Jesus: the source of enlightenment (1)

First and most importantly, Jesus brought the light of salvation to all mankind. But one of the enduring benefits of His kingdom is His impact on learning and education. The word university began with those who believed that God created the universe; therefore, His ways must be studied and known. Martin Luther highlighted from the New Testament the priesthood of all believers. In the process, he changed education because he taught that every person needs to be capable of reading and writing so they can study the scriptures for themselves. This ushered in a goal of worldwide literacy for everyone in a society. In America, the first law to call for mass universal education was announced in Massachusetts in 1647. It was named, believe it or not, “The Old Deluder Satan Act.” Its wording goes: “It being one chief product of that Old Deluder Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the scriptures…and to the end that learning may not be buried in the graves of our forefathers.” This is a lovely idea that everybody should learn: that ignorance is the devil’s tool, and that God is the God of truth. In nation after nation, Christian missionaries discovered languages that had not been written. So in acts of extraordinary sacrifice, they dedicated their lives to the chore. They assembled the first dictionaries. They penned the first grammars. They formed the first alphabets. And the first significant proper name written in numerous languages was the name Jesus.