Educating Ourselves for Peace and Life
Your education—harmful or helpful? Does higher education create peace or make war, free or enslave, protect or destroy? Read the following, it concerns you.
EDUCATION is proclaimed to be the backbone of this civilized world. Without it this world could not continue for long. It would soon sink back into the primitive past, like uncultivated and uncared-for land reclaimed by nature. Therefore, for continued enlightenment and progress, accent is on higher education.
This century boasts of this as being the age of enlightenment, the golden era of learning. It points to the many human conveniences and discoveries of science as progress and it claims to possess the ability to make advancement also in the art and wisdom of government and to be capable of providing men with a stable, satisfying system of global rule.
In its libraries this world has the accumulated knowledge of centuries of human experience. It does not believe that this knowledge is all vain, but it claims that by it man has learned practical wisdom. Such is the wisdom of this world. Following that wisdom the world has not come to know what it has desired most, namely peace and life. It fights, bleeds and tortures itself in order to run itself and govern itself without divine help and without caring for the divine will. Thus it is that the world by its own wisdom has not come to know God, but leaves Jehovah God out of all its calculations and relies upon its own wisdom, ability and schemes.
Therefore we ask: How intelligent is this world? What has it gained from its intellectual achievements? How far has it progressed toward a better world? Is it capable of governing itself? Is its education harmful or helpful? True, this is an age of streamlined trains and automobiles, of jet-propelled airplanes and atomic-powered submarines, an era of electricity and harnessed power. But where are its moral and spiritual values and achievements? What are its principles? Its standards? What is its wisdom? As President Eisenhower so aptly stated at the Columbia University bicentennial dinner: “Let us not, however, define truth or knowledge of the truth solely in the narrow terms of mere fact or statistics or mathematical equation. Wisdom and human understanding—a sense of proportion—are essential. Knowledge can give us nuclear fission; only wisdom and understanding can assure its application to human betterment rather than to human destruction.”
The extent of human carnage in this world committed with instruments of knowledge condemns this world as void of wisdom and understanding. It has grown up like a freakish monster, strong and fearsome with might and power, but void of all moral and spiritual responsibility. Consequently, we live in a world of miraculous gadgets, television, telephones and antibiotics, while at the same time being plagued with corruption, immorality, crime, fear, anxiety and trepidation. This lack of moral fiber was made clear by Bernard M. Baruch, who, when speaking to a group of college students at City College, New York, declared:
“This same half century or more which has brought such astonishing material advances has been marked by two terrible world wars and by a revival of ancient tyrannies, made all the more barbaric through being technologically refined.”
Continuing, Baruch briefly reflected on the course of this atomic age, giving reasons for its failure. Some sixty years ago, he said, all nations were thought to be evolving steadily toward a better life and increased freedom for the individual. But, he added, “that simple faith in the certainty of progress is gone. In this twentieth century we have sniffed the horrible stench of gas chambers; we have seen the return of slavery as a human institution, both in Germany under Hitler and behind the Iron Curtain. Why is it that we perform miracles almost daily in our laboratories but fumble like children when governing ourselves? Is it not largely because we are so poorly educated?”
Illustrating his point Baruch chose the framers of the United States Constitution as an example, saying: “The men who framed the Constitution would not today be called a highly educated group, by academic standards. There was not a professor of government among them. . . . I daresay that most of the men who drafted the Constitution could not have met the entrance requirements for this college. Still, despite their lack of formal education, the men who met in Philadelphia in 1787 were well-educated in the true meaning of the term. First, and most important, they knew how to think. . . . The fathers of our country were well-educated in still another sense—they were deeply imbued with moral values. Their minds drew a clear distinction between good and evil, between principle and expediency. They were not uncertain of the values they believed in and were determined to uphold. . . .
“Today, in contrast, thinking has become a generally neglected art. Although we read prodigiously we seem to have lost the faculty of learning from the past. We lack any sure sense of values. Never in history has mankind boasted superior means of communication, high speed printing presses, profusely illustrated magazines, the radio, movies, television. Yet all these miraculous forms of communication seem less conducive to thought than a log in the woods. Almost, in fact, these jet-propelled, streamlined means of communication appear the enemies of thinking. They bombard us daily with fresh distractions and new alarms. The net result is that our energies—not only our intellectual energies but our economic and military resources—are dissipated on side issues, while the fundamentals of the critical problems before us remain untouched and ignored. Not too long ago, it was fondly thought that ours was ‘The Age of Enlightenment.’ More and more it is becoming ‘The Age of Distraction.’ . . .
“Over the last half century or more our hopes for a better world have revolved mainly around material advances. We have pressed this technological quest to the point where nothing seems beyond man’s capacity—nothing physical or material, that is. We can level mountains, irrigate deserts, fly faster than speed of sound. Reflecting this rage for technological advance, our colleges and universities have tended more and more to emphasize technical skill rather than thinking ability. And where has it all brought us? It has brought us to where we live in fear that this incredible energy at man’s command will become the means of destroying civilization as we know it. Clearly something is missing. That something can hardly be still more power, still newer technological advances. The something we lack is discipline, the capacity to govern ourselves and to control the power that is already ours.”—Vital Speeches of the Day, June, 1953.
