TLP 559: Why a Regular College May Be Pointless, But a Christian College Isn’t

Education is the very process by which one's worldview is formed. To be a student is to be a disciple.

To be discipled is to be turned into a version of your discipler. Parenting isn't about us.

In fact, parenting isn't even about our kids. Parenting is just one way Christian dads and moms are to worship

God. So welcome to the Truth, Love, Parent podcast, where we train dads and moms to give

God the preeminence in their parenting. Okay, so a bunch of you potentially might not think this episode applies to you because your kids are so young, but please keep listening.

Regardless of the current educational landscape and how it may or may not change in the future, the theme of today's show really does apply to your kids.

As always, be sure to check out the description of today's episode. Not only will you find free episode notes and a transcript, but I've loaded it with a bunch of related resources for your consideration.

There are resources there about education, the things that influence your kids, various factors of rebellion, and how to teach your kids to learn.

In one way or another, each of those concepts and more play into today's discussion. And as Christians, it's our responsibility to search the

Scriptures to better discern how we can glorify God in every facet of our lives. So let's do that now.

If you're familiar with the name Mike Rowe, then you know that what was once the traditional mindset that everyone should go to college if they can has changed.

For years now, Rowe and a growing number of people have been building bigger and bigger arguments for why no one has to go to college to be successful.

And there are so many of these arguments, most of which we're actually not going to discuss today because, well, here's the thing.

Many of the arguments are actually accurate. Our culture has changed. The workforce has changed.

Education has changed. And if going to college doesn't give you a leg up over all the other people who haven't, then you're all on the same level, but you have a huge student loan on top of that.

And if you attended a secular college, well, you probably believe the government needs to make your debt disappear.

But that's a different issue on which we'll touch later. But I have all of my own reasons that it may be pointless for your child to attend a regular old secular college or university.

In fact, I was directing people away from secular education long before it was popularized by Mike Rowe. I was doing it before it was cool.

And it's those reasons that I want to discuss today. But before we do that, if you are new to the show,

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MyPillow company, and definitely get your copy of Quit! How to Stop Family Strife for Good. And with that, we transition to today's topic, why a regular college may be pointless, but a

Christian college isn't. I actually thought long and hard about titling this episode why a regular college is dangerous instead of just why a regular college may be pointless.

I just want to come out and say here at the beginning, if the world thinks that a secular education is proving to be less and less valuable, then you can absolutely guarantee that its value is likely far lower when you look at it from a spiritual perspective.

And here's why I say that. Education always impacts worldview.

In fact, education is the very process by which one's worldview is formed. That's the entire point of education.

To be a student is to be a disciple. To be discipled is to be turned into a version of your discipler.

And there are so many disciplers in a university setting. Number one, everyone passively disciples.

I don't care if it's a tech college, nursing college, or business college, every professor and student will exemplify their belief systems like a smell wafting from them onto your kids' clothes.

Only it's not really a smell. It's a spiritual influence that will bypass the nose and influence your kids without them even knowing it.

Those failed worldviews and wicked theologies will cling to your children's very souls, especially if your children are unaware of the dangers.

But Aaron, it's not that bad. Not everyone in secular education is a degenerate.

In an article I read about the pros and cons of going to college, the author listed as the only pros that you get to have a lot of sex, can drink, and your friends are just like you for the last time ever.

And no, this article wasn't satirical. And what I'm talking about now is only the passive influence your kids will experience.

Number two, many actively disciple. Most of the students won't merely be passively leaving their smell on your kids.

Most of them will be actively advocating for their lifestyles and even eager to tell anyone who thinks otherwise that they're evil phobic fascists.

And that's just the students. In every instance, the teachers themselves are actually teaching their failure philosophies in class.

In some classes, your child's grades may depend on them towing the professor's line. You don't have to search far or wide to see evidence of this in not only higher education, but also secondary, elementary, and even primary.

