Rebellion & Stupidity

Academics believe that the bounds of their subjects are to be determined by nothing in nature but are defined by a handful of men aspiring to be the forerunners of the art, and relying on nothing outside of their own wisdom. Their students spend a lifetime learning the precepts of other men, always taking someone else's word, and never having recourse to original thought or experiment to discover for themselves.

The fallen nature of the human mind, to its very great detriment, is so disposed that it will trust other fallen men rather than turn in helplessness to Him whose aid and succour they ought to seek for all things. They surrender completely to the leading of their own kind, as if God had not endowed them with minds at all! 

The first error shows rebellion; the latter sheer stupidity. Both reveal sinful ingratitude towards God.


--John Owen