Text: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction" (Proverbs 1:7)

The book of Proverbs is a book of wisdom. In our day, there is little regard for wisdom. This is the reason hardly a year passes that we do not publicly read through the book of Proverbs.

Allow me to pose a few questions. "Is Truth essential for knowledge?" In other words, "Can there be knowledge where there is no truth?" Truth is basic to all pedagogy. To the degree Truth is lacking, knowledge is also lacking. Is this not so?

"What, then, is the Truth that is the basis of knowledge?" Note the text: "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge." "The fear of the LORD," then, is the basis of knowledge. Therefore, knowledge, hence education, is religious in nature.

All education is religious education. This has been acknowledged for thousands of years, even by the heathen. In ancient Egypt, education was committed into the hands of the priesthood. In Babylon it was the same. In Israel, boys were taught at home until they turned seven years of age at which time they went to the synagogue.

Nations have always recognized education as being religious. In fact, in the history of the world, only two nations have tried to divorce education from religion. Both countries have attempted it this century. The first was the Soviet Union, and the second was the United States.

According to the text, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge." It is the foundation, the basis, and the primer of all education. It is here – upon the fear of the LORD, that all Truth is predicated. The fear of the LORD is essential for knowledge, because knowledge is founded upon Truth.

"Is it possible, then, for a person to be taught how to drive an automobile by one who is not a Christian?" Certainly! The kind of knowledge we are talking about is the knowledge that deals with the philosophy or theology of life, the knowledge that is found in the study of History, and Science, Law and Religion. In recent years, American education has cast off the fear of the LORD. This is the reason the study of History has been displaced by "Social Studies," and why Science, "falsely so called" (I Timothy 6:20), has invaded the realm of Theology. This is the reason the studies of Law and Religion have lost their moorings.

The knowledge we are dealing with here is the knowledge that is basic to everyday living. Where the fear of the LORD is lacking here, there is no knowledge because there is no Truth; and where there is no Truth there can be no scholarship.

"Can any man be educated who has not learned to fear the LORD?" And, "does it really matter what schools, or how many schools he has attended?" it is a sign of national apostasy when the people of God are blinded so as to think scholarship lies in State Certification, and National Accreditation.

"Can a man be a scholar who does not know the LORD?" 300 years ago, the founder of Yale, Princeton, Harvard, etc. said no man could be considered educated who did not know the LORD.

The American colonists were aware of the need for education, but they did not begin with a nursery school. In order to reach the present generation, they began with a college. In one generation, England had more preachers from New England than New England had from Old England. Harvard then shook the world for God; but in the last fifty years, it has shaken the world for the Devil. Mao-tse Tung graduated from Harvard, and returned to his homeland to butcher thirty to fifty million Chinese people in order to force those that remained to bow to communism.

It is interesting to note that the atheistic socialists who conquered American society in the 1960’s followed the same plan as the godly Puritans: they first took over American colleges, and now are seeking to damn all American school children, even those in nursery schools, with their Philosophy of evolution and sodomy.

"Can scholarship be separated from knowledge?" In other words, "Can a man be a scholar who does not know anything?" In America’s godless educational system, evolutionists who freely use words like "perhaps," "possibly," "we think," "it may be," etc. are revered as scholars. "Can a person be a scholar who does not know anything?" Truth dresses in the garb of simplicity; it is Error that is complicated.

Modern educators do not think Truth is important. Teachers are no longer required to know their subject. They are taught how to plan a bulletin board, but the knowledge of their subject is no longer considered important. Yet, teachers can be certified only after they subject themselves to the Continuing Education programs, whose sole purpose is to re-educate teachers in the acceptable philosophy of the hour.

In Georgia, these agents of social change are attempting to introduce Quality-Based Education, which will do away with grading as we know it and will allow four classroom levels. The only way for a student to pass to the next grade would be to adopt the politically- correct New Morality, and to accept the homosexual lifestyle. With the conversion to anti-Christian "wisdom," American education has become a brothel. Scholarship is no longer assessed according to knowledge, because modern educators think knowledge is relative; and the reason they believe knowledge is relative is because they believe Truth is relative.

Modern education has become cultic. One day a man asked me if our Bible school was accredited. I answered, "No, sir. If the world approved of me, I would be scared to death!" The idea of accreditation is as new in the realm of education, as the idea of incorporation is in the realm of law. They are the new children on the block.

Modern education has become political. If you accept my degree, I will accept your degree. But, which of this nation’s problems, whether economical, educational, religious, scientific, or legal – which are not the results of experts who are duly accredited, certified, and properly recognized?

"Can a person who hates Truth, know Truth?" "If a person hates Truth, can he or she approve of Truth?" "Can a person who hates God properly teach History or Science?" Will he not bludgeon the doctrine of God, the Bible, and everything that is holy? Why would I want to send my son or daughter to an institution where they would learn everything except Truth? Help me; I cannot figure this out! "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge."

106 out of the first 108 schools established in America were founded upon the Bible. Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and others were established in order to train men for the Christian ministry. The backbone of their educational philosophy was the Word of God. But, these same schools have repudiated Truth, and have turned their backs on righteousness.

