The Foundation Of Knowledge

Pat and I very much enjoyed being able to travel to DC and, of course, support Christine as we could. And it was a delight to be able to see a number of the things around the nation's capital that, in some ways, we might know are there. But it's nice to be able to go and see them personally.

To see the monuments, to read some of the inscriptions on those monuments. Some of them, many of them are memorials. Many of them have to do with presidents, past leaders of the country that we live in. And so that was really, in many ways, a great blessing to us. And we have very much appreciated being able to do that.

And yet, at the same time, at the same time that we were doing that over a few several days, you know, we were watching at times the news, and of course all you can hear on the news is kind of the midterm election chaos. Of course, at that time, the synagogue shooting, where 11 people, I believe, were murdered. A great deal of divisiveness, a great deal of dishonoring and disrespectful speech. That's really what's become pretty much the manner in which even public officials seem to conduct themselves. And there's certainly a huge lack of civility, or even, you know, the Bible talks about prudence. It talks about kind of good sense, and we don't often see that displayed. And of course, we see a moral decay in this incredibly prosperous and remarkably blessed land that all of us live in. You know, I grew up beginning in the mid-1950s or so, born in 1949, and so this is all I know. This last 70 years, that's... things have been incredibly good here in the United States of America. And certainly, I think we could say, because of what we believe and what we see in the Bible, you know, that God has provided those blessings. It's not been because of the incredible brilliance of the... whoever the people are who live here. It's been because of His direction. It's been because of His blessing. It's been because of what He has brought to pass here in this incredible land. Now, I've mentioned to you that Pat and I often think back over 50 years ago, when God brought us into the Church of God, we have shared incredible blessings since that time. Blessings of knowing what the purpose of life is, and knowing what the true Gospel is. See, this would be the same for many of you who can think back to the time when God brought you into an awareness of His purpose and His plan for your life. But we've been incredibly blessed because of knowing the purpose of life, to know that true Gospel is about not just about Jesus. He's clearly a major part of it, but it's about the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God that is going to come to the earth. And of course, the purpose of the Church is to proclaim that Gospel. We have a mission. We have a job. That's our job. That's why we are a part of the Church of God today. And of course, we were blessed in knowing the purpose of marriage, to understand how God has designed marriage in a way that can be incredibly rewarding and beneficial. We thank God for allowing us to understand the conversion process of acknowledging sin and understanding repentance. And we do know, as we studied the Passover from year after year after year, that the perfect example that Jesus set was that of being a servant. Those are all major blessings to note. And we have benefited from the awareness of those things. We haven't always been able to maybe apply it exactly correctly, but God has been very merciful in giving us incredible knowledge from His Word that is incredibly important for us.

And as we were on this trip and going from one place to the next, traveling from one, in a sense, monument to the next memorial, there were often different inscriptions there.

Inscriptions that I would say many people maybe are not too happy to see, because, incredibly, there are many statements there that are quite clearly biblical.

Quite clearly, reflecting a respect, a belief in and respect for God, and a belief in respect for the Word of God. And that just stuck out to me. And as I thought about it, I'm sure I have not fully appreciated the amazing blessing, which actually was, in a sense, a motto or an inscription that was on a couple of different places.

And that is in the campuses of Ambassador College, some 50 years ago, when we were there.

We had a motto, and as I said, this was inscribed, at least in Big Sandy, on a rock. There was a plaque, and on that plaque, which was down by the Redwood Building. I think some of you know what that says.

What it says is that the Word of God is the foundation of knowledge. The Word of God is the foundation of knowledge.

Now, that's far more important than I think I ever maybe thought about it, because in many ways, I probably just took it for granted.

Well, yes, we're here to study the Bible, or we're here to learn about the Bible, or we're here to learn about what God's purpose is, and obviously that's revealed in the pages of the Bible.

But see, that was what the Church of God had taught for many, many decades, even at that time, that the Word of God is the foundation of knowledge.

Now, does the Word of God have every bit of knowledge in it? No. You can go to a lot of other textbooks, a lot of other fields, and there's a lot of technical information that is not in the Word of God.

