The Competent Educator
(F. T. Wright)
Once the basic objective of bringing the new birth to the infant has been accomplished, there follows the critical task of correctly training the little one in the way he should go. Two different, but equally essential responsibilities have to be discharged, and it must be stressed that it is only when both are faithfully and efficiently met, that the desired results can be expected. Revival, which is the resurrection to a new spiritual life, must be followed by reformation, which is a thorough and complete education in the way the child should go. Only when both of these divine provisions are applied in their correct order and relationship will the work of parents achieve the success that the Lord has promised.
There are two ineffective and therefore to be avoided alternatives which fail because they rely on one or the other of these balanced procedures to do what only both can do when applied in their correct order.
Firstly, there is the dedicated effort to train and educate the child without ensuring that he has been truly born again--the process whereby the old nature and its attendant spirit of disobedience has been replaced by the new nature and the spirit of obedience. This is the commonest approach of all. It is made mostly by those who do not truly understand what the new birth actually is, and suppose it to be nothing more than a realignment of loyalties and interests. This misconception leads them to concentrate on modifying and improving the existing life, but the end result can never satisfy the requirements for entrance into the kingdom.
Yet, without controversy, this method is to be preferred above the absence of any training at all, for, when skillfully and consistently administered, it does establish behavior patterns which are considerably better than those displayed by the undisciplined. This seeming success is regarded by many as confirmation that the procedure is an acceptable alternative to anything else, but, those who understand that only the well-trained, born again child is truly being fitted for ministry in this life and that which is to come, know that it is not the kind of upbringing which will establish the child in the way he should go so that when he is old he will not depart from it. The failure of this method becomes painfully clear when the children reach the age at which they are no longer subject to the restraints imposed on them by the home government. Then, too late, it will be seen in their departure from their parents' principles, that they obeyed up till that time only because of fear of punishment or the incentiveof attractive rewards.
As long as the youngsters are under the jurisdiction of their parents, the threat of punishment for misdemeanors, intellectual persuasion proving the validity of God's claims, along with the promise of eternal reward, and the fear of everlasting destruction, are sufficient to affect the behavior patterns of the individual for the better. Once this is achieved, comparison with the world and its ways, and with what the person originally was, falsely assures him that the system is successful and encourages him to continue in it.
The second approach is to trust all to the new birth experience in the mistaken belief that a person in whom the life of Christ has been established can virtually do nothing wrong. To a certain point this has some truth to it, for the little one will have in himself the attractive disposition to love unselfishly and to obey willingly, but in many areas of daily living, he will have no idea of what is right and wrong until these distinctions have been specifically taught to him. He has, for instance, no idea of what words are indecent or obscene, and without discrimination, will tend to repeat what he hears. This is but one example of many areas where education alone can assure that the child learns to live righteously in thought, word, and deed.
Of the two extremes listed above, the latter is the lesser of the two evils and the one less likely to be a problem. Usually, those who understand the need for the new birth as the first objective to be attained, are aware that this must be followed with careful training.
The necessity for both the establishment of Christ's life within the child, and the subsequent careful and effective schooling is well illustrated from nature where the thorn bush growing in the soil is a picture of the evil nature thriving in a human body. It is at the point of conception that each of us receives this evil inheritance, and, while it remains within us, our lives are free from righteousness and bear only evil fruit. This sinful nature must be eradicated and replaced with the new nature before the person can commence to live righteously.
When confronted with the presence of a thorn bush in his garden plot, the gardener knows that his desire to produce good food can only be realized by his following certain inflexible procedures. He is fully persuaded that his first step must be the uprooting and destruction of the thorn bush. It cumbers the ground and he knows that, no matter how carefully and diligently he might care for it and train it, the time will never come when it will bear the good fruit he desires.
Next, he must replace the eradicated tree with one that will bear the fruit he wishes to eat. If apples are what he needs, then it is an apple tree that he must plant. If grapes, then a grape vine must be established where the evil tree was, and so on. No gardener would consider any other course of action.
