{"id":4248,"date":"2024-11-30T14:44:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-30T14:44:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/truthreallymatters.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=4248"},"modified":"2024-11-30T15:11:05","modified_gmt":"2024-11-30T15:11:05","slug":"napoleon-12-1-2024","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/truthreallymatters.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=4248","title":{"rendered":"Napoleon – 12\/1\/2024"},"content":{"rendered":"

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?\u00a0 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?\u00a0 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. \u2013 Jesus, Mark 8:36-38<\/em><\/p>\n

What would it look like for an ordinary man, a reasonably intelligent man, ambitious, determined to \u2018have it all,\u2019 to succeed beyond his wildest dreams?\u00a0 What if he has no real core, and no fear of or belief in God, but is simply driven by the morals (and immorals) of the culture, the passions of his times.\u00a0 In his ultimate and spectacular success, will he be happy, content, satisfied?\u00a0 Will he be wise enough to recognize his limits, or even the limits imposed by reality?<\/p>\n

Well, it \u2018looks like\u2019 the life of Napoleon Bonaparte.\u00a0 He achieved it all, he had it all, and none of it was enough.\u00a0 He gained the whole world and lost his soul.\u00a0 The woeful tragedy of his life will only be fully realized when he is on his knees at the Great White Throne Judgment, when the Lord Jesus delivers the final verdict on a wasted, self-willed life.<\/p>\n

I recently read Andrew Roberts\u2019 Napoleon:\u00a0 A Life<\/em>, a serious biography of the French emperor.\u00a0 Let\u2019s pull some nuggets.\u00a0 Napoleon (1769-1821) fought sixty battles, losing but seven.\u00a0 (He never understood naval warfare, however, and so Great Britain was the bane of his life.)\u00a0 His greatest achievements were the institutions he established that ended the chaos of the French Revolution, expecially the principle of equality under the law.\u00a0 The Napoleonic Code today undergirds the legal systems, at least in part, for forty different countries across the world.\u00a0 He ended rural banditry, massively supported science and the arts, ended the hyper-inflation of Revolutionary days, and killed corruption nationally and locally . . . except for his own cronyism.\u00a0 Along with the schools and traditions he established, it is likely that Napoleon would be a historical giant even without his military prowess.<\/p>\n

Napoleon had an extraordinary memory and was extremely well read in classical, philosophical, and scientific literature.\u00a0 He was a connoisseur of the theater, music, and the other arts; he socialized with astronomers, and was admired by the European intellectuals of the age, including Goethe, Byron, Beethoven, and Hegel.\u00a0 Goethe described his time discussing literature and poetry with Napoleon as \u201cone of the most gratifying experiences of his life.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Napoleon conquered much of Europe, he abolished the Inquisition, feudal oppressions, and anti-Semitism, bringing a measure of enlightenment through his administrators.\u00a0 He sought active collaboration in these policy changes, not mere submission.<\/p>\n

Napoleon never lacked confidence.\u00a0 Looking back on his early victories as a general, he reminisced, \u201cI no longer regarded myself as a simple general, but as a man called upon to decide the fate of peoples.\u00a0 It came to me then that I really could become a decisive actor on our national stage.\u00a0 At that point was born the first spark of high ambition.\u201d\u00a0 That ambition was coupled with a driven energy and motivation, a gift for oratory, a nearly perfect memory, and personal bravery under fire that magnified his leadership skills.<\/p>\n

Napoleon once wrote to his brother, Joseph, \u201cIn order to lead an army you have ceaselessly to attend to it, be ahead of the news, provide for everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Talleyrand, his foreign minister, he observed, \u201cThere is but one step from triumph to downfall.\u00a0 I have seen, in the most significant of circumstances, that some little thing always decides great events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Early in the Italian campaigns his military philosophy and habits became evident.\u00a0 Essential was a strong esprit de corps<\/em>, a combination of organizational spirit and pride.\u00a0 He told Joseph, \u201cRemember, it takes ten campaigns to create esprit de corps<\/em>, which can be destroyed in an instant.\u201d\u00a0 He studied history to develop methods to build it in his army.\u00a0 He employed plays, songs, operatic arias, proclamations, festivals, ceremonies, standards, and medals \u2013 he knew what soldiers wanted and he gave it to them; above all, victory.\u00a0 He was approachable, and his men loved him for it.\u00a0 He convinced his men they were on an adventure and that an ordinary man could make history.<\/p>\n

