Human Rebellion and Education
Michael Goheen
Trinity Western University
Langley, B.C., Canada
Danger of minimizing sin
Believers often have “an inadequate awareness of
their adversary or arch-enemy who is ‘near by’ and
‘crouching at the door’ (Genesis 4:7).”
Our tendency to minimize the gravity, scope, and
power of sin reducing it to individual disobedience is
“much more than an intellectually deficiency.” It puts
us in “urgent peril” because sin “is a very vicious and
mortal enemy, an irascible and persistent power,
which must certainly be known in order to be
overcome.” (Berkouwer)
Fall into sin
Tree of knowledge of good and evil
(2.15-17)
 ‘Arbitrary’ command—why?
 Satanic temptation
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Doubt about divine source or fairness
Unbelief
Imaging life in disobedience to God’s word
Willful disobedience
Forfeiting the glory of creaturehood
Man has take leave of the relation of dependence. He
has refused to obey and has willed to make himself
independent. No longer is obedience the guiding
principle of his life, but his autonomous knowledge and
will. Thereby he ceases, in effect, to understand himself
as a creature. (Von Rad)
In desiring to be ‘like God’ man thrusts himself into a
dismal and self-defeating privation. In so doing he
forfeits the glory of his creaturehood. (Berkouwer)
Characterising Sin: Against God
“Against you, you only, have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight” (Psalm 51:4
TNIV).
Characterising Sin: Idolatry
“They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
worshiped and served created things rather
than the Creator—who is forever praised”
(Romans 1:25).
“If human beings are inescapably religious,
driven always to seek an object of worship,
then the fall cannot be characterised solely as
revolt against the rightful Lord: It must be
described further as exchange of religious
allegiance.”
God or an idol
Human beings are inherently religious
creatures. We cannot live without a god,
even if it is one of our own making. We need
a center, an ultimate focus, a point of
orientation for our lives. We have in fact two
alternatives. Either we serve the Lord and
obey his will, or we practice idolatry and
disobedience (Walsh and Middleton).
Sin as Idolatry
If human beings are inescapably
religious, driven always to seek an
object of worship, then the fall cannot
be characterised solely as revolt
against the rightful Lord: It must be
described further as exchange of
religious allegiance (Chaplin).
Idolatry as epitome of sin
Idolatry is essentially a declaration of
autonomy and independence from our
Creator, our rejection of his rightful kingship. .
. . Idolatry is portrayed in the Bible not as
merely one sin among many, but as the
epitome of sin. It is the central act of
disobedience which disrupts Yahweh’s rule
over human life (Walsh and Middleton).
Sin as idolatry
Relational dimension of sin
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Not transgression of impersonal standard
Marital analogy: Against exclusive loyalty of
marriage relationship (e.g.,Jeremiah 3,
Hosea)
Paternal analogy: Against kindness,
generosity, goodness of Father
Characterising sin: Against creation
Against human life, against shalom, against
health, against prosperity, against wholeness,
against human flourishing.
“Am I the one they are provoking? declares the
Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to
their own shame?” (Jeremiah 7:19).
“. . . disobedience goes against the very grain of
creation itself. Sin is rebellion against both the
structure and the Structurer of reality. Such
rebellion is inevitably self-defeating and selfdestroying.”
Wages of sin is death
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death
and destruction. For I command you today to love the
Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his
commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and
increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the
land you are entering to possess. But if you heart turns
away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn
away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I
declare to you this day that you will certainly be
destroyed. . . . I have set before you life and death,
blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).
Sin as covenant rebellion
GOD
word
Death,
destruction,
curse
Life,
prosperity,
blessing
Sin as a personal power
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Romans 7.8-11
Sin: a “seductive power”, a “damning power”,
an “active dynamic and destructive force”
(Berkouwer)
“Sin is a power that seeks to rule and ruin
everyone and everything.” (Berkouwer)
Characterising the power of sin
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Redirecting power: it redirects our allegiance
to an idol.
Malevolent: idolatry aims at our destruction.
Seductive: it deceptively conceals its
appalling nature and as it lures us to death.
Disfiguring: it corrupts and distorts God’s
good creation.
