What makes a 12 year old attending a traditional Christian or Yeshiva
(Orthodox Jewish school) wiser than a college student is that they are taught
the love and fear of God as children and as it is written, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom. (Ps. 111:10) It is also the beginning of knowledge
(Prov. 1:7) and instruction. (Prov. 15:33) Columnist Dennis Prager, who was
raised as an Orthodox Jew, stated that when he was being educated at his
respective Yeshiva school, half of the school day would be devoted to religious
studies. [1]
But for a sizeable portion of a school day to be devoted to religious
studies is not anything new and there was once a time, even within the public
schools, that education also included the establishing of a spiritual and moral
foundation. Students were not taught just
reading, writing, math, science, and history.
They were also being trained up to be God-fearing, morally upright,
productive contributing members of society and it was generally never the
purpose or intent of any teacher, school, college, or university to undermine
the respective faith, virtues, morals, and values that children and students
were being raised up in at home by their parents or taught to them in their
respective places of worship. Before the
twentieth century, it was not unusual for there to be prayer and scripture
reading in the schools. Unbeknown to
most today, the beginnings of our education system in America trace themselves
to the Old Deluder Satan Law of 1647, which was written and implemented
during the generations of the Pilgrims and Puritans; the purpose of which was
to make it mandatory for all people to learn how to read and the reason why it
was so mandated that all people learn how to read was so that they would be
able to read the scriptures and thus be filled with the wisdom and knowledge of
God. They did not want the people to be
at the mercy of a clergy or even a civic authority for their doctrine or creed,
but wanted them to rely on God alone for their creed and doctrine and they did
not want them to be reliant on the word of a self-professed Pastor, teacher, or
prophet, but they wanted them to be able to read the scriptures for themselves
to determine whether or not what they were being taught was of God. The act states as follows:
It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men
from the knowledge of the
Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in an unknown tongue, so
in these later times by
perswading from the use of tongues, that so at least the true sense
and meaning of the Originall
might be clowded by false glosses of Saint-seeming deceivers; and that
Learning may not be
buried in the graves of our fore-fathers in Church and Commonwealth,
the Lord assisting our
indeavors: it is therefore ordered by this Court and Authoritie
therof;
That every Township in this Jurisdiction, after the Lord hath
increased them to the number of
fifty Housholders, shall then forthwith appoint one within their town to
teach all such children as
shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid
either by the Parents or Masters
of such children, or by the Inhabitants in general, by way of supply,
as the major part of those that order the prudentials of the Town shall
appoint. Provided that those which send their children be not oppressed by
paying much more then they can have them taught for in other towns.
And it is further ordered, that where any town shall increase to the
number of one hundred
Families or Housholders, they shall set up a Grammar-School, the
Masters thereof being able to
instruct youth so far as they may be fitted for the Universitie. And
if any town neglect the
performance hereof above one year then everie such town shall pay five
pounds per annum to the
next such School, till they shall perform this Order. [2]
They knew that if men could read the scriptures for themselves, then
they could also, like the Bereans in the days of the Apostle Paul, (Acts 17:11)
search the scriptures daily to determine whether or not the things being taught
to them by an evangelist, Pastor, or teacher were founded in truth, fact, and
were of God and if they could consult the scriptures to determine whether or
not a teaching was of the Lord, then they could also consult other writings and
documents to determine whether or not certain claims being made were so as well
for often times when we endeavor to find out for ourselves if what we are
hearing and reading to be true, often times that which we seek out to verify
the validity of a claim or the truthfulness of a teaching will not be on a
podcast or an online video, but rather will be in a form that is written.
How vitally important and invaluable is the ability to read for it is
from things written that we will receive the majority of our information and
most of the time, it will be things written that will determine the factuality,
validity, credibility, and truthfulness of any given claim, teaching, doctrine,
creed, philosophy, or ideology.
