Ignorance Is Not Bliss

Ignorance Is Not Bliss
Romans 10:1-2

 ¹ Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is that they may be saved. ² For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. (Romans 10:1-2)

“Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and her moral standards declines along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God.” (A.W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy)

God really does seem to care that we know him (John 17:3)… and know him rightly. Any old expression of religion won’t do and, in fact, can often lead to a dangerous idolatry.

The Apostle Paul, passionately concerned for the salvation of the Israelites, admitted that they had a zeal – perhaps even an enviable zeal – for God. Yet, he was quick to follow that admission with the sober truth that their zeal for God was not according to knowledge. They were wrong in their understanding of how to obtain righteousness.

It seems that in our day we give points to folks for nothing more than the appearance of external and emotional enthusiasm. Maybe they are very exuberant as they worship God. Perhaps there’s lots of “God-talk” liberally sprinkled throughout their conversations. It may just be that they are quite active in service to their church. These are all good things, or at least should be good things.

What these folks have to watch out for, (and all the rest of us, for that matter), is that we not have a zeal that is not according to knowledge. Now, I’m not saying that we have to pass a doctoral examination in theology before we go to heaven. What I am saying is that a shabby doctrinal or theological foundation can lead one astray. It can cause a well-intentioned person to unwittingly compromise his or her faith and drift to and fro with every new “Christian” book, television program, or religious movement.

In Exodus 34:6-7, God paints a beautiful picture of some of his attributes. He wants Moses and the rest of his children to know and worship him rightly. He follows up in verse 14 by saying, “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” It’s not a coincidence that the first three commandments focus on this very issue.

It’s frightening how easily we can wander off the straight and narrow path. God provides a warning of this very thing in verse 16 when he tells Moses to caution the people about choosing the wrong spouse… one who doesn’t know and worship the one true God. He says that sort of choice will lead God’s people away from God and into idolatry.

Ignorance isn’t bliss. More is needed than zeal and good intentions when it comes to our relationship with God. It is certainly true that knowledge alone can “puff up” the young and immature in the faith. But that’s not the fault of the knowledge. That’s more of a commentary regarding where a person is in their faith-journey. I don’t believe the solution to this potential problem is to ignore our call to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18). Instead, we ought to seek such knowledge humbly, carefully, and in full dependence on the grace of God. Likewise, the purpose of our pursuit of knowing God should be for God’s glory and the good of others. Psalm 43:34a says,

³ Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell. ⁴ Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.

A mentor of mine used to say that the better we know God, the more we will be able to love, follow, and trust God. It’s awfully difficult to love, follow, and trust someone you don’t know. It’s also hard to love and follow God if you don’t have a growing and maturing knowledge of God… regarding what God has revealed about himself as well as how to live for him in this world.

Almighty God, give me great and increasing passion and zeal for you. Yet please let it be grounded in who you truly are. Help me to continue all the days of my life to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that I might love you as I ought. In Christ I pray. Amen.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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Are You A Practical Atheist?

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. (Romans 1:21)

Much has been made over the last few years about the emergence of militant atheism’s evangelistic crusade to rid the world of ignorance. Specifically, these crusaders want to enlighten the minds of the masses who still believe that God exists. For these spokesmen for atheism, belief in God is intellectually unsustainable and should by all means be abandoned. Not only that, these atheistic evangelists believe that a person’s commitment to belief in God is actually harmful to children as well as to civilization as a whole.

Thankfully, their charges have been more than sufficiently answered at every turn by faithful Christian apologists. The atheists are getting all the press, but their arguments are unable to stand up to the Light of Truth.

Yet there is a more prevalent form of atheism that lurks in our land. Indeed, it can even be found in the church. It is what Cornelius Van Til called, “practical atheism.” A practical atheist is a person who professes to believe in God, and yet the God whose existence is professed does not seem to make any meaningful difference in that person’s daily life. His beliefs, values, morals, etc., are not prioritized by his supposed belief in the existence of God. Put another way: If this person was to wake up one day and decide that he no longer believed in the existence of God, his life would change very little. This is practical atheism.

