On-Line-Book-The Kingdom Within

Knowledge Without Wisdom

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00 | Introduction

Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.

Modern society has suffered greatly in the twentieth century as a result of secular revolt, materialism, and atheism. As earth made the transition from the nineteenth century to the twentieth, it was plunged into a suicidal destiny never before experienced in its long and turbulent history. Will we survive? Knowledge Without Wisdom, together with the recording of the evolving circumstances, punctuated points, and defining moments of the twentieth century and beyond, is a commentary on the transformation of modern civilization.

The secularism of the twentieth century will go on record as the most devastating, soul-destroying epoch in history. Our modern secularism was fostered by two worldwide influences: first, the domination of Western civilization by the Christian church and, second, nineteenth century “science.” Modern secularism began as a rising protest against the complete domination of Western civilization by the institutionalized Christian church. The incompatible parents of secularism were, therefore, the narrow-minded and godless attitude of nineteenth century “science” on the one hand and, on the other hand, the totalitarian Christian church.

As our planet exited the twentieth century, we saw that the prevailing intellectual and philosophical climate of all Western and Eastern life was decidedly secular-humanistic. For the preceding three centuries, Western thinking was progressively secularized. As a result, the majority of professed Christians of Western civilization are actually unwitting secularists. Religion has more or less become a nominal influence — nothing more than a ritualistic exercise as demonstrated by the Vatican of Rome.

In the 1,900 years since the cross at Golgotha, mankind had been living in a distinctly agrarian society that provided the scaffolding for life in a civilized world. Savagery and barbarism have always been the response of mortal beings to danger and fear. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries demonstrate this in a way we as mortals hardly recognize. Such is our universal denial.

Ancient history records that mankind was not always so primitive and fearful, that hundreds of thousands of years ago men and women lived courageously in a civilization that makes our modern example look savage. That civilization was later known as Dilmun, situated in the southern region of Mesopotamia, now known as the Persian Gulf. So how did the evolving races become so fearful, worshipping just about anything and anybody who presented themselves?

Knowledge Without Wisdom will investigate this conundrum. As readers immerse themselves in the recorded history of the twentieth century, the mystery will unfold and become clear. After reading the evidence presented in this book, readers will see evidence that we who dwell on this planet have done ourselves and future generations a great disservice. Although we have attained a great storehouse of knowledge through the centuries, we have failed utterly to augment this abundance with the requisite wisdom to allow our natural evolution to occur.

Modern society does not recognize that without the thrilling message of Jesus’ life, we would still be languishing in a world of myth and mysticism. Humankind was previously indoctrinated by mythical stories of times during which primitive peoples believed in the gods who go on a rampage in the storm, who shake the earth with their wrath, who strike down men in their anger, and who inflict their judgments of displeasure in times of famine and flood — the gods of primitive religion. They are not the gods who rule the universe.

The ideas of Jesus need to be restated; messages of love and brotherhood, as attested to in the New Testament, must be reiterated to remind us all of Christ’s goodness. It is unfortunate that superstition, myth-making, and mysticism were then and still are today our most cherished reactions to anything out of the ordinary, weird, or paranormal. Man has thrived on this approach, having always been a myth-maker, relying on and prepared to believe the messenger, rather than to deal with reality and truth. In short, we are lazy; we prefer to take our information second-hand, providing that it makes us feel comfortable and removes our fears.

A great power, a mighty influence was brought to bear, to free the thinking and living of the Western peoples from the iron-clad grasp of ecclesiastical totalitarianism and its ungodly domination over man. The rising tide of secularism broke this grasp of church control. Now it has established a new and godless type of mastery over the hearts and minds of modern humankind.

The tyrannical and dictatorial political state is the direct offspring of scientific materialism and philosophical secularism. No sooner is man freed by secularism from the domination of the institutionalized church than it delivers man into slavish bondage to the totalitarian and socialist state. Secularism delivers man from ecclesiastic slavery only to lure him into the tyranny and oppression of political and economic slavery. Slavery is slavery.