But the ability to read and write, and the availability and easy
access to information, in and of themselves are not enough to keep men from
being deluded and deceived if they lack the discretion, diligence, and
discipline to consult those things by which we are able to determine if those
things read, heard, taught, and reported are so, for that Old Deluder Satan is
not threatened by an abundance of information just so long as those he seeks to
blind to the knowledge of God and therefore to the knowledge of those things
that are for a certainty true do not take the time to search out those things
to determine whether or not that which they have taken for truth is really
truth at all.
And how well has this Old Deluder caused most congregants to rely on
their respective Pastor or clergyman for their doctrine instead of diligently
searching out those scriptures for themselves to determine whether or not what
is being preached to them is true. How
wonderfully has he been able to invoke a blind unquestioning trust in parents,
children, high school students, and college students in those teachers and
professors they trust to be experts in their respective fields without
considering that what they are being taught in those establishments of academia
could be lies and they who propagate them may be certified expert liars and
deceivers. And how successful he has
been in causing the minds of multitudes to be poisoned by the misleading
propaganda they assume to be the inerrant reporting of news and information and
even so much that when they are presented with anything challenging what they
have taken for truth, they dismiss it out of hand or even issue a hostile
response.
But it is not always what is being taught within the halls of
academia, preached in the places of worship, or reported by the media that is
necessarily the problem, but it is also what is not being taught, preached, or
reported that can be the problem as well.
And has Mr. Prager has pointed out, it is possible to accumulate a
wealth of knowledge and yet at the same time lack wisdom. He admits that “College students do have more
knowledge than almost any 12-year-old in religious school. But they have much
less wisdom,” [3] further
stating that, “Secular life doesn't teach wisdom (nor, it should be noted, do
many schools that call themselves "Christian" or "Jewish")
and because generations of Americans have been exposed mostly to a secularized
education they, as Prager states, “have not been taught wisdom.” [4]
And how can wisdom be taught when the very source of wisdom is
rejected? As commentator Mike Huckabee noted in an interview with Niel Cavuto
some years ago, we’ve removed Him from our education [5] and when we removed Him from our education,
so wisdom went out of our education system and when wisdom went out of our
education system it eventually went out of every sector, branch, and level of
society and our government and in its place, foolishness has entered and
madness has taken the place of reason and we have taken for wisdom the things
that are foolish and nonsense and that which is of wisdom to be foolish and
furthermore, most of us can’t even differentiate between knowledge and wisdom
but think that they are one in the same.
They are not. Knowledge is simply
an accumulation of information and facts, but that is only provided that the
information accumulated is trustworthy and that the facts gathered are indeed
the facts. But wisdom is the application
of knowledge gathered.
For example, you see a certain snake in your path. It has certain markings, it has a rattle on
its tail, and a triangular shaped head.
You recognize it to be a rattlesnake and you know, (and hopefully you
know) that it is a venomous creature.
That is knowledge.
Wisdom tells you to avoid the animal because if you don’t it will bite
you and if it bites you, you may very well die of the venom. If you don’t avoid the animal and proceed to
needlessly provoke it, then that is neither knowledge nor wisdom but is instead
foolishness.
But the one who knows how to apply the small amount of knowledge he
has will prove himself to wiser than the one who has accumulated much knowledge
yet does not know how to apply it.
That is why even the most credentialed of persons can still be the
most credentialed of fools and why more wisdom can reside amongst the most
unaccredited and uneducated of individuals than amongst the most educated and
credentialed of persons and why there can be more foolishness amongst the most
educated and most credentialed than amongst least educated and unaccredited.
And it is from these credentialed fools and certified liars and
deceivers that a fountain of lies, deceit, foolishness and madness have flown
forth and have swept across our land like a plague infecting every level,
sector, and branch of society; the kind of foolishness and madness that leads
people to deny even the most basic facts which includes subjugating them to
things like a gender identity crisis because, as Prager points out, “they have
been told that it is sufficient to rely on their feelings to understand life
and to determine right from wrong.” [6]
It is this reliance upon one’s feelings that has led them to not only
determine for themselves what is truth, but also what the facts are and such
has thus far been the extent to which a denial of absolutes has been taken.