In Romans 1:21, Paul describes the person who has suppressed the truth he knows about God. Paul says that in truth, all people know God exists. In fact, they even know things about his power and majesty. Yet, in order to maintain a certain way of living, they alter their belief system to accommodate their lifestyle. Like the hard atheist who formally declares that there is no God, the practical atheist denies God by the way in which he leads his life. Paul teaches us that “although they know God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…”

We glorify God when we seek to live purposefully and intentionally for him each day. We glorify God when we live to please him, honor him, obey him, love him, seek to be like him, and tell others about him. That’s what a God-glorifying life looks like. It’s also a life that is grateful to God for his goodness. However, this is more than tossing out a “thank you” every now and then at the beginning of a meal. Instead, it’s more of an all-encompassing attitude of gratitude. It becomes pervasive in one’s personality. This attitude glorifies God because it exalts God as the One who is worthy of such affection and appreciation.

How are you doing with this? Are you seeking to glorify God and be thankful to him in all things? Of course, none of us is perfect at this. We can all get fairly self-absorbed and self-centered in the goings on of our lives. We all, from time to time, become too preoccupied with lesser interests.

Yet the One who should be our greatest interest has told us that we are to have no other gods before him. We are called to seek him first and foremost. We are instructed and encouraged to be holy because God is holy. His existence, in other words, should play a profound role in the lives of those who profess to believe in and follow him. He should be our ultimate Influence and his influence should saturate every sphere of our lives…for his glory and for our good.

Grace and Truth,
Dale

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My Most Important Resolution for 2012, Part 2

You can click here if you missed Part 1

What does any of what I shared in Part 1 have to do with what I regard as my most important resolution for this new year?

The answer was found in my Scripture reading Tuesday morning.

First of all, Psalm 29:1-2 reminded me that God is a God of glory, strength, and holiness. As I mentioned Tuesday, it is in both knowing about God, as well as knowing relationally the true and living God of Holy Scripture, that leads (or ought to lead) me to worship him.

Conversely, in Romans 1:18-20, the Apostle Paul warns us against suppressing the clear and knowable revelation of God through our wickedness. God, Paul teaches us, has made himself known to all people everywhere and it is only in rebellion that people falsely claim ignorance. Paul says that no one can legitimately make that excuse.

Jesus himself, in Luke’s Gospel (Luke 9:18-20), asks those closest to him who other people believe he is. He then brings it closer to him by asking them who they believe he is. Knowing him clearly and truly mattered (and matters) to our Lord.

In Romans 1:1-4, the Apostle drives home a similar point by teaching us who Jesus is, both as fully human and fully divine. Just as Peter had declared, so Paul also reminds us… Jesus is the “Christ,” the “Messiah” of God and Lord. He is the Son of God and the very center of the gospel of God.

Knowing God and his Son, Jesus Christ, (as I mentioned last time, from John 17:3), is a big deal. One might make the case that it is the only deal that really matters. Whether or not we would want to take it that far, hopefully we would all agree that knowing God should be our greatest priority (In addition to John 17:3, there is also Philippians 3:7-11 and Luke 10:38-42.)

Tuesday morning I needed reminding of that because I all too often take my eyes off of God and turn toward idols of my making. Not only is that sin, in and of itself, (see the first two Commandments) but following after such idols leads me further and further away from God and closer and closer to destruction and despair (whether I realize it or not at the time).

Knowing God is the only thing that can save my eternal soul. It’s the only way to be saved from God’s wrath and for rest, peace, fulfilment, meaning, purpose, righteousness, joy, eternal life, and utimately, God himself. Idolatry leads me in the opposite direction.

Idolatry is a wide and comfortable road in which I will never be judged or condemned by the world around me. In fact, I may even be well thought of on that road. The road of idolatry, however, leads to destruction, regardless of how popular or how numerous the crowd is that walks it.

Knowing God (and seeking to know him better and better – in the fulness of all that that means) can be narrow, hard, trying, and certainly unpopular. Yet it is glorious and life-giving.

I resolve in 2012 to put my eyes back on God and his Son, Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith. I want to truly know him. That’s what it means to really live. Other resolutions are fine… maybe even good. But I need to make sure that the “good” doesn’t become the enemy of the “best.”

