Thursday, September 15, 2022
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you” (Galatians 4:19,20 KJV).
Are these people really saved—or really lost?
Life in Christ absolutely cannot function on the basis of ignorance; we would be utter fools to think it can. After all, what is the purpose of the Holy Scriptures? Why did God the Holy Spirit inspire and preserve His Word and words through a multiplicity of reliable copies? Why did He translate those Divine words into our language? It was to impart to us the information He deemed fit: it was not all that we wanted to know (for there would be endless volumes), but all that we needed to know. How does God live? How has He designed our lives to operate? How does sin interfere with the Divine will being brought to pass? How has He made a way for us to overcome sin and be what He originally wanted for mankind and the rest of creation?
When the Holy Spirit moved the Apostle Paul to pen his epistles (formal letters a teacher writes to educate his students), it was to dispel misinformation and remove spiritual illiteracy concerning the Age of Grace. On six occasions, Paul expressed his desire that the people he won to Christ would not (!!!) abide in spiritual darkness concerning major dispensational truths: “I would not have you ignorant, brethren…” (Romans 1:13; Romans 11:25; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 1 Corinthians 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 1 Thessalonians 4:13). Unless the saints pay attention to these inspired, preserved words, they (we) will indeed be “ignorant [uninformed, unlearned, untaught, unaware] brethren!” (As anyone with an eye to see and an ear to hear knows, most professing believers today “have better things to do with their time than” actually read for themselves the Lord’s heavenly ministry through Paul. They prefer church leaders’ commandments, professors’ critical Hebrew and Greek lectures, commentary writers’ speculations, denominations’ handbooks, “Christian bestsellers,” the latest “easy-to-read” translations, “Christian” movies, “Christian” radio programs and podcasts, et cetera).
Yet, even Bible literacy can be invaluable to Satan’s cause in tricking genuine saints….