Hosea was a prophet of God to the northern kingdom of Israel some two hundred years after the division of the north and the south. He prophesied of their demise if they did not turn back to God. A telling statement of his was, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee…” (Hosea 4:6). This is a telling statement for it explains how Israel came to be in the state in which they were at the time of Hosea. They had become ignorant to God’s true will. The same can and has happened all through the ages since that time. It is still a problem today and still results in the destruction of the soul of he who falls prey.
Ignorance of God’s word results in destruction. Jesus said, “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). Note several things Jesus did not say. He did not say, ye shall feel the truth and the truth shall make you free. Truth is not something that one feels, but something one learns. It is the intellect that God appeals to with His word. Indeed, emotions are involved, but the intellect is that which is used to understand and then obey God’s word. Paul told Timothy to “study to show thyself approved unto God”. It is the intellect that must be used in study, not the emotions. Jesus also did not say, ye shall know what others have said it the truth, and the truth shall set you free. John wrote, “believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (I John 4:1). Paul said that the Bereans “were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). Don’t take anyone’s word for what is truth, search the scriptures for yourself to assure that what is taught is indeed truth. Neither did Jesus say, ye shall know what the majority believe to be the truth, and the truth shall set you free. No matter how many people believe that which is false, it does not make it true. Paul said, “For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar…” (Rom. 3:3-4). God said, “Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil” (Exo. 23:2).
The apostle Paul, writing to the church at Rome concerning his fellow Jews said, “For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God” (Rom. 10:2-3). There is no doubt that those of whom Paul spoke were zealous, but zealousness without knowledge is vain. Jesus once said, “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matt. 15:9). The righteousness that Paul’s brethren did not know was the one found in the gospel of Christ, for that is where God’s righteousness is revealed. Paul wrote, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:16-17). They were ignorant of what God had actually said, and had formulated their own system of righteousness, their own standard for salvation. Such will fail in the last day, for we will be judged not by what we think, but by the gospel (Rom. 2:16).
Many in our modern society have gone the way of both Israel in the days of Hosea and Paul’s fellow Jews in the first century; they have formulated their own system of Christianity, not in accordance with what God’s truth demands. The multiplicity of “denominations” with their differing doctrines and practices are proof of this. One can ask several different people what they must do to be saved and receive several different answers. Such is proof positive that they are not all following the same guide. The truth of God’s word does not change from person to person. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). If they were all following the same blueprint for the church, they would all be exactly the same in doctrine and practice. Paul writing to the church at Corinth said, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (I Cor. 1:10). It is high time that many religious people today would turn back from the doctrines of men to the truth of the Bible. Leave their own system of righteousness and return to God’s.
Lack of knowledge in the field of finances can result in poverty. Lack of knowledge in the realm of health can result in sickness and death. But, the most dangerous lack of knowledge is the lack of the knowledge of God’s will for man. It results in eternal damnation.