EDUCATION
Education is most important to people of the present world and many parents generously struggle to have their children acquire the best education possible in order to “be successful”, an important goal in this life. Many parents realize the importance of a higher education they want their children to do well in their careers during life. However if parents sincerely love their children they would first search into something more important that would be of immense benefit to first themselves and their children, not only until death but for ever and ever into all eternity. In order to really “be successful” in this present life we must acquire as our most important educational project knowledge of and love for the living God and Creator of all.
God is very far away or even non-existent and unimportant in the minds of many people, but as we cannot deny that the universe and mankind really exist, so we cannot deny that God really exists and that it is an absolute impossibility that there be no God, for if there were no God, neither would there be creatures like ourselves having knowledge and intellect, able to build houses and roads, highways and cities, buildings and airports, and He who made us endowed us with so much more! But because God is real, what He as our Creator has to said is vital to our well being and happiness. If we are scoffers and unbelievers this knowledge will be of no concern or benefit to us. On the contrary we would do well to be seekers of what is good and permanently beneficial in this sinful and temporary world. Sin and rejection of God is a choice, which many select, but will necessarily end up in sorrow and wretchedness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Of course education is not evil in itself and of course it is proven to be useful. But education is not the road to happiness as there is something much more important than any education. For education can fill a man with knowledge but not with wisdom. Education can fill a man with knowledge but cannot extend his life. It is better to have no education than to be ignorant or inimical toward God. God is so important to our happiness and benefit that knowledge of Him without any other knowledge would cause a person to be filled with divine love and wisdom. Having an education or no education are equally of no value without knowledge of God. For we cannot go to Him on judgment day and expect anything good when we have never known or honored Him, or denied His existence. The worst thing is to become an enemy of God insulting and mocking Him whom you do not even know or believe!
Education is the acquisition and use of knowledge but God, who created man and endowed him with his intellect is the source of all knowledge. It is better to be ignorant and draw near to God in faith and love than to be well educated and become His enemy. Some Saints could neither read or write but were filled with divine wisdom. They drew near to God and filled with His love they avoided evil thoughts words and deeds. The choice of living without belief in God is inspired by the evil and deceptive spirit of wickedness and he is the cause of bitterness, hatred, dishonesty, crime and wars among men.
Whether educated or not, we are all born as babes and like everyone else must leave this world through the door of death, which opens to the coming judgment where we will receive either everlasting reward or everlasting punishment. If we are ignorant or reject it, does not alter the fact of the necessity of a education that leads us away from eternal death to eternal life. If we investigate and find that education is good and ignorance is bad, how can we reject or avoid investigating everlasting life and everlasting death? The greatest tragedy is ignorance of God and His goodness and of divine justice to which all are subject.
God created us and gave us wonderful gifts according to His plan and being the source of all creation, He knows well the purpose for everything that he created. He not only gave us feelings and intellect but also freedom and the ability to love good and hate evil. When He created man and woman, He created them in His own image and gave them a law containing the penalty of death. Through deception, the woman first and then the man broke the law, the result was that sin and eventually death entered and dominated their lives and that of their posterity. With it came much suffering and separation from God on the part of many who did not choose to live a good life of obedience and trust in God.
Among men there arose Abraham who was a good man who sought God. God communicated with Abraham and established a covenant with him sealed by circumcision. After leaving Egypt eventually through the great Moses God established another covenant with Abraham’s descendants preserving them as His choice people. These people became a nation which alone had knowledge of the true God and they benefitted greatly from their divine covenant, and He often came to their aid and provided for their many needs both in war and peace. They were given a law which became know as the Mosaic Law guiding their lives through regulation regarding their behavior. This law contains the well known Ten Commandments. The law regulated their lives and relationships with other nations with people and with each other.
Moses promised the Jews a Messiah or Christ who would come and every soul was warned to follow him, or be condemned and cut off from the people. About two thousand years ago Christ did come and fulfilled many Old Testament prophecies, and He preached the Gospel (good news). He was willingly made a prisoner and was sentenced to death on the Cross. He was crucified and on the third day He arose from the dead, having overthrown the devil who had been tyrannizing mankind by inciting evil and wicked behavior. Mankind had been faced with the assurance of death under the law. But Christ transformed death, and by His death He put death to death. The devil was stripped of the authority and power through which He kept men in misery and hopelessness. Many of the Jews demanded His death and rejected the fact that He was truly the Christ, who healed the sick gave eyes to the blind and raised the paralytics, and He raised himself from the dead on the third day.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ means that we will all rise from the dead into eternal life by our faith in Him and by keeping all of His commandments. A small investment of time and effort during the time of this temporary life can result in everlasting life which we will enter by going through the door of death, for Christ transformed death into the entrance to eternal life.
The greatest education that any man can possible acquire is found in these introductory words which introduce him to the greatest good ever possible for mankind. For knowledge of God is infinitely superior to any other knowledge for it is the door to eternal life. The divine law given by Christ speaks clearly warning unbelievers and the wicked who refuse His divine offer with eternal suffering. There will be weeping an gnashing of teeth or they can keep His law and enter into eternal life, where there will be joy, happiness and life that will never end. In that life there will be complete fulfillment for God will be our food and drink and comfort. Our God is a good and compassionate God and the only lover of mankind, being kind and merciful He fills us with divine love for God is love and is the only source of happiness for all, true joy and everlasting peace.
Jesus Christ appeared to us as a man and He is also one of the Trinity so His words are truth, and He is the Truth who came down to us from heaven. His words are more precious than anything that exists, greater than the sun and moon and the stars, for Christ our King and God is proof that God exists, as He did His works healing the sick, and raising the dead. Death was our enemy and Christ by His death turned it into a friend. Life held no promises beyond death and Christ promises everlasting life; To Him is due all glory honor and worship for ever!
Glory to God in the highest and one earth peace and good will among men.
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