The World’s Wisdom – Utter Folly
The New Testament Greek word for WISDOM is SOPHIA. No, not as in Sophia Loren, but rather as in PHILO–SOPHY! The New Testament Greek word for PHILOSOPHY is PHILO–SOPHIA which simply means LOVER OF WISDOM. The Greek word PHILEO means LOVE. So you put PHILEO and SOPHIA together and you have PHILOSOPHIA which as we have noted means LOVER OF WISDOM.
But what then is meant by PHILO–SOPHY? Who are these lovers of wisdom? It depends on whose wisdom you are talking about, God’s or man’s. If you are talking about the world’s wisdom-philosophy, you are talking about SPECULATIONS concerning the GRAND MEANING OF LIFE.
Throughout the ages, there seems to have been as many philosophers-philosophies and speculators-speculations as there are men. The world loves to speculate! I say, the world loves to speculate! Men love to philosophize! They love philosophy, because it never comes to hard and fast spiritual, moral or eternal conclusions, though they will give their speculations as to what life and the world are about.
Philosophy as speculative mental gymnastics is therefore a free-for-all. All speculators and speculations are welcome. The world wisdoms and philosophers – a mental zoo – a sophisticated nuthouse.
Are we being too severe? Is this overreaction? Not in the least! God describes the Gentile (heathen) world in Ephesians 4:18 in this way,
“Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the
life of God, because of their ignorance that is in them,
because of the hardness of their hearts.”
How strange is this! Those who are praised by the world as the intellectually elite are in fact totally in the dark and ignorant. And everytime they talk or teach, they increase their student’s darkness and dumbness. The Bible calls it VAIN-EMPTY PHILOSOPHY.
But there are still those who kiss the ground that the philosophers walk on. History tells us that Plato being crooked-shouldered, his scholars who so much admired him would endeavor to be like him arranging their garments in such as way that they appeared crooked-shouldered too.
Yes Thales, I agree, you are all wet, but not totally. We are told that the human brain weighs about 45 ounces. 80% of that is water. So that everyone of us has lots of water on or in the brain. The actual brainy part is about 5 ounces of gray matter, consisting of billions of tiny cells. Thales wasn’t even using the 5 ounces very well.
The human brain is the most amazing and astounding piece of equipment in the universe. Scientists estimate that if they could ever build a human brain, or the equivalent of a human brain, it would have to weigh tons and tons and cost untold billions of dollars. Yet swimming alone in the ocean of life, as we shall see, the human brain cannot come to the true knowledge of God or the true meaning of life.
Then all the way to Immanuel Kant who found life’s meaning in the following statement:
UNDERSTANDING, AND ENDS IN REASON – THERE IS
NOTHING HIGHER THAN REASON.”
In between it was Aristotle, the one whose contmeporaries said he knew everything about everything, who in his Ethics stated about the wisdom of the ancient philosophers:
THEIR NATURE THE EXCELLENT AND VALUABLE.”
It is then small wonder that the Bible says in Colossians 2:8,
and empty deception.”
Or again in I Timothy 6:20,
and empty chatter and opposing arguments of what is
falsely called knowledge….”
And again in I Corinthians 1:20,
this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”
Yet again in I Corinthians 3:19,
Slam! Slam! Slam! Slam! The Bible is a slam-dunk tank for the world’s philosophies. Thales isn’t the only one who is all wet. Philosophy or the world’s wisdom is the crown jewel of all the educational systems of mankind. It is the reigning king of all studies, and the Bible slam dunks it over and over again as sheer folly.
The Bible brands all of the world’s philosophies as nothing more or less than the impartation of empty deception, false knowledge and utter foolishness. God says so! What more do we need than God’s Word about it? So much for all of the educational institutions of the world that teach so-called knowledge apart from God! It is all a sham! Every learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth.
THE WORLD’S PHILOSOPHY/WISDOM – FAITHLESS REASON
The world’s wisdom is based on reason. Fact:
EDUCATIONAL
SYSTEMS, REASON IS THE QUEEN.”THAT WHICH THEY NEED TO KNOW THE MOST.”
That is exactly why the Apostle Paul states in I Corinthians 1:21,
PURPOSELESSNESS, THE ABSURDITY OF MODERN
HUMAN EXISTENCE.”
If you will:
DISCOVER THAT JESUS IS THE MEANING OF LIFE.”
But we will not find life’s meaning through natural reason. Most men are slaves their whole life long to their natural reasons, which is the worst slavery in all the world. Why? Because they are enslaved by natural reason’s delusion that convinces them that there cannot be a non-beginning God who made the world out of nothing! Even though they believe in non-beginning, eternal matter that became so dense that it exploded into a “Big Bang Orderly Universe” of super-cosmic proportions. The “Big Bang Theory” is also know as the “Super Dense Theory” because you have to super dense to believe it.
We do not and cannot come to God by reason but by faith. We read in Hebrews 11:6,
to God must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder
of those who seek after him.”
If you will:
“WE ALL NEED NOT ONLY A SPIRITUAL CONVERSION , BUT
WE ALL NEED AN INTELLECTUAL CONVERSION THROUGH
FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.”