But it's still true that the Word of God is the foundation. To really have right knowledge, you're going to have to go to the Word of God. And of course, we do that every Sabbath. We do it every day that we come here to services. Hopefully we study the Bible because we realize that, well, what God wants me as a potential son of God, what He wants me to know is to be thoroughly versed in that Bible.

And actually, today, I looked it up in our website for the United Church of God. We use that phrase as a lead to our Bible study aids that are regarding the Bible. The foundation of knowledge is the Word of God.

And actually, the fact is that without following that simple direction, without following that simple directive that you've got to look to the Word of God as a foundation to learn what you need to know regarding life. Destruction is imminent. This is, unfortunately, what we see in our world today. I want us to look at Hosea 4 because this has always been the case. This is not just talking about our day today, but clearly in the past, as the people of God in the nation of Israel, and later the nation of Israel and the nation of Judah, as they both tended to forget the Word of God, what was made available to them. What they had been given, they didn't respect, and God would send prophets.

One of the earlier ones was Elijah, and one that was somewhat after him was Isaiah, and later Ezekiel and Jeremiah were toward the end of the line of the kings of Judah.

It's kind of good to have some of that in mind whenever you're reading parts of the Bible.

Yet, here in Hosea, Hosea was writing to the kings of Judah and the kings of Israel. He says here in chapter 4, Hosea 4.

Now, Hosea is one of the smaller prophets, called the minor prophets, but he certainly has some important information to say here in chapter 4 in verse 1. He says here, the Word of the Lord, O people of Israel. The Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.

So here a servant of God, someone who was speaking the words of God, was not directly a king or leader or ruler, he was just a prophet.

He says the Lord has an indictment against you, and it says in verse 1, there is no faithfulness or loyalty, and there is no knowledge of God in the land.

But in verse 2, swearing and lying and murder and stealing and adultery, breakout and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

That's kind of a description of much of what we see in the world today. Certainly not respecting God, respecting His Word, and then even trying to live by it.

I want us to drop down to verse 6, because this is a verse I'm sure you have marked in your Bible. It's one that's been emphasized in the Church of God for over 50 or 60 years, at least.

It says in verse 6, my people, as God is kind of talking through Hosea to the people of God, the people of Israel, he says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

And because you have rejected knowledge, meaning knowledge from me, from God, I'm going to reject you from being a priest to them, and I reject you. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I'm going to forget your children.

See, here in this verse of Hosea 4, verse 6, it very clearly shows that the people of Israel, the people of Judah were both going to go into captivity.

They both were going to suffer for their lack of knowledge.

And see, unfortunately, I think in this country today, we're suffering some of that, and we're going to suffer more of that because our ways are not in line with the Word of God. You see a similar statement made over in Isaiah chapter 5.

Isaiah chapter 5, this was actually earlier said by Isaiah to the people that he was sent to.

It says in Isaiah 5, verse 3, And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem, people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. Here he's talking about his vineyard, his property that God is concerned about being Israel. In Judah, in verse 5, I want to tell you what I'm going to do to my vineyard. He says I'm going to remove the hedge. See, most people don't realize that we've had a hedge. We've had a hedge around our land or our people to be able to grow in the way that we have over the only short history of 250 years. We're a very young nation, and yet we have risen to the prominence of the greatest nation on earth because of the blessings of God. But he says I'm going to tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to remove its hedge, and it's going to be devoured. I'm going to break down its wall, and it'll be trampled down. Verse 7, the vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel and people of Judah. And so here he directly says, these are my people, and they have refused to listen to me. But in verse 11, O ye who rise early in the morning to pursue strong drink, who linger in the evening to be inflamed by wine, who feast or celebrations consist of music and dancing. But in verse 12, you do not regard the deeds of the Lord or see the works of his hand. And therefore, in verse 13, my people go into exile because of the lack of knowledge, without knowledge. And their nobles are dying of hunger, and their multitude is parched with thirst. See, how important is it that the people of a nation look to the available knowledge from God in his word, the foundation of knowledge? Whenever people are not doing that, and I think we can clearly say that in this world, in this country today, we don't have the involvement. We don't have the engagement. Certainly, we don't have people memorizing Genesis through Deuteronomy. You know, we do have at least a few, apparently, as far as in the Jewish community, who are focused on that. But for the most part, we don't have the people in this land who are really focused on respecting the word of God. Now, I want to point out as well, you know, that the word of God is not only the foundation of knowledge, but we read in 1 Peter that the word of God is going to endure forever. That's in 1 Peter 1, verse 25. I won't turn to that, but in 1 Peter 1, verse 25, it talks about how that men are very fragile and very frail, and we have a very limited lifespan, and yet the word of God endures forever. I'd like to point out to you, because this is something that interests me as I was looking at, you know, some of the things that we'd been able to see there in Washington, D.C. Many of the founding fathers of the United States, again going back 250 years now, many of those founding fathers actually stated their belief in God, in His involvement, perhaps maybe not directly in their lives, but at least a belief in God and a belief for respect for God's word. That isn't something we maybe commonly think about, and I don't know that I can say that I believe after even looking at some of the things that are reported or recorded as statements or writings of past presidents or of original founding fathers of America, I don't know that I can say that, you know, it sounds like they were reflecting an understanding of conversion that I think you and I do understand. I don't think that that's the case, but I do see in some of their statements an understanding that, you know, well, God does exist, and we, you know, need to have some respect for His word.

