THE LOST POWER OF SIN TO CONDEMN

    WILLING IGNORANCE:

The denial of anything known to be true.

 “ For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water...”                2 Peter 3:3-6.                                                                                                                                                               

If there is one thing which unites all fallen mankind it appears to be the fact that most of us think we know better than God!

“Willing Ignorance” raised it’s ugly head on a daily basis during our Lord Jesus’ earthly ministry and  the religious leaders of His time who had known of God and His ways from the beginning, stood against Him at every turn.

“Knowing, but ignoring”, often coming with a smart put down, has been the hallmark of the “scoffer” since the dawn of time and God’s word has suffered the bitter, cynical scoffing of men and women until this day.                                     

Not always confined to things religious, this “art” of wilful ignorance found its high point (or perhaps that should read, its low point)  a decade ago when Don Rumsfeld, the then Secretary of Defence in the Bush Administration attempted to justify the “Coalition of the Willing” forces’ move against the monstrous Saddam Hussein. His verbal joust with the English language earned him the “Foot in Mouth” award for 2002! (www.plainenglish.co.uk/‎)

He stated: "There are known knowns; these are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.

Rumsfeld’s humorous strangulation of the language was a cynical  attempt to amalgamate some things which were known to be true about Hussein and some which were unknown, but suspected. Socrates, the fourth century B.C. philosopher, and still much loved by those who love to attach Christianity (and most religions) sums up what many of these folk believe;

“The only true wisdom is in that you know nothing.” He taught that unless one emptied ones previous held positions on all things, one could not progress in true learning and understanding.

In a way he was right! But his stance was based on man’s limited knowledge and reasoning, not on God’s word or revelation!

It is only when one becomes a believer in Jesus Christ that we understand that in reality man really knows precious little about anything.

Without doubt mankind has been able to increase his learning and in the last millennium we have made tremendous progress in science and medicine, but it has come at a great expense to faith.

History shows that many of the breakthroughs in these fields have come through believing scientists and medicos who backed their discoveries with their faith in Christ in tact. Sadly, it is less so today!  To be involved in the sciences and learning it is almost a requirement that one must deny God in order to advance in ones chosen career.

Knowledge has in many ways become man’s false god - one to be worshipped and exulted, as man once again places himself, philosophically, at the centre of the universe.

When a man or woman turns to God in repentance, he or she opens themselves up to God’s truths. Unknowable things now become knowable and things hidden from the beginning of creation are now revealed. 

The apostle Paul had no second thoughts about any thing which had been revealed to him by the risen Christ.

Ephesians 3:8-10 reads “To me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now to the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God…”

Socrates and every other searcher of truth outside the truth of God’s revealed word, can be dealt with by the insight of that great 19th century preacher, Charles Haddon Spurgeon:  “Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To “know” is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.” www.thinkexist.com/quotes.

What, one may wonder, is this wisdom about which Spurgeon speaks. He contends that knowledge which eliminates God and His ways is the wisdom of a fool and is self condemning.

Scripture attests, in Proverbs 1:5-7 the psalmist states: “ A wise man will hear, and will increase  learning; and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

This writer thinks Spurgeon got it right and Scripture again supports this thinking. “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that does good. Psalm 14: 1.

It is quite sad to see many our most brilliant minds turning away from their creator and pursue a path of idolatry which can only lead them to final destruction.

No less sad, indeed, even more distressing, is to witness the Church of Jesus Christ’s appalling backsliding into the same errors of human idolatry.

Sect after Sect, Denomination after Denomination, Independent groups and cults by the score have walked away from plain and simple truths of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Where once the Bible stood as the only beacon of truth to man, extra Biblical “revelations” now abound, as deception finds its stranglehold in almost every corner of the Church.

Adding even one piece of information to the gospel is just as devastating as refusing to preach the whole Gospel, and that person is warned that his eternal safety is at stake.

“For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. Rev, 22: 18-21.

When preachers and teachers move away from the revealed word, given from the beginning, they intentionally or otherwise, place themselves among the ranks of the unbelieving, “willingly ignorant last day scoffers”.

Christians who willingly pitch their tent towards any preacher or movement involved in these heretical cults run the same risk of destruction as those perpetrate such crimes against God and His Gospel.... It is as serious as that!                   Rod Rowland