1. Restoration, Antithesis, and Education
Michael Goheen
Trinity Western University

2. God’s Response While justly angry God did not turn his back
on a world bent on destruction;
he turned his face to it in love.
With patience and tender care he set out
on the long road of redemption
to reclaim the lost as his people
and the world as his kingdom (CT, 19).

3. Genesis 3:15: Mother Promise
Although Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden and their work was burdened by sin’s effects, God held on to them in love. He promised to crush the evil forces they unleashed. (CT, par. 20)

4. Genesis 3.15 Promise of battle Promise of a Champion
Promise of victory

5. Observations on redemption
Redemption is progressive in its outworking
Redemption is restorative in its nature
Redemption is comprehensive in scope

6. Progressive in Outworking
Act One: God Establishes His Kingdom: Creation
Act Two: Rebellion in the Kingdom: Fall
Act Three: The King Chooses Israel: Redemption Initiated
Scene One: A People for the King
Scene Two: A Land for the People
Interlude: A Kingdom Story Waiting for an Ending: The Intertestamental Period
Act Four: The Coming of the King: Redemption Accomplished
Act Five: Spreading the News of the King: The Church’s Mission
Scene One: From Jerusalem to Rome
Scene Two: To the Ends of the Earth
Act Six: The Return of the King: Redemption Completed

7. Story of God’s Mission
“The Bible renders to us the story of God’s mission through God’s people in their engagement with God’s world for the sake of the whole of God’s creation.” (Chris Wright)

8. Story of mission
God’s mission: Long term purpose to restore the whole creation and all of human life
Israel’s mission: Embody God’s original creational purposes for the sake of the world
Jesus mission: Reveal and accomplish God’s final redemptive purpose for the creation
Church’s mission: Continue Jesus’ mission to make known the kingdom of God to the ends of the earth in life, word and deed

9. Mistaken Notion
Very often people have come to the New Testament with the presumption that ‘going to heaven when you die’ is the implicit point of it all They acquire that viewpoint from somewhere, but not from the New Testament. (N. T. Wright)

10. Restoration of this life
. . . it is precisely ordinary earthly existence that is redeemed (G.C. Berkouwer).

11. Redemption is restorative
The creation is very good, the way God intended it
Human beings are created to live a bodily life in the context of creation.
Sin is the problem not materiality.
Old Testament views future kingdom as restored life on new creation.
Jesus proclaims the gospel of the kingdom.
Jesus’ resurrection is a preview.
The biblical language of redemption, restoration, renewal all point to the return of the good creation to what it was meant to be.
Destruction of the creation would mean a Satanic victory.

12. Restoration is comprehensive
And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10).

13. As Far as the Curse is Found
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:19-20)

14. Mission of Israel: Embody a Comprehensive Restoration
Israel called to embody a comprehensive salvation for the sake of the nations
OT Story: Formation of people and placed on land to be light to nations
Law: Orders whole life of Israel
Wisdom: Orders whole life of Israel
Prophets confront Israel for not embodying God’s salvation in whole of their lives

15. Comprehensive restoration made known in Jesus
Everything he said and did was directly related to the coming of the kingdom. He reversed all the consequences of evil in the world: disease, possession by inhuman spirits, guilt, ritualistic and empty religion, a caste system of purity and impurity, scarcity of food, a hostile nature, commercial exploitation and death (Andrew Kirk).

16. Comprehensive restoration accomplished in crucifixion
Gustav Aulén: “The work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil.”
John ; Col. 2.15; Rev
Public battle and victory for the whole creation
Lesslie Newbigin: We “privatize this mighty work of grace and talk as if the whole cosmic drama of salvation culminates in the words ‘For me; for me.’”

17. Comprehensive restoration inaugurated in the resurrection
Resurrection in Jewish thought: Arrival of life of new creation
Jesus: Dawning of new creation
Firstborn from the dead (Rev.1:5)
Firstfruits (I Cor. 15:20)

18. Prophetic Expectation
Spirit Messiah
Sin
Death
Evil
Satan
Knowledge
of God
Love
Joy
Justice
OLD AGE
AGE TO COME

19. New Testament Fulfillment
Powers of
sin
death
evil
Satan
Power of
Spirit’s
renewing
work
OLD AGE
AGE TO COME

20. Mission as meaning of overlap
The meaning of this ‘overlap of the ages’ in which we live, the time between the coming of Christ and His coming again, is that it is the time given for the witness of the apostolic Church to the ends of the earth. The end of all things, which has been revealed in Christ, is—so to say—held back until the witness has been borne to the whole world concerning the judgment and salvation revealed in Christ. The implication of a true eschatological perspective will be missionary obedience, and the eschatology which does not issue in such obedience is a false eschatology

