Gettin' stupid with the White Horse Inn

We're just about lovin' Jesus!

How many times have you heard something like that? We're just lovin' on Jesus! We should just love one another and everything will be OK! Deeds not creeds! But how do we know who this Jesus is that we love if we don't study the Word? How do we know we are to love one another if we don't read they Word? How do we know we are sinners who need salvation in the first place?

That is the question tackled on the latest White Horse Inn, and it is an excellent show. We have seemingly embraced ignorance as a virtue in society and especially in the church. Seeker sensitive churches seem to take pride in a lack of doctrinal precision. A simple faith has been overtaken by a simplistic faith.

Christianity is not an intellectual exercise.

I understand that. But the Gospel is a propositional truth. It is not about who you are or how you act or what you do. It is about faith in a revealed Christ. The Bible tells us who we are and who He is and what He has done. he have faith as a gift of God that in part indicates our agreement with that truth.

One of the basic missions of the church is to teach, to instruct, to disciple. But I can recall a number of times when I have taught or preached something fairly basic, and I have only been a Christian for less than a decade and have a TON to learn, but people who had listened said "I've never heard that before". These are not typically recent converts, but often older saints who have been in church for decades. They hear the Bible, the read the Bible, they study the Bible in Sunday school and yet remain woefully ignorant of the basic truth propositions of the Bible. How can that be?

Ken Jones made a brilliant point, that the paradox of this age of the church is not that people are not reading the Scriptures, but that people are reading the Scriptures and are still becoming progressively more ignorant. His rationale for this? People are reading the Scripture, but they are not reading them Christocentrically, instead they are finding affirmations for the subjective from the Scriptures. In other words, we read the Bible to see what it can do for me, not what it tells me about God. The more dangerous teachers, like T.D. Jakes, are actually opening the Scripture and giving false exposition. Joel Osteen doesn't even bother to pretend to open the Word.

Head and heart are not enemies!

Another great statement by Ken Jones: "Christianity is first and foremost a body of truth that is to be believed." Compare that with what is taught in many places, compare that with the Jesus is my buddy, or worse He is my servant. Lukewarm teaching is the standard fare, the kind of lukewarm teaching that leads to churches being vomited out. Does God desire us to be ignorant of Him, to just wave our hands in the air in euphoric praise without the vaguest idea of who He is? Is that the kind of worshipper God wants?

Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:21-24)

Jesus says it twice: God seeks those who worship Him in Spirit AND Truth. You don't have to be a genius to be a Christian. You don't even have to be smart. But you cannot be ignorant. There is a difference between smart and not being ignorant. I know plenty of people who they world would look at as less than brilliant, but they know who Christ is because they have studied His Word. What a blessing these people are, because while simple compared to the wisdom of the world, they are knowledgeable of the things of God. We should honor these people, because for some of us knowledge is easy: we read well, can express ourselves easily, and are just as easily lazy about knowledge of God. It can be seductive to rest on your brains, and not seek knowledge. God's knowledge is accessible to anyone, but you must work at it. You don't need a high IQ, but you do need a hunger for God's Word.

Worshipping the unknown god

And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:15-18)

Too many churches are like Athens, where they worship the Unknown God because they have no idea who they are worshipping. The Bible takes work, it takes diligence. It takes patience. I have read stuff before and shook my head, only to read it some time later and have it make sense. If you are a follower of Christ, you yearn to know Him better, not for what He can do for you now but what He has done for you for eternity. Being an ivory tower egghead who is all theology and no heart is not a Christian virtue. Being a simpleton isn't either.

Don't be ignert 'bout yer Saveyur!

(I have had that picture saved for a long time, just waiting for a chance to use it!)