In like manner parents must recognize that the very first work must be the eradication of the old, evil spiritual nature, and the implantation of the life of Christ in its place. Without this, all the effort expended on training and education only results in the development of the old, evil nature.
Once the gardener has established the good tree in the place of the thorn bush, his work has only begun. Imagine what would be the fate of a perfectly good grape vine that was left untrained after it had been planted. The branches would run along the ground where they would become entangled with the weeds and grasses that would spring up from the untended soil. Unfertilized, the plant would remain stunted, while lack of irrigation would further retard growth. The absence of pruning, so vital to vigorous fruit production, would leave the plant expending much of its energies on useless wood from which no fruit would spring. Furthermore, the plant would be left defenseless against the ravages of foraging pests and plant diseases. Uncared for, it would present a sorry shadow of the splendid fruit-producing vine it might have been.
If it should survive all this, it would bear some fruit, but the crop would be very meager, the bunches few, the berries small, and probably very sour. If every farmer followed the practice of planting good seed and failed thereafter to husband the growing crop, mankind would certainly perish from starvation.
That which is true in the natural world is likewise correct in the spiritual. No parent can afford to leave his child untrained once he has been born again. If he does, then the end result will be very disappointing, and far below what the Lord intended to be achieved. This is a development that can and must be avoided.
Now that it is established that child salvation cannot be effected without the new birth and proper training, a large and difficult problem looms before the thoughtful reader: Where are to be found the young men and women already married or yet to take the step, who are truly competent to undertake the work of child training? Who among this class will confidently consider themselves able to really train up a child in the way he should go?
Successful child training calls for a very high degree of skill and competence. It is not a work to be undertaken by novices, yet this is the very kind of person who does become involved in these duties. That our society permits this is a reflection on the distorted sense of values which governs human decisions.
For instance, the authorities are fully aware that there are certain occupations which, if filled by the unskilled, would result in the loss of human life and property. In this category are included architects, design engineers, doctors, dentists, aircraft commanders, ship's captains, electricians, and so forth.
No one is permitted to practice any of these vocations unless he has satisfactorily completed an extensive course of training, has met stringent standards determined by searching examinations, and has gained valuable experience by serving under qualified leaders during a probationary period.
All this is as commendable as it is necessary. None of us would board a jet liner scheduled to fly to a distant or any destination if we knew that the pilot in command had received no flight training. We would know quite well that the aircraft would never arrive but would crash in flames on takeoff. Unless committed to suicide, we would decline to travel under those circumstances.
Nor would we care to enter a large, multistoried building which had not been designed by an architect and structural engineer. We would fear to do so because of the high probability of becoming entombed. Because of these dangers, we rely on the authorities to administer the rules and regulations which protect us from the incompetent. Knowing how rigorously those safeguards are enforced, we walk with confidence into high performance passenger jets and large buildings, while millions trust themselves to doctors because they have complete confidence in their capacity to cure their ills without making the critical mistakes which would rob them of their lives.
It is most unfortunate that society does not recognize how vital it is that child training be undertaken only by truly competent people. The same rules applied to professions in which incompetence would be life threatening, need to be applied to entry into parenthood. A nation's future depends on the quality of its rising generation. Therefore an adequate investment needs to be made in the preparation of its children for their future work of nation building. This would require that parents-to-be spend time studying special courses in which they would be taught how to train their children successfully. Examinations would then determine if they had benefited by the instruction sufficiently to undertake the work. Only then would permission be granted for the young people to marry.
As it is now, of course, anyone can get married without measuring up to any standard of proficiency. Even mentally retarded couples are freely permitted to marry and reproduce.
Such is the nature of the problem with which humanity must grapple, and, on first consideration, it would seem to be a simple, straightforward one requiring an easy, clear-cut solution. But, in fact, it is a complex situation that is far from easily solved so far as general society is concerned.
The first question to be faced is: Who will design the training courses and then administer them?
