Articles

Willingly Ignorant

by Lasserre Bradley, Jr.

What a thrill to look into the sky on a clear night and see the brilliance of countless stars filling the heavens. Not only are you enthralled by their beauty, you can say, “My Father put them there and holds them in their place.” You enjoy the warmth of the sun on a beautiful summer day or stand in awe of a magnificent sunset. But you are not giving credit to “Mother Nature” for this marvelous scene; you can say, “My God put it there.”

Why is it then that when some look at the heavens—or they observe the tranquil scenes of beauty on the earth—they only see nature, while you see nature’s God? Why is that multitudes insist it was through a lengthy process, governed by chance, that man came to be on the earth while you embrace the Genesis account that God created man on the sixth day?

A Willful Rejection of Accountability

Some would say the problem is a lack of evidence that God is the Creator and only the unlearned would accept creationism and reject evolution. They contend that scientists have proven that the earth and the life on it evolved over a period of billions of years, and therefore it would be unreasonable to hold any other view. But can it be said that the reason so many in today’s world hold tenaciously to the theory of evolution is only a desire to be scientifically correct?

God’s Word says there is a willful rejection of the evidence God has provided.

The Psalmist tells us “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handy work” (Psalm 19:1). The heavens do not declare that it all started with the “Big Bang,” or that chance and fate somehow manipulated matter that came from nowhere to form the heavens and the earth. The heavens declare the glory of God. The fact that the sun is in its place and the earth revolves around it, as it continues to rotate on its axis, does not reveal the amazing results of countless accidents. It displays the power of God (Romans 1:20).

Jacque Monod, Nobel prize-winner in biology, said, “Chance alone is at the source of every innovation, of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, is at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution.” Evolutionist Stephen J. Gould said, “If the history of life teaches us any lesson, it is that human beings arose as a kind of glorious accident…surely the kind of glorious cosmic accident resulting from catenation (linking) of thousands of improbable events.” At first it seems puzzling. How can men of great educational attainments look at the complexity of the universe, or observe the remarkable functions of the human body and conclude it is all a “glorious accident?”

What can be the answer? Why would intelligent men fail to see the handiwork of God, fail to recognize His power, and refuse to accept God’s own inspired account of His work as recorded in Genesis chapter one? The Apostle Peter writing under divine inspiration gives us the answer: “they are willingly ignorant” (2 Peter 3:5). And as they scoff at the truth about God and His creation they are actually fulfilling prophecy.

Peter informs us in the last days scoffers, walking after their own desire, would both deny what God has already done and what He says He is going to do. They scoff at the truth that God created the earth out of nothing, they scoff at the fact that there was a great worldwide flood in Noah’s day, and they scoff at the idea that the heavens and the earth are “reserved unto fire against the day of judgment” (1 Peter 3:7).

The real issue is that man does not want to be accountable for his actions.

He reasons, “If there is no God then I can live as I please. If I have arrived here as part of a ‘glorious accident’, then there is no judgment day. God declares that this is the crux of the whole matter: “ the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness” (Romans 1:18). The word that is translated “hold” literally means to “hold down” or to “suppress.”

So the fact is, men not only reject the truth God has revealed in creation — they endeavor to suppress it. It is a willful action on their part. The language of scripture is very explicit: “that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20).

God has revealed Himself in nature and even given man an inward awareness that there is a God.

Why then does man reject this natural revelation? He does not like God. He may be well satisfied with a god of his own invention, but he is not happy with the sovereign Creator, the God of the Bible. He deplores the thought that he is obligated to a supreme ruler who sets limits, makes laws and imposes penalties.

This spirit is described in Psalm 2:2-3, “The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Pharaoh expressed the deep resentment of the depraved heart against God when he said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go” (Exodus 5:2).

To man in nature, a God on the throne—a God who is holy and hates sin, a God whose eyes go to and fro throughout the whole earth, who sees and knows all things—is intolerable. So in spite of all the evidence displayed by God’s handiwork, in spite of the sense that there is a God Who is “manifest in them”, sinful man rejects the truth and attempts to suppress the evidence God has provided. So now God says “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:22).

While boasting of their wisdom, they are willingly ignorant.

The Message Is Our Maker

When Paul preached to the pagans at Mars’ hill, he started with the basic truth that God is the Creator. He said, “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” The Apostle’s message was God-centered. He did not begin by appealing to some perceived need in his hearer’s life. There was no promise of health, wealth and prosperity. He declares that God is the Creator, He is too big to be contained in temples, He is the one Who gives life, and He has determined the bounds of man’s habitation, and He commands all men everywhere to repent.

In other words, God is God and man ought to honor Him.

Then Paul gives the reason why men should repent: “because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man who he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). Judgment is coming and Jesus Christ, the one raised from the dead, will be the Judge.

This Judge is perfect and cannot be bribed or influenced. He has all the facts concerning every person who will stand before Him and so will not have to depend on information provided by others. The wicked will be justly condemned and He will say, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire; prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41).

All of men’s attempts to ignore God will have ended. The wise man’s theories to suppress the truth about the sovereign creator will have crumbled. The haughty boast of the scoffers that “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,” will have been proven empty, the elements will have melted “with a fervent heat” and everything that we have worked to invent and build will have been burned up. God will be glorified — His sovereignty confirmed, His holiness displayed, and His justice executed. It will be a dark day for the wicked.

Grace For Our Guilt

But look at the contrast. “Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13). The same God who created the heaven and the earth that now is will, by the word of his power, create a new heaven and earth. No evolutionary process will be involved, no time delay will be necessary; when He burns up the old He makes the new.

Sin brought a curse upon the earth so that the whole creation has “groaned and travailed in pain.” Sin brought jealously, hatred, murder, war, death, heartache, confusion and despair. But in the new heavens and earth there dwells only righteousness. All is pure, all is holy, all is joy. There is complete victory over sin, victory over death; no disappointment, no tears, but perfect satisfaction in the presence of Jesus Christ forever.

The question may be asked, “How is it that one enters that place of righteousness and peace?” In his first epistle, Peter speaks of those who are redeemed, not with silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ.

In Adam all men are sinners. The whole world has become guilty before God; there is “none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10). By nature man does not fear God or seek God. He wishes there were no God to whom he must give an account.

But by grace men are made to see they are guilty sinners in the sight of a holy God.

The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ came to save sinners; He paid the price and redeemed those that were given to Him. These redeemed ones are then called “out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Apart from grace, Jesus Christ is “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence” but to those who have believed on him, He is precious (1 Peter 2:7).

How is it with you? Have you seen yourself as a sinner justly condemned, no righteousness or merit to plead? Perhaps you have been brought to the place of the hymn writer: If Thou my soul should send to Hell, thy righteous law approves it well.

Have you seen Jesus Christ as your only hope? Do you embrace Him by faith? The Bible gives this great comfort to such as you: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life” (John 3:36).

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds,
In a believer’s ear!
It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds,
And drives away his fear.If that is your experience, you can give thanks that you have seen the emptiness of worldly philosophies, that you know God has “made foolish the wisdom of the world,” and that Christ is to you the power and the wisdom of God.

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