Series: Education and Worldview Formation
Scripture Focus: 2 Corinthians 10:5
It used to be that school board meetings were about field trips, cafeteria menus, or how many cupcakes could safely be brought in for a class party. Not anymore. In recent years, those same meetings have turned into battlegrounds. Parents line hallways holding signs, teachers defend lesson plans with the intensity of lawyers in court, and reporters circle like vultures hoping for a viral soundbite. Education, once assumed to be about multiplication tables and spelling tests, is now the front line in a cultural war for the souls of our children.
The battle is not just in classrooms. It’s in smartphones that serve as pocket-sized professors, in libraries filled with contested books, and in the streaming platforms that teach morality faster than Sunday school can. Ideas are not floating abstractions, they are marching armies. As the Apostle Paul wrote, we are “destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
That’s not a verse about polite debates in ivory towers; it’s a call to spiritual warfare. And if we shrug at the battle for our children’s minds, someone else will gladly take the field. The only question is: who will be the chief discipler of the next generation: the world, or the Word?
When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he wasn’t offering a clever turn of phrase about “taking thoughts captive” for a motivational poster. He was in the middle of a battle, a battle for truth. The Corinthian church was being swayed by false teachers who disguised themselves as apostles of Christ but were preaching another Jesus, another spirit, and another gospel (2 Cor. 11:4). Against this backdrop, Paul reaches for military language: “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the tearing down of strongholds, as we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3–5, LSB).
Notice Paul’s progression:
- Strongholds – entrenched patterns of thought, like fortresses of deception.
- Speculations – human philosophies and arguments that oppose God’s truth.
- Lofty things – prideful, rebellious ideas elevated above divine revelation.
- Captive thoughts – every rogue idea must be arrested and made subject to Christ.
Education, then, is never neutral. It is either constructing strongholds of truth or strongholds of deception. The classroom, the screen, the library, these are arenas where speculations are raised up. Paul insists the only adequate weapons for tearing them down are those “divinely powerful” through the Word of God and the Spirit of God.
This passage also tells us something profound about the nature of humanity. As image-bearers (Gen. 1:27), children are designed to think, reason, and imagine. Yet as fallen beings (Rom. 1:21), their minds are darkened and prone to exchanging the truth of God for a lie. Education therefore cannot be morally indifferent. It will either bend the knee to Christ or bow to idols.
The modern myth of neutrality in education, that schools can provide “just the facts” without shaping beliefs, crumbles under Paul’s logic. Every idea carries baggage, every curriculum is catechizing, every story has a worldview. To “take every thought captive” means training our children to discern whether what they are learning points them to the knowledge of God or away from Him.
Christian parents, pastors, and teachers are thus engaged in the same warfare Paul describes. We don’t fight with anger or violence, but with the steady proclamation of truth, the prayerful dependence on the Spirit, and the patient instruction of the Word. And we do so with urgency, because while we hesitate, the enemy does not. The world is only too eager to build fortresses of falsehood in the hearts of our children.
If Paul were writing today, he might have used a different metaphor than “strongholds.” Perhaps he would have spoken of “algorithms” or “platforms.” Because let’s be honest: most children are not shaped primarily by Sunday school lessons or family devotions. Their minds are being formed by YouTube shorts, TikTok influencers, Netflix originals, and whatever passes for “recommended reading” in school libraries. We may wish it were otherwise, but the statistics are clear. The average teen spends more than seven hours a day on screens, not including time for schoolwork. That means their primary teachers are entertainers, marketers, and ideologues who know how to disciple attention better than most pastors do.
This is why education has become the cultural flashpoint of our generation. We’ve watched school board meetings turn into battlegrounds because parents know instinctively that what their children are taught will shape not only how they think, but who they become. Debates over Critical Race Theory, gender ideology, and sexually explicit books in elementary libraries are not side issues. They are front lines. They reveal what Paul already understood that ideas are never neutral. They either take children captive to Christ or captive to lies.
Historically, this drift didn’t happen overnight. Benjamin Rush, one of the Founding Fathers and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, argued that the Bible should be read in every school. He wrote, “Without religion, there can be no virtue, and without virtue, there can be no liberty.” Noah Webster, often called the “Father of American Education,” was equally blunt: “Education is useless without the Bible.” These men were not naïve. They knew that the survival of the republic depended on citizens who were formed morally as well as intellectually.
