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Transcript 507A
Worldly Philosophies and the Christian
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Could you tell me how a Christian should think about the different ideas or philosophies of the world, how you should relate to the way the world is set up, the world system?
HC: The question is, how should the born again believer, the Christian, who is a child of God, relate to the philosophies and the systems of the world? We learn from I Corinthians 1 and I Corinthians 2 that the wisdom of the world is foolishness to God. And likewise, the foolishness of preaching, the foolishness of the Gospel, is, at least the world looks upon the preaching of the Gospel as foolishness.
You see, there are two kingdoms in this world. There is the dominion of Satan on the one hand, composed of the majority of all the peoples of the world. And they desperately are trying to find answers, they're trying to find some kind of truth. They're trying to find Utopia, the more abundant life. And so they develop their philosophies. They think maybe through this means they'll find answers. They desperately work through science trying to find some answer to the riddles of the universe. They never go to God, of course. They never go to the Bible. They won't start there at all. They try to judge from what they can discover with their own finite minds. They try to find truth.
So that's what we have on the one hand. That's the wisdom of the world. And it's all going to perish. They'll never find truth. Occasionally they will uncover some beautiful evidence that will again resound to the praise of God as we learn more and more about the secrets of nature, and so on. But unsaved man will not praise God. The believers can stand on the sidelines and look at it and say, "Yes, isn't it marvelous that God's laws are so carefully developed and so unchangeable that man can rendezvous with the moon, and send rockets to Mars," and so on.
But the foolishness of preaching is that which has to do with the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. This has to do with people who know where truth is. They know how the world came into existence. They know how God created it. They know what is going to happen in the future? because they believe what the Bible says. They know why there is sin and suffering in the world. They know all kinds of things about this universe that are denied the unsaved who will not look upon the Bible as this kind of a guide at all.
And yet the world will regard them as being foolish. And so this is the kind of situation that exists. You go into any large library, like the University of California library, where there are just hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of volumes. And read them all, if you had time to do it. And through it, the thread that runs through it all is the pursuit of truth. And yet they'll never find truth there at all.
The one book that you have to turn to to find truth is the Bible.
CALLER: So you think the best way is just to disregard most of the concepts of the world that have been set up?
HC: You know, that's a very interesting question. I often talk to young people about education, whether they should go to college, or whatever. And I remember when I was a youngster that we had to learn certain things about Shakespeare, and we had to learn certain things about various writers of yore, of the past, secular writers. And this all comes under the general heading of Humanities. On the one hand, of course, are the analytical subjects, like Math and Engineering, and so on. And on the other side of the coin were the Humanities, where you develop your cultural background. You learn more and more about the world that we have.
And the older I get and the more I think about this, I really think, all right, Now here is a man or a woman, and they will spend long long hours reading plays of Shakespeare, or whatever it might be, and trying to understand why it was written or what the sense of it was. And I often think, now suppose those exact same number of hours were devoted to the same kind of an intense study of the Bible, trying really to grapple with the Book of Isaiah, the Book of Jeremiah, and really sitting at the feet of God and learning from Him. I wonder which of the two students would come out on top. Which one would be most qualified to face the world?
Because after all, the purpose of an education in pursuit of truth is to enable a person to be developed so he can face the world, so that he can take his proper position amongst the peoples of the world to make his contribution, whatever that might be. And I am almost, yes, I am thoroughly convinced that the one who would spend the time in the scriptures would be far far more qualified to face the issues of life and really take his place amongst the peoples of the world, to make a serious contribution, than the one who spent so much time in the secular Humanities.
Now I know that this sounds very appalling This sounds like it's putting down all kinds of education. But nevertheless, I think this is very Biblical. Now it's true, of course, that we have to learn Math, so that we are able to engage in a reasonably amount of commerce and trade. We certainly have to learn to write and to read, because we have to communicate. And we can't even begin to understand the Bible until we first have these basic tools, So we have to take English; we have to learn about Subjects and Predicates, and Objects, and so on. These are basic tools that we first must have.
But once we have those tools, then I think as fast as we can, go to work in the scriptures themselves. I think that we could really turn out youngsters that were wonderfully equipped to face the world. I think of Christian high schools, for example, or even Christian grammar schools, with all the fact that they are Christian (and now I'm really going, but I might as well say it). With all the fact that they are Christian, they spend a lot of time in secular writings and in secular history, and so on. Now a little history of our country and so on, can be helpful, certainly. But I really believe that if our youngsters were really trained in the scriptures themselves, if these were analyzed instead of Macbeth, and lots and lots of time were put into them in memorization, and so on, I really think that we couldn't do our youngsters a better thing.
CALLER: Yes, I think that's pretty good. A lot of the literature down through the years has themes that are really not the greatest, when you get down to what it revolves around. It's sinful.
HC: Well, it does come out of the mind of sinful man. And they're limited by that man's mind and his particular knowledge. And how can that hold a candle to what we read in the Bible, where the limitation is the infinite mind of God. There is no possibility that it can hold a candle to this.
There are those, for example, who make lifelong studies of the philosophies of Aristotle or Socrates, or Plato, or whoever it might be. But what have you got when you're all done? You simply are trying to understand his mind. But what is his mind? It's very finite. It's exceedingly far from truth. It may have impinged upon truth a little here and there, and that may make it a little bit exciting. But spend that same time in the scriptures, really trying to understand what God is saying, comparing scripture with scripture. Then you not only are being obedient to the Lord, because you're feeding on His Word. Secondly, you are going to be spiritually strengthened by His Word. But thirdly, you're also going to be equipped to become a better ambassador of Christ, because you've got more of God's Word to share with others. You have better understanding of the whole salvation program. You have everything going for you.
I often think. You know, many people go years to school. And they get their doctors' degrees in this or that. But does that really help them to face the situation when the quarrels begin in their home, or when they're frustrated because of this or that, or when the bad news comes and they've lost a job, or they've lost a dear one? Do any of these things really help them to face the real issues of life? And as a matter of fact, they hardly do.
But on the other hand, if they had had a very deep schooling in the Word of God, so that they have learned again and again and again that there is a God in whom they can trust, and there is a way of life that can bring real joy and real peace and real contentment and real security, how much better would they not have been qualified for facing this world?
CALLER: Yes.