Jesus Changed Education
January/26/2024 12:28 PM Filed in: CrossWinds | Culture
Today, every school you see, whether private or public, grade school or graduate school, has its roots in Jesus and the Christian faith. While education existed before Jesus, it was only for the elite. The birth of Jesus brought education for all. Let me show you some of the ways Jesus changed education.
Many of the world’s languages were first set to writing by Christian missionaries with the hope that people could have a written language to read the Bible in their native tongue.
Many of the world’s languages were first set to writing by Christian missionaries with the hope that people could have a written language to read the Bible in their native tongue.
A famous example of Christians setting an unwritten language to writing is Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. They lived around 870 A.D. These brothers went from Thessaloniki to Slovakia to tell people about Jesus. They aimed to create an alphabet and translate the Bible into the Slavic tongue. Cyril developed the alphabet. Today, it is known as the Cyrillic alphabet. These are the letters used in the Russian language. Today, over 200 million people, representing 100 languages, communicate using the Cyrillic alphabet. In the atheistic Soviet Union, every time someone writes a date, that date is referenced by the birth of Jesus. Every time they write a letter in a word, the letter was created by missionaries who gave them a written language so they could have the Bible in their mother tongue. If Jesus were never born, none of that would have happened.
Another monumental development in the field of education was the printing press. Joannes Guttenburg created it. He lived from 1398 to 1468. He was not the first to develop a movable type press, but he was the first to develop one that made mass production of books possible. Why did he develop a machine that moved education light years ahead? Let me quote Guttenberg, “I know what I want to do: I wish to print the Bible.” If Jesus had never come, Johannes Gutenberg wouldn’t have developed a burning desire to print the Bible to tell people about Jesus. If Jesus had never come, the libraries, books, and learning we enjoy, which all have their roots in the printing press, might not exist.
Jesus is the reason we have public education. The first time education was offered to the public was during the Reformation in the 1500s. As the Protestant Reformation took off, John Calvin believed the only way the Reformation would hold for the next generation was if ordinary people could read the Bible. That was the only way biblical authority could replace papal authority. For that reason, John Calvin offered education in Geneva to everyone. Since then, education for everyone has been the pattern. The nations under the influence of John Calvin, Martin Luther, and others from the Reformation era developed the highest literacy rates in the world. If Jesus had not been born, our nation's high literacy rate might not exist.
Almost every one of the first 123 colleges and universities in the United States had Christian origins. Every college founded in the colonies before the Revolutionary War — except for the University of Pennsylvania — was established by a branch of the Christian church. While the University of Pennsylvania was not founded by a Christian denomination, George Whitefield, a popular Christian evangelist, played a prominent role in its beginnings. Harvard, Yale, William and Mary, Princeton, New York University, Northwestern University, and the rest of the first 123 schools all have Christian roots. They were founded to help people know their Bibles better and love Jesus more.
Harvard University got its start from the donation of money and books from the Reverend John Harvard. Dartmouth began as a missionary training school to reach the Indians. William and Mary was created so that the Christian faith might be propagated. An early advertisement for Columbia University reads: “The chief thing that is aimed at in this college is to teach and engage children to know God in Jesus Christ.” Look what John Witherspoon, the president of Princeton University in 1768, said about education at Princeton, “Cursed be all learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.” Today, almost all of the original 123 colleges founded in this country have either closed their doors or want nothing to do with Jesus and helping people know the Bible. Ironically, if Jesus were never born, most American colleges and universities in our country would not exist.
When you drive by our public schools, thank Jesus. Giving people the ability to read the Bible is the origin of public education. If Jesus were never born, many of the world’s languages would not have a written alphabet. If Jesus were never born, we might not have books and libraries. If Jesus were never born, most colleges and universities in our country wouldn’t exist.
Jesus changed education, and he changed it for the better. Let’s use our education for the reason education was so strongly promoted: to read the Bible more and know Jesus better.
(Written for the Dickinson County News January 26, 2024)
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