Article December 21, 1907 Issue

THE PASSING OF KNOWLEDGE

M. G. KAINS, M.S.

PAUL once wrote, "Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away," and Christ Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." Knowledge is defined by the Standard Dictionary as "a result or product of knowing. Specifically: (1) Any fact or truth, or the aggregate of facts, truths, principles, and special or general information, acquired or retained by the mind. (2) In strict sense, the clear and certain apprehension of truth, or the agreement of thought with thing; the conviction or assurance, arising from proper evidence, that a mental apprehension corresponds with reality."

If we accept these definitions as adequate we are at once struck with the fact that knowledge is intensely restrictive, since it excludes all that is untrue. In other words, an untruth cannot be known, no matter how much or by whom or how long it may be believed. Its very nature is its doom, for sooner or later it will be challenged, combated, and destroyed. By what? The truth. Nothing but the truth can undergo such an ordeal and still maintain its existence. Nay, challenge and combat is the surest, the only way to prove the essential nature of truth; for with every test the truth becomes more strongly established. It matters not whether the challenge be from a friend or a foe, the result is invariably the same; naught but the dross is destroyed by the fire.

In view of these statements it is evident that the disappearance of "knowledge" and of "heaven and earth" refers to the replacement of the accretions of human speculation, based directly or indirectly on sense testimony, by the truths or facts of the spiritual realm unfolded by the spiritual senses. And it is interesting to survey the realm of knowledge through the lens of the spiritual significance of the two texts at the beginning of this article, and note the working out of these two prophecies, for such they are.

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