Given his strengths, in what sense do I claim ordinariness for Napoleon?\u00a0 He lacked a moral core.\u00a0 His wife, Josephine, was unfaithful to him, and he reciprocated with multiple adulterous affairs.\u00a0 Eventually, he discarded his wife in order to make a political marriage with an Austrian princess.\u00a0 Historians have counted at least 22 mistresses, upon whom he bestowed considerable sums of public money.<\/p>\n

He may or may not have believed in God, but doubted whether Jesus even existed.\u00a0 He suggested that if Jesus actually performed miracles, he should have done so in Rome, not a backwater Israel.<\/p>\n

The Revolution had broken the power of the Roman Catholic Church in France, which Napoleon equated with Christianity.\u00a0 He was determined during his reign to be master of the Church in France, lest he be under its influence.\u00a0 His treaties with the Papacy were strictly political.<\/p>\n

On one occasion he said, \u201cWere I obliged to have a religion, I would worship the sun \u2013 the source of all life \u2013 the real god of the earth.\u201d\u00a0 Also, \u201cI like the Muslim religion best; it has fewer incredible things in it than ours.\u201d\u00a0 He criticized Christianity in that it \u201cdoes not excite courage,\u201d because “it takes too much care to go to heaven.\u201d\u00a0 But he was always politically practical in dealing with religious societies:\u00a0 \u201cIf I ruled a people of Jews, I would rebuild the Temple of Solomon!\u201d<\/p>\n

Was he gifted in leadership?\u00a0 Yes, certainly.\u00a0 Management?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 He relentlessly micromanaged, obsessed with details.\u00a0 In one year (1809) he wrote 3,250 letters, including one pointing out a discrepancy in a ministerial budget of 1 franc and 45 centimes.\u00a0 Yet, he was charming with a smile that captivated.\u00a0 An Irish MP who met him:\u00a0 \u201cHe has more unaffected dignity than I could conceive in man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although raised in Corsica, Napoleon was sent to a military academy in France to be schooled and trained by monks.\u00a0 He excelled in mathematics, recalling, \u201cTo be a good general you must know mathematics; it serves to direct your thinking in a thousand circumstances.\u201d\u00a0 I have experienced some truth in this.\u00a0 Math is grounded in logic.\u00a0 Habits in logical thinking serve one well in other disciplines.<\/p>\n

The young Napoleon loved and read history voraciously, exhausting the library of biographies and history tomes, \u201cdevouring Plutarch\u2019s tales of heroism, patriotism, and republican virtue.\u201d\u00a0 He also read Caesar, Cicero, Erasmus, and many others.\u00a0 He acquired the nickname the Spartan<\/em>, perhaps for his professed love of that city-state.\u00a0 His favorite heroes were Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar.\u00a0 He spent afternoons reading while others played sports outside.<\/p>\n

He idolized Rousseau, believing that the state should have power over the life and death of its citizens, and should have the right to censor the theater and the opera.\u00a0 Accordingly, he would have no arguments with the excesses of the Revolution to come, except perhaps who should be in charge.<\/p>\n

Napoleon\u2019s upbringing infused a respect for social hierarchy, a belief in reward for merit and courage, and distaste for politicians, lawyers, journalists, and Britain.<\/p>\n

He wrote prolifically, including sixty essays, novellas, histories, pamphlets, etc., before the age of twenty-six.\u00a0 In his youth he was a Corsican nationalist, supporting resistance against French rule, but morphed into a French artillery officer who wanted to crush the Corsican revolt under Jacobin (Revolutionary) France.\u00a0 The Revolution afforded opportunities for a young, poor officer without connections.\u00a0 His criticism of the aristocracy endeared him to Revolutionary leaders, making him a \u2018politically trustworthy\u2019 soldier.<\/p>\n

