Nathan E. Lewis

The Bible presents to us God as Creator of all things. He is also the Sustainer of all creation, “Upholding everything by his powerful hands.” The doctrine of the Lordship of Christ Jesus includes his ascension to the right hand of God from where he rules and reigns as Sovereign over all creation. The Bible presents two important doctrines concerning the nature of humanity relating to these doctrines of God: 1) Humanity is made in the image of God; and 2) The Human race is totally depraved. Both of these biblical teachings about the nature of humanity inform the worldview of our school. In relationship to the doctrines of God, we must say that the human race made in God’s image is nevertheless subject to divine authority calling us to use our lives to glorify God. We are creative because God is Creator and so we use our creativity to further his purposes in this world. We must also say that our race falling into sin, totally depraved, does not thwart God’s purposes in this world or completely destroy his created goodness. Although our race has done much harm to God’s world, we are not collectively so evil to prevent God from doing all his holy will.
The doctrine of total depravity gleaned from biblical citations like, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” and “all of our righteousness is like filthy rags,” present to us every human being and every human faculty fallen: Our minds and bodies have been impacted by sin; but also our wills and our emotions have been impacted as severely. We are not as evil as we could be, but we are sufficiently fallen in every one of our faculties to render us unable to win God’s favor apart from divine grace and strengthening through the Spirit of Christ. St. Augustine correctly summarized biblical teaching on the human will. Every single member of the human race suffers a fallen will in bondage to sin and self. As we are united to Christ and the Holy Spirit begins to free us from sin and self, our wills are free more and more to choose the good. But even we Christians are not as free as we could be. Non-Christians, totally depraved, are not so far gone that they are unable to use their wills and all faculties to do good in this world. They fight against the common curse and make human progress that is recognized to be the work of God to roll back the curse and to expand his heavenly kingdom on earth.
The doctrine of the image of God in every human being is put forth in much of the biblical narrative summarized by Jesus: “God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” God does not solely give economic blessing to the unrighteous as he does to the righteous, but he also gives to both the righteous and the unrighteous academic discoveries and insights. Both the just and the unjust contribute cultural capital that is beautiful; both live virtuously and tend fruitful gardens. One of the foundational reasons this is true about humanity is the doctrine of God creating all things “very good.” The fall has tainted the goodness, but not completely obliterated it. The image of God in every single individual changes our estimation of value of the mentally challenged, the physically handicapped, the slow learner, the social misfit, and the strong personality.
The biblical doctrine of common grace influences St. Stephen’s Academy. We use curriculum that may or may not be written and published by Christians. We believe that all truth is God’s truth. We are not frightened or offended by discoveries and contributions offered by non-Christians. We acknowledge the image of God in every person and we discern the truth of God in nature, in research, in literature, in laboratories, from various cultures and perspectives. We would consider a curriculum and forum of education to be incomplete were it completely forged from Christian sources. We are respectfully tickled and refreshed when we read the work of a non-Christian exposing a beautiful truth of God’s world contributing to our fuller understanding of God and his world.
The doctrine of common grace destroys the sharp, black and white distinction between Christian and non-Christian based upon those who possess knowledge of the truth and those who deny it. (Remember the black and white distinction between Christian and non-Christian is faith in Jesus Christ alone by grace alone.) The doctrine of common grace constantly checks our Christian community, correcting our misconceptions and lies about God and his world, clarifying our Christian worldview. Sometimes the fallacies come from the Christian community. The doctrine of common grace constantly keeps us humbly and sincerely gleaning truth from the larger community filled with non-Christians seeking to understand their fields, to mine and to present the truth available. The doctrine of common grace breaks down the “us and them” allowing variant communities and worldviews to intersect, face off with each other in a civil venue, and to improve each other, making truth “king” rather than the possessor of the most truth “king.”
The doctrine of common grace encourages our school to prepare students to live in this present world, engaging and contributing in every field. It teaches our students to rid their lives of fear of a wicked world around them but instead to contribute to the good in the world, joining hands with those who are seekers of the truth with the aim to implement truth to the good of the whole. (Remember, when Paul makes distinctions between those who are wise and foolish, he is speaking of the special revelation of God, which he calls the gospel.)
Consider the following examples of the doctrine of common grace influencing St. Stephen’s Academy. Firstly, we not only intend to expose our children to the music of J.S. Bach but also to Beethoven. We would never say at St. Stephen’s Academy that J.S. Bach’s music is better than Beethoven’s music because Bach was a Christian while Beethoven was a non-Christian. Rather we teach our children that both men, made in the image of God, produced superb music and that God as Creator and Sustainer of this world is glorified in their contributions. We would teach our children that Bach most likely understood his role as one made in the divine image, glorifying God, while Beethoven may have been ignorant to such a role or in denial about it. Nevertheless, Beethoven’s particular beliefs or lack of faith in God in no way can diminish the work of God through him in this world.
Secondly, as we teach our children mathematics displaying the order of God’s creation, we would never dream of teaching them that only Christians can discern this mathematical order and that non-Christians are blind to it. We would readily acknowledge that mathematical truths are discernable by Christian and non-Christian alike. We would give credit to an Atheist mathematician for his discoveries and enjoy the irony of his uncovering yet another piece of God’s amazing creation! We would emphasize this positive contribution of the non-Christian as much as we would teach our children about the fallacies of a non-Christian worldview. The doctrine of common grace helps us to stop short of only telling our children about non-Christian fallacies and only reporting to them the positive contributions of Christians. This would be a huge disservice to our children, a blow to their finished education.
Thirdly, at St. Stephen’s Academy, we aim to teach our children positively about Natural Science. We have observed how much of Christian education in the Natural Science department has been devoted to apologetics against Evolution. Thousands upon thousands of Christian School students can dismantle the theory of Evolution but they don’t know much about the Natural Sciences. What a waste! The doctrine of common grace produces at St. Stephen’s an exploration and mastery of the Natural Sciences preparing students to not only take up the vocation of teaching in Christian schools, but to also become chemists, geologists, physicists, engineers, medical doctors and fire fighters.
Fourthly, at St. Stephen’s Academy, we would read a novel written by a non-Christian making our primary aim the study of the literary structure and the common grace value of the content as well as the structure. The primary reason for reading literature written my non-Christians is not to prove that the author’s worldview is a non-Christian one, pointing out all of the inconsistencies, heresies, and perversions. The doctrine of common grace allows us to observe how a non-Christian author actually possesses insight into human nature and can expertly describe for us a facet of the human psyche that is not only interesting but also edifying. Joyfully, we observe how inescapable is the master story of divine redemption, the Christ figure permeating non-Christian literature, the very words of Scripture popping up in 20th and 21st century literature. We also humbly look for non-Christian corrections to Christian duplicity, inconsistency, and low-mindedness, allowing a non-Christian author to make us better Christians.
These four illustrations begin to scratch the surface of the far-reaching influence of the doctrine of common grace upon a classical education. Without the doctrine of common grace, we could not offer a classical education! We would also contend that our offering of a Christian education would be the poorer if we confined our texts and conversations to solely Christian contributions.