Suppose I could send my son or daughter to Harvard, to Princeton, or to Yale, what would they learn? True, a student who attends one of these institutions can use their library, and would be able to read vast numbers of books, and write numerous research papers; but this does not necessarily constitute an education. For instance, if in the study of Law, the faculty of an institution denies the existence of the Law Giver, how can they teach my son Law? They do not know where Law comes from. "The fear of the Lord is the BEGINNING," not the completion, but the very basic rung of education.

If they deny it is God who raises up one, and puts down another; that is "the Most High (that) ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will" (Dan 4:32); how can I pretend to think that they can teach my son or daughter History?

If they flaunt their lack of the fear of the Lord, how can I expect them to be capable of teaching my son Theology?

The Dean of the school where I teach was once a student of mine. To this day, he testifies when he was in my class, he would stain his notes with his tears because he wanted to know more of the Lord. The purpose of education is to bring students to a greater knowledge of God.

Most Christian parents lose their children to the world. The primary reason for this is because when they sent their children to public schools, they placed them in an environment to be taught anti-Christian philosophy. They allowed their children to "walk in the counsel of the ungodly, to stand in the way of sinners, and to sit in the seat of the scornful" (Psalm 1:1). What is a child to think? Certainly such teaching must be right. "My Daddy and Mama would not sent me here if it was not right!"

I am amazed when bewildered parents come to me, and wonder why their children have gone the way of the world. The reason is simple: they have been nursed at the teat of rebellion by public school educators.

Someone will ask, "Didn’t you attend a public school?" Yes, I did. I went in a day when public schools still had a form of godliness. The schools I attended in New England as a boy read the Bible and had prayer. That was in a day when public schools exercised discipline, and taught respect for authority.

Someone else will ask "Didn’t Moses go to the schools in Egypt?" Yes, he did; but neither Amram nor Jochebed, put him there. God put him there because this was not the norm for the people of God. It is shameful when Christians run to the heathen and beg them to educate their children. The American education system in our generation is pronouncedly anti-God; and it is on account of the worldliness of Christian parents that when it comes to the education of their children, they choose carnally.

I am amazed when Christians say they cannot afford to send their children to a Christian school. Of course they can’t! They have to live for their house, and their boat, and their car. Many years ago, my wife and I made a vow to the Lord that if we had to eat bread and drink water, our children would never go to a public school. People do what they really want to do.

"Can a person learn Truth from a teacher who does not fear God?" David says, "O how love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies: for they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditations. I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts" (Psalm 119:97-100). "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

"The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge." What shame covers the face of Christians when Christian schools labor to find teachers who are certified by the state, but who have no conviction about Christian education! I know a quality young man who as a teenager would sit at a table of soldiers several years his senior, and would tell them about the Lord Jesus. When he graduated from high school, he decided to go to a local state college. When he graduated, he was hired by a local Christian school to teach history. I caught up with him at a local restaurant, and asked him, "R., what is your philosophy of history?" He looked at me in bewilderment, and said, "You know, I don’t know."

Well, no wonder he had formed no philosophy of history: he was not taught History is His-story, that it is the account of God working in the affairs of men; that "he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth" (Daniel 4:35); that "the king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the river of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will" (Proverbs 21:1).

But, Christian schools not only seek teachers who are state certified: they also encourage their teachers to keep up their state certification by subjecting themselves to what is called "Continuing Education." The purpose, of which, is the continuing brainwashing by atheistic educators. I say we should be amazed. I cannot fathom that! No wonder it is said, "judgement must begin at the house of God" (I Peter 4:17).

Pastor Fellows is continuing to progress. It has been a little over a year since his major heart surgery. He has mainly been recovering from the stroke that he suffered (last November) in the hospital as a result of the four operations. The Lord has been gracious to us all. After all that he endured and suffered, Pastor Fellows only has to take one inexpensive pill as well as an aspirin once a day. This alone, is a great blessing.

He has spent most of his time doing what he can do. He can drive, walk, tend to his garden, pass out gospel tracts (yes, we Calvinists do believe in witnessing). He is just beginning to type letters which take him about three days each! He used to type about forty well-written letters a week! Consider yourself blessed if you are one of the few recipients of these letters.

He greatly desires to be able to talk clearly enough to preach and to write again, if the Lord wills. He can sometimes carry on a conversation without error, and sometimes gets frustrated not being able to express what he means. The Lord has almost completely silenced him for His own purpose and will. Please pray the Lord uses him yet more than before -- which thing the Lord is not unable to do.

My dad’s greatest desire at the present is to be able to preach at my brother’s wedding. John Wesley Fellows is engaged to be married to Robyn Leona Barr of Simmesport, LA, on November 29, 1997. We are thankful John was able to find one of those gems rarer that rubies. Certainly you would not consider this chance; neither does he consider it fate! We call it grace.

Recently, Pastor Fellows had an auto accident, in which he "totaled" his car. It was a gift to him, and it has been a grief to him, especially since he is so limited. Please pray the Lord gives us wisdom, and that we are able to repair this good-running vehicle with a big gash in the front. (So far, we have done better with a 450,000 dollar hospital debt, not having insurance, than with a totaled car and an insurance company that is unwilling to completely repair the damage, though having been paid for many years. We have no regrets -- except for having to pay the auto insurance company for services not received.)

Recently in family devotions, Pastor Fellows was able to read with very little help, Psalm 98:1 --