It goes back to how we can know anything at all. “For the Christian, therefore, the ultimate locus of rationality and intelligibility is the God of Scripture and thus man, if he is to know anything truly, must, as God’s creature, created in His image, ‘think God’s thoughts after Him,' to use the words of Cornelius Van Til.” (16) If no actual knowledge is possible apart from the recognition of God and His Word, then Classical education, by itself, cannot lead to actual knowledge. Only a Christ-centered education can do that.
Apart from the Christian aspect of education, education has no real or lasting purpose. “The aim of education is thus to promote maturation in the image of God, and it is the duty of Christian parents to care for the child, mould his character and discipline him in terms of God’s purpose for his life.” (italics in the original) (39) Our cultural, with its emphasis on rationality and empiricism, has made education an idol whose purpose is to mold and shape the child in its image. Christians must see the true purpose of education and act accordingly.
Since God has a plan for the child, he must be educated in such a way that prepares him to take his place as a “viceregent over the earth, governing all things under his authority according to God’s word, proclaiming the sovereign word of God in all things, and bringing all things into subjection to Christ.” (78) No education that fails to prepare a child for this God-given role should actually be regarded as “education.” With such an awe-inspiring duty, and such a magnificent responsibility to prepare for, can an education that sees its main goal as creating “college and career ready” young adults even be worthy of the name? Only an education focusing on equipping children for the role God plans for them is sufficient.
Seeing as we are called to govern the world under Christ, it must be the case that we see the world in the way God sees it. “It is vitally important that in every subject and at every level this learning process should presuppose the God-created and God-interpreted nature of reality, and that it should be pursued in terms of godly principles of thought and action throughout.” (89) A secular education, even a secular Classical education simply cannot demand the world be seen through the eyes of God by the student. Even the best Classical schools, modeled on, but not governed by Christian principles, cannot present the world as “God-created.” They cannot promote the “God-interpreted nature of reality.” They may try to, at first. But over time, without a recurrence to the Word of God and His thoughts, a Classical school, will, by necessity eventually abandon its commitment to first principles. Without regeneration, secular education has no leg to stand on.
All of us, believer and non-believer alike, will serve someone. Our choice is not between servitude and freedom but whom we will serve. It is the Son alone who sets free. Choosing a secular education, devoid of Christian principles and epistemology, sets a student up for slavery to himself and the world. “Man is to rule over nature and serve God thereby. His true freedom consists in the fulfilling of his God-created purpose in life, and this is only possible as he submits to God in obedience.” (107) This truth simply cannot be communicated in a secular educational environment.
Perks ends the book with a powerful summation:
It is the Christian’s duty to educate his children in the Christian faith for dominion, for the shouldering of man's creation mandate to bring the whole earth into subjection to himself as God's steward and vicegerent on earth, and thus into subjection to God and His word. This necessitates a Christian culture and the building of Christian civilization, and this in turn necessitates a Christian, covenantal, dominion oriented philosophy and practice of education. (116)
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