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Wildwood Lifestyle Center

True Education

Ralph Martin

True Education- Part 1

All right, I'll tell you what I would like to have you folks Have for Your book to read now We're not going to follow it and just the way it is because the way it's it's given But we want all of you to read the book education.

I wonder how many of you have the old edition?

Do you know what I mean by the old edition?

And I'll tell you something very interesting about this book.

And if you don't have this, then you would, if you could get with someone that does have it, I'll tell you why.

You may not know this, but all of the original books that Ellen G.

White put out in their original form all are not only in chapters, but they have subtopics.

And the book education is different from all the other books that she has written because in the original book, she outlined it herself.

You'll find at the side little statements.

And this is all the way through the book Education.

Now, I read this book through many times before I thought this had any real value.

And then I began to realize that these little statements on the index of the original book were the questions that she wanted us to find the answer to.

I'll give you an example in the first chapter.

It's the source and aim of true education.

And then there are 13 statements on the side of that first chapter.

And the next is the true higher education, and then education in Eden, then God's purpose for man, then marred and restored, love, the basis of education, the revelation of God, nature's teaching insufficient, the standard of truth, individuality, the highest ideal.

These are the things that we should get out of this first chapter.

Now as I said, we're not going to study the first chapter as it is, but I hope all of you during this course will read the book Education Through and read it through carefully.

And if you don't have 1 of the books that has this in it, I think you would really get much more out of it if you could get hold of a book and write in your own margin these statements because they give you what you're supposed to find in a book education.

White herself is the 1 that outlined this book so that we would know just what it's talking about.

We're going to start with the sixth verse.

Isaiah 55, beginning with the sixth verse.

Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your ways my ways saith the Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts now I think I gave you the illustration yesterday as to why no 2 people reading the same thing may get exactly the same thoughts Do you remember the illustration I gave?

I've given so many talks lately, I may not have used this.

Did I tell you anything, say anything to you about dogs yesterday or didn't I?

All right, well we'll use this illustration.

If I say a word to you, that word is going to form a picture in your mind.

This is how we communicate with each other.

I say something and you immediately see a picture.

This, the Spirit of Prophecy called this flashes of thought.

So when I say the word dog, every person here would get a different picture.

Some might think about a Pekingese and some about a Saint Bernard and somebody about a collie and somebody else a German police dog.

And so immediately you get a picture in your mind of something.

Now the reason that we don't think like God does, and that God doesn't think like we do, is that we have been so educated in the wrong way that when a word comes to my mind, immediately I have a thought about it.

And when I say, education to you, you wouldn't think at all like God thinks when he says education and when he speaks about education, because all of us have been entirely wrongly educated.

From our very earliest years we have had the wrong kind of education.

So when I think of education, immediately I look and here's somebody with a cap and a gown.

Now there's nothing wrong with these thoughts, but they do not at all, they do not at all give the picture that God gives when he says education.

And so during this class and as we study this class, we're going to try to get our minds so when we say something about education, whose thoughts are we going to be following?

I read to you in the class, in the orientation class, that there were 2 kinds of education.

There was worldly education, which was to be used for this world, and there was what other education?

Christian education, or education for eternity.

And so, during this class, in the principles of education, we're going to try to rethink the vocabulary that has to do with education.

And as we rethink that vocabulary, then we're going to think whose thoughts?

Now, just to give you an illustration of that, I'm going to read from volume 8 of the testimonies, page 314.

There is a science of Christianity to be mastered.

Now, Christianity and education and redemption and life are all synonymous terms.

In the book Education, on page 15, is the restoration of God's original plan, or his original image in man, and this says, to restore in man the image of his maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized, this was to be the work of redemption.

This is the object of education, the great object of life." Then what 3 words there are synonymous?

They're all the same because we will always live, I hope, don't you?

Redemption is a process by which we get life and it's the restorative process and education is just another name for the way we get redemption and our training for life.

Now back to this statement that I started to read.

Page 314 of the book, Evaluated the Testimonies, there is a science of Christianity to be mastered.

You think it's important we master the science of Christianity?

A science as much deeper, broader, higher than any human science as the heavens are higher than the earth.

The mind is to be disciplined, educated, trained, for we are to do service for God in ways that are not in harmony with inborn inclination.

There are hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil that must be overcome.

Often the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded.

Often The training and education of a lifetime must be what?

Yeah, but look at all I have and look what it cost me.

But folks, if God says something should be discarded, what do you think?

And why is it, do you think, it has to be discarded?

Because when we hear these words that have to do with education, we get the wrong picture in our mind.

We get a picture that isn't God's picture at all.

And this is why it says often, the training and education of a lifetime must be discarded that 1 may become a learner in the school of Christ.