That question is not so easily resolved as in the case of architecture and medicine. In these and kindred fields, the requirements are technical and readily defined. Experience has revealed what information the practitioners need to know, what skills they must have developed, and how long an internship is needed to qualify them. This can be handled quite competently by the state, but with child training, it is a different matter.
In the first case, the state is led by men who, though in some cases are capable statesmen, are quite ignorant of the correct principles of child salvation. That knowledge is possessed only by God's true children and cannot even be known to anyone else, for ". . . the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." 1 Corinthians 2:14.
Picture: No matter how well parents may provide and care for their children, they can never regard themselves as being competent enough to manage the task of successfully training their little ones. Only God has the capacity to do this work. It is therefore fortunate that He is willing to do it.
Therefore, God has never given to the civil powers the responsibility of preparing a training course and administering it, for this is beyond their capacity and outside of their jurisdiction. It is on the church that the Lord lays this responsibility. It is left with all Christian parents to realize the wonderful possibilities open to them, and to take the necessary steps which will fit them to do their heaven appointed ministry.
This is an individual matter which must not be established in the church through legislation. In the work of God there is no compulsion. Each is left perfectly free to do what the Lord requires or to choose an alternative course. While it is too much to expect that every one who professes faith in God and His truth will fulfill Jehovah's purposes in this matter, we can rejoice in the assurance that there will always be a faithful remnant who, when once enlightened, will do all in the power given them to become truly competent parents.
So, this brings us to another problem: Competent parents are not developed in a short time. Training for this work begins at their conception and, to be truly effective, must be given by parents who were themselves born again from the earliest possible moment, and, in turn, were trained by truly competent parents.
Now we know that there does not exist in this world today even a nucleus of men and women who have already become parents or who soon will, who have themselves received adequate training for competent parenthood. They just simply are not to be found!
In the light of the fact that child salvation cannot be implemented without competent trainers, what does this desperate dearth of able educators mean to the future of this message? Does this indicate that it must fail, that it will never rise above being a wonderful but unattainable might have been?
If the message is to be a failure, the Lord would never have sent it to us. He does not work that way! He has promised to save our children and has guaranteed that if they are trained up in the way they should go, when they are old they will not depart from it. This means that, as surely as the Lord has stated that competent training is a condition of success in keeping children in the ways of righteousness, such training must be available. Jehovah never asks us to do what cannot be done. Therefore, He has solved the problem of incompetence in earthly parents. The question which every believer is to understand is just how He has done this.
The answer is an exceedingly cheering one and must come as a tremendous relief to every parent anxious to achieve the very best for the children. It is found in the way in which the Lord dealt with the problem in the past. Knowing that "the principles of God's dealing with men are ever the same," The Great Controversy, 343, we are assured that the way in which the Lord solved the problem in the past is the way in which He is solving it today.
When Jesus came into the world to provide, among other things, an example of what the children are to be, He needed skillful and adequate education just as much as any Christian child does today. But, where was to be found the truly capable couple to provide Him with that? An examination of the situation existing then reveals that it was no better than it is today. Both Joseph and Mary were very dedicated and truly sincere people, but neither of them were competently fitted to prepare Jesus for His mission. He needed a training of a far higher quality than they were able to give Him.
For instance, neither Joseph nor Mary were really clear on the true issues facing Israel at that time, for they both had great respect for their religious leaders and tried to induce Jesus to be equally respectful. Fortunately, the child was too well educated by that time to fall victim to their mistake. It is clearly evident that He had an education which surpassed that which either Joseph or Mary had or could have given to Him. In fact, it was not long before He was teaching them as the following statement shows:
"Mary often remonstrated with Jesus, and urged Him to conform to the usages of the rabbis. But He could not be persuaded to change His habits of contemplating the works of God and seeking to alleviate the suffering of men or even of dumb animals. When the priests and teachers required Mary's aid in controlling Jesus, she was greatly troubled; but peace came to her heart as He presented the statements of Scripture upholding His practices." The Desire of Ages, 90.
