What's wrong with Education?

William Branham.

Read the full account in...
Lean Not Unto Thy Own Understanding.

Proverbs 3:1-6,
My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall be... shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the tables of thine heart. So shall thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy path.

Oh, I think that's the most beautiful Scripture. Now, I want to take for a text, out of the--the 5th verse, "Lean Not Unto Thy Own Understanding."

Now, this is a--a very strange text for the day that we're living in, because the emphasis today is certainly laid upon education and upon our own understanding of things, the day of--of learning. But we find out here that this strange statement, like other Scriptures, it has its place, and we trust that God will let us see where the place is. Today we send our children to the school to have understanding. Then after they are through with the grammar schools, we send them to high school for a better understanding of knowledge. Then after they are through there, some children are even fortunate enough to go to college, and go through college to complete their education and their understanding of knowledge. What they are acquired of by... Many times to get a job, you have to have at least a high school understanding, or a college education, or so forth.

Yet, the wise Solomon told us that not to lean to it, not to our own understanding; learn not of these things. Because we wonder why that he would say such a thing as this, for it's because that usually our modern understanding is usually the wisdom of man, which is contrary to the Word of God. I think that's what that Solomon was trying to advise his sons, was not to be illiterate, but not to lean to their understanding. And I think it would be a good exhortation today, if we said to our sons and to the sons of God, that it's all right to have an education; there's nothing against that; but when that education is contrary to the Word of God, then lean to the Word and let your education go (See?), because the Word. And education will stand and will give you a good job, probably a good standing amongst intellectual people, but, that's all right, which will probably be a great help to you, help you in your financial and your--your livelihood, make living maybe a little better for you.

But remember one thing, my son; you've got to die. No matter how much education you got, and how much culture you are able to accumulate, you've yet got to face death, because it is written, that man must die, and after that the judgment. And God, when... Death is not so bad, but coming to the judgment is the bad part. Now, you can die, "but after that the judgment." And God is not going to inquire of you how much schooling you got when you were here on earth, how much knowledge you accumulated, whether you've got your Bachelor of Art, or whatever degree you might've been, even as a minister. It's not going to be required of you. But it's going to be required of you, what you did about the understanding of God's Word. That's where the requirement comes, because that... Your education; fine, but the Word of God is Life. "My Word is Life," and to know It is Life. And He, He said, "Know Him." He is the Word. So you can only know Him by the Word, for He is the Word. That's the only way you'll know Him, is by His Word.

Somebody could come up and say, "This is God," or "That's God," or "This is God," or "This is right," and "That's right," but we come back to the Word, which is the Truth. And the Word is just like the--the North Star; it's a true star. No matter which a way the world's a floating, that North Star is centered with the earth. You set your compass to the North Star. It's always in the center of the earth. Other stars float around with the world, but the North Star stays stable. Now, the compass is the Holy Spirit, and (the) your--your tie post would be the North Star, so the Holy Spirit will always point towards the Word. The Holy Spirit will never lead you to anything else but the Word of God. So how could a man accept a creed, when it's contrary to the Word, and then still say he has the Holy Ghost? The Holy Ghost would point you away from that. It takes the Holy Spirit to point you to the Word, for He is the Word. He is the Word, and It can only... As the--as the magnetic in the compass is only set towards the North Pole, that's the only way it can draw. And when the Holy Spirit is the Author and Writer, and the quickener of the Word, how can It point the person to anything else but the Word?

So when a person says they have the Holy Ghost, and accept something contrary to the Word, it shows that ain't the genuine Holy Ghost they got. See? It may be a ghost; I wouldn't dispute that, but it--it isn't the Holy Ghost of--of Christ. Now, you know, many times, they take one another's spirits; and so that might point in a--like a group of men to a certain thing, but it won't--it--it won't point to Christ. But the Holy Spirit always points to Christ, and Christ is the Word. We see this so plainly in the Bible. Or, I do. Maybe I might be wrong, but--in my thinking, but I don't think so; because that this, "Lean not to your own understanding of things." If you lean to your own understanding, then you're bound to get off of the right road. You can't lean to anyone else's understanding when it comes to Life. To find Life you've got to lean to the Word. That's Life.

