History is His story

The words Jesus spoke changed the world forever. These were the last instructions to His disciples: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you” (vv. 18-20 NKJV). Jesus’ followers took this seriously: “Daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ” (Acts 5:42 NKJV). They remembered that they followed a man who taught everyone, and who commanded them to teach all peoples. So they did. They began to teach both men and women, both slaves and free. Some of the world’s greatest teaching institutions were founded by followers of Christ. Oxford and Cambridge universities began in the thirteenth century. (The motto of Oxford University is from Psalm 27:1: “The Lord is my light.”) George Marsden noted: “One of the remarkable facts about American history is that within six years of landing in Massachusetts wilderness, Puritans established what would soon become a reputable college.” These words are from a student handbook: “Let every student be plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to consider well, the main end of his life and studies is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal life (John 17:3), and therefore to lay Christ…as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and learning.” That was Harvard University! And 92 percent of the first 138 colleges and universities founded in America were begun by followers of Christ. His words not only inform us; they also transform us