Vanity

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity, Ecclesiastes 1:2.

We live in an age when learning is viewed with suspicion. If a particular racial or economic group struggles with math, blame the math. Change it. If you are a lover of history, it is painful to read current texts written for low achieving schools. I recently came across this quote by Thomas Sowell:

So far, my opinion as to the dumbing down of children would be greeted warmly by most evangelically minded Christians. Most remain stalwart in their opinion that education must lift people, not conform to their ignorance. In fact, most Christian colleges and universities boast of their adherence to a rigorous application of traditional education.

The great exception to that is the bible. There is simply no more important tool for passing on the cumulative knowledge and wisdom of the past, the wisdom and knowledge needed for today, and very the opinions of God himself than the bible.

At this, the vast majority of christian educators throw in the towel. They mourn over words whose meanings are not current in today's parlance. Somehow, little poopsie who they reckon capable of learning algebra and calculus, capable of learning detailed and accurate history, capable of learning advanced sciences, would be utterly flummoxed if confronted by a bible word whose meaning isn't what he learned on the playground.

Vanity: That which is vain, futile, or worthless; that which is of no value or profit. Oxford English Dictionary

What if little poopsie has the playground or popular culture defintion of vanity in his head? What if little poopsie is so insincere in his reading that as he reads Ecclesiastes 1:2, he doesn't take note of the fact that the common defintion of "being stuck on one's self" is obviously not the meaning of the verse?

God forbid that we take time to educate little poopsie. After all, Fredrick Douglass who was born and raised in slavery could read a King James Bible. He could be taught the meanings of words and could comfortably use them, but we can't do that for our children even though we fully expect them to excel above the street level of education in every other subject.

Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away, Psalm 144:4. Herein is a self contained definition of vanity. Man is like unto [that which is vain, or worthless]: his days are as a shadow that passeth away. Both the ESV and the New King James Bible are folly; Man is like a breath; His days are like a passing shadow. The last I knew, a breath had value. It may not last long, but it sure has value.

In other words, if a bible reader is in danger of reading a word that he may misinterpret even though the context is plain, it is better to use a word with which he is familiar even though the passage then becomes untrue.

Vanity is a perfect bible word. Any child who learns it and incorporates it into his or her vocabulary has gained a step up from the street level of speech. When I was a child, my father did two things that were invaluable to me in later years. He was a stickler for proper vocabulary and would stop us if we misused a word. It was never cruel or demeaning. He would patiently wait for us to formulate our speech properly and then listen to what we had to say.

He made us spend a year in which we set a formal dinner table and behaved at that table as if we were in high society. The boys stood behind their chairs until Father nodded and took his seat. We boys then held our sisters' and our mother's chairs and helped them to be seated. At my father's next nod, we sat down. The food was passed around in solemn order. We used the appropriate silverware, cut our meat appropriately, ate our soup appropriately and conversed in accordance with our father or mother's direction.

I don't eat that way at McDonalds and I don't act pretentiously when invited out. Yet, if I find myself at an occasion where such manners are expected, I thank God for my father's instruction. Likewise with vocabulary. I'm not advocating that someone's child only speak in rarified and lofty phrases. I enjoy a well educated man or woman who is able to speak on a street level.

I hope the children under my ministry never lose their common touch. I also hope that whether they are addressing their peers, a classroom, a room full of diplomats, or preaching from a pulpit, that they have the vocabulary necessary to express themselves on the level of those to whom they speak. Giving them bibles geared to their ignorance will not educate them.

There is simply no book on this earth more able to lift men from ignorance more than a King James Bible. It has been doing that for over 400 years. Fredrick Douglas did not grow up speaking King James English. for that matter, neither did Teddy Roosevelt, Douglas MacArthur, A. W. Tozer, or any educator of the last 300 years. Somehow, they managed to learn to read it. Your children can to, and they will be better for it.