Giving Them Over
by R.C. Sproul Jr.

God has established four fundamental governments. Governments are institutions designed to insure the keeping of e law, in all its facets. Each government has the capacity to enact sanctions against those who break the laws within that government's jurisdiction. There is first self-government. Here the sanction is the conscience. Disobey self-government, and you have only yourself to punish. Next is family government. And the tool here is the rod. We deal with the rod in our Practicum column this issue. The next government is the church. The church has at its disposal the very keys of the kingdom, binding and loosing in heaven that which it binds and looses on earth. And last there is the state, anted the power of the sword to patrol its district.

The sociologists call those institutions which stand between the individual and the state "mediating institutions." And many argue that as our political rhetoric heats up, and as our lives become increasingly complex, those mediating institutions tend to shrivel away into nothing. When the state provides security for the aged rather than the family, the family loses. When the state is enjoined make us stop drinking or gambling, the church loses.

And so it goes with education. Many sociologists treat schools as treat schools as if they were a legitimate mediating institution. The problem is that all forms of schooling answer ultimately either to the state, the church or the family. One cannot go to the local government school to seek redress against the state. And one cannot go to the local parochial school for redress against the church. In either case the opposing attorney is also the judge. There is not middle ground for this institution to stand on.

But it makes sense that these wouldn't work. They don't work because education is not something designed to be governed by the sword or by the keys. God has established the family as that institution charged with the education of children. Though the rod isn't as exciting a tool as the keys or the word, it is the appropriate tool here. The source of all these types of government, the law of God, tells us that at the great trial, when we stand before the great throne, parents will answer for the education of their children. There is not a single teacher, principal or school board member that need ever fear the wrath of God for what goes on in schools. Not a one of them will have a millstone around their necks, save perhaps for what they did with their own children. If we cry like Adam, "It was the principal though gavest me" He will respond, "It was that principal to whom though gavest my children." They may have the children's attention and allegiance. They may be the authority they recognize in their lives. But God says you're the boss. As such it's not cause for relief, but a sign that you have already failed. In handing your children over to other teachers you teach your children to do the same with their children.

Neither, by the way, will you escape with protests that you protested. You can create a local political action committee to fight sex-ed. You can donate all your money to some Goals 2000 fighting ministry. But none of it means a thing when you drop your children off at the bus stop, when you give them over. A wave goodbye, note in the lunch box, faithful attendance at PTA meetings won't change the fact that you're no longer in charge. I know, I know, you have to pay for it anyway. But if the state were to create a poison tax, and drop off your ration every week, would you take it? Would you give it to your kids? Would you insist on your right to say grace before you took it? Would you let them take it, because you think that you or the youth pastor know how to administer the antidote? That they steal from you to poison the children of others is no reason to poison your own.

The rod is the appropriate tool because education is not about forcing facts into a wayward mind, but about, in the words of Ted Tripp, shepherding a child's wayward heart. All education is moral education. The content of our teaching is the very law of God. We are not training up future accountants or carpenters, we are training up future godly young men and women. We are training up future parents and grandparents, who will in turn raise up still more future parents and grandparents. We are laboring to imprint on the hearts of children the statutes of God. And that is a calling to parents. We are all the makers of disciples and so it is we who are called to exercise the discipline. Not Uncle Sam's sword, not Peter's keys, but our rod is not only the tool that works, but what our law requires.

And what an honor. Every father is indeed the king of his castle, and every mother a queen. This means not only that our doors are inviolable, but that here the authority of the parents stands. And that is the great privilege we have as vice-regents of the great High King. Fulfilling our God given duties as fathers and mothers does more than just get the millstone off our back, it provides an opportunity for rejoicing. Instilling the wisdom of God in the hearts of your children is its own reward. Watch as they grow in their capacity to serve the same King you serve. Beam as you deliver your daughter to be a help to a godly man. Swell as your sons become regents in their own homes. And rejoice mothers when these you have trained stand up and call you blessed. These are the joys of the man and woman who use the right tools for the right job.