And this is it, this is my big point for the day. Even if your child were to receive an amazing education and get first pick of their choice employment, they will have to dodge and weave like a freshman football player on an

NFL team to avoid being impacted by the pervasive worldliness that will surround them at all times.

And just like that freshman football player, your child will likely lose. And please, yes,

I can hear it now. Well, I know so -and -so and they went to a secular college and they're fine. Well, first,

I don't know who you're talking about, so I don't have an opinion on how they turned out. Second, I have no idea what you mean when you say fine.

Do you mean holy? Do you mean on fire for God? Do you mean doing the right things in the right ways for the right reasons and in the right power?

Are you telling me that if God were removed from their lives, they would be completely different people because he is such a huge part of their lives?

Is that what you mean by they're doing fine? Third, I don't doubt that there's someone out there who got through the secular education system and who came out on the other end more spiritually mature than they were when they went in, but statistically and historically, that number is very small.

That's not something I'd want to bet my kid's education or spiritual life on. And fourth, I've met a whole lot of people who claim to have graduated from secular colleges and are quote -unquote doing fine, who themselves are either currently bottoming out or have so many hidden scards that no one other than their biblical colleagues or counselors can see them.

So yeah, I can't allow the claim that secular college graduates are fine regardless of the experience, shape how

I interpret what the Bible says about sin and influence and holiness. Yeah, but Aaron, all of that passive and active sinful influence happens in Christian colleges too.

You, my friend, are right. Please understand that this episode is not about how Christian colleges are 100 % safe and will guarantee your child matures into the man or woman of God they were created to be.

That is not my thesis. I myself was one of those bad influences when I was attending Bob Jones University and I hung out with a bunch of other bad influences.

My point is that secular education is not only going to have all the exact same failings that Christian education may have, but they also are all definitely going to be far more dangerous from a biblical perspective because of the rampant wickedness.

Well, actually, now that I say that, to be fair, the most dangerous university is the one professing to be Christian that is actually teaching lies about God in the

Bible. That's the worst. But when I'm talking about Christian education, I'm not talking about the people who use it in their name alone.

I'm not talking about mere nominal Christianity. I'm talking about a school of higher learning that actually and faithfully teaches the truths of the

Bible. They will never be perfect. They will make mistakes and there will be sinners there, but your kids included.

But secular schools will always be far worse than faithful Christian schools. So if our society has come to the place that it believes a college education no longer has the value it once did, then yes, a secular university will be pointless for many, if not all.

But regardless of whether it's pointless or not, it's definitely dangerous. However, a genuinely

Christian college where the truth of the Bible is being taught and exemplified, though imperfectly, has many benefits.

Number one, Christian higher education can still greatly equip your child for certain occupations. Not every job is something for which you have to go to college, and I'm not even talking about the ridiculous and pointless majors offered in so many secular schools.

Our culture is such that there are a lot of training opportunities both on the job and otherwise that can equip a person just as well as higher education can.

But that's not true of every occupation. It's not true of nursing. It's not true of law. It's frequently not true of ministry.

There are exceptions, but certain ministry opportunities will definitely be better equipped via higher education.

And yes, it's true that a secular school retains some level of value as it is able to equip its students to do jobs that one cannot do without the proper education.

But again, why go to a secular school for that when you can learn it at a Christian school where you are also going to receive the other benefits?

Number two, Christian liberal arts education seeks to do more than equip your child for an occupation.

A good liberal arts Christian college or university is seeking to help your child be a well -rounded, mature adult.

Sure, the standard for what accounts for an affluent adult has changed over the years. We might not need to study

Latin anymore in order to reach that level of affluence, but the existence of internet search engines doesn't mean that mature adults aren't knowledgeable and capable in a wide range of skill sets.

And the most important of those skill sets is the final destination of today's episode. Number three,

Christian education is designed to disciple in Christ. As I said earlier, all education disciples.

But like my biggest grievance with secular education, the question is for whom and to what your child is being discipled.

Your kids are immature. So are mine. They have foolishness bound up in their hearts.