For if we accept that there are absolute facts such as there being
only two biological genders (male and female) and that biology is what
determines gender, that plants, animals, and man reproduce after their own
kind, that there are unchangeable laws of physics such as gravity, that 2+2=4,
that water is made of H2O, that there are 24 hours in a day, that there are four
seasons in the year, twelve months in a year, seven days in a week, roughly
four weeks in a month, offspring are only produced by the breeding of a male
and female of most any given animal species, that babies can only be produced
by intercourse between a man and a woman, and so forth, then that inevitably
can lead one to draw the conclusion that if there are absolute unchangeable
facts and laws in nature, then there must also be an unchangeable truth, and if
there is an unchangeable truth, then that unchangeable truth must have a source
that cannot be found in any man, but in a power far greater and if that greater
power is the source of all truth, then it must also be the source and
determiner of what is morally right and wrong and what is good and evil, making
also that supreme power that Supreme Authority that rules and governs over all
of creation and by whose hand all things were made and if He is the Creator of
all things, then He is also the establisher of the natural laws that hold all
things in place, and if He be the establisher of the laws of nature, then He is
also the Maker of our reality, and if He is the Maker of our reality, then by
Him is our reality fixed; it can never be changed, and if our reality is made
and fixed by Him, then He is also the giver of spiritual moral laws and
precepts designed to maintain order and direct the course of our lives in what
would otherwise be a lawless and chaotic world.
But the notion of there being fixed absolutes established by an
unchanging God (Mal. 3:6, Heb. 13:8) is something that many cannot stand in the
least and so they would rather embrace confusion and madness than submit
themselves to the authority of the one who made them, and that Old Deluder is
all too eager to appeal to that rebellious nature within man for the purpose of
taking captive their souls with the promise of a greater liberty apart from God
than that perfect liberty under God only the liberty of that Old Deluder is
bondage, oppression, darkness, destruction, misery, despair, chaos, turmoil,
constant strife, fighting, war, discord, hatred, torment, confusion, madness,
perplexity, and damnation of the soul.
And as for those souls taken captive, as the Old Deluder Satan Act,
points out, it has been a chief project of his to keep men from the knowledge
of God. And to do so, he uses
persecution against they who would preach the knowledge of God, and where the
prisons, torture chambers, executions, ridicule, and ostracization fail,
cowardice, complacency, laziness, and apathy sadly work quite well. The cowardly keep silent, the complacent fail
to keep alert, the lazy fail to do their due diligence and so leave it to those
whom they blindly trust to do that which they should be doing for themselves,
and the apathetic never even try and so the enemy creeps in, blinding men to
the things that might bring them to the knowledge of God and does everything in
his power to suppress anything that might open the eyes of men to that
knowledge that may lead them to embrace those things that are of God and turn
away from those things that be of that old deluder Satan and so it has been in
the halls of academia.
Complacency allowed prayer and scripture reading to be removed from
the schools.
Laziness allowed blind unquestioning trust in those professing to be
experts but in truth are only experts in deceit and who themselves have also
been deceived.
Cowardice kept silent those who should have spoken up and who should
have proclaimed the glory of God in those places disallowed for if they had not
remained silent, perhaps then might He have been given place once again in
those places where he was once disallowed.
And the apathetic do not even bother trying instead of simply
faithfully doing the part assigned to them and leaving the results of their
efforts in the hands of the Creator.
And when God had been removed from the halls of academia, then our
studies lost their meaning and became shallow.
Now most students no longer learn and acquire knowledge for the joy of
it, but simply because they must and it is a dull and boring endeavor to them
but they do so because they are told that in acquiring an education, they will
be able to better themselves but as they sit there at the desk listening to the
lectures and while they go home to read and study their assigned material, they
think that they are acquiring sufficient and adequate knowledge and they are
made to believe that they are receiving an education unaware that they are
being deceived into believing a lie and never understanding what the
disciplines of science, history, mathematics, philosophy, and literature have
to do with them and how those disciplines apply to them.
No one really explained to me how math applied to daily life.
No one really explained to me how important it was for me to read.