Fast-forward to the 20th century, and we see the pivot. John Dewey, the father of progressive education, dismissed the need for absolute truth in favor of pragmatism. Education became a tool for social engineering rather than virtue formation. By the 1960s, Supreme Court rulings had removed school-sponsored prayer and Bible reading, effectively cutting off the moral backbone envisioned by the Founders. And now, sixty years later, we wonder why schools feel more like ideological factories than halls of wisdom.
The modern myth is that education can be neutral, objective, and “values-free.” But as C.S. Lewis warned in The Abolition of Man, to educate without virtue is to produce “men without chests.” In other words, people who can recite facts but cannot discern truth, who know how to make money but not how to live well.
The results are everywhere. Students can code apps but cannot explain why human life has dignity. They can parse social movements but cannot define justice in biblical terms. They can chant slogans about identity but cannot answer the most basic question: “Who am I?” The strongholds of speculation have become towering monuments in our culture.
Which is why the battle for the minds of our children is not optional. It is here. And it demands that parents, teachers, and churches stop outsourcing worldview formation and start reclaiming their God-given role in shaping young hearts.
The good news is that God has not left parents or churches powerless in this battle. The same Word that dismantles strongholds can also build foundations. Paul’s imagery of “taking every thought captive” is not only about defending the faith against hostile philosophies, it’s also about training our children to filter every idea through the lens of Christ.
For parents, that starts in the ordinary rhythms of life. Deuteronomy 6 doesn’t command a weekly lecture; it calls for conversations “when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.” That means worldview discipleship happens in the carpool line, around the dinner table, and during bedtime prayers. Parents often feel intimidated, worried they don’t know enough apologetics or philosophy, but God simply calls them to be present, intentional, and consistent. A few faithful minutes each day of reading Scripture, praying, or discussing what a child learned in school can inoculate against hours of worldly instruction.
For churches, the role is reinforcement. Sunday sermons and youth group gatherings cannot replace parental discipleship, but they can amplify it. Churches can equip families by providing resources, hosting worldview workshops, or even simply teaching children that Scripture speaks into every area of life, not just “churchy” matters. Imagine the difference if young believers were as fluent in the biblical definition of justice, truth, and identity as they are in TikTok trends.
Technology can also be redeemed. Podcasts, Bible apps, and Christian media can be allies in the battle when parents are intentional. What matters most is not shielding children from every false idea, but equipping them to recognize, test, and reject lies when they encounter them.
In short, discipleship is not a program. It’s a posture of constant engagement, shaping young minds not just to know about Christ, but to submit every thought to Him.
The battle for the minds of our children is not a spectator sport. Parents cannot afford to outsource discipleship to schools, youth groups, or Sunday sermons. Churches cannot assume that a weekly program will undo six days of cultural catechism. And Christian teachers cannot treat their calling as simply a paycheck; it is a frontline mission field.
So here is the challenge. Parents, reclaim your God-given role as the primary disciplers of your children. Do not assume someone else will do it for you. Pray with your kids. Read Scripture together. Ask them what they learned in school, not just whether they did their homework. Equip them to recognize lies before those lies take root.
Pastors and church leaders, equip the saints for the work of discipleship. Give parents tools, provide training, and remind them that raising children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord is not a burden but a sacred privilege.
And for all of us, whether parents, grandparents, teachers, or mentors, the call is the same. Step into the battle. Do not shrink back. Take every opportunity to point the next generation toward Christ, because the world is not waiting to disciple them. It already is.
This article is the opening salvo in our September series on education and discipleship: Education and Worldview Formation
. Each week, we’ll explore how parents, churches, and teachers can reclaim their God-given role in shaping the minds and hearts of children. From parental rights to the sufficiency of Scripture, from cultivating critical thinking to encouraging Christian teachers, we’ll be looking at education as a matter of worldview formation.
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Next: Parental Rights in Education: A Biblical Mandate (Deut. 6:6–7)
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Key Truths to Remember
- Education is always discipleship. Every classroom, screen, and book is shaping hearts and minds—either toward Christ or away from Him.
- Neutrality is a myth. Ideas are never harmless; they are strongholds that must be torn down or truths that must be embraced.
- Parents and churches must step into the battle. The world is already discipling our children aggressively. It is our responsibility, by God’s design, to make sure their thoughts are taken captive to Christ.
Live it out. Share the truth. Walk with courage. The next generation is worth the battle, and Christ has already equipped us for victory.
