Dear Editor,
Or, “Haven’t you heard?” This is a question our Lord often asked the scribes and Pharisees who were not very knowledgeable about the Word of God, though they claimed to know it all. Especially the scribes who made copies of the holy writings and were professional religious scholars.
If Jesus were still physically on the earth today, He would be asking us the selfsame question. Even after having His Word available to us for thousands of years, we still don’t know our God as we ought to. Very sad!
Even Satan, our and God’s enemy, who came to kill, to steal, and to destroy, read and knows the Word. He quoted Scriptures to Jesus in the desert.
All the answers to the questions of the ancient scribes and Pharisees and the questions we often reflect on today are found in His Word, yet most of us don’t take time out to read it. There are Scriptures in the Bible that admonish us about what we have to do, and maybe more importantly not to do in order to inherit eternal life. However, those of us who don’t read them, don’t know them. What we don’t know can lead to us spending eternity in the wrong place.
Unfortunately, those who follow false teachers – and there are many – will also end up in the same place. Jesus said, “If the blind guide the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
We can easily find time to do everything else. We can watch TV or read books written by mere men for hours and engage in other useless activities every day of the week. All for our entertainment. One day – whether we believe it or not – we are all going to have to face Him and be judged for how we lived our brief lives here on this earth. This judgment will include what we did … and did not do. “He who knows how to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17).
Those who know me well will say: Clive, you are not even a churchgoer. True! But I attend “church” every morning of the week on my front porch. I read His Word, pray for myself and others, make my petitions, but I mainly give Him thanks and praise. I not only read Scriptures; I highlight those that speak to my heart and write many of them down as well. That way they stay in my mind much longer.
So, why do I no longer attend church? Well, I have been reading my Bible practically every morning from the time I was 30 years old. I am 78 now. The Bible tells us: “The lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and people should desire instruction from his mouth, because he is the messenger of the Lord of Armies.” (Malachi 2:7)
After attending church regularly for many years, both Catholic and Protestant, I eventually got tired of hearing both RC priests and Protestant pastors preach some things that are contrary to what I read in my Bible. Regardless of which denomination a preacher belongs to, if what they preach does not line up with the Bible, I confidently reject it. If you don’t read the Word, you will believe everything they and others say.
In addition to that, they never preach on such important topics as the reality of Hell, the truth that there are children of Satan living among us. Someone once asked Jesus: “Are only a few people going to be saved? Jesus replied: “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you, many will try to enter and won’t be able once the homeowner gets up and shuts the door.”
I have also heard many a Protestant preacher say at the end of the service: “Repeat this prayer after me and you will be saved.” Not much of an effort there.
I have also heard a Protestant preacher announce in a Christian TV programme that he teaches his aspirant preachers to stay away from certain topics. He tells them: “Don’t go there! You will only confuse the congregation.” Those are some of the reasons I attend my own home church.
You can be the most read, most educated person on the face of the earth, but if you don’t know the One who created you, the One who sacrificed His life for you in order to save us from God’s coming wrath, you know nothing at all!
So, I encourage all my readers to inform yourself of what your Maker expects, rather demands from you. On Judgment Day, you can’t say to Him: Sorry, Lord, I didn’t have time to read Your Word and to get to know You. I was too busy doing other things and time suddenly and unexpectedly ran out on me.”
I imagine that His answer to you might be: Even the man-made law states that “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” And, had you read My Word, you would have known that your Master would come suddenly and unexpectedly.
Clive Hodge
