“TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship — and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.” (Acts 17:23b)
Christians are those who claim to believe in Jesus, but do believers today really know the very Word that formed the Man that they worship? I believe that the Apostle Paul would say the same thing to the Christian of this generation that he said to the people of Athens: “I see that you are very religious, yet ignorant as to the fact that the god that you worship is not the One true god at all.” Seriously, doesn’t anyone care that this god being preached in the church today bears little semblance to the God of the Bible? Our ignorance of God has led Christians to repeat biblical history rather than learn from it. Yes, I understand that the Christian is going to say that they worship “Jesus”, but the truth is, the only way to know the Person is to have an understanding of the full message that formed His Body. “The Word became flesh”, means exactly what it says… the real Jesus is the Word of God! For sure, there are many “gods”, but there is only One Lord and Creator of all things… the great I AM! (1 Cor. 8:5-6) So, again, can you really claim to worship Truth (Jesus) if you are ignorant of His Word? Do Christians really know the Person, Jesus Christ, or is the object of their worship an impostor, a false Jesus, merely Satan’s deception?
Perception versus reality; deception versus truth: It is evident that it is getting harder and harder to know who or what to believe these days. What is real versus what is fake; what is fantasy versus what actually happened. It seems like it is getting just about impossible to know the truth and to know who we can trust. Without question, we are flooded with “knowledge” today, yet somehow, we cannot seem to find the truth. (2 Tim. 3:7) And this applies to all aspects of our lives, whether you are talking about food, medicine, exercise, supplements, education, or what have you, it is more obvious than ever that we are being deceived at every angle. This is fitting with the way that Satan works, the devil is going to attempt to destroy us by deceiving us in all three components regarding the mind, body, and spirit. The enemy has his hand in the food we eat, the medicine we take, the information that we believe to be “science” and truth; in all these, the devil is most certainly in the details! As a result, even with all our “knowledge” today, it is apparent that often what we thought to be “truth”, turned out to be deception. This is why we have “health food” that is actually making us sick and fat, “medicine” that actually destroys our body, and “educational” institutions that simply serve to push liberal agendas and brainwash young impressionable minds; from top to bottom, it is clear to see that we are a nation deceived. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and while it is easy to see that he is succeeding regarding our physical and mental health, Christians appear blind as to how the enemy’s deception is also successfully destroying their spiritual health!
Your pastor can introduce you to Jesus, but only the true desire of your heart determines whether you will ever truly come to know Him. What kind of effort are you putting in to know the Lord? Do you earnestly seek Him in His Word? What information shapes your “knowledge” of God? Where did that information come from? Why do you believe what you believe about who God really is? Is it because that is what someone else told you, or because you found out for yourself? Is it because of what His Spirit revealed to you? The wise thing to do would be to approach knowing God the same way that you would approach knowing anyone else. Would anyone in their right mind ever possibly choose a spouse simply by trusting what someone else said regarding who he/she is? No! Rather you date someone for whatever amount of time it takes for you to be sure that you really know them well enough to be certain of your love for them. Yet, for some reason when it comes to our eternal fate, we are so inclined to simply believe our pastors regarding the “truth” as to who our spiritual groom really is?
