Theme: CHRISTIANITY AND SECULAR EDUCATION
Text: “… God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” – Ecclesiastes 7:29.
Comment: After creating man, God put him in the Garden of Eden and said unto the couple, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth”. (Genesis 1:28) The body of knowledge which God has permitted man to build up in keeping with the mandate to subdue the earth, is what is called science. But science has proved to be valuable only when men use it in a beneficial way as the devil has employed science as a device to mislead many people from the Christian Faith or the true worship of God. The world at large has been placed in a state of fear and horror. This is the bane of man decried by King Solomon in the text for today.
From the way things have turned out to be, there is every reason for true Christians to pursue secular education with utmost caution and be selective of the courses they read so as not to derail in their race of life by the grace of God. Such ones should endeavour by God’s grace to avoid the pitfalls of some ungodly Jews of old who degenerated to honouring the devil with the works of their hands and it went ill with them. Scriptures say: “Thus were they defiled with their works, and went a whoring with their own inventions…” – Psalm 106:39-43; see also 1 Corinthians 3:19.