He recalls that at age 21 he got by with little money, \u201cby never entering a caf\u00e9 or going into society; by eating dry bread, and brushing my own clothes so that they might last the longer.\u00a0 I lived like a bear, in a little room, with books for my only friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

As an artillery commander in early battles to secure the Revolution, Napoleon showed his flair and obsession for logistics.\u00a0 Writing to HQ:\u00a0 \u201cOne can remain for twenty-four or if necessary thirty-six hours without eating, but one cannot remain three minutes without gunpowder.\u201d\u00a0 His attention to detail informed successful leadership throughout his career, succeeding in one early campaign by \u201chectoring, bluster, requisitioning, and political string-pulling to put together a strong artillery train in very short order.\u201d\u00a0 This included commandeering a foundry for shot and mortars, and a workshop for musket repair.\u00a0 He impressed his commander:\u00a0 \u201cI always found him at his post; when he needed rest he lay on the ground wrapped in his cloak:\u00a0 he never left the batteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

By age 24 Napoleon was appointed a brigadier-general.\u00a0 Turnover was spectacularly high in the early 1790s in Revolutionary France.<\/p>\n

Napoleon was ruthless in quashing a Parisian mob at one point.\u00a0 He used grapeshot, which is a cannon\u2019s version of a shotgun, using musket balls for pellets.\u00a0 Three hundred rioters were killed, but only six of Napoleon\u2019s men.\u00a0 Parisian mobs played no part in French politics for the next three decades.\u00a0 He was credited with helping to prevent civil war and then promoted to commander of the Army of the Interior, and not long afterward to Commander of the Army of Italy, when the Jacobin leaders sought to extend their rule into Italy.<\/p>\n

He did his usual homework, reading every available book, map, and atlas on Italy and the biographies of commanders who had fought there.\u00a0 He was only twenty-six.\u00a0 When someone commented on his youth, in regard to commanding an entire army, he replied, \u201cI shall be old when I return.\u201d<\/p>\n

He found his new army in a wretched state, \u201cdejected and enfeebled by sickness,\u201d poorly led, and lacking horses, cannon, and \u201calmost every other sinew of war.\u201d\u00a0 He cleaned house, firing officers, and grabbing resources everywhere he could.\u00a0 He browbeat his HQ in Paris for 5,000 pairs of shoes for the troops.\u00a0 Roberts:\u00a0 \u201cAn astonishing number of his letters throughout his career refer to providing footwear for his troops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Napoleon\u2019s military victories often enjoyed common elements:\u00a0 an elderly opposing commander; a nationally and linguistically diverse enemy opposing his homogeneous French army; a vulnerable spot to exploit; and moving faster and concentrating forces at that spot to gain a numerical advantage, at least locally.<\/p>\n

Napoleon:\u00a0 \u201cYouth is almost indispensable in commanding an army; so necessary are high spirits, daring, and pride to such a great task.\u201d<\/p>\n

In conquering northern Italy, Napoleon set some examples, once executing a hundred rebellious villagers and burning the town, professing that \u201cbloodletting is among the ingredients of political medicine,\u201d and might easily avoid the need for large-scale repressions.\u00a0 He was brutal, but calculated in the use of brutality.<\/p>\n

Napoleon:\u00a0 \u201cIf you make war, wage it with energy and severity; it is the only means of making it shorter and consequently less deplorable for mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, if he had been a Christian, there would have been no cause for war at all.\u00a0 Why subjugate your neighbor\u2019s country?\u00a0 Why not let them live their own lives?\u00a0 Why not pour your energy into the prosperity of your own people?\u00a0 Similarly, Hitler helped Germany rise out of the Great Depression of the 1930s, and could have become a notable historical figure if he had simply focused on German prosperity.\u00a0 But Hitler\u2019s demons had other ideas.\u00a0 I wonder whether some of the same demons practiced on Napoleon 130-odd years earlier.<\/p>\n

Napoleon pulled off a masterly bluff against the Austrian army during the Italian campaign.\u00a0 He was with a unit of 1,200 French soldiers when they encountered 3,000 lost Austrians.\u00a0 In a parley, Napoleon calmly mentioned that he had his entire army with him and if the Austrians did not surrender within eight minutes, he would not spare one of them.\u00a0 They surrendered, and once disarmed only then found out they outnumbered their captors.<\/p>\n

