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| Volume 19 Number 4 April 2017 | Page 12 |
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| Volume 19 Number 4 April 2017 | Page 12 |
Raymond Elliott
We who are older remember well the Beatles. One of the popular songs they sang over 40 years ago was “Yellow Submarine.” Well, this article is not about a yellow submarine, but about a big yellow school bus, in fact, a couple of yellow school buses that come into our neighborhood every school morning. I see our neighborhood children congregating together waiting for the bus to come pick them up. In the afternoon those same buses come again into our subdivision to deposit those precious children at various spots along the way. How wonderful that the children have opportunity to be educated so that they can contribute to our society in various ways. There was a time in my parent’s generation that many boys and girls did not have the opportunity to obtain a high school education. Farm children were often kept out of school to work in order to provide food for the family.
In contrast to the school days when the buses run through our neighborhood, it is quite a different sight on Sundays. I see very few automobiles coming by the house with families on their way to Bible classes anywhere. I wonder what percentage of school children attends Bible classes on Sunday at any religious organization. It probably would be discouraging to learn that most children are not taken by their parents to Sunday school. You see, many parents are too involved in the cares of this life to provide an education in the Word of God in either the home or in Bible classes.
The Psalmist declared, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one’s youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them…” (Psalms 27:3-5). Children are not ours to do with as we so please. They actually belong to God, and He has loaned them to us for a time. It is the responsibility of parents to provide an education in the most important book known to mankind, and that is the Word of God. The apostle Paul placed the responsibility of rearing children in the way of the Lord on the head of the family when he wrote in Ephesians 6:4, “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” True and complete education should prepare children not only for a living but rather for life presently and in the world of eternal life.
Mark McWhorter
“Awake to righteousness, and sin not: for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:34). An agnostic is someone who says he does not know. He says something could be possible but he cannot know for sure. What most people consider a religious agnostic is someone who says he does not know if there is a God—and he really does not care.
Yet, in our verse above, we find other agnostics. In the context of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul gave the assurance that Jesus was raised from the dead. There were Christians in Corinth teaching that Jesus had not risen from the dead. Paul gave several arguments against such false teaching. Paul said that they need to avoid believing such doctrine. He warned that those who already believed such needed to awake to righteousness. They needed to come to the truth. The Greek word that is translated “have not the knowledge” is the word from which we get “agnostic.”
There were Christians in the church at Corinth who were against proper knowledge. They evidently were saying they could not know if Christ had been raised, and possibly they did not care. Yet, Paul pointed out that such belief undermines all New Testament teaching. Paul wrote that a person cannot be such an agnostic and be saved.
Study your Bible. Be assured that Christ died and was raised from the dead. If any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.