21. Comprehensive salvation given by Spirit
Spirit is deposit of kingdom
Real money now
Promise of more in the future
Spirit is firstfruits of kingdom
First part of crop now
Points to the rest of the harvest in future

22. Foretaste and Preview We have a foretaste of the Kingdom
Actual taste now
Complete meal in future
We are previews of the Kingdom
Actual footage of movie/kingdom
Designed to interest viewer in future movie/kingdom so they will want to participate

23. Church’s mission to make known a comprehensive restoration
The Spirit thrusts God’s people into worldwide mission.
He impels young and old, men and women,
to go next door and far away
into science and art, media and marketplace
with the good news of God’s grace
Following the apostles, the church is sent—
sent with the gospel of the kingdom . . .
In a world estranged from God,
where millions face confusing choices,
this mission is central to our being . . .
The rule of Jesus Christ covers the whole world.
To follow this Lord is to serve him everywhere,
without fitting in, as light in the darkness, as salt in a spoiling world.

24. Acts 1.1-8 Acts 1.6: Question about the kingdom
Receive Spirit (firstfruits, deposit)
‘You will be my witnesses.’

25. Battle for creation

26. Antithetical encounter
Israel’s battle with idolatry
Church takes up Israel’s mission (Ex ; cf. 1 Pet )
Very different situation:
Part of another culture based on different faith commitments

27. Dilemma of the Believing Community
Part of western culture
Creational mandate: responsible for cultural development
Christ’s redemption is comprehensive
Whole of western culture distorted by sinful idolatry
Incompatibility between Scriptural and western story

28. In the world but not of it
Jesus’ Prayer for His Disciples
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
- John 17:14-18

29. I didn’t realize until I took INT, and now this course how much I try to make Western culture and the Biblical worldview fit together. I realize more and more that they are actually opposite and against each other. Yet I must live in this culture because I am a part of it. Many times I struggle with how to do it.
- Redeemer Student

30. Conflict Between Stories
Dominant story in culture seeks to become exclusive story (e.g. European vs. Native)
Minority communities
Faithfulness and conflict OR
Accommodation and peace
Yes Biblical story is translatable

31. Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing: Christ or Idols
No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.
- Jesus, in Matthew 6:24

32. Unbearable Tension of Living at the Crossroads

33. Unbearable Tension Christians are: Members of western community
Shaped by cultural story
Members of covenant community
Shaped by Biblical story

34. Do western Christians feel this unbearable tension?
“Why did I not hear about modernity and its affect on me before? I really never knew how much modernity shapes my life until I came to Redeemer. It was always called ‘worldly’ but I never knew what that meant. Modernity affects all of my life and I wish I had known.”
-Redeemer student

35. Tension Between Gospel and Culture
The deeper the consciousness of the tension and the urge to take this yoke upon itself are felt, the healthier the Church is. The more oblivious of this tension the Church is, the more well established and at home in this world it feels, the more it is in deadly danger of being the salt that has lost its savour.
- Hendrik Kraemer

36. Tension: Healthy in Early Church
It is worthwhile to have a look at the struggle with adaptation by paying attention for a moment to the conflicts of Christians in their professions. The great question was, How far is a Christian allowed to enter into the professional jobs of those days with their mores and customs, without denying Christ and without becoming polluted by participation in idolatry?
- Hendrik Kraemer

37. Suffering as normal badge of discipleship
No human societies cohere except on the basis of some kind of common beliefs and customs. No society can permit these beliefs and practices to be threatened beyond a certain point without reacting in self-defense. The idea that we ought to be able to expect some kind of neutral secular political order, which presupposes no religious or ideological beliefs, and which holds the ring impartially for a plurality of religions to compete with one another, has no adequate foundation. The New Testament makes it plain that Christ's followers must expect suffering as the normal badge of their discipleship, and also as one of the characteristic forms of their witness (Lesslie Newbigin).

38. The Gospel speaks:
Word of grace… culture is good creation
Word of judgement… culture is idolatrously twisted and sinfully distorted
Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil (I Thess. 5:21f).

39. Biblical Position: Affirmative/Antithetical Approach to Culture
Gospel/Yes
At home
Good creation
May not withdraw
Reject
Gospel/No
At odds
Sinful distortion
May not accept status quo

40. Faithful Cultural Strategy
Faithfulness and relevance
Avoids withdrawal, absorption, common ground
Affirms both responsibility for cultural development and antithetical challenge to idolatrous development
Subversion: Affirmation and rejection

41. What do we do with non- Christian education?
What is creational insight/structure?
How has that insight been twisted by idolatrous direction?

