Priorities

I observed a pickup truck, one day, with a bumper sticker that proclaimed, "When the Church ruled the world they called it the 'dark ages'".

I have been pondering that statement, and though I did not follow the vehicle and talk with the lady that was driving, I want to take a moment to look at that statement.

Today, more than at any time in my life, we are experiencing an all out effort to rewrite Amercian history, to remove any reference to God's involvement, or the involvement of the Christian Church in the founding of our country. For years, now, I have listened to radio announcements regarding graduation that proclaim, "Whenever a small community began to grow, the first public building that was built was a school." I don't think that is true.

When a group of people decided to form a town, the first public building they built was usually a church. It was the church that took on the resonsibility of teaching people to read and write, and do their numbers. The initial textbooks were the Bible. For the most part, the pastor, or parson, was the most educated person in town; and it was understood that he would do the Christian thing to educate everybody.

The first colleges and universities were also started by the Christian church, for the purpose of training clergy to continue the good work.

In the Continental Navy, the chaplain was also the purser, and the person who took care of the administration. Again, not only was he the most educated person onboard, he was also the most trustworthy.

Finally, hospitals in this country were founded by the Christian church, as a means of taking care of sick people, keeping them near the doctor, and isolating them until they could get along on their own again.

If that was the "dark ages", that is the life for me. I am tired of living in the age of enlightenment, where morals and ethics are dependent on each person's interpretation and perception.

At the end of his long life, Moses spoke these words to the Israelites: "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;...I call heaven and earth as witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them."

Today, we would do good to pay heed to the words Moses spoke. Our post-modern world is driving us farther and farther away from "loving the LORD our God, and obeying His voice"; and farther away from life and the length of our days, and especially living in the land which the LORD swore to our Fathers. Those who refuse to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.