Only one resolution comes with a guarantee… with a promise… and that is to know the one true God and his Son, Jesus Christ, whom he sent.

Thanks be to God,
Dale

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My Most Important Resolution for 2012

I’m a “personal development” nerd. I love reading about goal-setting, time-management, etc. So, as you might guess, the New Year, with all of the resolution-making discussion, is practically a high holiday for me. Perhaps that’s why God needed to remind me this morning during my devotional time of my most important and constant resolution.

Jesus declared in his high priestly prayer (John 17) that eternal life is to know the one true God and his Son, Jesus Christ.

The word “know” means at least two things. First of all, it means that we “know about” God. It involves, necessarily, some content. We must believe that God is – that God really, truly, and ontologically is. We must embrace the idea that God exists outside of our own subjective desires and even needs.

Furthermore, we must know some information “about” God – who God is, his character, attributes, decrees, etc. This is not to suggest that our eternal destiny requires that we have a comprehensive understanding of the eternal and infinite God. We would all fail by that standard. However, I would suggest it does include seeking to know about God as God has revealed himself… as he really and truly is. (Of course, everything I just said regarding knowing about God the Father is also true of God the Son.)

The second part of knowing God (and his Son) includes, and even emphasizes, a personal and intimate relationship with God. It is because we first know “about” God that we are propelled to know, love, trust, and follow God. It is because we first know about God that we can begin to enjoy a real relationship him.

To be sure, knowing about God doesn’t guarantee this relationship, but I would say that it’s unlikely the relationship will develop without first knowing about God.* (Hebrews 11:6 reminds us that we must first believe that God exists before we can come to him.) As I said, this second understanding of knowledge is relational and must not be reduced to merely citing a few facts about God. Yet, as I mentioned, content “about” God is certainly assumed.

Now, what in the world does any of that have to do with my most important resolution for 2012? Check back tomorrow and I’ll answer that question.

Grace and Truth in 2012,
Dale

* For all of you astute theological scholars out there, I am only addressing one side of this issue. Yes, I do believe that no one will know God (relationally) without a prior work of God’s Spirit.

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What is the Gospel

Just found this presentation of the Gospel by Russell Moore. Very clear and helpful. I also added it to my page, Do You Know God? On that page I’ve tried to provide some very useful resources that clearly communicate this most important of messages.

Enjoy,
Dale

 

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Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 48

The Lord’s Prayer

123. Question: What is the second petition?

Answer: Thy kingdom come. That is: So rule us by Thy Word and Spirit that more and more we submit to Thee.[1] Preserve and increase Thy church.[2] Destroy the works of the devil, every power that raises itself against Thee, and every conspiracy against Thy holy Word.[3] Do all this until the fullness of Thy kingdom comes, wherein Thou shalt be all in all.[4]

[1] Ps. 119:5, 105; 143:10; Matt. 6:33. [2] Ps. 51:18; 122:6-9; Matt. 16:18; Acts 2:42-47. [3] Rom. 16:20; I John 3:8. [4] Rom. 8:22, 23; I Cor. 15:28; Rev. 22: 17, 20.

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Fellowship of the Burning Heart, Part 8

by Thomas a Kempis

Every man naturally wants to know, but what is the good of knowledge without the fear of God? …He who knows himself well becomes cheap in his own eyes, and takes no pleasure in the praises of men.

And foolish indeed is he who gives his attention to other things than those which make for his salvation.

The greater and better your knowledge, so much the more severely will you be judged, unless you have lived a more holy life.

This is the highest knowledge and the most useful lesson – to have true understanding and small opinion of oneself. To hold no high opinion of oneself, and always to judge well and highly of others, is great wisdom and high perfection.

by John Calvin

Nearly all the wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. …In the first place, no one can look upon himself without immediately turning his thoughts to the contemplation of God, in whom he “lives and moves.”

Each of us must, then, be so stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness as to attain at least some knowledge of God. Thus, from the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and – what is more – depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom, sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness, rest in the Lord alone.

To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to him before we begin to become displeased with ourselves.

Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves not only arouses us to seek God, but also as it were, leads us by the hand to find him.

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