In 1798 the Directory (the French ruling council) sent him with an army to Egypt to get him out of the way.\u00a0 If he conquered Egypt, great.\u00a0 If he died or lost in disgrace, that\u2019s good, too.\u00a0 Napoleon embraced the challenge, an opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Alexander and Julius Caesar.\u00a0 He included a wide array of talent in the expedition to explore historical and scientific inquiries.\u00a0 Roberts\u2019 account of the campaign is worth the price of the book, but I won\u2019t provide details here.\u00a0 Eventually, he left his army in charge in Egypt and returned to a troubled France at the command of the Directory.\u00a0 France was in trouble; mismanagement and the harassment of Britain produced hyperinflation, and with it civil unrest.<\/p>\n

Napoleon\u2019s return to France results in a coup, leaving him as the first consul of a ruling triumvirate.\u00a0 His path from that to emperor was straightforward.\u00a0 He later commented, \u201cThe masses should be directed without their being aware of it.\u201d\u00a0 Modern politics is certainly in sync with this sentiment.\u00a0 It is ironic that despite Napoleon\u2019s advocacy for the Revolution, he eagerly accepted an emperor\u2019s crown in 1804, just eleven years after the execution of Louis XVI.<\/p>\n

Napoleon\u2019s policies enabled him to attract the most talented public officials, explaining, \u201cThe art of appointing men is not nearly so difficult as the art of allowing those appointed to attain their full worth.\u201d\u00a0 His administration ended the inflation and balanced the budget for the first time in twenty years.<\/p>\n

In 1800 he authorized a nationwide plebiscite to legitimize his rule and the new Constitution.\u00a0 A favorable landslide was inevitable; nevertheless, as he often did, Napoleon yielded to the temptation to pad the figures, making the result appear overwhelming.\u00a0 He similarly distorted reports of battle casualties and war booty in his favor throughout his life.\u00a0 Artists depicting him regularly exaggerated him favorably, although this was fairly common in that age.\u00a0 But Napoleon brought law and order to the countryside and rooted out corruption in the police forces and other institutions \u2013 all this made him immensely popular. \u00a0It\u2019s a shame that America\u2019s Democrat Party today does not take a lesson from this, apparently believing that the road to lasting power necessitates deep corruption and a breakdown in law and order.\u00a0 Sigh.<\/p>\n

Amazingly, Napoleon reversed the \u2018brain drain\u2019 from royalist emigres leaving France during the Revolution.\u00a0 He gave them voting rights and citizenship, although warning them they could not hope to regain their property.\u00a0 Many were appointed roles in the administration.<\/p>\n

Napoleon was ruthless with the press, though, closing sixty of France\u2019s seventy-three newspapers, making it clear that he wouldn\u2019t tolerate public criticism.\u00a0 \u201cTo leave the press to its own devices is to sleep beside a powder keg.\u201d\u00a0 But neither did freedom of the press exist in Prussia, Russia, or Austria at the time, and Britain restricted press freedom later on in 1819 with the notorious Six Acts, while Britain was at peace.\u00a0 In 1800 France, the nation was in a seemingly perpetual state of war with five other countries.<\/p>\n

Some think Napoleon\u2019s most notable achievement was his legal reform, in which he invested substantial personal time and energy.\u00a0 His commission replaced France\u2019s forty-two legal codes into a single system which embraced not just law and justice, but also uniform weights and measures (Laplace\u2019s metric system), a fully functioning market, and a centralized educational system, enabling talented children from all backgrounds to aspire to careers based on merit rather than birth.\u00a0 During the process his constant refrain was, \u201cIs this fair?\u00a0 Is this useful?\u201d\u00a0 The system became known as Code Napoleon, or the Napoleonic Code.<\/p>\n

The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 came about because of France\u2019s war with Britain.\u00a0 Napoleon needed the money and wanted to avoid conflict with the United States.\u00a0 He prophesied, \u201cI have just given to England a maritime rival that sooner or later\u00a0 will humble her pride.\u201d\u00a0 America\u2019s War of 1812 with Britain drew off British forces that still harried Napoleon.<\/p>\n

