Qinjin
After the college entrance examination in June, 2016, I constantly saw short videos about students’ suicide in my Qzone. I clicked one of them, which is about two examinees committing suicide after the scores are announced. In the scene, two boys (about sixteen to seventeen years old) were on the top of a six-story building and were going to jump off the building. Meanwhile, in front of the building there were two women crying out, “Don’t jump. Come down …” It seemed they were their mothers. But no matter how they were yelling heartbrokenly downstairs, the two boys sitting on the railing on the sixth floor kept no response. Air cushions were set up on the ground, and the rescue work was going on. More than ten seconds later, to avoid air cushions, one of the boys grasped the railing with his hands, hanging on the wall. Then the other boy did so, too. After hanging for a few seconds, they loosened their hands and fell down from the six floor of the building, with their heads and bodies striking railings floor by floor, finally falling on the ground. The crowd exclaimed and their mothers cried heartbrokenly…. After seeing this video, my heart was pricking, and could not calm down for a long time. I couldn’t help sighing: Alas, an exam and scores destroyed two young lives. What a tragedy it is!
In today’s society, many parents, students and teachers think “Knowledge decides fate.” Whether one has a good or bad future depends on whether his score is high or low. Therefore, many examinees conclude their lives due to their low scores and heavy study pressure. It is well-known that many examinees commit suicide because of their unsatisfactory scores after the college entrance examination every year. As the rate of students’ suicide increases year by year, examinees’ suicide has already become a serious problem in the society nowadays.
On June 14, 2013, after the results of the college entrance examination were announced, Li, a repeat student in Yingkou city drowned himself into a river. His grieving parents said the year before their son’s score had reached the minimum passing score of ordinary universities. Nonetheless, his biggest ideal was admitted by a key university. As a consequence, he committed suicide because he failed this year.
On the evening of June 22, 2013, after learning that her college entrance examination score had 6 marks less than the cutoff score of the colleges, a repeat student in Chongzhou of Sichuan Province, chose to end her life by drinking pesticide and slitting her wrist.
On September 22, 2014, in Linli County Hunan province, two students who were only fifteen years old felt world-weary and committed suicide in a pact with two suicide notes left, because the study pressure was too heavy and their study scores fell far short of their parents’ expectations.
On December 22, 2015, in Chengcheng County, a girl drank pesticide and died in a community, leaving a piece of paper, which roughly meant that she had studied very hard, but her examination grades were not ideal yet. Thus she made a decision to kill herself.
The data in an investigation analysis report on suicide among middle school students by the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health of Peking University showed: One out of five middle school students ever considered committing suicide, which was 20.4 percent in the total sample. And the number who ever planned to kill themselves was 6.5 percent. On May 14, 2014, it was pointed out in the news conference about The Blue Book of Education (Annual Report on China’s Education (2014)) that at present, committing suicide among primary and middle school students was becoming a more and more serious social phenomenon. According to the analysis, the fundamental cause of this phenomenon was the college entrance examination system.
It’s very shocking to see these news and data! Unexpectedly, the students today are so world-weary that they will even commit suicide and end their lives for an examination score. The grade sheet becomes something that enhance them to choose death, which is really unimaginable and lamentable. What is it on earth that leads students to care about examination scores and even kill themselves for them?
God says, “Satan uses knowledge as bait. Listen closely: Knowledge is just a kind of bait. People are enticed to study hard and improve themselves day after day, to weaponize knowledge and arm themselves with it, and then to use knowledge to open the gateway to science; in other words, the more knowledge you gain, the more you will understand. Satan tells people all of this; it tells people to foster lofty ideals as they are learning knowledge, instructing them to build up ambitions and aspirations. Unbeknownst to man, Satan conveys many messages like this, causing people to unconsciously feel that these things are correct or beneficial. Unknowingly, people set foot upon this path, unknowingly led onward by their own ideals and ambitions. … In fact, no matter how lofty man’s ideals are, no matter how realistic man’s desires are or how proper they may be, all that man wants to achieve, all that man seeks for, is inextricably linked to two words. These two words are vitally important to the life of every person, and they are things Satan intends to instill in man. What are these two words? They are ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Satan uses a very subtle kind of method, a method very much in concert with people’s notions, which is not at all radical, through which it causes people to unknowingly accept its way of living, its rules to live by, and to establish life goals and their direction in life, and in doing so they also unknowingly come to have ambitions in life. No matter how grand these life ambitions may seem, they are inextricably linked to ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Everything that any great or famous person—all people, in fact—follow in life relates only to these two words: ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ … For the sake of this fame and gain which mankind so covets, people willingly, albeit unknowingly, hand over their bodies, minds, all that they have, their futures and their destinies, to Satan. They do so without even a moment’s hesitation, ever ignorant of the need to recover all that they have handed over. Can people retain any control over themselves once they have taken refuge in Satan in this way and become loyal to it? Certainly not. They are completely and utterly controlled by Satan. They have completely and utterly sunk into a quagmire, and are unable to free themselves.”