Materialists deny God; secularists ignore God. As our planet transited through the latter part of the last century, secularism took on a more militant stance as evinced by so-called political correctness and other manifestations of the secular humanists. Twenty-first-century secularism insists that man does not need God. Yet, in fact, nothing can take the place of God in our society. While we should never surrender the beneficent gains of the secular revolt against totalitarian religion, secularism will never bring peace to our planet. The great mistake of secularists is that they went beyond freedom from the bondage of religious totalitarianism to institute a revolt against God himself — sometimes overtly, sometimes covertly.

There is no denying we owe to the secular revolt the amazing technological advancements of American industrialism and the unprecedented material progress of Western civilization. We all enjoy many liberties and satisfactions resulting from the secular revolt. Because it went too far and resulted in losing sight of God and true religion, however, there also appeared the unsolicited harvest of two world wars and countless regional conflicts resulting in international discord. We must realize that this godless philosophy of human society only leads to more animosity, unhappiness, unrest, social dysfunction, wars, and worldwide disaster.

That the secularists antagonized true religion in order to get their way was not essential. It is not necessary to abandon our faith in God to enjoy the benefits and blessings of the modern secular revolt. The promotion of science and education would have been just as easily achieved by the secularists had they not confronted true religion. Without wisdom, however, they had difficulty recognizing true religion and its fruits — tolerance, social service, true democratic government, and civil liberties.

Without God and without religion, scientific secularism is unable to coordinate its forces, harmonize its divergent and competitive interests, races, and nationalism. Twentieth-century secular humanist society has utterly failed, exposing its inhabitants as a bankrupt society without virtue, lacking principles, ethics, morals, and values — all of the goodness extolled by Jesus of Nazareth. Secular humanism is disintegrating. The only cohesive force resisting the final disintegration is nationalism. And nationalism is the primary barrier to world peace.

The inherent weakness of secular humanism is that it discards virtues and religion, replacing them with politics and power. Secular socialism and political optimism are simply cruel illusions. How can a society be established after the life and teachings of Jesus when it inaugurates the brotherhood of man but denies the fatherhood of God? For modern society to believe it can march ignorantly toward a continuation of the insanity we now accept as commonplace is not only inconsistent with recorded history, it dispels and repudiates the vast storehouse of knowledge acquired during our long and laborious climb from primitive savagery to the modern age. Without God, no amount of science and material wealth will lead to worldwide peace.

The complete secularization of science, education, industry, and society in the West and East will lead to ultimate disaster. During this twentieth century we murdered more human beings than during the whole nineteen centuries of the Christian dispensation leading up to this age. This is only a glimpse of the terrible harvest yet to come if materialism and secularism continue unabated through the twenty-first century.

Christianity has done a great service to our world. But what we need most now are the teachings of Jesus. It’s futile to speak of a revival of primitive Christianity, with the spiritual menace of a galaxy of “saints and martyrs” who were assumed to have special privileges and influences at the divine courts, and therefore able to intercede on behalf of man before the Gods.

The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men — and never once ask for or receive material compensation for doing so. In Jesus, the universe produced a mortal man in whom the spirit of love triumphed over the material handicaps of time and overcame the fact of physical origin. The beauty and sublimity, the humanity and divinity, the simplicity and uniqueness of Jesus’ life on earth — all these present such a striking and appealing picture of man-saving and God-revealing that the theologians and philosophers should be effectively restrained from forming creeds or creating theological systems of spiritual bondage out of them — because Jesus was nothing less than the transcendental bestowal of God in the form of man.

Next to the declaration that his Father is a living and loving spirit, “the Kingdom of God is Within you” was the greatest pronouncement Jesus ever made. Bear in mind that God needs man and man needs God. This is a mutually necessary relationship for the full and final attainment of eternal personality experience and the divine destiny that awaits each of us after death.

The acquisition of wisdom is the as yet undiscovered goal of all who live in this and future ages. For without obtaining wisdom and augmenting it with knowledge, we will hardly survive this new century.

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