Worldly Wisdom

“WORLDLY WISDOM”

(1 Corinthians 3:19)

“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, “‘He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness’”

“Have ye not noticed, in reading history, how God has abased the pride of wisdom? In ages long gone by, be sent mighty minds into the world, who devised systems of philosophy. “These systems,” they said, “will last for ever.” -Their pupils thought them infallible, and therefore wrote their sayings on enduring parchment, saying, “This book will last for ever; succeeding generations of men will read it, and to the last man that book shall be handed down as the epitome of wisdom “Ah! but,” said God, “that book of yours shall be seen to be folly, ere another hundred years have rolled away.” And so the mighty thoughts of Socrates, and the wisdom of Solon, are utterly forgotten now; and could we hear them speak, the veriest child in our school would laugh to think that he understandeth more of philosophy than they. But when man has found the vanity of one system, his eyes have sparkled at another, if Aristotle will not suffice, here is Bacon, now I shall know everything: and he sets to work, and says that this new philosophy is to last for ever. He lays his stones with fair colors, and he thinks that every truth he piles up is a precious imperishable truth. But alas! another century comes, and it is found to be “wood, hay, and stubble.” A new sect of philosophers rise up, who refute their predecessors. So too we have wise men in this day-wise securalists, and so on, who fancy they have obtained the truth; but within another fifty years and mark that word-this hair shall not be silvered over with grey, until the last of that race shall have perished, and that man shall be thought a fool that was ever connected with such a race; systems of infidelity pass away like a dew-drop before the sun; for God says, “I am God, and beside me there is none else.” This Bible is the stone that shall break in powder philosophy; this is the mighty battering ram that shall dash all systems of philosophy in pieces; this is the stone that a woman may yet hurl upon the head of every Abimelech, and he shall be utterly destroyed. O Church of God! fear not thou shalt do wonders; wise men shall be confounded, and thou shalt know, and they too, that he is God, and that beside him there is none else.”

[Spurgeon, MTP, Vol. 2, pp. 91-92]