Theme: CHRISTIANITY AND SECULAR EDUCATION
Text: “…I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?” – 1 Corinthians 1:19,20.
Comment: It is an indisputable fact that academic knowledge that fails to acknowledge the supremacy or Almightiness of the Most High cannot solve the problems facing the world, that is, bring peace, lasting peace to mankind. It should be borne in mind that book knowledge is not synonymous with intelligence or wisdom.
The fact that the world is rapidly degenerating in spiritual and moral standards despite the intellectual scope it has attained as at present is enough for men to realize the limitations and imperfection of academic education. Consider how many thousands of philosophers, scientists, medical doctors, lawyers, politicians, economists, and so forth we have all over the world. No doubt, it is all evidence of the growth of worldly knowledge and wisdom at its best! But what do we find? A world laden with iniquities, strife, racial prejudice, diseases, hunger, threats of war, anxiety, poverty, and so on. Indeed for good reasons did God cause the statement in the text for today to be written down.
James the Apostle compared the wisdom of God and that of the world and showed the superiority of the wisdom of God in this vein: “…But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” – James 3:13-17.