Mary loved her Son very dearly and sincerely endeavored to train Him the very best that she knew, but, in all kindness and sympathy, it must be stated that her efforts were faulty when she worked to persuade Him to "conform to the usages of the rabbis." Had she been successful in getting Him to conform, the results would have been disastrous for the plan of salvation which certainly would have failed. It would be impossible to conceive of more serious consequences than that. Submission to those men would have required the relinquishing of the pure principles of truth and righteousness He held, in favor of the darkness and error He had come to war against and eliminate.
How was it then that in spite of the misguided efforts of His devoted and dedicated mother, He was blessed with such powers of discernment that He was able to recognize and reject the sophistries of the religious leaders of His day? Did He bring these capacities with Him from heaven so that He had an inherent protection from Satan's agents and their devices?
This is not the answer! When the Saviour left the heavenly courts He brought nothing with Him to this earth. At the commencement of His learning processes, His memory banks were as empty as are those of all children at the beginning of their acquirement of learning. He did not even know who He was until the Holy Spirit taught Him this by opening His mind to the realization that He was fulfilling the Messianic prophecies and that He was the antitype of the sacrifices. It was on His visit to the Passover as a twelve-year old, that the mystery of His mission began to open to the Saviour. Of that remarkable occasion it is written:
"For the first time the child Jesus looked upon the temple. He saw the white robed priests performing their solemn ministry. He beheld the bleeding victim upon the altar of sacrifice. With the worshipers He bowed in prayer, while the cloud of incense ascended before God. He witnessed the impressive rites of the paschal service. Day by day He saw their meaning more clearly. Every act seemed to be bound up with His own life. New impulses were awakening within Him. Silent and absorbed, He seemed to be studying out a great problem. The mystery of His mission was opening to the Saviour." The Desire of Ages, 78.
Thus, at the age of twelve, He was seeing and understanding more than any other person in the entire world. Even John the Baptist who was called to herald the Messiah, was confused as to the real nature of Christ's mission. It was not until his own ministry had been concluded just before his death that the desert prophet realized the true character of the Redeemer's work.
So, it is evident that Jesus had a training superior to that received by anyone else in His day including Mary and Joseph. It was so much better in fact, that He knew much more as a child than anyone else in the entire world knew as adults. Therefore, even though there were some such as Joseph and Mary who contributed to His learning to the limits of their capacities, Jesus must have had a remarkably competent educator to carry Him to the wonderful heights of knowledge so necessary for the successful execution of His work.
He did! That other Teacher was none other or less than His heavenly Father, God Himself!
"The child Jesus did not receive instruction in the synagogue schools. His mother was His first human teacher. From her lips and from the scrolls of the prophets, He learned of heavenly things. The very words which He Himself had spoken to Moses for Israel He was now taught at His mother's knee. As He advanced from childhood to youth, He did not seek the schools of the rabbis. He needed not the education to be obtained from such sources; for God was His Instructor." The Desire of Ages, 70.
Careful consideration must be given to this paragraph so that the force of the declaration, "for God was His Instructor", is not reduced by the fact that Mary taught Jesus what she knew of the Old Testament Scriptures. It is true that "His mother was His first human teacher," but, it would be a mistake to conclude therefore that she was the actual teacher of her Son. She was but an instrument in the Father's hands. He was the real Instructor, a truth proved by the fact that His education of Jesus cancelled out any erroneous ideas which Mary innocently sought to transmit to her Son. Furthermore, God taught His only begotten, truths that Mary had never learned herself. In consequence, when Jesus entered His ministry, He had a flawless knowledge of the true nature of the scope and character of His work, and possessed accurate interpretations of the prophecies describing it. Such an education given in a time when throughout the Jewish world there was a most serious misunderstanding of the Messiah's mission, could have come through no earthly channel. God alone could have conveyed these truths to Christ and built into Him the wonderful powers of perception which He manifested during His ministry.