True Education- Part 2

Isn't it a wonderful thing to know that God made us with minds that are capable of never ceasing to develop?

You see, man is made lower than the angels, but with the capability of a relation to God.

You see, there are many things we could talk about that.

And I want you to know that what we study here is going to be relatively unimportant in the overall picture of your life.

It's only what we are inspired to get for ourselves.

I have only 1 purpose in this class and that is not to tell you a lot of things, but to have the Holy Spirit inspire you to go to the sources so you can get truths that are unbelievable.

Didn't I read to you folks that there are great truths laying unheeded and unseen since the day of Pentecost?

That are going to come from the Word of God and this native purity.

Truths that have been completely lost sight of.

Well, let's become children, what do you say?

And so it isn't what you get here that's going to really be the important thing, it's what you are inspired to get.

All right, now something else that someone...

Randy, alright, I appreciate what Randy says because this is the thing that has really done more for me than anything else, to realize that God made human beings with a capability of doing just unbelievable things.

Not because of what's in us, but because of the ability to have human beings have God in them.

You see, we're different from the angels.

You know, when Lucifer and his angels fell, they still retained their light.

And probably they would live forever if God didn't destroy them.

But human beings without God immediately began to disintegrate.

Maybe I should just mention a little bit of this here, because I think this is really important.

Just to show you what we're talking about, Volume 8, this is page 255, and it's a chapter called Essential Knowledge.

Now these chapters that I'm giving you, if you could take time, I know you're busy, but if you could take time to do some research on these because I'm just giving you a few key thoughts.

And I do hope before this class is over you will all have read carefully through the book Education.

We're going to touch it now and then, but we're not following the book.

I find that if we just follow a book, we're kind of inclined to get stereotyped.

We want to reach out and get many thoughts.

And if this is different from any class that you've been in, don't be surprised because I'm teaching this different than I've ever taught it before because I'm learning new things all the time and I want to incorporate those things in it.

Well, when man sinned or Before man sinned, he had a light surrounding him, and I'll read this, this is page 255 of volume 8.

Before the entrance of sin, not a cloud rested upon the minds of our first parents to obscure their perception of the character of God.

They were perfectly conformed to the will of God.

For a covering, a beautiful light, the light of God surrounded them.

A beautiful light, the light of God surrounded them.

I'm hoping some artist sometime will draw Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and put the light around them instead of making them almost pornographic figures.

And this clear and perfect light illuminated everything they approached.

They didn't need flashlights, you had your built-in flashlight.

And when, even at night, you see, If you approached anything, well, you illuminated the darkness.

There was no night, there was no light, there was no darkness, but there's something about that that is really more important than that.

In the Garden of Eden, the existence of God was demonstrated.

His attributes were revealed in the objects of nature that surrounded them.

On page 16 of Education and page 18 of Christ's Object Lessons is this statement, Nature in its original condition, in its perfection, was an expression of the thought of God.

Everything in creation was an expression of the thought of God.

We as human beings were an expression of the thought of God.

And so everywhere man looked, what would he see?

It says, But when they listened to the tempter, and sinned against God, the light of the garments of heavenly innocence departed from them.

Deprived of this heavenly light, they could no longer discern the character of God in the works of his hands." So it was not only a light of illumination, but it was a light of what else?

And when this light shone on nature, this light in them that shone forth made them discern God in everything in nature.

But you know, the light has been returned.

And Malachi, the last chapter, says, when the Son of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings.

You see, Jesus took the place of that light.

Page 161 of Desire of Ages says, "...light has always been the symbol of God's presence." But you see, so when man sinned, he lost much more than Satan did, because Satan has his light, he's still an angel of light, but we're not very bright beings.

It became darkness, and so man, when he lost his relation to God, then The thing that we need to understand is that man, capable of a special relationship with God, is capable also of a terrible degradation when Satan enters.

Because man with God can become so great without God, and Satan in him, we can become the bottom.

And you know when Jesus comes back to the earth, there's going to be just 2 classes of people.

1 class that reflect the image of Jesus fully, and you know what the other class is going to be like?

I won't take any time, but I'll give you the reference later.

It says, the forces of darkness will unite with human agents who have given themselves into the control of Satan, and the same scenes that were exhibited at the trial, rejection, and crucifixion of Christ will be revived.

Through yielding to satanic influences men will be transformed into fiends.

And those who were created in the image of God, who were formed to honor and glorify their Creator, will become the habitation of dragons.

And Satan will see in an apostate race his masterpiece of evil, those men who reflect his own image.

So when probation closes, the human race will either be totally filled with the Spirit of God and will reflect Jesus' image or will be given over to evil spirits and will become fiends and reflect the very image of Satan.

