Philosophy of Christian Education:
The Centrality of the Resurrection and Scriptural Authority
In last summer’s “Get-to-Know-Dr. Sutton” series, we released a piece about his approach to Christian higher education and featured two points of his 12-point educational philosophy. Those two points were as follows: (1) Christian educators must be prepared and able to communicate the gospel message, and they should consider ways that disciplinary content may lend itself to discussions about the gospel, and (2) Christian educators should state at the outset of a learning experience the presupposition that God’s word is authoritative and will therefore inform the learning experience.
This semester we will highlight the other ten principles that Dr. Sutton believes should drive Christian education at the classroom level.
Dr. Sutton’s third principle is that Christian educators should be able to articulate, and be able to teach others to articulate, the importance of and the truth of two fundamental biblical doctrines: (1) the Resurrection of Christ and (2) the authority of Scripture.
Dr. Sutton says of this principle, “Paul wrote to the Corinthians, ‘If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith’ (1 Cor. 15:14). The apostle’s words underscore the significance of the Resurrection not only for our salvation but also for practical apologetics. If Christian educators claim that Scripture is the authoritative source for Truth and teach in consistency with that claim, then they must be able to defend such a position, especially in a culture in which such a position is mocked—and the Resurrection of Christ serves as the ultimate defense. That is, the One who conquered death and rose from the grave treated the Old Testament as the very word of God (see David Livingston’s ‘Jesus Christ on the Infallibility of Scripture‘) and he either (a) gave unique authority and approval to the writers of the New Testament or (b) in his sovereignty, inspired those to whom he had given unique authority and approval to treat other New Testament writers as authoritative. Paul, for instance, referenced Luke’s writing as ‘Scripture’ in 1 Timothy 5:18, and in Galatians 2:9 he wrote of James as a ‘pillar’ of the Church. This great apostle even deferred to James about a doctrinal issue (see Acts 15). Given that Jesus himself said that Paul was his ‘chosen instrument’ for sending the gospel message to both the Jews and the Gentiles (Acts 9:15), Paul’s references to the authority of other New Testament writers is significant. Christian educators, then, must be able to defend these two fundamental Christian doctrines and their nuances.”