We see this from the beginning. It's so plainly made known to us from the beginning, that God gave His first family on earth His Word to live by. Only His Word, was to live by. Now, that's not through eating the food and so forth. But His Word they were to live by eternally. And as long as they kept that Word, they lived eternally. But the first little phrase of that Word was misplaced, the whole chain broke, and the human race plunged into death. See? Now we notice Eve, which was no doubt an intelligent person; the first right off of Adam, who was the--the son of God... And Eve, certainly being in that spot where there had been no sin, no place for sin, she certainly must've had a wonderful conception of what God was. Because every afternoon, she and her husband walked in the cool of the garden in the evening, and talked face to face with God. What a--an unreasonable thing that a person who would walk face to face with God each day, and then would turn to the reasoning of something that reasoned her away from the Word of God.

We still got them. They so easily be reasoned away from the Word of God, after setting in the Presence of God. Seeing the Word of God preached, the Word of God made manifest, drunkards and sinners come to the altar and be converted and made new creatures in Christ, people of ill fame made ladies and gentlemen; and then to turn from that blessed thing that led them to this Life, and then be perverted off after some kind of a creed to become more popular or--or get into what they would call a better class of people. Why, you're in the best class that there is: sons and daughters of God. Well, I like that company better than I would with all the kings and potentates, and everything else. Give me that humble bunch of people, if they don't know their right hand from their left. As long as they know God, and love Him and serve Him, that's the celebrity of heaven to me. Yes, sir.

Now, but we find that Eve was easily persuaded by Satan from the Word of God, and she leaned on her own understanding, because Satan had projected something to her which wasn't to her real understanding of God. But she had something else told to her by the enemy, Satan, and she believed it. Now, we find the results of this. It plunged the whole human race to death, because the first mother on the earth leaned to her own understanding, contrary to the Word of God, and plunged the whole human race to death. Now, do you believe that? That's the Word. Well, a woman is always... A church in the Bible is typed to woman. And a church today can accept a bunch of dogmas or creeds, and plunge the whole congregation in a separation from God. Those people who adopt those things in the stead of the Word of God are just like Eve. And it's been done over and over, till it's got this whole generation plunged away from the Word of God.

And when the Word is made manifest, the Word is revealed, they won't accept It, because they won't do it, because they lean to their own understanding. "This church was built here. It's a beautiful place. It's a great organization. It's a member of a great body of people. Why shouldn't we belong to that? I'll trust in it." Trust not in your own understanding, but trust in the Word of the Lord. Now, now it ended finally in death to the whole race, as I said, same as now, to the many people who rely upon their own understanding, their dogmas and creeds, and so forth, claiming, "The Word of God is not altogether true, that some of It is inspired and some is not." How can you have faith in a Bible, if part of It is inspired and part of it's not? If one--if one quotation is wrong, then the whole thing might be wrong. It's all got to be right, exactly right.

And some of these so-called perverted Bible schools teaching man's knowledge, accumulation, where they get together and set in a council of people, and say, "Now, look, if the days of miracles, it ended in the days of the apostles." And many men under the bishop or the high man, would set there and say, "Well, if I can just agree with him, no doubt but I might be in line next for his position." See, then you lean to your own understanding, instead of standing on your two feet for the Word of God. That's what causes these things.

Sometime ago, someone... I was in a dispute on the income tax. And they said to me, said, "Why, your trustees are nothing but puppets, I suppose." I said, "If I had a trustee on the board, that had a different idea, and wouldn't stand up, and (I don't care who's speaking about it) would express his own views of it, I'd throw him off the board." Yes, sir. Though it was contrary to my belief, I want him to express what he thinks is right. That's what I got him there for, see what he says about it. But we have that.

Notice, Jesus said in Saint John 10, "My sheep know My Voice," A Voice, of course, is His Word when He's speaking. "My sheep know My Voice. My Voice has been proven to them to be true. It's been vindicated that it is My Voice." Now, now, notice, they are not subject to following any other voice. They won't. "My sheep know My Voice, and a stranger they will not follow." In other words, they will not understand a theological voice that's teaching contrary to the Word. The sheep don't understand that no more than the eagle, last night, could understand the clucking of the hen. They don't understand it, because he was an eagle. And that's the same thing with a genuine born again child of God, they understand only the things that are of God. Now, somebody'd say, "Well, now look, you could do this, I think. It's, I believe that it isn't this a-way. I believe that the days of miracles is passed. I don't believe that that's Divine healing. I don't believe this." Now, a genuine born again Christian, that'll never stop in his ears; he don't understand it at all. And how could a man that believes in God, and can read the Bible and see that He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, will ever accept such a thing as that, I don't understand it.

So they do not lean to their own understanding.

Read the full account in...
Lean Not Unto Thy Own Understanding.

The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

Proverbs 15:14