Does God Want Us to be Dumb?

Now these were more open-minded than those in Thessalonica. They accepted the message with all eagerness, examining the scriptures every day to see if these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, and not a few of the prominent Greek women and men.

Acts 17:11–12 (LEB)

Gnosticism is a belief system that puts the hope of salvation in knowledge of the divine. One who studies scripture and asks questions that are not popular with religious hierarchy is sometimes labelled as a Gnostic. I have heard people say that it can be detrimental to study scripture too much or delve into books that are unapproved by the church.

Gnosticism was also a first century belief system which taught that the Creator God was a lesser entity and created everything without permission from the supreme God, and that He didn’t know there was a god greater than He. In this heresy, Jesus was sent from the “greater” god to free mankind from this Creator God who held mankind captive with rules and commandments. We still see this mindset in the church today with the mentality that “Jesus kept the commandments so we don’t have to”. This belief system also seems to be similar to hyper-dispensationalism. Here is the definition of hyper-dispensationalism from theopedia.com:

Hyper-dispensationalism (or sometimes ultra-dispensationalism), as opposed to traditional (or classic) Dispensationalism, views the start of the Christian church as beginning with the ministry of the Apostle Paul after the early part of the book of Acts. Although variations exist in specifics, all hyper-dispensationalists view the four Gospels and many of New Testament Epistles as applying to the pre-Pauline Jewish-Christian church or to the future Davidic Kingdom; not directly applicable to the predominantly Gentile Church of today.

Hyper-dispensationlists will say that the four Gospels and books such as James and Hebrews, do not apply to believers in the “age of grace”. Many people unknowingly believe this because they do not study. They find themselves in a stupor of echoing this type of nonsense because they have no grounding in the Word of God. The first century heretic, Marcion, taught a similar message in which only the letters of Paul applied to believers. However, the letters of Paul were written to specific groups of people about specific problems these people were encountering. We do not know what prompted the letters, and we are also missing context from letters that were sent to Paul from these various churches. A new doctrine such as hyper-dispensationalism should not be derived from Paul’s letters. Likewise, no one should be deceived into thinking that Paul was starting a new religion with a new group of people, void of the law of God.

2 Peter 3:14–18 (LEB): ¹⁴ Therefore, dear friends, because you are waiting for these things, make every effort to be found at peace, spotless and unblemished in him. ¹⁵ And regard the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as also our dear brother Paul wrote to you, according to the wisdom that was given to him, ¹⁶ as he does also in all his letters, speaking in them about these things, in which there are some things hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction, as they also do the rest of the scriptures. ¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, because you know this beforehand, guard yourselves so that you do not lose your own safe position because you have been led away by the error of lawless persons. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

I heard a church leader once say we don’t even need to study scripture because we simply need to “believe in Jesus” to be saved. Does God want us to be this dumb in our faith? How can one “believe” in someone that they don’t know anything about? Wouldn’t this thought process open one up to deception? In other words, if we are ignorant about the character of God, revealed through Moses and the prophets, if we do not know what Jesus said, and about the nature of His character, wouldn’t that enable people to invent their own versions of God? An easy way to be deceived is to believe Jesus was talking to someone else. If the congregation allows the pastor be the only one to tell them about God, who checks to see if what the pastor is saying is true?

Isaiah 56:9–12 (LEB): ⁹ All wild animals in the field, come, to devour, all wild animals in the forest! ¹⁰ His watchmen are blind, none of them know. They are all dumb dogs; they are unable to bark, panting, lying down, loving to slumber. ¹¹ And the dogs have a greedy appetite; they are never satisfied. And they are the shepherds! They do not have understanding. They all turn to their own way, each one for his own gain, every one of them. ¹² “Come, let me take wine, and let us carouse with intoxicating drink, and tomorrow will be like today, very great indeed.”

I have read about secret societies where the average member is kept in the dark about the symbolism and beliefs of the society, and only are given more information if they are deemed worthy to move up in rank. This is where the terms “esoteric” and “exoteric” are used. Exoteric knowledge is the simple meanings or what the general membership is given, where esoteric knowledge is only for the initiated.

