Friday, March 11, 2016

HOW KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN HIJACKED

Knowledge is one of the front burners of everything.  We want it, depend upon it, value it.  However, as is true of much of the wonder of creation, it too has been sabotaged.  The scandal is that such goes on by the very ones (ourselves) who deem knowledge as important.  We are the crooks.

And where does this hijacking occur?

When we gather enough information to support our theories and causes, is it not the case that at such points we tend to shut down?  I think so.  A shift from learning to defending has always been a conflict in the church.  Yes, there is absolute Truth. Admittedly, we have called opinion, tradition, and preference to be Truth when, in reality, we had shut down and shut out knowledge.

Dr. David Hawkins, in his book Power vs. Force tosses about words over my head; but he combines them with a staggeringly important message.  The individual is thus like a cork in the sea of consciousness--he does not know where he is, where he came from, or where he is going, and he does not know why.  Man wanders about in this endless conundrum, asking the same questions century after century, and so he will continue, failing a quantum leap in consciousness.

My critics may want to say something like, Don't you know, Terry, that the Bible says that you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free?  Yes, I do.  And it's that very truth that I wish to unlock among us including myself.  The history of the Christian faith is full of Bible gluttony; full of verses and yet sluggishly unhealthy in experiencing the very freedom our Bibles proclaim.

Knowledge has been hijacked when we thought we knew enough.  We knew steps or we knew proof-texts, or we knew church history.  Yet, godly faith--as in Abraham style--will take us places of which we have no idea where we are going...Hebrews 11:8.  You see, we very much want to know where we are going.  To not know is deemed to be sheer ignorance.

So the hijacking continues.  We trade adventure for stability.  We give away the heroics of the church by offering some mild appearance of valued activity.  Our courage has been sideswiped.  Drive has been traded for the decent and in order pledges of cowards.

Knowledge isn't to be discarded.  It is to be continued, built, and believed.  We must not stop at a bit of knowledge which would stop the flow of additional, available understanding intended for our fascinating walks.

The Word of God is for the lands to know Him, and His death, and the might of His resurrection.  As is the call of Father, I would challenge us to dare to seek the unimaginable, the unfathomable of which the Truth speaks.  We have shifted from living a faith where limbs have been sawed off behind us to one of knowing each detailed step before we leave the front porch.

This philosophy...this theory...of living behind the shield of safety...is killing the church.


2 comments:

Brent Keck said...

It seems to me that the philosophy that hijacks our knowledge is driven by several factors, but predominantly fear. We need to get back, in addition to the things you suggest, to the love that drives out our fears.

Stoned-Campbell Disciple said...

Amen, Terry