“I Do Not Want You To Be Ignorant.....” (My Monday Morning Mass) “But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope.” (1Thess 4:13 NKJV) Five times in his pastoral epistles, Paul said to his audiences: “I do not want you to be ignorant”. Six other times he denounces scriptural ignorance explicitly. From the passage cited above the outcome of scriptural ignorance is stated to be that the ignorant Christian will think and act like ignorant unbelievers. Jesus, too blamed Pharisees’ behaviour towards Him on their ignorance of scriptures. Besides the Pharisees, He also wondered at His own disciples’ ignorance of scriptures. “Then He said to them, O foolish ones, and SLOW OF HEART to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? (Luke 24:25-26 NKJV) If we are ignorant, we will act ignorantly. Vain or popular philosophies will quickly fill up the void created by our lack of knowledge of scripture. Personal feelings, temperaments or cultural or traditional superstitions will replace the teaching of scripture. I have seen many Bible-confessing Christians, pray; “May his/her soul rest in peace” when a person dies. If they are not ignorant of scriptures, they would know that AFTER death, prayers by the living is not only worthless for the dead but is equally pagan. The Thessalonian believers were born again quite all right but they were still generally ignorant of the fate of dead saints and of the context and content of Christ’s coming. In today’s church where emphasis is on personal motivation, I suspect that the number of ignorant Pentecostal/Evangelical/Thessolanian Christians will be overwhelming. Regularly, I see believers who are versed in the names of local and international celebrities, movie titles and movie stars, music, football teams and players, politicians and political developments, fashions, food, health tips, philosophies and other mundane things. I see educated Christians who are up to date in their areas of careers. I see students devouring their books, handouts, notebooks, and spending time in labs doing practicals, all in order to impress their teachers. Alas, many times, these same intelligent and hard working Christians betray a blatant ignorance of basic and notorious Biblical facts or truths. If asked a simple question, they refer you to their pastors and claim that they are not theologians! These Christians have had Bibles from their childhood but they have never read it from cover to cover. They go to church every Sunday but cannot explain how a person can be born again, justified, sanctified, baptised in the Spirit, not to mention the general timelines of Christ’ second advent, of which advent they claim they are waiting for! Yes, there are a few Biblical expressions that Bible scholars are still trying to interpret but the vast 99.9 percent of the Holy Writ is clear to an average but diligent reader. Read the Bible diligently and banish all scriptural ignorance from your life for God does not “want you to be ignorant”.
Posted on: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 07:54:25 +0000
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