You find here in Isaiah 33 a verse that I'm sure, again, some of you are familiar with, but some people feel as they read this, that this has something to do with the foundation of the type of three branches of government that we have here in the United States, the executive and the judicial and the legislative brands of government or branches of government. Here in Isaiah 33, you see, you know, this is actually directed at the Lord starting in verse 17, your eyes shall see the King and His beauty. This is clearly a prophetic statement about what God is going to do. But it says in verse 21, but there the Lord is in majesty will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams where no galley with oars can go, nor stately ship can pass for the Lord. In this verse 22, chapter 33 verse 22, the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our King and He will save us. Now, that's a verse that describes a, you know, a ruler, a king, someone who would be in an executive position, and clearly the King of kings, as Christ is going to be when He comes, that's going to be a part of the government that God will set up here on earth. And clearly, you know, He's going to lay down the law. He's going to be the lawgiver. He's going to be the one who gives the instruction from Zion. And clearly, He is the judge. And so, like I said, some believe or feel that this particular statement in Isaiah 33 verse 22 is a foundation for the three kind of divided areas of government that we have here in the United States.

And yet, I will say, even if man has some awareness of kind of the need for that, man is unable to rightly govern himself without people who respect and honor and acknowledge knowledge from God in His Word. See, that's, in essence, reflected by some of our founding fathers here of this country. You know, as they were putting together what kind of a system can we actually use that would allow people to flourish, allow them to have freedom, allow them to prosper and to grow and to be happy. Well, you know, they're going to have to, you know, be willing to acknowledge that they have a part in being ruled in a, what we might term, a righteous way.

Now, again, as we toured many of the various memorials, I wanted to reference a few of those.

George Washington, of course, is one of the most prominent there in the D.C. area, and, of course, the Washington Monument is quite well known. It's easily seen. It's the tallest thing in the whole area. You can't really get that close to it, or we didn't try to get up even close to it, and I couldn't read anything that was on it.

But going down to Mount Vernon and seeing, you know, the location where he eventually lived, and he was a farmer, and later, of course, a military general, and finally, the politician, although I don't think he thought of himself as a politician, the President of the United States, the father of our country, as he is termed.

He has a prominent role, and actually, in touring Mount Vernon, you go through a number of the houses, the buildings, some of the land in the different, the upper and the lower gardens.

You go through, actually, as we were exiting, they had a really nice museum, where his life was kind of depicted in the museum-type of setting a lot of really good information about him and about his view on things, or how it was that he thought things should be.

And clearly, one of the sections was even how it was that he respected religion. He had a certain religious belief, at least a recognition of God.

And I want to read several of his statements. I'll read several of these. Actually, when you look at the presidents, the first several presidents, first four presidents of the United States, Washington and Adams and Jefferson and Madison, every one of them, state a belief in God. They state in a need for people to read and study the Bible.

Here, regarding George Washington, out of just a Wikipedia summary, it says, looking at Washington's theological beliefs, it's clear that he believed in the creator God of some manner.

And seemingly, one that was also active in the universe. Washington referred to this God, and this is kind of unusual, it seems like, but he referred to God.

He didn't perhaps seem to understand God real well, but he certainly respected God, and it says he referred to God by many names, but most often by the name of providence.