No one really explained to me what history had to do with today.
No one really explained to me what theology had to do with me.
And yet by the grace of God I did learn how to read and do basic
arithmetic for it was reading that enabled me to learn the scriptures that led
me to a saving faith in our Lord Savior Jesus Christ and experienced my
embracing of Jesus change and influence the course of my life and it was only
afterward that I began to see the hand of God in history and how there is no
conflict between faith and science but rather how science bears witness to the
existence of God but before I had come to the knowledge of God, most learning
just seemed rather shallow.
When God becomes the centerpiece of all learning and education, only
then might men be more motivated to become as educated as they possibly
can. Only then does education, and life
in general for that matter, have a greater sense of meaning then they ever
would apart from God for apart from God Almighty who instills meaning and
purpose into our lives, everything is just meaningless.
And where there is no meaning, there is no hope but only despair and
who but by the call of the Holy Spirit can seek find there way to the God who
is able to bring meaning into their lives, but at the same time, they must
humbly examine themselves before Almighty God to determine whether there be
anything displeasing in His sight from which they must turn away and when
anyone does so, it not only can be a most humbling experience, but a most
terrifying one.
It is humbling in that we find that we are not as morally pure as we
had once thought ourselves to be but at the same time, it can be a most
terrifying experience knowing full well that a day is coming when we will all
have to give an account for everything said and everything done, but it goes
much further because even the very nature of our thoughts, attitudes and
motives will be judged as well which is why no one, upon honest examination of
themselves, and not just their outward deeds and words spoken, but also the
nature of their inward being, can ever call themselves morally perfect but that
is what God requires of all men to be in right standing before Him, but as it
is written, all have sinned and fallen short of His glory (Rom. 3:23) but in
order to understand why, we must, as I have done with most of my blog posts, go
back to beginning to understand what it is that makes us fall short of the
glory of God.
When God had created the heavens and the earth everything was good in
His sight and there was a time when it was never in the nature of man to be
evil, but only to be good, and it was in that day that a perfect harmony and
unity existed between man, God, and even nature itself, but there was one thing
forbidden to man and that was a certain kind of fruit that belonged to a tree
called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and it was warned of them that
in the day that they should eat of it, they would surely die (Gen. 2:16-17,
3:3) but the first man Adam and his wife Eve who is the first woman did not
obey the command and ate of its fruit having been persuaded that they would not
die if they ate of it, but would become divine and more enlightened (Gen.
3:4-5) only to find that they did not become more enlightened and that they
fell further away from the divine than they had been before they had eaten of
that forbidden fruit and the sentence of death was placed upon them for their
transgression (Gen. 3:19) but the sentence of death was not confined to just
them, but was passed down to all of mankind for when Adam and his wife Eve had
eaten of that forbidden fruit, sin had entered into them which is that corrupted
condition of human nature which influences not just our actions or words, but
also influences the thoughts, motives, and attitudes that result in actions
done and the words spoken which is why it is written that it is not that which
enters into a man which defiles him, but what comes out of him which defiles
him (Mt. 15:11, 18-20) and it is this corrupted condition of our nature called
sin that passed from Adam to all of mankind (Rom. 5:12) for it is from Adam all
of mankind descend and sin is the reason why all people die for as it is
written, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) but the consequences of sin have
not remained confined to man, but its taint has infected all of creation with a
curse which is why it is written that the entire creation groans and travails
in pain to this day (Rom. 8:19-22) and worse even still, by the lie which led
to the fall of man by way of transgressing the commandment which forbade
mankind to eat of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
the dominion over the earth God gave to man (Gen. 1:26) was diminished for it
was the disobedience of Adam that gave Satan justification to claim lordship
over the nations, kingdoms, and empires of the world (Mt. 4:8-9, Lk. 4:6-7)
which is why he is called the prince of this world. (Jn. 12:31, 16:11)
Much to his credit, Dennis Prager, who is not known to be a Christian,
understands that mankind is inherently corrupt, citing passages from the Old
Testament scriptures and even Talmudic tradition acknowledging this inherent
corruption. [7]
However, he, like other religious Jews, is placing his trust in his
own merit and efforts to be the best person he can possibly be to overcome this
inherent corruption, but what he has yet to understand and even accept, is that
no matter how good you try to be, good works will never erase sin from within
us which is why our own goodness will always fall short of that perfect
goodness that God requires of us. That
is not to say that neither he or any of us shouldn’t try to be the most morally
upright person or do as much good in the world as we can for there is a
blessing in that, but good works in and of themselves are not enough to take
away the stain of sin for even the good we do, sin ever present within us,
taints just as it taints everything else.
