I T is AN amazing fact to realize that the outstanding characteristic of this intellectual age is ignorance. There has never been a generation priding itself more on its cleverness and sophistication. Although we are informed on all subjects, we are clearly marked by educated ignor ance. There has never been a time when men have been so smart while at the same time being so stupid. Will Rogers used to say, “The dumbest person in the world is an educated man, wheii you get him off the sub ject on which he was educated.” Men are most ignorant on the Bible and God’s will. Whatever else a person may know, if he is not familiar with what God wants him to know, he is simply an ignoramus. Our Saviour said, “Ye do err, not knowing.” He had in mind two things, the Scriptures and the power of God. Herein is the cause and the cure for everything. God has said something to us in His Word, and He has done something for us in His Son. Not knowing these two things man lives in error. While we may travel faster, what does it avail if we are going in the wrong direction? In the last 100 years we have learned amazing things about the world in which we live. The problem is we haven’t learned how to live in it. We correct one social evil and yet jails are filled with criminals under 25. Modern man, in all his affluence, doesn’t know where he is going. It is as though he were wandering in a wilderness which can only wind up in the eternal hell. The world doesn’t realize its peril. When our Lord comes again it will be as it was in the days of Noah and Lot. The peo ple then didn’t know what time it was nor the gravity of the hour. How amused they must have been at the strange creature who built an ark
while warning his generation of im pending judgment. Today men are extremely ignorant of God’s program. The same things are happening today as they did in Noah’s time. Old Josh Billings used to say, “I’d rather know a few things for certain than to be sure of a lot of things that ain’t so.” How many people there are who don’t know things that are for certain. They know the baseball and football scores, but they don’t know God’s scoreboard. They listen to news com mentators while the only Book that tells them where they came from and where they are going lies neglected. On Paul’s voyage to Rome he told them that they were headed for trou ble. They listened to the mariner, however, and not to the minister. They must have said, “What would a preacher know about navigation?” The result was a tragic shipwreck. The same thing is happening today. The world doesn’t realize its real peril although it may be scared. Peo ple want to know what to. do if the atom bomb falls, but not many of them are asking what can be done if God’s judgment falls. Our problem is not atomic, it is adamic. It is sad that the Church doesn’t know its need. Our Lord said of the Laodicean church, “Thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing and knowest not.” They didn’t realize that they were actually wretched and miserable. The Bible tells us, “I would not have you ignorant about spiritual gifts,” in I Cor. “I would not have you ignor ant about them that are asleep,” in I Thess. “I would not have you ignor ant about Israel,” in Romans. It is high time for us to awake out of sleep. One of the real heartbreaks is that Christians do not know the Lord as 7
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