Turning 13 doesn't change that. Turning 18 doesn't change that. Let's be honest, becoming a parent doesn't change that.

What changes that is spiritual growth. You should check out the Evidence of Spiritual Life series to see the trajectory

God has planned for yours and your kids' maturity. But you can also get a copy of How to Stop Family Strife for Good because I discuss this topic in detail in that book as well.

Christian discipleship is something that we need to be pursuing for our entire life. But here's the trajectory

I see in so many families in the church. Early on, the parents do a pretty good job of having a Bible time or talking about God.

The child eventually is sent to a Christian school, but conversations about God at home start to plateau because so many parents aren't equipped to talk about God on more than an elementary level.

Of course, the family is attending church and in their estimations, that's where the real discipleship should be happening. By the way, most of the kids in the average church didn't ever go to a

Christian school. The only real spiritual influence they get every week happens at church and only a little bit at home.

But even for the kids who went to a Christian school, let's say they continue into a Christian college or university, so they have a few more years of discipleship.

But once they graduate, the active disciples and the things of God is relegated to church services.

They're not getting it at home. They're not getting it at work. They're not getting it with their friends. Church is it. But it shouldn't be this way.

Discipleship should be the single most important facet of our lives. We should pursue discipleship relationships.

We should be filling our lives with spiritual education in the form of podcasts and books and conferences and workshops and conversations with friends.

We should want our everything to happen within the framework of biblical discipleship. If we can. That includes our academics.

When we finish our formal schooling, we should continue to pursue aggressive discipleship as defined by the one and others in Scripture.

We should live for evangelizing the lost, discipling other Christians, and being discipled ourselves.

But since this is not how the average professing Christian parent lives and thinks, the Christian discipleship of their kids is really just not that important to them.

But as we observed from the very beginning of this episode, education is discipleship. In fact, life is discipleship.

So since we're not pursuing biblical discipleship for our kids, we end up thrusting them into all sorts of situations where they're being discipled by the world, pure and simple.

We're signing them up to be discipled by their teachers, their coaches, their bosses, and their friends. And what tiny little touches they receive when they attend church services absolutely cannot compare to the daily onslaught they experience.

Listen, your kids are being discipled all of the time. And even though every moment of their lives is formative, the discipleship they receive as part of their college experience is going to pull hard on the steering wheel of their adult choices.

This is why most secular education is not merely pointless, but all secular education is dangerous.

And this is why, though it's far from perfect, Christian education, when done correctly, is at least attempting to disciple your kids for Christ before they step out into the world.

There, that's it. Some of you may agree, some of you won't. So I challenge you, if you disagree with the points

I've made today, ask yourself this, on what are you putting your faith that your kids are going to learn to love

God more when they're at school? Are they just going to do it naturally? Are you trusting that one day a week you hope they go to church?

Are you convinced they're mature enough to fight off the sinful influences? Are you just believing that God is going to miraculously preserve them even though they don't necessarily seem that passionate for Him now?

In what are you trusting? Those of us who warn of the dangers of secular education in America, putting our trust in the

Bible's expectations for spiritual life and maturity, we're trusting that God's plan is the best plan. We're believing the multiple illustrations

God has given us in His Word about how easy it is to lose a generation to the spiritual side of immaturity we talked about last time.

Now, of course, God can and will do miracles, but I never want to presume on Him like that.

He hasn't promised that He will supernaturally step in so that your child can be like Daniel. He has commanded that we bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the

Lord and to surround them with a culture of biblical discipleship at home and in the church.

Still, He may choose to preserve your kids through a secular college education, and I pray He does.

But please make sure your faith is not in foolish or presumptuous things. If you dare, please share this episode on your favorite social media outlets.

And join us next time as we tell you all about our upcoming season number 30. Truth, Love, Parent is part of the

Evermind Ministries family and is dedicated to helping you worship God through your parenting. So join us next time as we study

God's Word to learn how to parent our children for life and godliness. And remember that TLP is a listener -supported ministry