Why We’re Starting a University – Part 1 of 3

The Vision for a God-centered University in Southern Mexico

As anti-Christian philosophies work their way further into the universities of the West, the founding of an uncompromisingly Christian institution of higher learning is both strategic and urgent. Our vision is to provide something that is scarce anywhere in Mexico: a biblically-integrated and academically robust liberal arts education that prepares graduates to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in all aspects of life, leading to cultural renewal through the Gospel. 

Why start a Christian University?

1. To love and glorify God in all things 

In Romans 11:35, the apostle Paul declares that all things exist for the glory of God, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” Furthermore, Christ has been risen as Lord over every realm of creation, “All authority in heaven and on earth” belongs to Him (Matthew 28:18). As Abraham Kuyper, who founded the Free University of Amsterdam in 1880, boldly (and now famously) stated, “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: Mine!” This means that education exists for the glory of God and that Jesus ought to be recognized as the Sovereign Lord over it, after all, He is the One “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). Hebrew children were to be intentionally instructed in God’s Law (which included much more than the “religious” aspects of life) so that they would come to love the Lord their God with their whole being and thereby bring glory to His name (Deuteronomy 6). Based on that foundation, we define education as the intentional formation of the whole person in character, wisdom, and knowledge so that they might love and glorify God with the whole of their lives. 

2. To Fulfill the Great Commission (and obey the Creation Mandate)

The mission of the Church is to make disciples, and formal education is an aspect of discipleship, therefore the Church should support and oversee the founding of institutions that will faithfully form students in a Christ-centered worldview. In Matthew 28:19, the Lord Jesus commissioned His apostles (representatives of the Church) to disciple the nations by teaching them to obey all that He had commanded. This commandment is clearly connected to the Dominion Mandate given by God to Adam, as the representative head of humanity.¹ If man is going to be faithful, he must learn to subdue creation and bring it into submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Second Adam, and representative head of the renewed human race.² The birth of the proto-university during the Carolingian Renaissance of the 8th century was in fact an intentional effort of Christians to carry out the command of the Lord to subdue creation and make disciples.³ Some 800 years later, the rise of protestant universities following the Reformation would be the next major phase in developing what we now think of when we hear the word “university.”⁴ However, over the past century, and especially during the last 60 years, there have been some major shifts away from this Christian heritage. In places like the United States, many universities are on their last leg––for not only have they long abandoned the overt preaching of Christ but are now attempting to detach themselves from the principles of Western thought which are themselves only sustainable when they rest on the foundation from which they sprang, namely Christ and His Word. At first they wanted the tree without the roots, and now that it has fallen, in their madness, they are seeking to burn up the whole blasted thing. It would be a mistake to interpret this departure from truth as a reason for Christians to abandon the university concept (to do so would be a failure to recognize the reality of spiritual warfare and that we are still living before the consummation of Christ’s Kingdom). Instead, we must understand and recover discipleship in the context of formal higher education, as an intentional effort to form the whole person in the context of the whole of creation, under the whole authority of Christ, to love the Lord their God with the whole of their existence.

Stay tuned for parts two and three…

Also, if you’d like to partner with us, please visit Impact Mexico for updates and giving information.

Footnotes:

1. This is also known as the “cultural mandate” or the “creation mandate.” Notice that this mandate was given to all mankind at creation, not exclusively to the nation of Israel. Furthermore, nowhere in Scripture is this command ever rescinded, thus Christians cannot ignore it by using the “well, that’s in the Old Testament” excuse. A simple reading and word study of both passages (Genesis 1:27-28 and Matthew 28:18-20) will plainly reveal that the Great Commission is a reaffirmation and fuller flowering of the Creation Mandate.
2. When Adam failed and forfeited dominion of the earth, the Evil One thought he had thwarted God’s plan to fill the earth with His glory through His image-bearers, but God had a plan all along to bring about His purpose through Christ, the Second Adam, who perfectly obeyed, paid the debt of our sin, and rose again to receive dominion over both heaven and earth, reclaiming what Adam had lost and then some (Genesis 1:27-28; Habakkuk 2:14; Matthew 28:18).
3. James Davison Hunter, To Change the World (Oxford University Press, 2010), 61-64
4. Hunter, To Change the World, 64-67