Dear Editor,
With all the differing opinions and struggles that our nation is having trying to get anything of significance assembled to shore up our national situation, I would like to put forth a thought from the Holy Scripture.
1 Corinthians 1:19-21 tells us, “As the Scriptures say, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.’ So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.”
Since the world’s wisdom and intelligence is based upon worldly thinking, you can see why it is flawed. God’s Word is truth. To reason from a lessor standard will leave people missing the mark.
The people of the world don’t realize that their wisdom is foolish. It is all they know and it is all they have built their worldly lives upon. So, when the world’s wisdom leads people of the world into some sort of failure, they look to their worldly advisors to reason a way out of their predicament. The suggested solve for the predicament generally leads to greater difficulty because the wisdom from which the world reasons is not based in truth and will ultimately fail.
This passage tells us that salvation is in the Lord. If we fail to follow the ways of the Lord we have set ourselves up to fail.
We assume that the Lord’s salvation is only an eternal salvation into heaven after we die. Then people assume the rest of their lives are to be lived on their own, governing according to the wisdom and understanding that they glean from inhabiting this world.
The Scriptures stand clearly to show us that throughout history those who placed their faith and trust in the Lord, here on earth, while involved in earthly endeavors, were delivered in the midst of their trials, tribulations, calamities and troubles.
God’s wisdom is higher than man’s because it is based in truth.
This passage is not just pertaining to eternal salvation only. This passage is telling us that we can place our faith and trust in the Lord for any situation and if we will follow His lead via His wisdom and understanding we will be saved.
I wonder if any of our national leaders, economic advisors, social constructionists, political lobbyists, environmental activists, educational providers, medical professionals, or scientific researchers has ever considered starting from the platform of God and His wisdom first.
See, I’m not calling people to accept Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins so they can have a wonderful afterlife. I’m calling people to actually believe in Christ. This is a call to reestablish their whole world view on a brand new foundation. I want people to see the world according to God’s Word.  I want them to come to believe God and adjust their life to His authoritative Word and ways. I want people to truly believe from the foundation that has been built upon the Apostles and Prophets with Christ being the cornerstone of the building.
Maybe we should give it a try. Nothing else is working and for those who truly believe, we have found God to be reliable.
Pastor Thomas R. Swain
First Church of God