“Well, dear friends, you know that some men can do to the glory of God what to other men would be sin. And notwithstanding what brother Pentecost has said, I intend to smoke a good cigar to the glory of God before I go to bed to-night.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
“Truth by definition excludes.” – Ravi Zacharias
Universalism and pluralism are on the rise according to the Barna Research Group (2011). In fact, the Barna Research Group (2011) indicated that now 25% of born again Christians believe that all people will eventually go to heaven regardless of religious affiliation in this life. Moreover, the reasoning behind this belief is due to the assumption that most religions have the same teachings, and that they the main differences is the means by which the same things are taught (Barna Research Group, 2011). Though universalism seems to be widely accepted by both the Christian and secular populous in some manner, it is not difficult to discern the clear, even fatal flaws in this form of philosophy.
IntroductionNow, my fellow Christ Followers, before you go and get defensive or overly offended at what you think this title means, let’s both have some wisdom and practice this proverb:
Proverbs 9:10 (NIV) – “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” –
This verse always reminds me of a man that I will inevitably have to mention named Socrates. Socrates was famous for many things, one of them is the assertion of this statement:
– “True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.” –
There are a few variations of this quote due to the several interpretations through only secondhand sources, some of which even substitute the word “knowledge” with “wisdom.” Either way, there is a common theme between what Socrates observed as well as the formerly mentioned verse from Proverbs, and that theme is humility. Socrates, in my opinion, was not trying to say that wisdom was attained through knowledge but rather the prerequisite to knowledge which is inquisitiveness. You cannot seek the knowledge of something without admitting you don’t know that knowledge. In a similar way, Proverbs teaches us that wisdom is enabled by “The fear of the Lord.”