In order for there to be an atonement for sin, it takes much more
which is why animal sacrifices were offered up for the atonement of sin for
even before the New Testament, they knew that works, apart from a blood
atonement, would never be sufficient for the forgiveness of sins, in His love
for us God has offered us mercy in that He has given us redemption by means
superior to the blood of animals which, as scripture records, had to be offered
up continuously. He has made redemption
for us by a sacrifice that need only be offered up once to take away all sin
forever (Heb. 7:27) and it has been done not by the sacrifice of any animal,
but by that of a man in whom there is no sin (2 Cor. 5:21) thereby making Him
that perfect sacrifice needed to take away the sins of the world (Heb. 7:26-27)
This man who was that perfect sacrifice and who offered Himself up on our
behalf is none other than Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, who
offered Himself up on our behalf unto death through the shedding of His blood
on the cross upon which He was crucified, and it was in His death that the
demanded penalty for sin was met and mercy was granted to the sinner and after
having died for our sins, was raised again from the dead on the third day so
that we might be justified in Him (Rom. 4:25) who call upon His name for
salvation, (Rom. 10:13) placing their trust in Him alone for the forgiveness of
sins and to make them justified before God the Father for upon calling upon the
name of Jesus for the forgiveness of sins, it is no longer our righteousness
that is at work in us, but that of Christ Jesus who comes to dwell in us by the
Holy Spirit with whom we are sealed until the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30) for
it is by His righteousness, which is perfect and untainted, that we are
redeemed and justified and by the cleansing of our souls from the stain of sin,
are we made spiritually anew (2 Cor. 5:17) and reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:18)
from whom our sins had once estranged us and if we have been truly transformed
in Christ, no longer do we pursue after godliness, holiness, purity, goodness,
and righteousness to gain the favor of God, but out of gratitude for the unmerited
gift of salvation that is given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord and His Son and
out of love for the Lord our God who made us and redeems us from what would
otherwise be an everlasting torment from which there is no relief day or night
and which is all who remain in their sins have to look forward to for no sin
can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven nor can any who are uncleansed from their
sins be admitted lest Heaven itself should be defiled because sin brings ruin
to all that it touches and in more ways than we can comprehend and there is
coming a day when the evil of this present world reaches its full measure and
must face judgment, for though Almighty God may bear with the wickedness of man
for a time, a day comes when He can bear with it no longer and must punish the
evil lest that evil destroy all that is good and that requires the annihilation
of they who take pleasure in evil and in unrighteousness, but for the present
God holds back His wrath that this present world so rightfully deserves because
He does not take pleasure in punishment, judgment, or destruction, and is not
willing that any should perish but that all would come to repentance (2 Pet.
3:9) be saved from the ever agonizing
fires of Hell, and receive eternal life.
For just as our souls are cleansed from sin and we are made
spiritually alive through the forgiveness of sins, so then one day we will also
be liberated from bodily death when these presently corruptible forms in which
sin dwells are made into incorruptible forms in which dwells no sin (1 Cor.