At first this may come as a discouraging thought to parents, for there will be the tendency to feel that Jesus had special provisions made for Him which are not available to parents in general. But, this darkness is dismissed in the light shining in radiant glory from God's word: "Every child may gain knowledge as Jesus did," and "God is the Teacher of His people." The Desire of Ages, 70; Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, 478.
In other words, exactly as God was the Teacher of His Son, Jesus, so He will be the Teacher of every child and adult who has, by being born from above, become a member of the heavenly family. Rejoice, for this is the full and perfect solution to the fact that it is impossible to find truly competent parents in this sinful world today. The Almighty faced the same problem in Christ's day and solved it by being the Teacher Himself, and marvelous were the results. The incredible breadths, depths, and heights of knowledge which had been developed in Christ together with His remarkable mental powers and acute perceptivity, are a revelation of that to which any child may attain when God is His Teacher. It was the direct training and education received from His heavenly Father that developed all His powers to the great heights of proficiency which He gained. Any child who is likewise educated will demonstrate the same excellence.
The life of Daniel proves this. God was his Teacher and the results were likewise astonishing as it is written: "The wisdom which God had imparted to him [Daniel] was as far superior to the wisdom of the great men of the world as the light of the sun shining in the heavens at noonday is brighter than the feeblest star." The Sanctified Life, 46, 47.
So then, when God is truly the Teacher of the children, there will be manifest results vastly superior to what we have seen in this period of human history. The fact that we are not witnessing anything among Christians today measuring with the lives of Christ and such men as Daniel, is clear proof that God has not truly been made the Teacher of His people from the dawn of their intelligence.
Yet, there are some who will claim that they have always understood that God must be the Instructor of their children, and that they have taken the steps necessary to ensure this. Such a claim is in fact a confession that they do not understand what is involved in instituting God as the Teacher in the lives of every member of the family. If this were so, where are the mighty and holy people that such a course would produce. The fact that they are not to be found is evidence enough that God has not been accorded His rightful place as the Teacher of His people from infancy up.
Before we proceed further, care must be taken to ensure that a misunderstanding does not develop as a result of a point made above. It was stated that, when in Christ's day, no competent human parents were to be found, God's solution was to fill the role Himself. It was correctly deduced from this that when today, the Lord is still unable to find competent parents, He will again fill the role Himself.
This could be taken to mean that God only occupies the position of Instructor to His people under emergency situations, and that, if there were truly competent humans available, He would leave the work to them. This however, is not true. No matter how well trained and educated the earthly underteachers might be, God still remains the Teacher of His people, and, when His followers fulfill the conditions which enable Him to do His work, the results are truly wonderful.
What then must the parents do to ensure that God is in fact the Teacher both of themselves and of their little ones?
The first step is to really believe that God is the Teacher both of themselves and their children in a most direct and personal way. They are to recognize and accept His instruction through whatever channel he might send it, and also discern and reject Satan's counterfeits.
Then it must be understood that God can be the Teacher only of those who are His children. Unlike earthly parents, He will not waste His efforts on spiritual thorn bushes. Even if He would, He could not, for He cannot usurp the position of another. Until a child is born again, Satan is his father and, as such, has the right to be his teacher, a position he is quick to fill and determined not to relinquish. The only way in which God can lawfully gain the right to be the Educator is for Him to firstly become the Father.
His becoming that rests with the earthly parents taking the steps which will remove the satanic inheritance from the child and endow Him with the divine life. This gives his fatherhood to God who then becomes the supreme authority in his life.
However, this is not the authority of a dictator but of one who is there to render any service that the believer will accept. In the cases of the very young, the daily confirmations must be made by the parents, with the responsibility deferring to the child as the years provide him with the ever enlarging power to choose for himself.
Thirdly, it is most important that, every day, the child be sent to the school of which God is the Headmaster. Do not let the little ones miss a single day. The parents must never take it for granted that, because the child is born again, and because they, the father and the mother, recognize God as the Teacher of themselves and the children, the heavenly Headmaster automatically assumes the role of Teacher. On the contrary, He will not unless, on a day to day basis, the parents positively send the child to school for that day.
