Is This Progress?

The New York Gazette of June 3, 1752 contained the following information in an advertisement. The ad was for an educational institution. Here is the wording of that advertisement:

The chief thing aimed at in this college is to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve Him in all sobriety, godliness and righteousness of life, with a perfect heart and a willing mind.

The institution placing that ad was then known as King’s College. We now know it as Columbia University.

When people of my generation (and generations younger than mine) think of Columbia University, one of the last things thought of is religion. Riots and protests of years ago come to mind. Things such as experimentation with drugs and “sexual freedom” also would join that list. Does it seem strange somehow that our institutions of higher learning used to uphold and defend the Bible?  Does that now seem “quaint” to you as most of these same institutions lead the fight against God and His Word?

Twenty-four years before we declared our freedom from England, educators were using whatever freedom they had to promote a belief in the Bible and the God of the Bible. Now, over two centuries later, educators (and others) are telling us that we should have freedom from religion, not freedom of religion.

Is this progress?

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