DECEMBER 16 "HOW MANY WILL PERISH FOR IGNORANCE"

 “ But you, O Bethlehem are only a small village among all the people of Judah, Yet a ruler of Israel, whose origins are in the distant past”. This of course is the scripture that the Pharisees used to reject Jesus as the Messiah. As far as they knew, what they had been told, Jesus was from Nazareth; therefore He could not be the Messiah as prophesied about in Micah. Had the Pharisees done their research they would have found out Jesus was not from Nazareth, his parents had only moved there later on, but that Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem. Ignorance is not always bliss! The Pharisees and many others will perish because of their ignorance. How many people today will argue about religion, salvation and eternity who are completely ignorant and don’t know the facts. The Pharisees would ultimately perish based on what they had heard. How many times when Jesus was speaking to them did He not say, “have you not read?!” I once was perishing, I lived a horrible, sinful life, but because I had never murdered, robbed a bank or raped (the cardinal sins of the Catholic Church) I thought I was going to Heaven. And what research, what study, did I base my belief on…..absolutely nothing. My confidence of where I would spend eternity was totally based on ignorance. Had Jesus asked me, “have you not read?” my answer would have been, “no, I have not read but I have thrown a few bibles in the trash”. How many people out there will one day perish because of ignorance? And when a Christian did come their way, with some knowledge, they blew them away, chased them away, spouting ideologies and beliefs that have absolutely no validity to them whatsoever, if only they had done their research. The problem is we don’t’ want to do our research in fear of what we might find. My beliefs, regardless of whether they are founded on truth, allow me to live a comfortable, self indulging, sinful life with no eternal consequences, why in the world would I ever want to find out that they are based on false presuppositions. We all know that “religion is man’s invention to reconcile himself with God on his own terms” and that may give some a false peace here on earth, but one day, when standing before the Judge of the Universe we will be asked, “have you not read…..unless a man is Born Again, he will not enter the Kingdom of God”. The truth incarnate was right there in front of the Pharisees, but yet they perished because of their ignorance and prejudices. People will argue until they’re last breath as to what they know, but what if the belief and/or religion they have argued in defense of their whole life; what they thought to be true, is actually a lie? Are you willing to gamble whether you will spend eternity in Heaven or Hell simply based on what you have been told without ever having done your own research? Will you too, like the Pharisees, one day perish in Hell for eternity, simply because you were ignorant of the truth and facts? The answer to that question we know, sadly enough, is “yes” many will perish because of ignorance. “ We know that you cannot be the Messiah, because you are from Nazareth” those will be the words that haunt them for all eternity!