God’s words have revealed the source of the problem. All these consequences come after Satan uses knowledge to corrupt people. It is beneficial to us to study knowledge and grasp some practical culture, gain our insight and raise our cultural caliber. However, Satan uses knowledge to imbue us with some fallacies and heresies such as “Knowledge changes one’s fate” “Knowledge decides everything” “Through studying you will gain success, and fortune will follow” and so on, letting us think that knowledge decides our fate, scores decide a child’s future. Unknowingly, we walk on the evil way of seeking for fame and gain under Satan’s misleading: In order to gain high marks and own a beautiful future, students keep on struggling, making their efforts, studying diligently for more than ten years. Once they find their grades are not so ideal, they feel that they have no hope for their future, they will be disappointed and conclude their lives. While their parents constantly compel them to study more and work harder for the sake of their good future and even more they control their children, using high-pressure means, so that the children have to endure great pressure, arousing their world-weariness and suicidal thoughts when very young. Almost all the parents, teachers and students think “Grades determine future” “One test score does all.” When the scores are published, for some students, there is no doubt that it is something that will lead them to conclude their lives. It can be seen that Satan uses knowledge as a guise, deceiving and corrupting humans from generation to generation and then bringing us humans into the quagmire of seeking for fame and gain, thus we are corrupted and controlled by it step by step, in the end devoured by it. This is Satan’s evil intention. Because we don’t understand the truth, nor do we discern Satan’s schemes, so we still live under Satan’s deceit, becoming its sacrificial object, which is our sorrow.
In fact, knowledge can’t change our fate and much less can it decide our fate. It is well-known that many college students can’t find jobs after graduation: Some of them go home, raising pigs, some sell fruits in wholesale markets, some service as street vendors, some do nothing but lives off his parents and so on. Although they have learned much knowledge, they can’t change their fates yet. While some people don’t know so many words and they rely on their craftwork, wherever they go, they are warmly welcomed. Some don’t receive much school education, they grasp an opportunity and get fame and gain, etc. From this, we can see that though these people don’t own so much knowledge, they can do what they want in the society. God says, “Some people learn and master many different skills and yet never find a job that suits them or never find their position, much less have a career; at the outset of their life journey, they find themselves thwarted at every turn, beset by troubles, their prospects dismal and their lives uncertain. Some people apply themselves diligently to their studies, yet narrowly miss every chance to receive a higher education; they seem fated never to achieve success…. Some people, despite not being very well educated, write books and achieve a measure of fame; some, though almost totally illiterate, make money in business and are thereby able to support themselves…. What occupation one chooses, how one makes a living: do people have any control over whether they make a good choice or a bad choice in these things? Do these things accord with people’s desires and decisions? … Regardless of differences in ability, intelligence, and willpower, people are all equal before fate, which does not distinguish between the great and the small, the high and the low, the exalted and the mean. What occupation one pursues, what one does for a living, and how much wealth one amasses in life are not decided by one’s parents, one’s talents, one’s efforts or one’s ambitions, but are predetermined by the Creator.” We can see from God’s word that our fate has nothing to do with how much knowledge we have grasped or whether our grades are high or low. Our fate is controlled in God’s hands. Our fate in life is good or bad depends on the Creator’s predetermination and arrangement totally, which is the fact that nobody can change. We can see that Satan uses knowledge, tempting us to alter our fate by seeking for fame and gain, and it is Satan who is leading us to resist God’s sovereignty and transcend God’s predetermination so that it can only bring us endless affliction and harm.
God says, “Wherever one is, whatever one’s job is, one’s means of living and the pursuit of one’s goals bring one nothing but endless heartbreak and suffering without relief, such that one cannot bear to look back on one’s past. Only when one accepts the Creator’s sovereignty, submits to His orchestrations and arrangements, and seeks true human life will one gradually begin to break free from all heartbreak and suffering, and to be rid of all the emptiness of life.” It can be seen that if we want to free ourselves from Satan’s affliction and devour, we must come before God, accepting and knowing God’s authority and sovereignty, submitting to God’s predeterminations and arrangements to us, establishing our own correct life goals and directions in God’s word. Only in this way can we walk out of the quagmire in which Satan binds and harms us, break away from Satan’s tease and affliction. When we know the Creator’s authority from God’s sovereignty and ordination, and see all the things He orchestrates and arranges for us are the best protection, the most meticulous care and the deepest love, we will be willing to be obedient under the authority of God and live completely freely and unrestrained. Only in this way can we live a more valuable and meaningful life. Eventually, we can obtain God’s promise and blessings to us humans, just because we know God and obey God.
