This month The Master’s University welcomes back students for their 102nd school year, but it will be their first in 35 years without John MacArthur as the University’s president. He marked his final presidential commencement with an address on the essence of true education. In it, he challenged the graduates to remember these six marks of what it means to be a truly educated person, and I want to pass them along to students that are going back to school this fall:
- A truly educated person recognizes the Bible as the sole source of divine truth. Because the Bible is not relative, it is constant. Because the veracity of the Bible is established by God, it reveals divine truth. An educated person understands that for truth to be divine, it cannot be established by people, but rather must be revealed by God and discovered and received by man. This basic logical principle—the uniqueness of divine revelation—is the foundation of all education, yet is rejected or simply ignored by society.
- A truly educated person recognizes God as sovereign creator, sustainer, and consummator of the entire universe. For this reason, an educated person understands that creation has no scientific explanation, because it is by definition a miracle revealed by God. God’s initial act of creation is responsible for establishing natural laws, and thus is not subject to them. Creation had no witnesses, is not replicable, and thus must be understood through divine revelation, which declares that it took place in six days (not six epochs or periods). The Lord Jesus Christ brought into existence countless trillions of stars on a scale that exceeds a human capacity for understanding. Theories like the “Big Bang” are not based on science, but rather highlight randomness and chance, are based in a materialistic world view, and provide little in terms of understanding. Thus a truly educated person rejects those theories, while understanding that what can be known about the initial creation of the universe is revealed by God.
- A truly educated person recognizes that sin is the single source of all that is wrong in the world. Man is neither willing nor able to please God, and this is owing to the fall. Sin produces disorder and death. Thus, all education has to come to terms with the limitations imposed on all of human life by sin. God has built in restrains on sin, such as parents, governments, and conscience. These restraints lead to education, but it must be acknowledged that education is opposed by sin yet made possible by God’s grace through these very restraints.
- A truly educated person recognizes that life is forever. The human body is material and will die and decompose. But the soul is immaterial, and will live forever. A basic fact of divine revelation is that there are two resurrections—everyone will live forever, and death is not the end of anyone. Education must take place in light of eternity.
- A truly educated person recognizes that salvation from death and hell is available through faith in Jesus Christ. Because of sin, nobody can save himself. But because of God’s revelation, his grace, and the reality of eternal life, God sent his Son to be the savior of the world. There is only salvation through him. A rejection of Christ as the savior is a rejection of the reality of eternal life, the reality of sin, the reality of creation, and the reality of revelation. It is a rejection of the very foundation of knowledge, thus a truly education person builds his life on faith in Jesus Christ.
- In light of 1-5, a truly educated person recognizes that Christians are the most critical people in the world, because they alone understand the truth about education, the truth about eternity, and the truth about salvation. This is the most critical message in the world, and it is one that only Christians have. Society tries to silence Christians by highlighting politics, celebrities, and the famous. This truth is what is behind the persecution of Christians. Society lashes out when those with the truth speak up. A Christian’s speech is very much a threat to the world view of those who are not saved. This persecution reveals the reality that a truly educated person has to appreciate the value of the Bible. An educated person would not silence knowledge to begin with; only Christians possess this transcendent yet foundational truth—the knowledge of God as revealer, creator, sustainer, and redeemer is the most critical knowledge in the world, and only Christians possess it.
As you start this school year, be reminded of the basic reality that if the goal of education is to make you a truly educated person, your knowledge must be rooted in the reality of God’s revelation. Only then will you be a truly educated person.
