What Ellen White Says About Garden Of Eden

The ManicaPost

Stories by Morris Mtisi
THE writer of this column was in mainstream education for a period spanning more than thirty years. He experienced the best and worst of classroom practice, department headship, examination marking and chieftaincy. In his studies

he acquired various levels of mastery of Principles of Education, Theory of Education, Sociology and Psychology of Education.

When everything has been said and done, this writer recommends an education which acknowledges and recognizes God as the source of all wisdom and understanding.

An education system that focuses on disseminating the cardinal principles of character (moral rearmament) education is the ardent advocacy of this writer.

Many learned men and women today despise religious or spiritual belief and for some atheism is a sign of learnedness. Educated people believe in scientific evidence and researched truth. That too constitutes education but to omit is to miss the whole essence of education as a source of wisdom and understanding. To leave out God in all human development is educational nonsense that goes beyond denunciation. And a school curriculum that pushes principles of character education to the back-burner is dead. I said it last week. I will say it again this week.

The motivating objective of a sound school curriculum is that youth on the threshold of life must be prepared to take their place as good citizens, thoroughly prepared for the practical experiences of living, fully developed in stature, physically, God-fearing, with character untarnished and a heart true to principle. An education that omits character formation is dangerous.

Ellen G. White says, "Every person must face the practical realities of life-its opportunities, its responsibilities, its defeats and its successes, How he (or she) is to meet these experiences, whether he (or she) is to become master or victim of circumstances, depends largely upon his preparation to cope with them- and that is his or her education."

Ellen G. White was a friend of young men and women, She was for many years in close touch with institutions of learning and was well acquainted with the problems of youth in preparation for their lifework. Above all, she was endued with more than ordinary knowledge and skill as a writer and speaker. (The Trustees of The Ellen G. White Publications).

About Adam and Eve, Ellen G. White says, "Every faculty of mind and soul reflected the Creator's glory. Endowed with high mental and spiritual gifts, they (Adam and Eve) were made but 'little lower than the angels'-that they may discern the wonders of the visible universe, but comprehend moral responsibilities and obligations." Hence she talks about the Eden School. I promised to give you more on that first school in the Garden of Eden.

Continues Ellen G. White: "The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden. Here, amidst the beautiful scenes of nature untouched by sin, out first parents were to receive their education

"in His interest for His children, our Heavenly Father personally directed their education, Often they were visited by His messengers ( Not subject inspectors instructed by directors of education from some Ministry of Education somewhere in some capital city or regional office), the Holy angels, and from them received counsel and instruction. Often as they walked in the garden in the cool of the day they heard the voice of God (not some temporal Minster of education or permanent secretary) and face to face held communion with the Eternal. His thoughts toward them were "thoughts of peace, and not of evil." His very purpose was their highest good," says Ellen G. White.

"To Adam and Eve was committed the care of the garden, "to dress it and to keep it". Though rich in all that the Owner of the universe could supply, they were not to be idle. Useful occupation was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body, to expand the mind, and to develop the character.

"The book of nature, which spread its living lessons before them, afforded an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. On every shining star, in earth and sea and sky, God's name was written. With both the animate and the inanimate creation-with leaf and flower and tree, and with every living creature, from the leviathan of the waters to the mote in the sunbeam-the Dwellers in Eden held converse, gathering from each other the secrets of life. God's glory in the Heavens, the innumerable world in their orderly revolutions: the balancing of the clouds, the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night, all were objects of study by the pupils of earth's first school. The laws and operations of nature, and the great principles of truth that govern the spiritual universe, were opened to their minds by the infinite Author of all. In the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, their mental and spiritual powers developed, and they realized the highest pleasures of their holy existence. . . the Garden of Eden was a representation of what God desired the whole earth to become, and it was His purpose that, as the human family increased in numbers, they should establish other homes and schools like the one He had given. Thus in the course of time such homes and schools should be established; where the words and the works of God should be studied, and where the students should thus be fitted more and more fully to reflect, throughout endless ages, the light of the knowledge of His glory."

Adam and Eve blew it big time, spoiled everything God had planned for them by eating from the tree Of Knowledge of Good and Evil. We all know the story. They became 'wiser than God' –at least that is what they thought. Meanwhile they had invited an eternal curse of everlasting punishment and reprimand from God.

This inherited sin of thinking we know better than God still haunts the modern man and woman. Our schools and so-called higher institutions of learning reflect that intellectual transgression where fundis think they are demi-god educated if by coveting what God has forbidden.

Schools and universities have distrusted God's wisdom and like our first parents those who captain or decide what learners must learn have forgotten that the Bible contains all the principles that men (and women) need to understand in order to be fitted for this life and any other hereafter. They have forgotten the science of redemption yet it is the highest study in which it is possible for man to engage.

It is my hope that someone picks or grasps the wisdom of this truth and the beauty of education lies in intellectual humility which accepts that the greatest achievement from education is good character which we will carry to our Maker one by one, not our degrees and prodigious knowledge of books on the last day.

It is also my fervent hope that politicians and other holders of influence and power in this country stop continuing to overlook the inclusion of restoration of our school going children through the Bible or because the devil in us hates that word (Bible) let us call it moral rearmament, a syllabus of life based on conscious choice and knowledge of what is right and wrong.

I can envisage sneers on the faces of all arrogant intellectuals and academics who are busy writing their own pride and histories and obliterating God's omnipotence through Jesus. But I can also hear a loud 'Amen' from all those who realize that intelligence is a gift from God and only He deserves to lead the guidance in drafting syllabuses of life for our children.

May the new school curriculum do everything else human creativity and innovativeness the human mind can come up with but never forget the rare wisdom of inculcating character-building education in it.

Just who is Ellen G. White? Watch this space next week.