From the ministry archive
What Happened To Understanding?
In today’s age of information with the internet and other sources, we see the scriptures fulfilled that said in the last days “many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased” (Dan. 12:4). Make no mistake my friend, that “knowledge” is carnal knowledge, NOT the knowledge of God. Ever notice the shape of the younger generation today? Yeah, and it’s getting worse with every generation and sub-generation. Living together out of wedlock is just the thing to do today, and the truth is most of these young folks don’t even know it is wrong. Why? Because of the increasing destitution of the knowledge of God in the land. Fornication? What the heck is that??!! Well I can tell you it is something that God hates, along with a whole slew of other immoral and wicked practices that are accepted as the norm today (Num. 25:1-11; Eph. 5:3-7). And yet there is more knowledge CLAIMED about God, and about the Gospel of Jesus Christ today, than ever before. Why, just turn on your TV, or your radio, or get on the internet. ‘Christian ministries’ abound everywhere. Or just get in your car and take a short ride, and count all of the ‘churches’ that are on every other corner. So what’s up with this paradox? Amos told it like it was, or rather like it IS, regarding these days: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst” (Amos 8:11-13). Does the “run to and fro” sound familiar? Yeah, that’s what I quoted from Daniel 12 above, which also was about these last days. And how about the “fair virgins and young men [shall] faint for thirst?” Sounds like the condition of today’s youth that I mentioned briefly, does it not? I always point out when referencing this passage from Amos 8, that it does NOT say that those who are wandering and running to and fro to find God’s word, would KNOW that they are not finding it. And that goes hand in hand with what I mentioned above about the overabundance of Christian ministries in the world today. The truth is, most folks just accept what they hear from their Christian ministers as being the word of God. THERE is the whole problem! That which is called Christianity is NOT the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is WHY the words of Amos are fulfilled in these days, even though it APPEARS that the “word of God” is being preached EVERYWHERE!
The false report of God’s word throughout Christianity has bewitched everyone under it’s spell to be conditioned to say, “We see.” But let me give that statement a little more detail: “And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, WE SEE; therefore your sin remaineth” (Jn. 9:39-41). Even as the religious crowd that Jesus encountered among God’s people when he came, so it is today. Nothing in fact ever changes. Never has. Never will, or at least not until Jesus comes back from heaven and sets up his reign on earth. The people he came to were so full of their traditions that they had added to God’s law, which traditions also took away from the same law; that they didn’t recognize the very embodiment of the law of God that they claimed to keep (Mk. 7:7,8,13; Jn. 1:14). Fact is, they weren’t keeping God’s law, at least not the parts that really mattered, as Jesus let them know clearly (Mat. 23:23.24). If you want to know what shape things are in today, just read some of that chapter and you will know. Like I said, nothing ever changes. Don’t believe that? Do some serious studying of history, and of the Bible as well. You’ll believe it then. Then just take a look around at all of the religious mentality that today’s Christianity has dictated to God’s people: Church, church, and more church. Ceremony after ceremony, religious service of all kinds, and plenty more of it. Beautiful buildings of so called worship, tall steeples; and oh yeah, plenty of crosses everywhere; on steeples, on Bibles, on necks, on clothes, on walls; you name it. Sounds like somebody should study the prophets a little closer: “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at MY word” (Isa. 66:1,2). Not enough? Well, let’s try this one then: “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Mic. 6:6-8). If that doesn’t penetrate the heart and get the point across, all I can say is that I am truly and sadly sorry to hear it.
Let’s come full circle here with the “lack of knowledge,” the “famine for hearing the words of the Lord,” and with the APPEARANCE of widespread Gospel ministries. Christianity is a religion that by and large allows for sin, and promotes sin with its subtle, nice, cunningly crafted doctrines of men. I’ve seen it for over thirty years, regardless of brand, denomination, sect, affiliation, or whatever else. The bottom line in most of modern Christianity is that you can’t truly get free from sin in your heart. I don’t care what they say contrary to that, just give them a few minutes and Christianity’s defenders of sin will let you know full well that sin is something that MUST be kept in order for the righteousness of CHRIST to be magnified. “We’re all sinners, it’s JESUS who alone is righteous.” Ohhh, that does sound righteous, except I have to admit I don’t care much for the part about me being left in sin. I mean, that’s why I CAME to Jesus to begin with, because sin had me all messed up, and I needed DELIVERANCE from that bondage. Seems I recall a serious man of God addressing that same issue somewhere: “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? GOD FORBID. How shall we, that are DEAD to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom. 6:1,2). That’s right my friend, we just need to be in on the ‘we’ part of that statement. It’s for sure it applies to SOMEONE, and I assure you it was and is someone who TRULY believes on the Jesus of the Bible. As for the Jesus of modern Christianity, the one who allows for his people to remain in sin, and still promises everlasting life? That’s the other one that the same apostle warned the believers in his day about (II Cor. 11:4). And about this massive void of divine understanding in the body of Christ, and in the world today? It’s Christianity’s fault. How’s that? Again, it’s all about the sin issue, and about Christianity leaving plenty of room for it to stay around through its “seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (I Tim. 4:1). Here is the bottom line, and the completion of the full circle here today; and why there is such a vast desolation of the knowledge of God by means of the promotion of sin by the religion that names the name of Christ: “And unto man he [God] said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that IS wisdom; and to DEPART from evil is UNDERSTANDING” (Job 28:28). It really is that simple. Amen and amen. And amen!