Either to accept Christ, to let Him work in us and become transformed into His image, or we will be transformed into fiends.

We shouldn't have to hesitate very much on that choice, should we?

But you see, you don't have to choose just to serve Satan, because we're already under his control.

All right, now, This makes us realize how man is different.

True Education- Part 3

My text this afternoon is the 46th chapter of Isaiah, Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10.

Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else.

I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times of things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure." Do you think it would really affect our lives and our relation to God and to Christ if we really knew and really believed that God had made a record of our life before we ever came into existence.

You think such a thing could actually be possible?

Well turn with me if you have your Bibles, I hope you all have your Bibles, and turn with me to the book of Daniel, and I'd like to read something to you that's very interesting.

Daniel the 10th chapter, Daniel 10, and it's the 21st verse.

But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth.

Now when Daniel came, when Gabriel came, you'll find this in the same chapter, the 11th verse, And he said unto me, this is the angel Gabriel, you go back and you'll find that this is his talking to Daniel.

And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright.

For unto thee am I now sent, and when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.' And then he went on and he said that he had come to give him knowledge.

The fourteenth verse, Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days, for yet the vision is for many days." Now, this is the interpretation of the vision that was given in Daniel 8.

Daniel didn't receive any more visions after that.

Now the 21st verse says, "...and I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth, and there is none that holdeth with me in these things but Michael your prince.

Now here the angel Gabriel was come to tell Daniel about some things that were going to happen and to interpret his dream, and he says, I'm going to show you something that's in the Scripture of truth.

Well, how is it that nobody knows what's in that book but Michael and Gabriel?

It's a book in heaven that he brought some things out of.

And I want you to know that there are just things in that book that would be unbelievable.

If you turn with me now to another verse, and this is Psalm 139.

And we're going to start reading with the 14th verse.

Verse 14, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well.

My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect, and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them." what does that say?

It says all about my members was written in that book before they were what?

Well you know there are a lot of things, do you remember that, I won't turn to read this, this would be good something for you to look up.

Moses was praying 1 time and he said that his tears were all in the book.

Alright now I'll read you another statement and this is from the Bible Commentary.

Now we're just trying to get our minds stimulated a little bit.

I want you to think about this, because this brings things into real focus, you know.

Bible commentary, let me get my reference here.

Well, it's on the book of Job, I'll give you the reference.

Nothing can happen in any part of the universe without the knowledge of him who is omnipresent.

Not a single event of human life is unknown to our Maker.

While Satan is constantly devising evil, the Lord our God overrules all so that it will not harm his obedient, trusting children.

The same power that controls the boisterous waves of the oceans can hold in check all the power of rebellion and of crime.

God says to the 1 as to the other, thus far shalt thou go, and no farther." Now I want you to notice this.

"'What lesson of humility and faith may we not learn as we trace the dealings of God with his creatures?

The Lord can do so little for the children of men because they are so full of pride and vain glory.

They exalt self, magnifying their own strength, learning and wisdom.

It is necessary for God to disappoint their hopes and frustrate their plans that they may learn to trust in him alone.

When we make our own plans what does God have to do to it?

He has to frustrate them in order for us to know what?

All our powers are from God, and we can do nothing independent of the strength which he has given us.

Where is the man or woman or child that God does not sustain?

Where is the desolate place which God does not fill?

Where is the want that any but God's can supply?

Now then, I know the question that every 1 of us will have in our minds.

You mean to tell me that God has really outlined the history of this world before it was ever made, that would take a lot of time, wouldn't it?

Has God had time to outline everything in this world?

You remember when we were studying the nature of man and God's purpose in creating him, that we found that...

But we found something was created before Lucifer, and what was that?

And the sanctuary is God's place that he ordained from eternity, that sin would be taken care of.

The sanctuary has a special relation to human beings, because that's where the atonement takes place for us.

Now, Christ's atonement was made on earth.

He took care of that, but his atonement for us and his giving to us the power that we need is in the sanctuary.

Now I read this statement I don't know whether it got through to all of us or not but I want to read it again this is the last comment on the book of Hebrews and if you want to think that God has had time to do all this, there's this commentary.

7 BC 934, Let those who are oppressed under a sense of sin remember that there is hope for them.

The salvation of the human race has ever been the object of the councils of heaven.

What has ever been the object of the councils of heaven?

And the councils of God have always been regarding what?

Let's remember that the human race has always been God's problem.

Lucifer would rebel, and He couldn't help Lucifer.

Because Lucifer rebelled under conditions in which there was no hope of his ever returning, in the undimmed light of God's presence.

They sinned without all the knowledge that Lucifer had.

And God's plan and his counsels from all eternity have been regarding the salvation of the human race.

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