IGNORANCE
by Kevin V.
Rutherford
I am often amazed at the deliberate ignorance of Christians. Members of the church of Christ are those who advocate New Testament Christianity; true, simple, New Testament Christianity that uses the Bible as its only guide and pattern (2 Timothy 3:16-17; Romans 6:17; 2 Timothy 1:13). For that reason members of the Lord’s church ought to be tremendous students of the Word of God. The Christians to whom the book of Hebrews was written were rebuked for the failure to grow in knowledge. The same rebuke most certainly applies to a host of Christians today. We dare not forget the words of the prophet Hosea. He said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children (Hosea
4:6).”
In the Lord’s church today we see widespread ignorance. It is unnecessary ignorance that comes from laziness, arrogance, and sometimes deliberate departure. Who can we blame for the lack of Bible knowledge in the church today? Maybe we can start with preachers. Preachers who would prefer to fill their sermons with emotional fluff rather than the Scriptures. Maybe we can point some fingers at elders. Elders who don’t have the knowledge it takes to keep false teachers inline (Titus 1:9-11). Perhaps we can blame our Bible class teachers. Teachers who don’t really want to study for their classes, but would rather have the material spoon fed to them. Teachers who would prefer to use materials developed by those in the denominations rather than the pick up the Bible and actually prepare a lesson themselves. We could blame Christian parents. Parents who think they are too busy to teach the Bible in their homes to their children are part of the problem. They have time to take them to school, to take them to band practice, to take them to sports practice, but they can’t find time for Bible study. The fact is you can blame a lot of people, but you need first to take a good look at yourself.
Keep in mind we are not criticizing new Christians. We do not expect those who are spiritually young to have a strong knowledge of the Scriptures (1 Peter 2:1-3). We are speaking of those who should have progressed beyond milk and to the meat (Hebrews 5:l2-14).
One of the many areas in which the
ignorance of the church is clearly seen is with regard to that which preachers
should be preaching. What should they be
preaching? To sum it up, we can turn to
the words of Paul. He declared the whole
counsel of God (Acts