Napoleon established the modern structure of armies by perfecting the Corps system.\u00a0 He divided his army into units of 20,000 to 30,000, training them intensely.\u00a0 Each corps was a mini-army, comprising infantry, cavalry, artillery, staff, intelligence, engineering, transport, mess, pay, and medical sections.\u00a0 Corps worked with each other, typically less than one day\u2019s march apart, allowing the army maneuverability to sweep around a flank and enclose an enemy.<\/p>\n

Napoleon was a brilliant logistician.\u00a0 Against the Austrians he amassed an army that matched the manpower of the Normandy invasion, with 130,800 infantry, 23,300 cavalry, and 544 guns with 10,000 artillerymen, a polyglot force featuring Italians, Poles, Arabs, Portuguese, Spanish, and Germans, and crossed a major river in a single night without losing a man.\u00a0 The battle they fought was the largest ever in European history up to that point.<\/p>\n

First used by Napoleon in 1805, by 1812 the corps was emulated by every European army, and continued to be the base structure of armies through 1945.\u00a0 Napoleon invented modern land warfare.\u00a0 Napoleon maneuvered and attacked relentlessly on his major campaigns, for example against the Prussians, never allowing them a chance to stop or regroup.\u00a0 Patton emulated his philosophy during WW2, seeing that the quickest way to victory is a relentless destruction of the enemy\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

Despite Napoleon\u2019s convictions on merit-based appointments and rewards, he engaged in nepotism, giving his brothers and stepson unwarranted responsibilities, even thrones atop the nations he conquered.\u00a0 Too late, he admitted, \u201cMy brothers have done me a great deal of harm.\u201d\u00a0 They were neither competent nor as loyal as he had hoped.<\/p>\n

Napoleon hated wasting time, typically working several tasks simultaneously.\u00a0 During his bath and breakfast he would read several newspapers.\u00a0 His secretaries hated translating the British papers for him, because their criticism enraged him.\u00a0 On carriage rides, Josephine would read novels to him.\u00a0 Yet he engendered loyalty and admiration from servants and staff throughout his reign, treating his subordinates well, rewarding them generously.<\/p>\n

Napoleon\u2019s downfall, of course, was his war against Russia, going against the advice of many counsellors.\u00a0 He never intended to go deep into Russia, but Czar Alexander sucked him in, withdrawing and retreating to avoid a decisive battle until the terrain, the winter, and Russia\u2019s army bled the French dry.\u00a0 The Russians were willing to burn Moscow to the ground (which they did), to deny a winter haven for the French, a strategic act which proved decisive.<\/p>\n

Napoleon\u2019s army to support the invasion of Russia began with a million men, an awesome quantity, of which perhaps 615,000 actually marched eastward into Russia, after leaving garrisons throughout the empire.\u00a0 Less than 25,000 returned, of which perhaps only 10,000 could still fight.\u00a0 Russian losses were also staggering, but the war broke Napoleon\u2019s hold on power.\u00a0 Roberts covers the campaign in great detail.\u00a0 It\u2019s a notable and cautionary history.\u00a0 (Hitler should have studied it carefully \u2013 but it is good that he didn\u2019t.)<\/p>\n

The European powers would not let him regroup.\u00a0 Eventually, he was forced to give up the throne in 1814, to be exiled to the small island of Elba off the Italian coast.\u00a0 For ten months he reorganized and revitalized the island\u2019s defenses, customs, and infrastructure, always busy, busy, busy.\u00a0 He sought to make Elba the best run \u2018little kingdom\u2019 in Europe!\u00a0 In 1815, he returned to France, raising an army and ultimately losing his final battle at Waterloo.\u00a0 Roberts details the strategic errors Napoleon made, often going against his own maxims, his own experiences.\u00a0 I see the battle of Waterloo, despite its fame, as overrated.\u00a0 Even if Napoleon had won that battle, the massive Austrian and Russian armies were on their way and would have crushed the remnants of the French army.<\/p>\n

