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The World by Wisdom Knew Not God

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 11, 1914

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 24.

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“The World by Wisdom Knew Not God”

By K. H. Wood

K. H. WOOD
THE recent publication of a further exposition of the “Twentieth Century Religion,” by Dr. Charles William Eliot, who for many years was president of Harvard University, furnishes an illustration of the kind of instruction received by students in many schools of the world, and also of the faith-destroying influences under which they are placed while receiving an education.
In this work, Dr. Eliot makes the following statements: “God did not make man out of the dust of the earth. God did not turn stonemason and give into the hands of Moses the ten commandments. Neither did the sun stand still for Joshua. Neither did Jonah go through his thrilling experience in the closed quarters of the whale.”
He says further: “No thinking person now accepts as anything but primitive myth or fanciful poetry the story of the garden of Eden, or the portrait of God in the second chapter of Genesis as a being who formed man out of the dust of the ground, as a child fashions an image out of snow or clay.”
Of such utterances the spirit of prophecy says:—
“Many of the greatest scholars and statesmen, the world’s most eminent men, will in these last days turn from the light, because the world by wisdom knows not God.”—The Acts of the Apostles, pages 241, 242.
Is it possible that such teachings of Dr. Eliot and other leading educators, have no influence in the schoolroom? Can it be that the large number of teachers who study their writings, and endeavor to imitate these master minds, will not pass the same ideas on to their pupils?
Further brief quotations from the spirit of prophecy will answer these questions fully:—
“Philosophical speculations and scientific research in which God is not acknowledged are making skeptics of thousands of the youth. In the schools of today the conclusions that learned men have reached as the result of their scientific investigations are carefully taught and fully explained, while the impression is distinctly given that if these learned men are correct, the Bible can not be.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VIII, page 305.
“Thus the study of science, which should impart a knowledge of God, is so mingled with the speculations and theories of men that it tends to infidelity.”—Education, page 227.
Not only is the work of creation, as recorded in the inspired Word, taught to be “primitive myth,” but the miracles wrought by our Saviour are also discounted.
“As we near the close of time, the human mind is more readily affected by Satan’s devices. He leads deceived mortals to account for the works and miracles of Christ upon general principles.”—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. I, page 293.
Dr. Eliot also declares that “men of science have no faith in magic or miracles.”
It is not the object of true education to “deal in abstract theories, but in that which is essential to the development of character; that which will enlarge man’s capacity for knowing God, and increase his power to do good.”
If, then, the youth follow a course of study which will destroy their capacity for knowing God, surely we can only expect that their capacity for knowing evil will increase proportionately, and eventually many will walk the broad road of infidelity, and forfeit their right to eternal life.
That the youth of the present age are so irreligiously inclined is not surprising when we consider that they have been taught that God’s own words, and the inspired record of his doings, are only myths or “fanciful poetry.”
If the youth among us gain a complete knowledge of all the sciences and arts which the schools of the world afford, yet fail to receive the preparation necessary to obtain life everlasting, have they received anything worthy of the name education?
If the student is not lost to the cause of God altogether, the detrimental effect of such an education upon his spiritual life necessarily dwarfs his capacity for service in the work of carrying the last message of mercy to a dying world. Realizing that we are living in the very last hours of this world’s history, we have no time to waste on that which will not fit us for better service for the Master.
The Lord in his mercy has again and again warned us of the spirit of infidelity pervading the teachings of the schools of the world, and has provided schools among us in which our young people can receive a college education without coming under influences which destroy faith in the Word, which alone can lead them to salvation.
In view of these things, it is incumbentupon each of us to encourage the youth to attend these schools for Christian workers, and fit themselves for service in some branch of the Lord’s work; for the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.
China.