An illustration of this procedure is supplied by what happens in state or public schools. Every morning the parents follow through a course of action resulting in their offspring arriving at the halls of learning. They arouse the little ones by a certain hour, see that they are washed, dressed, and fed, after which they are put on the school bus, driven to the school in the family car, or in some other way conveyed to the classrooms. This procedure is repeated with unfailing consistency morning after morning. If it was not, then the children would not arrive, and would miss the lessons for those days. Of course, because it is man's way to compel, the state, noting the repeated absences of the pupil, would take forceful steps to terminate the absenteeism.
In like manner, apart from the force, parents need to establish a ritual whereby the child is positively and directly handed over to the heavenly Teacher every single morning. This is to begin as soon as it is known that a conception has taken place. Already, in their own lives, the mother and the father need to be established in the practice admonished in the directive: "Consecrate yourself to God in the morning; make this your very first work. Let your prayer be, 'Take me, O Lord, as wholly Thine. I lay all my plans at Thy feet. Use me today in Thy service. Abide with me, and let all my work be wrought in Thee.' This is a daily matter. Each morning consecrate yourself to God for that day. Surrender all your plans to Him, to be carried out or given up as His providence shall indicate. Thus day by day you may be giving your life into the hands of God, and thus your life will be molded more and more after the life of Christ." Steps to Christ, 70.
Sending the little one off to school each day is but an extension of this procedure. At the beginning of the day, when the daily consecration is being made, add words such as these in the presence and hearing of the child no matter how young he is: "We recognize that you are the spiritual Father of our child and therefore You are his Teacher. Once again, for this day, we commit him to You. Take him. He is yours. Educate him throughout this day according to Your infinite wisdom, and we know he will be molded more and more into the likeness of Christ. We submit ourselves to the role of underteachers and will instruct the child under Your direction as You see fit."
If this consecration is made in true faith morning by morning, then the Almighty will be the child's Teacher as effectively as He was Christ's when He was but a child in Bethlehem, Egypt, and Nazareth. The same remarkable achievements will be realized. The promise will surely be fulfilled which reads: "Even the babe in its mother's arms may dwell as under the shadow of the Almighty through the faith of the praying mother. John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his birth. If we will live in communion with God, we too may expect the divine Spirit to mold our little ones, even from their earliest moments." The Desire of Ages, 512.
This daily service of committal of the elders and their children into the custody of the divine Teacher, does not release the parents from their work of teaching the children, but it does establish a correct relationship between the family on earth and the family in heaven. Earthly parents, under the personal direction of the Master Teacher, are to teach the children the best they know just as Mary instructed Jesus in the Old Testament Scriptures.
An encouraging feature of this arrangement is that, when Mary sought in her ignorance to teach Jesus the error of respecting the sophistries of the religious leaders, the child was protected from this evil. This is a most encouraging aspect of the case. Parents have confessed very real concern that they will inevitably transmit the misconceptions which they hold in error, on to their children. Now they can rest assured that, if they fulfill the simple conditions in true and living faith, the Headmaster will see to it that they are protected from such errors, even as Jesus was, for "Every child may gain knowledge as Jesus did. "
Then at last we will see the fulfillment of the promise: "With such an army of workers as our youth, rightly trained, might furnish, how soon the message of a crucified, risen, and soon-coming Saviour might be carried to the whole world! How soon might the end come--the end of suffering and sorrow and sin! How soon in place of a possession here, with its blight of sin and pain, our children might receive their inheritance where 'the righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein forever;' where 'the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick,' and 'the voice of weeping shall be no more heard.'" Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 555.
Picture: Those parents who understand and practice the principle that God is the Teacher of their children will find that they have just cause to smile with relief and gratitude.
"In the presence of such a Teacher, of such opportunity for divine education, what worse than folly is it to seek an education apart from Him--to seek to be wise apart from Wisdom; to be true while rejecting Truth; to seek illumination apart from the Light, and existence without the Life; to turn from the Fountain of living waters, and hew out broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Education, 83.