That would be a name that he would use, that providence is directing us to do this or to do that.

And Washington also referred to this being by other titles to infer that God was the creator God.

And so he had that particular outlook.

In an article out of Faith of Our Fathers, a book regarding Christianity and America's Founders, George Washington is listed here first as the father of our country.

He was appointed by the Second Continental Congress, commander-in-chief of the entire military, and of course, in 1781, he forced the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and he was the first president of the United States under the new constitution.

He actually declined to serve a third term and retired to Mount Vernon in 1997, where he died from the war. So after his service, he wasn't all that old. He was only 68 when he died.

And yet he had had a prominent role in forming and shaping some of the thoughts that went into what people could benefit from in this great country, that God was blessing him with.

Now, I want to point out a couple of things that are interesting.

In his famous inaugural address to the House of Congress in April 1789, with his hand on the Bible, and so this was the first of these inaugurations that we still do today.

This was actually in his inaugural address with his hand on the Bible that was open to Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy 28 has a lot to do with, as we know, the blessings and cursings.

If you disobey, you can expect to be cursed. If you obey, you can ask for the blessings of God.

But this is what he said in the last chapter of the House of Congress. If you obey, you can ask for the blessings of God.

But this is what he said in the address that he was giving in his inaugural.

He says, such being the impressions under which I have in obedience to the public summons, repaired to the present situation, it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act.

So he knew that this first time this has ever happened before, but it would clearly be improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplication to Almighty Being, that Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of nations, and whose providential duties can supply every human defect.

He was, like I said, I read earlier, he used different names. He didn't directly call God God or God his Father, or understand perhaps even the incredible family of God.

But he knew that there was a Divine Being.

He goes on to say, in tendering the homage to the great author of Every Public and Private Good, I assure myself that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own.

He said, no people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States.

Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.

This is the way he apparently thought, the way he lived his life, the way he tried to conduct himself with what knowledge he did have of the Bible and of God.

Another time he said, we ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order.

And right which heaven itself has ordained. Again, he's looking at it in a pretty positive way. And in that first year of 1789, that was when he was inaugurated, he proclaimed the National Day of Thanksgiving toward October, I believe it would be.

And he says, whereas it is in the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God to obey his will to be grateful for his benefits and humbly to implore his protection and favor. Now therefore I recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the people of these United States that we then may all unite unto him our sincere and humble thanks for his kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to us becoming a nation.

And later in that address he says, and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and ruler of nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions and to promote the knowledge and practice of the true religion and virtue.

Now that kind of individual, that type of person who has some awareness of God was involved in a big part of what you see would be the foundation for what we find here in this nation that we enjoy.

Another interesting thing about George Washington, his inaugural Bible, the one that he used whenever he was inaugurated, it said in that other article that whenever he was speaking he was looking at Deuteronomy 28.

The George Washington inaugural Bible is the book that was sworn upon by George Washington when he took the office of first president of the United States.

At that time, it was upon this Bible that George Washington took his oath of office as the first president, and on that Bible he turned to Genesis 49 because he thought it was the best chapter that pertained to the United States of America.

Now, I think that's incredible because when you read Genesis 49, as most of us know, the blessings that God would be placing on Joseph are really incredible. They are highly outlined. I'm not going to read that. You could read that later, but that was a part of the thoughts of one of the original founders of the United States of America.

Now, the second president of the United States was a man named John Adams. Now, all of these men, I think, knew each other. They all lived in a general time frame, a general generation, where they were all essentially of similar age.

But John Adams, as I read what information is available on him, as the second president, he actually mentions more about what you would think is kind of a common Christianity, an understanding of that, a desire. He uses the name of Jesus far more than what I read about the others.

But he became, he was George Washington's vice president before becoming the second president of the United States. On March 6th of 1789, President Adams called for a national day of fasting and prayer for the country, where they could call to mind our numerous offenses against the Most High, confess them before him with the sincerest penitence, implore his pardoning mercy through the great mediator and redeemer, and for our past transgressions, and that through the grace of his Holy Spirit we may be disposed and enabled to yield a more suitable obedience.

Also, down in an address that he gave to the military at the time that he had opportunity to do that, he says, we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. You know, those are necessary in order for us to have a thriving country.