Or again:
“NOT ONLY MUST OUR DEAD-IN-SIN HEARTS BE BORN AGAIN,
BUT OUR DEAD-IN-SIN MINDS NEED TO BE BORN AGAIN
THROUGH FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST.”
When Jesus tells us in John 3:7 that we must be born again, He means all of us, every part of us! Only then can we shout with that ancient Greek:
“EUREKA – I’VE FOUND IT – THE TRUE KEY TO ALL KNOWLEDGE.”
Even then, the Apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 13:12 that as God’s children in this world we can only know a fraction of all that there is to know. That stated by a man once named Saul who was a highly educated scholar and Jewish Rabbi. His birth and developement was in Tarsus, a great Greek city that made him equally at home in Roman politics, Greek culture and Jewish religion. Tarsus was one of the three great university centers of the world, in a class with Athens and Alexandria. Then his graduate work took place in Jerusalem in the famous school of Gamaliel who was the master and famous teacher of the day. Gamaliel introduced Greek learning among the Jews.
Now listen, Saul-Paul was more than just a PHD. He was an authurity, a teacher among teachers. Yet, with all of his brilliance, he did not and could not get ahold of the key of true knowedge and wisdom until his rebirth expierence on the Damascus Road and in the house on Straight Street. Even then, he tells us that still we only know a speck from the full spectrum of knowledge.
Thomas Edison said before his death that we don’t know the one thousandth part of 1% of what there is too know. We are told that human knowledge doubles every 10 to 15 years, and as that happens, we are also told that our ignorance doubles as well. Paul would agree. But before Paul met Christ, he looks back on those years and calls it all not only dumb but dung, which includes all of his learning.
And the point is, we don’t philosophize or rationalize God. We are to believize God. It is also why Paul goes on to say in I Corinthians 3:18,
become foolish that he may become wise.”
Listen carefully:
THE WORLD AND WISE BEFORE HIM, THAN TO AS
PHILOSOPHERS BE WISE BEFORE THE
WORLD AND FOOLS BEFORE HIM.”
THE WORLD’S WISDOM – ARROGANCE
RATHER THAN BY ‘SIMPLE’ CHILDLIKE TRUST.”
William R. Lampkin in his book Minute Devotions noted something striking about the announcement of the death of the agnostic philosopher and author Jean Paul Sartre. The announcement of Sartre’s death, carried in the media around the world, ended with this sentence, “He was the nephew of Albert Schweitzer.” That’s what the media made a point of noting. Jean Paul Sartre was the nephew of Dr. Albert Schweitzer. Some believe that they were cousins. At any rate, they were close relatives.
WAS NOT NOTED THAT HE WAS CLOSELY
RELATED TO SARTRE
.”I think it often happens to the intellectually elite that the Christian faith is too simple for some who fancy themselves to be the intellectual giants of their generation. If you will, in the colleges and universities of the world:
FACT BECOME DUMBER THAN A BOX OF ROCKS.”
The Lord calls it utter folly. Been there! Done that! Gag city! Professorial-Philosopher types who are nothing more than dead men walking!
It is a fact:
THE SIMPLICITY OF THE GOSPEL.”
That is exactly why we read what we do in I Corinthians 1:26, that among those who are saved there will not be,
and to Gentiles foolishness.”
C.S. Lewis in his book The Problem of Pain expressed our dilemma like this: “We are very shy nowadays of even mentioning Heaven. We are afraid of the jeer about ‘pie in the sky’ and of being told that we are escaping the duty of making a happy world here-and-now into dreams of a happy world elsewhere. But either there is ‘pie in the sky’ or there is not…If there is not, then Christianity is false, for this doctrine is woven into its whole fabric. If there is, then this truth, like any other, must be faced, whether it is useful at political meetings or not.” (And I might add in faculty lounges and in classroom lectures too, or should I say especially there?!)
THE WORLD’S PHILOSOPHY/WISDOM – EARTHLY
be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
And again in Jude 25,
and power, both now and ever. Amen.
He charges error.”
It is overwhelmingly powerful then when the only wise God describes the wisdom of the world as being earthly, sensual and devilish. We read in James 3:15 in the KJV,
“This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly,
In the NASV James 3:15 reads as follows,
earthly, natural and demonic.”
If you will, we can summarize the world’s wisdom in this way:
NO FURTHER THAN THIS EARTH.”
Or again:
NO FURTHER THAN THIS WORLD.”
eternity in their heart….”
Man hates moral and spiritual absolute-principled thinking
. Or as we read in Romans 8:7,not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even
able to do so.”
Now comes the big problem and the even bigger stupidity. Hear me now:
HAPPY BUT THAT WHICH LASTS AS LONG
AS HE DOES.”
However, all of his earthly comfort, joy and fulfillment found in free, non-absolute, speculative thinking will vanish forever? Why? Because absolute Hell will be a constant, eternal and burning reminder that all of his unprincipled and non-absolutistic wisdom was a big, fat lie, which lie is forever shamed by the now inescapable moral and spiritual absolutes of Hell and Heaven, Satan and God, falsehood and truth, morality and immorality!
