[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]UnderGod, it is not righteous to be ignorant.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Tolove God is to abide by His Law, which Jesus summed up in twocommandments: That we love God with all our heart soul and mind, andwe love eachother as we would love ourselves. To do these, amounts tothe fulfillment of His Law, which Jesus came to fulfill.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]TheScriptures guide us toward righteousness. As it says in 2 Timothy3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable forteaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training inrighteousness...” Such training is warranted, since God in Genesissaid after the Flood that there are people who will always beinclined to doing evil. He also warned us in Deuteronomy 6:14 to notgo after other gods, for if we do, we are told in Deuteronomy 8:19that we would perish. And Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:15 to “Bewareof false prophets.” We are similarly warned in Deuteronomy 13:1-3. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]So,it is necessary to be armed with the knowledge found in theScriptures that guide us to what God considers to be living inrighteousness. A righteous individual will do their best to live bythe two commandments of Jesus, but in this day and age, when one sideof the world communicates with the other and we can be distant fromeven our next-door neighbor, there is a lot of gray area anduncertainty. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Forinstance, the Bible tells us to provide for our households. Some ofus may believe that if we support certain leaders who promise us wewill, for instance, pay less money in taxes and so have more money inour pockets, we may succeed in providing for our households; but whatabout the parts of the Bible that says to provide for the poor andneedy? The Bible tells us in Romans 13:1 to “Let every person besubject to the governing authorities. For there is no authorityexcept from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”Similarly, we are told in the Book of Daniel that God replaces kingswho do not rule in a righteous manner. If our governing authoritiesare not seeing to the needs of the poor and needy, how can anyone saythat such governing authorities are ruling in righteousness?[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Hereis another gray area, concerning those who are more ignorant of whatGod wants than most of us are: A young man with a family to supportand with no job or other means of income, robs a Seven-Eleven andkills the proprietor in the process. There is no doubt that withwhatever money he gets, if he isn't caught, he will be able toprovide for his needy household. But in doing so, he has broken twoof the Commandments given by God to Moses. As far as this young mangoes, ignorance can appear on many stages...either he was never toldthat God exists, or the people he looks up to, act as if God doesn'texist, or he may have attended some religious classes but is in doubtthat God exists, and so he goes about his merry way. And the peoplehe looks up to may in deed be following other gods, who take the formof drugs, or of fear, or of hopes and promises which may be harmfulto others, including our young man.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Maybethat same young man has only himself to provide for, when he robbedthe Seven-Eleven store and killed the proprietor. Well, God told usin Genesis to be fruitful, did He not? So, our young man may havefulfilled that commandment. But again, he is stuck with the twoCommandments given by God to Moses that he broke, out of hisignorance of God.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]TheScriptures tell us that whatever stage of knowledge of God we are at,any ignorance of God will not enable us to know Him better. Forinstance, Job 11:12 says “...a stupid man will get understandingwhen a wild donkey's colt is born a man!” Romans 10:3 says, “For,being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establishtheir own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.” Hosea 4:6says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]becauseyou have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me.And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forgetyour children.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Whatis the responsibility of a righteous leader toward his people? Well,when David's son Solomon became king after David died, did he makespeeches to the people, promising them things he couldn't possiblygive them? Did he lie to them, saying that certain people in theirmidst will kill them, so it is necessary to keep out people from asimilar background? Did he look to make deals with other kings,ignorant of the possible damaging effects on the people he rulesover? No. In 1 Kings 3:9 he asks God to “Give your servant...anunderstanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern betweengood and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”How nice it would be that our leaders would look to God to find outwhat the right thing to do is, and to go ahead and do it![/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Ignoranceof God is sure to lead the ignorant astray from Him.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Tolove God is to abide by His Law, which Jesus summed up in twocommandments: That we love God with all our heart soul and mind, andwe love eachother as we would love ourselves. To do these, amounts tothe fulfillment of His Law, which Jesus came to fulfill.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]TheScriptures guide us toward righteousness. As it says in 2 Timothy3:16, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable forteaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training inrighteousness...” Such training is warranted, since God in Genesissaid after the Flood that there are people who will always beinclined to doing evil. He also warned us in Deuteronomy 6:14 to notgo after other gods, for if we do, we are told in Deuteronomy 8:19that we would perish. And Jesus warned us in Matthew 7:15 to “Bewareof false prophets.” We are similarly warned in Deuteronomy 13:1-3. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]So,it is necessary to be armed with the knowledge found in theScriptures that guide us to what God considers to be living inrighteousness. A righteous individual will do their best to live bythe two commandments of Jesus, but in this day and age, when one sideof the world communicates with the other and we can be distant fromeven our next-door neighbor, there is a lot of gray area anduncertainty. [/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Forinstance, the Bible tells us to provide for our households. Some ofus may believe that if we support certain leaders who promise us wewill, for instance, pay less money in taxes and so have more money inour pockets, we may succeed in providing for our households; but whatabout the parts of the Bible that says to provide for the poor andneedy? The Bible tells us in Romans 13:1 to “Let every person besubject to the governing authorities. For there is no authorityexcept from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”Similarly, we are told in the Book of Daniel that God replaces kingswho do not rule in a righteous manner. If our governing authoritiesare not seeing to the needs of the poor and needy, how can anyone saythat such governing authorities are ruling in righteousness?[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Hereis another gray area, concerning those who are more ignorant of whatGod wants than most of us are: A young man with a family to supportand with no job or other means of income, robs a Seven-Eleven andkills the proprietor in the process. There is no doubt that withwhatever money he gets, if he isn't caught, he will be able toprovide for his needy household. But in doing so, he has broken twoof the Commandments given by God to Moses. As far as this young mangoes, ignorance can appear on many stages...either he was never toldthat God exists, or the people he looks up to, act as if God doesn'texist, or he may have attended some religious classes but is in doubtthat God exists, and so he goes about his merry way. And the peoplehe looks up to may in deed be following other gods, who take the formof drugs, or of fear, or of hopes and promises which may be harmfulto others, including our young man.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Maybethat same young man has only himself to provide for, when he robbedthe Seven-Eleven store and killed the proprietor. Well, God told usin Genesis to be fruitful, did He not? So, our young man may havefulfilled that commandment. But again, he is stuck with the twoCommandments given by God to Moses that he broke, out of hisignorance of God.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]TheScriptures tell us that whatever stage of knowledge of God we are at,any ignorance of God will not enable us to know Him better. Forinstance, Job 11:12 says “...a stupid man will get understandingwhen a wild donkey's colt is born a man!” Romans 10:3 says, “For,being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establishtheir own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.” Hosea 4:6says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]becauseyou have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me.And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forgetyour children.”[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Whatis the responsibility of a righteous leader toward his people? Well,when David's son Solomon became king after David died, did he makespeeches to the people, promising them things he couldn't possiblygive them? Did he lie to them, saying that certain people in theirmidst will kill them, so it is necessary to keep out people from asimilar background? Did he look to make deals with other kings,ignorant of the possible damaging effects on the people he rulesover? No. In 1 Kings 3:9 he asks God to “Give your servant...anunderstanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern betweengood and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”How nice it would be that our leaders would look to God to find outwhat the right thing to do is, and to go ahead and do it![/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri, sans-serif]Ignoranceof God is sure to lead the ignorant astray from Him.[/FONT]