42. What do we do with this idolatrous institution called the ‘school’?
Subversive fulfillment!
Creational structure
Idolatrous twisting and misdirection

43. Another Biblical Example: Household
OIKOS: extended family in Roman empire
structured hierarchically and oppressively
Fundamental social building block of Roman empire
Undifferentiated institution made up of marital, family, economic, political relationships
Oppressive and hierarchical distortion

44. Response of the early church
Reject?
Affirm?
Subvert!

45. Subversive Fulfillment
Discerned creational relationships
Subverted relationships creating new institution recognizable as good news to culture

46. School?
How can we participate in broader tradition of humanistic education, be at home, offer relevant witness (much creational good)
Where has purpose, structure, curriculum, pedagogy, etc. been twisted by idolatry (rationalism, consumerism, etc)?

47. Aiming for Christian Education
Alternative kind of education to public school system
Rejects cultural idolatry that shapes these schools
Based on distinctive and comprehensive philosophy of education
Christian approach transforms the whole enterprise: goals, curriculum, pedagogy, evaluation, structure, etc.

48. Settling for Christians Educating
Christianity-enhanced public school education
Adds moral integrity, devotional piety, and biblical insight to select topics
Maintains status quo about education

49. Christian Perspective on Education
Efforts at worldview and Christian educational philosophy sharpened vision for Christian education
Language of Christian perspective: Christ-centred curriculum, inner reformation of the sciences, biblical perspective on all areas of learning, or Christian world-and-life-view
Kuyper’s vision of comprehensive scope of gospel challenges assumptions:
Reality is segregated into two realms, sacred and secular, and gospel belongs only to the sacred
Gospel transforms only individuals but not society
Enlightenment notion that public life, including education is religiously neutral

50. Does Christian perspective transform school?
Perception: Christian education will result from Christian perspective
Gap between rhetoric of Christian education and reality of Christian schools
Gap produces:
Vague sense of task
False sense of security
Connection between perspective and implementation:
Persuasive: Biblical
Elusive: “As far as I can tell, Christian schools do not provide an alternative Christian education, if by that term we mean that our biblical perspective on life leads to a biblical model of education.”

51. Gap Challenge and Gap Problem
Gap challenge: Rhetoric proclaims ideal toward which reality is moving--not there yet! (positive)
Gap problem: Rhetoric and reality utterly inconsistent (negative)
Majority problem in Christian education is gap problem
"When confronted by all this evidence, my own allegiance to the ideal of Christian education sometimes wavers. The challenge of implementing a different, biblical model of schooling appears so far out of reach that I am tempted to think the whole idea might be wrong-headed. At times I wonder if there really is such a thing as a Christian model of education."

52. Educational Faithfulness
Christian education: difference
Christian educating: enriching additions
Third way: educational faithfulness
Difference may be consequence
More emphasis on common task with different faith
Questions:
What does faithful education look like?
What obstacles hinder us from implementing faithful education?
What can we do to remove these obstacles?

53. Understanding the Reigning Educational Paradigm
Need to understand reigning secular paradigm in education
To enable Christian school to encounter this paradigm

54. Missionary Encounter in Education
Normal position of Christian school in cultural context if it is faithful
Clash of ultimate and comprehensive stories
Spiritual battle
Requires Christian school community that believes gospel (true, story, comprehensive, power)
Committed to living out of it and shaping whole life by it
Requires a school that knows idolatrous story of culture
School that wrestles with dominant education paradigm
Encounter takes place in all areas of education
Embraces insights; rejects idolatry

55. Faithful Christian Education?
Purpose of education: First battle?
Then: What needs to be taught to equip children for that purpose? (Curriculum)
Then: How can this be achieved? (Pedagogy, structures, evaluation)

56. Purpose: Why do we educate anyway?
Traditional African education:
Teach traditional life values
Goal of integration into tribal community
Muslim education:
Teach universal shariah law
Goal of integration in theocratic community
Teach certain things so that children will be
socialized into a certain kind of community.
Purpose governs educational activity.

57. Modernity and the Purpose of Education
Pass on a unified body of universal scientific knowledge
Equip a world of rational citizens
Build a more rational world leading to freedom, justice, truth, and material prosperity

58. Postmodern Challenge to Modern Education
If (in modernity) education was guided by the story of progress towards a better society by science and technology but we no longer believe that story...
If (in modernity) education was to pass along a unified body of universal knowledge but we no longer believe that exists...
Then what is the purpose of education?

59. Postmodernity and Purpose of Education
Postman’s trinity: economic utility, consumerism, technology
Vendor of useful information and marketable skills
Enables student to compete or survive in the jungle of the market

60. Biblical Story and Purpose of Education
“Serviceable insight”
Education for witness
Education as witness

61. Questions: Curriculum
What needs to be taught to equip students for witness?
How does this differ from state requirements?
Are there any specific omissions?
How does modern and postmodern worldview affect curriculum?

62. What now?
Size, complexity, and difficulty of task can lead to discouragement
Need to return to gospel for forgiveness and renewal
Need for ongoing study (individual, community)
Continuing baby steps in joy
As individuals
As community