Opus 2011-183, Monday Pulpit: Know Nothings

As usual I was listening to Alistair Begg this morning.  He quoted someone and I want to quote him.  “You know enough to be afraid to know any more.”  He did not say where he got it.

Our churches are full of people like this.  They attend regularly but never listen.  They claim to believe the truths of the Bible but they never read it.  Why?  I think this points out the answer.  Many do not really want to know the expectations of Jesus.  If they know what He expects then they will be forced to respond and they don’t want to.  They think that being ignorant will shelter them from the consequences. 

Our families are full of people like this.  I deal regularly with parents who profess profound love for their children.  They claim to care.  One week before the end of the school year they show up wondering what the child can do to pass the class.  Where were they when the previous seven progress reports were mailed home?  The kid kept saying there was no homework.  The parents don’t ask any more questions.  They don’t want to know more because that would mean they would be forced to take action.

Our politics are full of people like this.  I think of our last election.  We had a promise of hope and change.  All it would have taken is a little investigation beyond the carefully crafted media image to see what that meant.  We had promises of much higher energy costs.  It was ignored.  We had a man who had written two autobiographies about a life of doing nothing.  People did not look any farther because they wanted the temporary comfort of empty promises rather than making a hard decision. 

There is an old proverb, or at least I was told it was an old proverb.  It may have been made up the week before I heard it, but I think it has truth in it.

“Ignorance is not innocence, it is sin.”

I heard this before the invention of the internet.  It is double true today with the ability to Google just about anything and have an answer in seconds.

You have decisions to make today and every day.  Decisions about your eternal destiny, your family and your country.  Make a commitment to plug in your brain and seek out the truth you know is available. 

homo unius libri