The question is, does your heart truly desire to know God, or does your flesh simply want to receive His blessing? (Phil. 3:10) Do you follow God’s Word and imitate the Apostle Paul, or are you content with imitating the life of your typical carnal Christian today? (1 Cor. 4:14-16) If you want to know God, then you must seek Him in His Word! If you want to get a very fluffy, deceitful perspective as to who God is (a false grace), then trust in your pastor (who is selling salvation) to form your vision of Him. Pastors need to stop rejecting (or ignoring) the scriptures that do not fit with their fantasy as to who they want you to believe God is and understand how it is that those very scriptures are essential in our ability to truly know who God is! But I can assure you, that ain’t gonna happen! The pastor that stands up and preaches the Truth, will be a pastor that has less than about fifty people left in his congregation. Do you think that your pastor is painting an accurate portrait as to who God is? Understand that Jesus did not “do away with that old-testament God”, He is that “old-testament God!” (John 8:58)
It is human nature to gravitate towards that which is easy. Denying yourself the desires of your flesh, turning from sin, and walking in His Light is not easy. Trusting that a set of beliefs and performing some rituals can get you to the same end is. God’s Word places the responsibility of turning from sin and walking in His Light on the individual, the church message places the responsibility on Jesus to cleanse all your deliberate, willful sin. God’s Word says that if you repent (turn from sin and go and walk in it no more), Christ’s blood serves as forgiveness for your past sins; the church message says that if you “accept Christ” then somehow the vast majority of God’s Word no longer applies to you. God’s Word says that if you live with His Spirit you will not go on sinning, the church message claims that everyone sins and it is only those who “accept Jesus” who will not be guilty for sins. God’s Word says that His children will obey His commands, the church says that if you “accept Jesus” then you get a free pass from all those burdensome commands. God’s Word says to fear the Lord, the church message says that God does not want us to fear Him.
Now I could go on and on with this, but hopefully, you get my point. So, do you know the Word of God? Have you earnestly sought Him within? Because if you don’t, then Satan will make sure that you are ignorant of the very thing that you worship. Without delivering the full Truth, Christians metaphorically sit there eating their pudding before first consuming their meat; and pastors are certainly serving us plenty of dessert these days! Do you live on every word that comes from the mouth of God or just the few scriptures taken out of context that brings comfort to your life of sin? (Deut. 8:3) You cannot reap the rewards of a union that you have yet to obtain! You cannot “know the Lord” unless you first hear and understand His full message of Truth. (Rom. 10:17) It is only by accepting the full message and agreeing to His conditions that you then receive His Spirit! (John 8:31-32, 2 Cor. 3:17, 1 John 3:24) His Word is Truth, and unless you hear, understand, and accept His Word then you do not yet know The God that you are worshipping!
In summary, there is certainly plenty of scripture stating the importance of “knowing God”. Jesus makes clear how important this knowledge is, He says that eternal life is to know God.
“Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the one true God…” (John 17:3a)
If you believe Jesus, then I would say that should make “knowing the Lord” of utmost importance to you. Do you believe Him? Do you believe that His Word is Truth? Are you aware as to how far from the Truth the salvation message within the church is today? Because to me, the question is not whether most Christians today are ignorant of God, but whether they even any longer care. This Jesus being preached is not the God of the Bible, but this Jesus being preached most certainly does complement quite well the desires of someone who has zero interest in truly giving their life to Christ. I do not know what your eternity holds, but I know that you will meet the One true God. I hope that He knows you. (Matt. 25:11-12) Believers: make time for God, seek Him in His Word; put your religion, your church beliefs, and your pastors’ promises aside and come to God with an open heart and seek to know His Truth. Allow the Lord to refine your heart, surrender your heart fully to the Lord, and come to truly know Him! Fear the Lord!
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Each week there are many points made which give me much food for thought. Last week, the point that “believing IN God” and “believing God” are totally different concepts has really stuck with me. This week “The Word became flesh” has made me stop and think about this phrase–which I have heard many times before–and what it really means: Jesus IS the Word of God. Therefore, to know God we must know Jesus. And to know Jesus, we must study Jesus for ourselves and not be content with what we are told about Jesus. Our spiritual health will be enhanced if we do……
Thank you for your comments, they are very encouraging to me. I love hearing that you are being motivated to seek God in His Word as a result of reading my blogs! Please continue sharing your thoughts.
It seems it is becoming more and more difficult to actually find a church where the spirit of God is present and the pastors or leaders of churches are reluctant to deliver messages that are bible based. Feeding the spiritually hungry a whole lot of dessert and no substance will definitely starve the soul and weaken the desire to grow in His admonition to become more like Him. Complacency seems to be popular with Christians, spirituality suffers and we lose faith. In this time we sure need faith ?
Thank you Brian for this writing.
Thank you, Patti. Yes, this is true and very unfortunate. I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment!