Intellectual Ignorance, Or Why We Need God Back In Our Institutions
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(15) To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. (16) They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.’ (Titus 1:15-16)
The context of Titus 1 is one of Paul reminding Titus why he told him to appoint Godly, doctrine & Scripturally-sound Elders to the church in Crete; there were many who were unsound yet were preaching and teaching a false doctrine of ‘faith’, usually for their own benefit and not for the congregation as a whole.
Paul describes in Titus 1:12 what Epimenides, a prophet from Crete said about his own people, “Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.” This seems a bit harsh by Paul to repeat this, but the reality is the human condition is to hit the ‘easy’ button, and often that is to use the cause of Christ or academic reasoning to advance one’s own agenda and not necessarily the Gospel, as people often follow their ‘easy’ button for a ‘gospel’ that does not require sacrifice, repentance, or change – something we see in the progressive, ‘woke’ movement in churches and universities today.
We find this in many of our educational and political institutions today, as well. It is easier to be in a position to postulate and then dictate theories into social and political ideas that are turned into law without any practical exercise (based on any foundational truths) to determine their validity. Many universities provide concepts on ideas that are passed along as ‘truth’, those there are no demonstrations as to whether they are practical or achievable. The recent pushes in academia and politics shows how a theory develops response to a question that has yet to be fully defined or answered as confirmed, or verification of the response as vetted inside a practical exercise.
The verification is not performed due to a denial in truth, or perhaps a desire not to know the truth. It is a form of ‘intellectual ignorance’; someone who believes they know so much that they cannot be bothered with discovering what their actions may result it.. This is very much like those on Crete in Paul and Titus’ day and in the progressive church movement now.
Paul though, implores Titus (and us) that Truth, and search to find the Truth, must be pure and incorruptible. It must include the council of God and His Precepts or it is not Truth and thus not pure. We find the world in turmoil today, especially in our institutions, because God is left out of the equation. Those of the secular mindset believe it is easier to obtain results when God is left out, but the reality becomes the results are erroneous and create more problems, and the ungodly responses beget more problems in cascading effect.
The open borders to show our ‘humanitarian nature’, for example, has provided the problem of mass illegal immigration, which has cascaded into a housing crisis in several cities in the US, which is cascading into an issue where US veterans are losing housing opportunities to accommodate the illegals, and food pantries cannot take care of all the people they did before.
Seek Truth, and seek the council of God, and avoid seeking ‘self’ but seek the Gospel. Pray for our nation’s leaders, both political and educational, to seek the Lord’s council and follow His wisdom, and use Godly, sensible practices to provide answers to issues.