After all, most of the major battles of that era were battles of attrition.\u00a0 Even significant victories cost the winners dearly.\u00a0 France simply could not afford a major war of attrition at that point in history.<\/p>\n

From there Napoleon is banished to an isolated exile on St. Helena, a lonely island in the South Atlantic, on the long trade route from Britain to India.<\/p>\n

It is thought by many that if Napoleon had retained the French throne, he might well have focused on a peaceful administration, since the French people desperately wanted a lasting peace.\u00a0 But his European adversaries did not trust his imperial ambitions.\u00a0 On all sides, there were about 100,000 casualties from his attempt to regain the throne.<\/p>\n

It is amazing they did not simply execute him.\u00a0 If the Bourbons (French royalists) or the Prussians had captured him, they certainly would have executed him.\u00a0 Accordingly, he found a way to surrender to the British navy.\u00a0 The Brits did not want him anywhere near Europe, and so they settled on St. Helena.<\/p>\n

Napoleon spent his last five and a half years on the island, writing memoirs to justify his exploits, despite remarking once that he did not care what the future thought of him.\u00a0 He would dictate to his secretaries up to twelve hours per day.<\/p>\n

His memoirs were published in four volumes two years after his death, becoming the greatest international best-seller of the 19th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat a novel my life has been!\u201d he said, somewhat truthfully, because he often exaggerated his accomplishments and downplayed his defeats.\u00a0 Napoleon had no lack of self-esteem.\u00a0 He suffered an extended sickness at the end, but said, \u201cI don\u2019t have chimerical fears of Hell,\u201d and \u201cDeath is nothing but a sleep without dreams.\u201d\u00a0 Also, \u201cAs to my body, it will become carrots or turnips.\u00a0 I have no dread of death.\u00a0 In the army I have seen many men perish who were talking to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hedging his bets, though, he took Roman Catholic last rites from a local priest.\u00a0 He died at age 51 on May 5, 1821, \u201cjust after the firing of the island\u2019s sunset gun.\u201d\u00a0 Roberts closes his account of Napoleon\u2019s life . . . \u201cThe ambition he had conceived as a schoolboy at Brienne, and from which he never wavered, had been achieved.\u00a0 He had transformed the art of leadership, built an empire, handed down laws for the ages, and joined the ancients.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, but he joined them in Hell.\u00a0 I\u2019m reminded of Isaiah 5:14-15 . . . \u201cTherefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure:\u00a0 and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.\u00a0 And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.\u201d<\/p>\n

What a waste.\u00a0 His empire was shattered, over a million lives lost in useless wars, and many other millions were displaced, impoverished, and suffered in countless ways.\u00a0 This ambition to control others is Satanic at its core, no matter how it is rationalized.\u00a0 No doubt but that Napoleon suffered demonic influence, if not possession, throughout his adult life. \u00a0And the reward for all his \u2018glory\u2019?\u00a0 Hell.<\/p>\n

France warred against Austria for 108 months, Prussia for 58 months and Russia for 55 months.\u00a0 But France\u2019s wars with Britain encompassed 242 months between 1793 and 1815.\u00a0 The Royal Navy blockaded France for two decades.\u00a0 Enormous treasure was expended throughout Europe because of Napoleon\u2019s ambitions, treasure derived from nobles and peasants and cobblers . . . war is a blight on all of humanity, not merely in bloodshed and truncated lives, but in bodies maimed and soldiers and sailors separated from their families for years.\u00a0 Wellington fought the French for six years in Iberia from 1808 to 1814, without taking a day\u2019s leave.\u00a0 Countless others paid the same price.<\/p>\n

Yes, it is remarkable that Napoleon was \u2018merely\u2019 exiled and allowed to write his memoirs.<\/p>\n

Napoleon\u2019s life is a challenge to our own ambitions.\u00a0 Are we laying treasure up above, in God\u2019s hand, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves cannot break through nor steal?\u00a0 Could any man on this Earth today achieve temporal glory to match Napoleon\u2019s?\u00a0 What achievements will last into eternity, other than the salvation of souls and the development (discipleship) of believers who seek to serve God?\u00a0 Are you laying up treasures in Heaven?\u00a0 Everything else will turn to dust.<\/p>\n