Parasitic quality of sin
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A parasite is an organism that lives off the life blood
of another; it is an “uninvited guest that keeps
tapping its host for sustenance.” (Plantinga)
“Goodness is, so to speak, itself: badness is only
spoiled goodness. And there must be something
good first before it can be spoiled.”(CS Lewis)
Sin “is nothing and can do nothing apart from the
creatures and the powers which God has created;
yet it organizes all these in open rebellion against
him.” (Bavinck)
Structure-direction
misdirected
by sin
redirected by
redemption
Good creational
structure
Scope of Sin
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Personal lives
Communal expression
Non-human creation (Romans 8.19-22)
Culture: Common way of life rooted in a
shared core religious beliefs in form of story.
religious
core
STORY
Heart of culture
Religious beliefs are an “organising dynamic”
and “directing power” of the various elements
of cultural life—economic, technical,
scientific, artistic, social, and communal.
(Brunner)
Three biblical rules
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The first rule is “that every man is serving
god(s) in his life.
Secondly, “every man is transformed into an
image of his god.”
Finally, “mankind creates and forms a
structure of society in its own image.”
Creating society in deformed image
In the development of human civilization,
man forms, creates and changes the
structure of his society, and in doing so he
portrays in his work the intention of his own
heart. He gives to the structure of that society
something of his own image and likeness. In
it he betrays something of his own lifestyle, of
his own god (Goudzwaard).
Goudzwaard on Ideologies
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Ideologies: Humanly constructed stories that fill
the spiritual vacuum after the Enlightenment.
Make an end for human society absolute (e.g.,
material wealth and prosperity)
Certain social powers or forces identified as
means by which the goal can be achieved (e.g.,
freedom of market); “saviours” or “powers which
people put their faith in.”
Place ourselves under power of these saviours
Transform whole of society
Ideology and Education
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How has this ideology affected education?
Focus on Neil Postman’s End of Education
Failure of the gods
“. . . the crisis in narrative the decline of
once-sturdy gods.” (25)
“. . . both students and teachers lack a
narrative to provide profound meaning to
their lessons.” (51)
‘god’: “. . . a comprehensive narrative about
what the world is like, how things got to be
the way they are, and what lies ahead.” (6)
What god will your school serve?
“The truth is that school cannot exist without
some reason for its being, and in fact there
are several gods our students are presently
asked to serve.” (27)
God of Economic Utility
“If you pay attention in school, and do your
homework, and score well on tests, and
behave yourself, you will be rewarded with a
well-paying job when you are done. Its
driving idea is that the purpose of schooling
is to prepare children for competent entry
into the economic life of a community.” (27)
Transformed into the image of our god
The narrative/god of economic utility “. . . tells
us that we are first and foremost economic
creatures, and that our sense of worth and
purpose is to be found in our capacity to
secure material benefits.” (28)
God of Consumership
“One may wonder, then, why this god
[economic utility] has so much strength, why
the preparation for making a living, which is
well-served by any decent education, should be
assigned a metaphysical position of such high
station. I believe the reason is that the god of
Economic Utility is coupled with another god,
one with a smiling face and one that provides
an answer to the question, If I get a good job,
then what?” (33)
God of Consumership
“Devotion to the god of Consumership serves
easily as the metaphysical basis of schooling
because it is urged on the young early in
their lives, long before they get to school—in
fact, as soon as they are exposed to the
powerful teachings of the advertising
industry.” (33)
God of Technology
“. . . That people believe technology works, that
they rely on it, that it makes promises, that they
are bereft when denied access to it, that they are
delighted when they are in its presence, that for
most people it works in mysterious ways, that
they condemn people who speak against it, that
they stand in awe of it, and that, in the bornagain mode, they will alter their lifestyles, their
schedules, their habits, and their relationships to
accommodate it. If this be not a form of religious
belief, what is?” (38)
These gods will fail too!
“ . . . the narratives that underlie our present
conception of school do not serve us well
and may lead to the end of public schooling .
. .” (61).
“My intention here is to offer an answer in the
form of five narratives that, singly and in
concert, contain sufficient resonance and
power to be taken seriously as reasons for
schooling.” (61)
Another story?
If the tale of capitalistic progress is
beginning to fray at the edges then perhaps
this is an evangelistically opportune time for
Christian education to offer another story-one that replaces the self-salvation of
economic progress with the tale of a coming
Kingdom of redemption (Brian Walsh).