Now in Hell his smart sounding speculative, non-faith reasoning will be revealed as being just as moronic as an insane asylum and it shall mock him to his face world without end. And all of his scholarly, graduate and post-graduate degrees will be burned in fire the degrees of which are eternally immeasurable. Now his wisdom will not only be foolishness to God, but to himself forever. That too will be the hell of Hell!
So you think that you have your body and mind in great condition through aerobics and the heathen philosophies of eastern meditation called TM and Yoga which is very vogue these days. It may be valued by the academic in-crowd as elitist and intellectually mod, but one day you shall leave it forever behind and see it as worthless and empty human wisdom (folly).
Frankly, instead of faithfully meditating upon God’s Word, all of this heathen meditation junk from India opens you wide to Satanic deception and control. It will cut you off from God. It will leave you powerless against Satan and his firey darts/temptations. Why? Because of what Jesus says in a different context but in principle applicable here, namely Mark 12:24,
“…that you do not understand the Scriptures, or the
power of God.”
Rather than eastern meditation, you would be far better off and much safer sitting on the front porch and watching paint dry, or contemplating your navel.
It is no wonder the Apostles Paul commands in Colossians 3:1-4,
things above, where Christ is, seated at the
“Set your mind on the things above, not on the things
“For your have died and your life in hidden with
“When Christ, who is our life is revealed, then you shall also
If you have been created a new person in Christ here on earth, not later but right now, then look to the things that are above. Seek the things that are above, God’s heart, God’s face, God’s truth, God strength and God’s glory in your life, and not the philosophies or things on the earth.
If you once gave your life to Christ and you were full of God and flowed with the Holy Spirit of truth, and then you got sucked down into Academism, and you now seek your meaning and fulfillment through earthly wisdom and practices (eastern mysticism), you are now or soon will be horribly disappointed and disillusioned. You will be terribly frustrated! You will hurt yourself! You will be demonically oppressed, for all earthly philosophies and values are lies from the father of lies. You will become a cynic and as empty as your heart and your head. You will become confused and unintelligble in your verbal drivel that means absolutely zilch. Stop your foolishness!
BUT THAT WHICH LASTS AS LONG AS HE DOES.”
SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR.’”
NEED SOMEONE TO LIVE FOR, AND THAT SOMEONE IS
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.”
THE WORLD’S PHILOSOPHY/WISDOM – SENSUAL
We also must note that God in His Word James 3:15 calls worldly wisdom sensual. We read the text from the KJV,
Worldly wisdom bases its understanding on what it can see, hear, feel, touch and taste. Sensual! Not only philosophizing through faithless reason, but through physical sensuality. The world loves the sensual philosophy that says:
“IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT.”
If you will:
“IF IT SMELLS GOOD INHALE IT, IF IT FEELS GOOD FONDLE
IT, IF IT TASTES GOOD DEVOUR IT, IF IT SOUNDS GOOD
TURN IT UP, AND IF IT LOOKS GOOD OGLE IT.”
Of course that sounds good, except it leads to immorality, obesity, alcoholism, materialism, lust and pornography. It is this very Philosophy of Sensualism that has created Hell on earth in modern society.
Another huge problem, and that is this:
RATIONALLY OR SENSUALLY DISCERNED.”
First of all, the human intellect left to itself cannot discover eternal truth and life. Simply cannot do it! We read this clearly in I Corinthians 2:14,
for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand
them, because they are spiritually appraised.”
WISE CALLS SICKNESS, AND WHAT THE CHILD OF
GOD CALLS UTTER FOLLY THE WORLDLY
WISE CALLS MENTAL HEALTH
.”Second, not only cannot faithless reason find truth, life, meaning and fulfillment, but neither can earthly sensualism discover truth, life, meaning and fulfillment. For the earthly, sensual man to discover those eternal, spiritual treasures is like sensual swine mucking and grunting around in the mud looking for diamonds. Swinish sensuality and worldly wisdom are synonyms! Listen:
“TO SAY ‘PHILOSOPHY’ AND TO ‘GRUNT’ ARE THE SAME.”
John Haggai tells about two men who were contemporaries. The first, Clifford Baron, was one of the greatest orators America has ever seen. One pastor called him, “The greatest preacher since the Apostle Paul.” Audiences everywhere were spellbound by his messages. At age 25 Clifford Baron had touched more lives, influenced more leaders, and set more attendance records than any clergyman his age in American history.
causes them to stumble.”
Both Baron and Trotman died before their time as some are want to think and say. Baron was in his mid-thirties, and Trotman was in his early fifties. But they died in strikingly different circumstances. Trotman drowned while attempting to save a girl’s life in Schroon Lake, New York. He left behind him an organization that even today ministers powerfully worldwide with a staff of more than 2500 people.
Listen now people:
BUSTLINES, OR ON OUR CHRISTIAN BELIEFS?”
“For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you weeping,
“whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite(belly), and
whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, whom I long to see, my joy and
my crown, so stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.” Amen!