Hosea 4:6 (LEB): ⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from acting as a priest for me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

An example of exoteric knowledge is having the average church believer thinking there is a “rapture” where they will be whisked away to heaven to see all their loved ones that have died at any moment, when Bible scholars will debate each other at a much higher level of knowledge. They do not allow some of this information out of their circles and just give the general membership something very basic to understand. Many religious leaders do not think the average person can handle what is in the Bible, so they spoon feed what they think the membership is able to comprehend. I am not just talking about pastors and their congregations, this happens on a much higher level in denominations and seminary. This is why pastors in some churches are not allowed to preach on certain subjects and why congregants are not “allowed” to question certain doctrines. Seminaries indoctrinate future pastors with “proper” doctrine. These situations are starting to be exposed as more people study for themselves and start questioning organized religion. There are also “whistle blowers” from within organizations coming to the knowledge of the truth.

2 Thessalonians 2:7–12 (LEB): ⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is at work already; only the one who now restrains will do so until he is out of the way, ⁸ and then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of his mouth, and wipe out by the appearance of his coming, ⁹ whose coming is in accordance with the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, ¹⁰ and with every unrighteous deception against those who are perishing, in place of which they did not accept the love of the truth, so that they would be saved. ¹¹ And because of this, God sends them a powerful delusion  so that they will believe the lie, ¹² in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but delighted in unrighteousness.

Ask a pastor why the Sabbath is on the first day of the week instead of the Biblical seventh day and see what type of answer one is given. The typical answer is that Jesus resurrected on Sunday. Another answer is that it is not addressed in the New Testament, or we can call any day we want a Sabbath now etc. If pushed too far with the mountain of scripture supporting Sabbath keeping, along with the statement from the Catholic church saying they changed the Sabbath to show they have more authority than scripture, the conversation can get very unfriendly quickly. People will echo what they have been taught to the death about the Sabbath, yet if one lets scripture lead them, it is undeniable that changing the day to Sunday is a tradition that has “made void the law of God”.

Isaiah 56:6–8 (LEB): ⁶ And the foreigners who join themselves to Yahweh to serve him and to love the name of Yahweh, to become his servants, every one who keeps the Sabbath, so as not to profane it, and those who keep hold of my covenant, ⁷ I will bring them to my holy mountain; I will make them merry in my house of prayer. their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” ⁸ declares the Lord Yahweh, who gathers the scattered ones of Israel (still I will gather to him, to his gathered ones).

If one is a dispensationlist, then these scriptures supposedly do not apply because Paul freed them from the laws of the mean Creator God. Meanwhile, the adversary laughs at the deceived ones losing the blessing of the Sabbath. The word “gentile” and “foreigner” are synonymous.

Once one studies scriptures for them self and takes to heart what is being said, the exoteric information given to the masses will not suffice. When the Creator of the universe says something and stamps it with His royal decree, it cannot be undone by any religion, pope, theologian or pastor spoon feeding pablum to the congregation. “Thus saith the LORD” or “the word of the LORD” in King James English means whatever preceded or follows these words will happen, and no one can stop it.

On the Messianic and Hebrew roots side of the aisle people are also trying to limit what one can study or talk about. There are those who do not allow anyone to discuss the name of the Creator just as in Judaism. They insult and mock calling people “sacred namers”. The latest item I have seen is those forbidding the discussion of the feast days or the Hebrew language, calling it a stumbling block. The logic according to these people is that we are not allowed to celebrate the feasts until we are in the land, therefore there is no reason to discuss them. It goes back to certain ones simply wanting to control other people.

Religion has been used throughout the ages to control people. Most recently we saw how the government worked with churches to push government mandates during the pandemic. We had people such as Franklin Graham giving his followers medical advice that echoed the government’s stance, and the pharmaceutical companies which were giving money to those promoting their products. Governments work closely with religious organizations they control through tax exemption status. This is nothing new, and not very different than the way pagan temples were run in the Roman Empire.

Don’t be dumb. Be like the synagogue of Berea by studying scripture and asking hard questions. The Father will send these deceptions to see if we love Him enough to see through the lies. The deception is real and one has to be prepared.

The featured photo by Michal Matlon on Unsplash.

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