Jealousy and ambition and revenge or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and righteous religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

They realized that as they put together a system that they were going to use that was going to be a government for a nation, that people would have to have some respect. They would have to have some respect for God and for his word and for the government that they were then a part of.

Adams also said, I've examined all religions, and the result is that the Bible is the best book in the world. You know, that was his thoughts. Also said, the general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.

I will avow that I then believed and now believe that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

So it appears, as you read some of these statements and the thoughts of some of these earlier founding fathers, their focus was on whatever they could perceive about God or about his word and even have a respect for that. Thomas Jefferson, of course, was the third president, and I think we find something fairly similar to him. He has an incredibly impressive, it's not as advertised, perhaps, as Washington and Lincoln's monuments there on the National Mall, but Jefferson's memorial is really very impressive across the body of water, and then it's a circular, very big type of a memorial, and yet there are all kinds of things written on the wall, things that he had written or things that he had said. Of course, Thomas Jefferson was chosen to be the author of the Declaration of Independence. He had originally been Washington Secretary of State, Adams Vice President, and then finally he was president as the third president and served two terms, and later he would establish the University of Virginia. And so again, he was not only an educated person, but he was an educator in his own role.

He was raised Episcopalian, and he believed that the New Testament, this is quite interesting, he believed that the New Testament was polluted by early Christians, eager to make Christianity palatable to pagans.

He believed that they had mixed the words of Jesus with the teachings of Plato and the philosophy of the ancient Greeks. The authentic words of Jesus are still there. He assured his friend John Adams, and he says he determined to extract those authentic words of Jesus from the rubble which he believed surrounded the real words, and that book intended as a primer to preach about Christ. Of course, this was doing this in a sense in a Protestant manner. It's commonly known as the Jefferson Bible. It was his thoughts about what he felt Jesus taught and uncorrupted by what others have taught since then. He wrote in the front of his Bible, I'm a real Christian, and that is to say I am a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus. I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator. It would seem that he wanted that. He yearned for that. He actually wrote to, and this was several years later, Jefferson was president during a time when the United States was expanding, and even in 1803 when the Louisiana Purchase expanded the land of the United States tremendously, an incredible gift from God. Jefferson wrote to his friend, Dr. Benjamin Rush, he says, my views are a result of a life of inquiry and reflection, and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinion. That sounds like quite a bit of the political stuff was going on back then as well. But he said in that same letter, to the corruptions of Christianity, I am indeed opposed, but certainly not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself.

I am a Christian in a sense in which he wished anyone to be sincerely attached to his doctrines and in preference to all others. It's amazing to see, in a sense, some of the thoughts of these men. There are a couple of inscriptions there on the Jefferson Memorial. One of them says the Christian religion is the best religion that has ever been given to man. Again, his view. Also, he said God, and this again is on the Jefferson Memorial God, who gave us life, gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secured when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just and that his justice cannot sleep forever. See, this is what, or even on the memorials and monuments that we have there in our nation's capital. The fourth president, James Madison, has a similar view of things.

He wrote to Bill Bradford, William Bradford, I guess it would have been. In 1772, a watchful eye must be kept on ourselves. And so this was regarding how they looked at each other and how they worked with each other and how they, in essence, created a form or system that they thought would work with some guidance from awareness of the Bible. A watchful eye should be kept on ourselves, lest while we're building ideal monuments of renown and bliss here, we neglect to have our names enrolled in the annals of heaven.

He says, we'd better watch out. Also, as he wrote about religion in 1785, he says, it's the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage. Before any man can be considered as a member of civil society, he must be considered as a subject of the governor, a subject of the governor of the universe. We have staked the whole future of American civilization upon the power of government far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity in each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.

Again, that reflects, I think, very positively on the thoughts that these men were having. And certainly, you even find that there was a time when the Continental Congress, here in the United States, published a version of the Bible. And they said, this needs to be made available. Actually, there was a time, and this was, of course, in the 1770s or 80s, as all of this was taking place. There was a Revolutionary War having taken place. There was a shortage of Bibles, and they saw a need to provide that. I want to read at least one of the things that the Continental Congress at that time had said.