ADMISSION OF FAILURE
This world lacks discipline, true, but does not want to be disciplined in righteousness. It lacks the capacity to govern itself, but rejects Jehovah God to rule over it. It lacks the good sense to control its prodigious power, but does not want the wisdom that could control it. It cries and longs for peace, but madly prepares for war. It professes great piety and godliness, but wants none of God or his Word. Its educators have either minimized or totally ignored mankind’s spiritual welfare. They have turned away from the Bible as a textbook of knowledge and, in accord with their own selfish desires, pursued a course contrary to it, and thus contrary to peace and life. How appropriate are the prophet’s words: “How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of Jehovah is with us? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes hath wrought falsely. The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them?”—Jer. 8:8, 9, AS.
Proclaiming a remedy for this failure, President Eisenhower called on people everywhere ‘to preach the truth and to practice it fearlessly.’ “Truth,” he said, “can make men free! And where men are free to plan their lives, to govern themselves, to know the truth and to understand their fellow men, we believe that there also is the will to live at peace. Here, then, in spite of A-bombs, H-bombs, all the cruel destructiveness of modern war; in spite of terror, subversion, propaganda and bribery, we see the key to peace. That key is knowledge and understanding—and their constant use by men everywhere. . . . Here is the unending mission of the university—indeed of every educational institution of the free world—to find and spread the truth!”
TRUTH AS A REMEDY
Over nineteen hundred years ago, the greatest educator of all time, Jesus of Nazareth, proclaimed this principle of truth up and down Palestine. But the truth he proclaimed was not the wisdom of this world. Therefore Pilate retorted to Jesus: “What is truth?” To him Caesar’s political ambitions, institutions, traditions, etc., were justifiable truths to be preached throughout the Roman Empire. But to Jesus truth was something entirely different, something foreign to this world, something this world knew nothing about. Jesus announced God’s Word to be truth. “Your word is truth,” said he. On a previous occasion he told his disciples: “If you remain in my word, you are really my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”—John 18:38; 17:17; 8:31, 32, NW.
The great truths that Jesus proclaimed were regarding Jehovah God and his kingdom by Christ, that these were no part of this old world, that this world was heading for an abrupt end at the battle of Armageddon, that mankind’s only hope for survival of that battle was by their gaining an accurate knowledge of the Almighty and his Word and living lives in accordance with it. “This means everlasting life,” said he, “their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.” To this end he commanded: “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for the purpose of a witness to all the nations, and then the accomplished end will come.” These were the truths that would set men free. “This wisdom,” said Paul, “not one of the rulers of this system of things came to know, for if they had known it they would not have impaled the glorious Lord.”—John 17:3; Matt. 24:14; 1 Cor. 2:8, NW.
Those desiring peace and life must come to know of this wisdom. But how? For over seventy years Jehovah’s witnesses have been engaged in the most intensified educational campaign ever to hit this earth in an effort to bring these truths to the people. Their work carried on in over a hundred languages and in 150 countries and lands has been a strange work with marvelous results.
By educating themselves in God’s Word, the Bible, Jehovah’s witnesses have been able to do that which the nations round about them have been unable to accomplish for the past four thousand years. Knowing and believing the Bible and living according to its divine principles have enabled them, even though of many different nationalities, colors and languages, to meet together in unity and peace. Knowledge that man should do no murder, nor steal, nor bribe, backed up by the spirit of God and a strong desire and drive to do God’s will, has enabled them to lay down their warring arms, racial differences, political and national barriers. These do not steal or bribe. They have beaten their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruninghooks. They do not rise up against one another, neither do they learn war any more. They live at peace with one another.
Their being motivated with proper thinking, with right principles, has enabled them to cleanse out all delinquency from their midst, stem the tide of crime, turn back loose living and triumph over wickedness. In other words, Bible truth has freed them. It has made them a society distinct from this old world. It has made them a New World society, glorifying God’s name.
HOW TRUE KNOWLEDGE FREES
The main procedure is to change over our mind, which directs our desires and course. By changing our desires, will, interests, disposition, mental outlook and heart attitude to conform to God’s will and Word, our actions will correspondingly change for the better. The key to effecting such a change is truth, Bible truth. Serious Bible study will change our views on many things. It will refashion our mind and make it over according to God’s righteous view of matters. This we are advised to do by the apostle Paul: “Quit being fashioned after this system of things, but be transformed by making your mind over.” “Strip off the old personality with its practices, and clothe yourselves with the new personality which through accurate knowledge is being renewed according to the image of the one who created it.”—Rom. 12:2; Col. 3:9, 10, NW.
Education does make a society, but only proper education can make a New World society, one that conforms itself to the will of God. Despite all its so-called wisdom this world is considered foolish in the sight of God. It struggles, fights, bleeds and tortures itself in order to run and govern itself independently of God. For this it will be destroyed. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”—Hos. 4:6.
Paul advises: “If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this system of things, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written: ‘He catches the wise in their own craftiness.’ And again: ‘Jehovah knows that the reasonings of the wise men are futile.’” To be truly wise, go to the Bible. Study it. Follow its counsel closely. Its words of wisdom will free you from the entanglements of this old world and will truly enlighten you with hope of life and peace in the new world of God’s making. This is education of the highest order. Educating ourselves in these truths guarantees for us peace and life.—1 Cor. 3:18-20, NW.