. 

 

The final way is to teach your children to steward what God has given them well. You  want them to turn a profit on the gifts the Lord has given them and bring them back to Him  glorified (Matt. 25:14-30). This would include their own life. They need to be taught to steward  their time, their money, their logic class, their piano lessons, everything in such a way that it  would turn a profit on that gift in order to be given back to God. Teach them to be such a life long-learner that once he or she has turned a profit on the five talents, he prays that God would  grant him more talents with which to give back to God glorified!  

You yourself have been given a gift: your children and they bear the image of God not Caesar! God gave them to you with the intention that you would bring them up to glorify Him! God expects you to turn a profit on the arrows that you have been given. You are in a battle, so am I and so are your kids! Your job is to train your kids to be effective arrows that “are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies.” (Psalm 45:5) Your job is to train them to pierce through the  darkness first within themselves and then out in the world. Your job is to train them to work hard,  pursue excellence, and obey God even to death! We are indeed in the middle of a war zone and  there is no age requirement for recruitment. So “Sharpen the arrows! Take up the shields!” (Jer.  51:11) and let’s conquer in the name of Christ! 

By Esther Edmonds