'Give me that old-time uh, I don't know'

The second largest religious belief system in the U.S. after Christianity is agnosticism.

"The agnostic’s way out is what’s called 'willful ignorance,' and there’s an insidious sin to it," says Preacher Richard Jordan. "It amounts to a rejection of anything that conflicts with a person’s own ideas and traditions.

“People say they don’t know but when you show them the truth, they respond, ‘Well, I just don’t know.' That’s exactly where the scribes, the Pharisees, the leaders in Israel were in Luke 20. They knew; they just weren’t willing to say."

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Renowned humanist Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) writes in his classic, Confessions of a Professed Atheist, “I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning, consequently assumed it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption.

“The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics; he is also concerned to prove there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do.

“For myself, as no doubt for many of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaningless was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

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I remember when I lived in NYC and Billy Graham made his big final crusade, there were endless local TV commercials promoting his three-day extravaganza with Graham shouting from the screen, “God loves you!”

It made me think of how when I was a teenager I watched TV’s Rev. Robert Schuller with my father and Schuller constantly reminded the audience in his signature style: “God loves you and so do I.”

I'd look at him smiling behind the pulpit of his grandiose Crystal Cathedral near Los Angeles and think, “Well, what if somebody like Charlie Manson’s watching the Hour of Power right now?!"

There's a super-short Bible verse that throws that all out the window. Psalm 5:5: “The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.” This verse doesn't say, "God hates the sin but loves the sinner."

Another little slam-dunk verse is Psalm 11:5: “The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”

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As China missionary R. Dawson Barlow, who passed away in November, writes in his 2004 book, The Origin of the Races, “The conflict between the Bible and the various evolutionary views is not a battle between ‘religion’ and ‘science.’ It is a war between two philosophies!

“It is a battle originating from people filled with antagonism and animosity toward ‘God’ (in general) and Jesus Christ (in particular), and most of all, the fierce denial that anyone would have to give an account of themselves to such a God.

“It constantly rears its bloodthirsty, antagonistic head in battle array against the claims of Jesus Christ, and most especially against our Lord’s claim of exclusivity (‘. . . I am THE way . . . no man cometh unto the Father but by me.’)

“That is probably the most unpopular utterance that can be uttered today, even in some circles of the world of Christian publishing. So let it be! . . . The message of our Lord is offensive to those enamored with their own righteousness.”

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As the passage in Luke 20 reveals, “And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders,

[2] And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority?
[3] And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me:
[4] The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?
[5] And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say, Why then believed ye him not?
[6] But and if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they be persuaded that John was a prophet.
[7] And they answered, that they could not tell whence it was.
[8] And Jesus said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.”

Jordan explains, “The issue with them back there was, ‘Who gave you the right?!’ and Jesus says, ‘You tell me something first—how about John the Baptist? He testified of me.’

“Now, you see, they’ve got a dilemma. They reason, ‘If we say John was a man sent from God, the question will be why didn’t we believe him. And we’ll be shown to be hypocrites. If we say no, John wasn’t a prophet sent from God, the people think he was and we’re dead meat there. So, we just can’t say—we can’t tell you.’

"Well, that’s the agnostic’s way out. It’s willful ignorance. I’ll show you why. Look at John 7:14: ‘Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?’

“The question was, ‘How come He knows so much—He never went to school? He doesn’t have a degree from our approved, accredited institution.’

“Did you ever read in Acts 4 when it talks about the apostles, it says (the scribes and Pharisees) looked on them, and when they did they thought they were ignorant? Verse 13 says, ‘Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.’

“They’re saying, ‘You guys didn’t graduate from our school; you don’t have our sheepskin on the wall. You’re unlearned, which means you have to be ignorant. And, well, following Jesus—there’s something not right there.’ ”

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In John 7, it says that when “the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

[17] If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”

Jordan explains, “You see, they’ve got the doctrine; He’s been given it for them. The issue is their will; their faith and the truth that’s available to them. If any man will, he’d know. If a guy doesn’t know, it’s not because the information isn’t there; it’s because he doesn’t want the information that’s there.

“So what does Jesus do? He said unto them, “Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.” You remember that verse in the Sermon on the Mount—‘don’t cast your pearls before the swine’? Now, that’s not what this verse is about directly—swine, or Gentiles—but it’s the same principle.

“Paul said it in I Cor. 4:14: ‘If any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.’ That doesn’t mean, ‘If somebody doesn’t know, don’t tell them.’ By all means, go tell them; show ’em the truth!

“Christ was saying, ‘Hey, you had John the Baptist. You had the opportunity to know. If you’d have wanted to know, God’s Word came directly to you.’

“Understand that for 400 years prior to John the Baptist there’d not been one prophet in Israel. There’d been almost 400 years of silence. Daniel prophesied about it; told them how long it would be.

“And then, all of a sudden, there comes that ‘voice of one crying in the wilderness,’ saying, ‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord.’ Doing exactly what Isaiah 40 said he would do. Doing exactly what Malachi 3 said he’d do. Being the voice.

“You know, when there’s a lot of voices, it’s hard to hear any one, but when there hadn’t been one for a long time, that one stands out, and it comes ‘in the spirit and power of Elijah.’ That’s why John was dressed like he was with the funny garb. That’s why he was out in the wilderness.

“John the Baptist was a priest, his daddy was a priest, his mother was a descendant of Levi. He had the lineage, he had the pedigree, he had the sheepskin. But when he ought to have been up at the temple getting ordained, he was out there in the wilderness, crying, ‘Repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Come out here! Don’t get baptized at the temple; come out here; confess your sins!’

“It required honesty on the inward parts and when they didn’t want it, and they couldn’t be honest inside, Jesus said, ‘I’m not telling you anything either.’ Now that’s, ‘Let him who’s ignorant be ignorant still.’ ”