They actually appointed a man named Robert Atkin, and the Atkin Bible of 1782 was reviewed, approved, and authorized by the Congress of the Confederation. So this would be the Continental Congress even before the current system was set up. And after it had been reviewed, it says in the journals of Congress in September 1782, in the records on page 469, it says, resolved that the United States Congress assembled highly approve the pious and laudable undertaking of Mr. Atkin's as subservient to the interest of religion as well as an influence of the progress of arts in this country and being satisfied from the above report.

They recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States, and thereby authorize him to publish this recommendation. So there was a time when Bibles were in short supply because, of course, they were not coming from England. And so, you know, it was promulgated that they want to push this. And even, this is amazing, about in 1783, after the Atkin's Bible had begun to be distributed, Dr.

John Rogers of the First Presbyterian Church of New York suggested to General George Washington that every discharged soldier be given a copy of that Bible. Since the war was coming to a close and Congress had already ordered the discharge of two-thirds of the army, that suggestion came too late. But, however, Washington's view, the man who would later then be the, several years later, be appointed or elected the first president, he says, it would have pleased me well if Congress had been pleased to make such an important present to the brave fellows who have done so much for the security of their country's rights and establishment.

He was talking about, you know, the giving of a Bible to those who had served the country. And, of course, you know, all of these men that I've quoted from here, you know, they have a lot of different quotes, and, of course, many of them may be on many different topics. These are simply some of their thoughts or statements about religious views and how important it is that the Bible should not be on the sideline.

It should not be that we can't even read it within an educational system. That makes no sense, not according to how it is that it says the Bible or the Bible tells us. And God shows us that, you know, this is the foundation of knowledge. If you don't have that, then you're going to... my people are going to be destroyed because of the lack of knowledge. And, of course, one of the most prominent memorials there on the National Mall is of Abraham Lincoln. And he was not one of the earliest presidents, but one a little later, 16th, I believe he was.

And yet, the things that he said, obviously, 75 years later, when the nation was inflamed in civil war, and he was dealing with issues that were incredibly difficult, he had a lot to say about the Bible. He said, I am busily engaged in the study of the Bible.

In regards to this great book, the Bible, I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. And for it, we could not now know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are found portrayed in the Bible.

And even inscribed on the Lincoln Memorial, it talks about this nation under God. You know, that's a phrase that is clearly written there. He also has one of the verses out of Matthew. Well, Matthew 18.7, well into the world because of offenses. For it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to the man by whom those offenses come. So he could see that, well, there are warnings here. There are some things here that we ought to pay attention. He also says, we're at it as it is the duty of nations as well as to men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed, whose God is the Lord. Now, the foundation, the foundational individuals who were a part of the development of this country that we live in, you know, were in many ways guided by some understanding of a need for the respect for the Word of God. And yet, as I said, you know, man, they've also pointed out, well, we've got to have men who are willing to follow the instruction. We've got to have men who are willing to obey. And if we don't have that, then we're going to have chaos. We'll have destruction. You know, all of us are familiar with the festival themes of the law going forth from Zion, and especially Isaiah 11, verse 9, because it says in Isaiah 11, verse 9, again talking about when Christ comes, when He sets up His kingdom, when He establishes the rule of God on earth, it says, They will no longer herd or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

See, the foundation of knowledge is going to be shared with the whole world, and it's going to be explained and elaborated on by you and me. As we extend, see, people have to start over, in a sense. And even though there has been some understanding, perhaps very little understanding of the Bible through the ages, there is going to be a great expansion of the Word of God being the foundation of knowledge. And if you don't base what you believe and what you do and what you even expect in the future on what the Word of God says, well, then you're basing your idea on something that is not correct. So, I just thought it was, in many ways, amazing. It was encouraging to see some of this with some of the things that we could see. But to think about it in our own lives, we've been granted many truths from the Bible.

See, that's kind of beyond the Word of God as the foundation of knowledge. See, that's using the Word of God, using the teaching of Jesus, knowing, as Jesus explained, that the truth is what I'm teaching. And, of course, I'm teaching the truth of the kingdom of God. I'm teaching the truth of the family of God. I'm teaching the truth that we not only know but believe and love. But, ultimately, that all goes back to the book that, hopefully, each of us read each day. The Word of God, and that is the foundation of knowledge.