15:51-55, 1 Thess. 4:13-18) and then afterward, the dominion, that was usurped
by that serpent called Satan or the Devil, will be taken back from him and
placed under the rule of Christ Jesus and His saints, for it is in that day
that we see the prince of this world cast out, his final sentence pronounced
and his defeat made final, (Rev. 19-20) and lastly, creation itself shall be
liberated from the curse of sin when it is made anew and into a better world in
which there is no sin, no evil, no death, no decay, no corruption, no darkness,
no pain, no suffering, no grief or sadness, no hardship, nor any turmoil, hate,
or discord, but only peace, love, contentment, happiness, joy, and harmony
before the Lord God Almighty (Rev. 21-22)
But if there is any prayer to be to be said for Dennis Prager and
others like him it would be that he will come to realize that he cannot be
saved his own righteousness or by the law but that he will see how, no matter
what he does, that his righteousness will always fall short of the perfect
righteousness of God and that he will never be able to keep the law of God
without fail and that he will come to humbly examine himself before Almighty
God and not just his outward performance, but also his inward man and that by
an honest examining of himself and the law of God, he will come to understand
why it was necessary for Jesus Christ to die for our sins, that he will
recognize the need for redemption, and call upon the name of the one who is
able to redeem him out of his sins and grant him assurance about where he will
spend eternity and that he will pursue after righteousness and godliness out of
love for his Maker and out of appreciation and gratitude for His mercy and for
the forgiveness of sins.
If you want to be at peace concerning where you will spend eternity
and want to know for a certainty that a place in Heaven and in the promised new
and better world to come awaits you and you have not done so already, then I
urge you to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus today for the forgiveness of
sins so that you can have that peace. It
is but a simple prayer of repentance away:
"Lord Jesus I need you.
I realize that I am a sinner
who has fallen short of the glory of God
and that my goodness falls short
of your standard of Moral perfection.
Please forgive me of all of my sins.
Come into my heart and into my life
to be the Savior and Lord of my life.
Make me into the servant and follower
that you want me to be.
In your name Lord Jesus, I pray.
Amen."
Know that God is not concerned with the words that you use to call upon Him forgiveness, but with the attitude of your heart and if you have, with all sincerity, have asked Christ to forgive you of your sins, placing your trust in Him only for your salvation and in nothing else, then your sins are forgiven and your place in Heaven is certain.
End notes:
1. Dennis Prager, “Why My
Friends and I Had More Wisdom When We Were 12 Than College Students and Faculty
Have Today,” Townhall, July 26, 2022
https://townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/2022/07/26/why-my-friends-and-i-had-more-wisdom-when-we-were-12-than-college-students-and-faculty-have-today-n2610798
2. “Old Deluder Satan Law,” The
Laws And Liberties Of Massachusetts; Originally written, passed, and implemented
in 1647, reprinted from the Copy of the 1648 Edition in the Henry E. Huntington
Library, with an introduction by Max Farrand. Harvard University Press, 1929.
https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2016/08/ob/deludersatan.pdf
3.
Prager, Townhall
4.
Ibid.
5. Mike
Huckabee in response to Neil Cavuto’s question, “Where was God?” during the
terrible Sandy Hook elementary school shooting that took place in December of
2012; air date: December 15, 2012
http://video.foxnews.com/v/2038135300001/huckabee-where-was-god/?#sp=show-clips
6. Prager, Townhall
7. Ibid.
Scripture references:
1. Psalms
111:10
2.
Proverbs 1:7
3.
Proverbs 15:33
4.
Acts 17:11
5.
Malachi 3:6
6.
Hebrews 13:8
7.
Romans 3:23
8.
Genesis 2:16-17
9.
Genesis 3:3
10.
Genesis 3:4-5
11.
Genesis 3:19
12.
Matthew 15:11, 18-20
13.
Romans 5:12
14.
Romans 6:23
15. Romans 8:19-22
16.
Genesis 1:26
17.
Matthew 4:8-9
18.
Luke 4:6-7
19.
John 12:31
20.
John 16:11
21.
Hebrews 7:27
22.
2 Corinthians 5:21
23.
Hebrews 7:26-27
24.
Romans 4:25
25.
Romans 10:13
26.
Ephesians 4:30
27.
2 Corinthians 5:17
28.
2 Corinthians 5:18
29.
2 Peter 3:9
30.
1 Corinthians 15:51-55
31.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
32.
Revelation 19-20
33.
Revelation 21-22
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