Sunday, August 13, 2023

What Gives A 12 Year Old More Wisdom Than A College Student

 


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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