Christian Education

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1. Have students read the actual Bible for themselves vs. only prescribed verses.
2. Have students read at least one Gospel account, one Epistle, and one Old Testament book each year.
3. Encourage the students to understand the verses in context, along with other good interpretation principles.
4. Let the scriptures speak for themselves with clarification and illustrations by the teacher.
5. Show the students the richness and requirements of the Bible.
6. Teach Biblical pattern of salvation: Law before Grace.
7. Encourage each student to come to the Father, through the Son, and grow in the knowledge and love of Him.

1.  The entire list of the books of the Bible, in correct order.
2. The basic distinction between Law and Gospel.
3. The major acts and themes of the Gospel: Jesus’ birth, miracles, crucifixion, resurrection.
4. The names and significance of Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, Paul, Peter, etc.
5. The Six Chief Parts of the Christian Faith (as related in a simple manner from Luther’s Small Catechism).

“I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God's word becomes corrupt. Because of this we can see what kind of people they become in the universities and what they are like now. Nobody is to blame for this except the pope, the bishops, and the prelates, who are all charged with training young people. The universities only ought to turn out men who are experts in the Holy Scriptures, men who can become bishops and priests, and stand in the front line against heretics, the devil, and all the world. But where do you find that? I greatly fear that the universities, unless they teach the Holy Scriptures diligently and impress them on the young students, are wide gates to hell.”

To the Christian Nobility of the German States (1520), translated by Charles M. Jacobs, reported in rev. James Atkinson, The Christian in Society, I (Luther’s Works, ed. James Atkinson, vol. 44), p. 207 (1966).

“The number of books on theology must be reduced and only the best ones published. It is not many books that make men learned, nor even reading. But it is a good book frequently read, no matter how small it is, that makes a man learned in the Scriptures and godly. Indeed, the writings of all the holy fathers should be read only for a time so that through them we may be led into the Scriptures. As it is, however, we only read them these days to avoid going any further and getting into the Bible. We are like men who read the sign posts and never travel the road they indicate. Our dear fathers wanted to lead us to the Scriptures by their writings, but we use their works to get away from the Scriptures. Nevertheless, the Scripture alone is our vineyard in which we must all labor and toil.”

“To the Christian Nobility” (Luther’s Works, American Edition (AE), vol. 44, p. 205)

“Above all, the foremost reading for everybody, both in the universities and in the schools, should be Holy Scripture–and for the younger boys, the Gospels. And would to God that every town had a girls’ school as well, where the girls would be taught the gospel for an hour every day either in German or in Latin. Schools indeed! Monasteries and nunneries began long ago with that end in view, and it was a praiseworthy and Christian purpose…. Is it not right that every Christian man know the entire holy gospel by the age of nine or ten? Does he not derive his name and his life from the gospel?”

“To the Christian Nobility” (Luther’s Works, American Edition (AE), vol. 44, pp. 205-206)