With each passing day it seems that there is less and less veracity to the truths we hear passed on to us through our favorite news sources. The term "just the facts" has been watered down to "your facts." Its sad really. What can we trust? Whom can we trust?
Its not like there isn't enough information out there. I heard recently that the average person in the year 1800 was only exposed to about as much information as there is in a Sunday newspaper in there entire life! Its an amazing thought. We live in an age where a first grader has probably been exposed to more information than many adults in previous ages (This doesn't mean the first grader is retaining all that information or even understands it). Yet it is unbelievable that we have access to so much.
The enlightenment of our world has been the hope and goal of many including the founders of our country:
"The most effectual means of preventing [the perversion of power into tyranny are] to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes." --Thomas Jefferson: Diffusion of Knowledge Bill, 1779. FE 2:221, Papers 2:526
From one standpoint the world is awash in information that could of course lead people to greater heights of development. But despite the profusion of knowledge we are told that in the "last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power." 2 Timothy 3:1-5
It seems the dissemination of information alone is not enough to stem the tide of human regression. But we know also that not all is lost. The Psalmist put it beautifully as he illustrated the anchor that we must grasp: "Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper." Psalm 1:1-3
If we build our house on the rock, on the word of God, we can weather the storm. The torrents of information may batter against us but we through the knowledge and practice of the word may be able to withstand all that this world can throw our way.
Its not like there isn't enough information out there. I heard recently that the average person in the year 1800 was only exposed to about as much information as there is in a Sunday newspaper in there entire life! Its an amazing thought. We live in an age where a first grader has probably been exposed to more information than many adults in previous ages (This doesn't mean the first grader is retaining all that information or even understands it). Yet it is unbelievable that we have access to so much.
The enlightenment of our world has been the hope and goal of many including the founders of our country:
"The most effectual means of preventing [the perversion of power into tyranny are] to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits, that possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes." --Thomas Jefferson: Diffusion of Knowledge Bill, 1779. FE 2:221, Papers 2:526
From one standpoint the world is awash in information that could of course lead people to greater heights of development. But despite the profusion of knowledge we are told that in the "last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power." 2 Timothy 3:1-5
It seems the dissemination of information alone is not enough to stem the tide of human regression. But we know also that not all is lost. The Psalmist put it beautifully as he illustrated the anchor that we must grasp: "Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper." Psalm 1:1-3
If we build our house on the rock, on the word of God, we can weather the storm. The torrents of information may batter against us but we through the knowledge and practice of the word may be able to withstand all that this world can throw our way.
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