IGNORING GOD’S WORD
By Elder Mark Green
“And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord” (Jer. 31.34).
It is a fairly common thing to see on the signs in front of church buildings and on billboards exhortations to the population in general that they need to and should “know the Lord.” This is not expressed as something that has to happen in order to salvation, that is, that the people must be brought to know the Lord or made to know the Lord, or that they must be taught of God. It is expressed as a command or an obligation. The signs are telling people that they ought to know the Lord.
It is a curious and perplexing thing that so many religious orders spend so much time telling people to “know the Lord,” when the Scripture specifically forbids that being done. Our text is quoted by the apostle in Hebrews Chapter Eight, so if someone used the fact that it is an Old Testament verse as an excuse, that quickly disappears due to the fact that Paul cited it in one of the most important books of the New Testament. Any Bible reader would be familiar with the passage. Why, then, is it so universally ignored? Why is it so blatantly violated? Some may not specifically exhort the public to “know the Lord,” but their missionary zeal essentially amounts to the same thing.
God says that all His people shall know Him. This is not something that we must teach men they ought to do. It is something that we are forbidden to teach men, or to attempt to teach them. Our being born again – our coming into possession of eternal life – is not a duty of man, but is a sovereign act of an omnipotent God. It is God’s act, not our act, that causes us to know Him. Without His act we cannot know Him; when He acts we certainly are brought to know Him, completely apart from any action of our own. Our Lord taught us, “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me” (Jn. 6.45). He was quoting from the Old Testament: “And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children” (Is. 54.13).
All God’s children shall know the Lord. They shall all be taught to know Him by the direct work of God the Holy Spirit. We are forbidden to attempt to do that work, for we are incapable of doing it. To attempt to do it is to rob God of the credit due only to Him. The preaching of the gospel cannot accomplish it. Preaching is profitable, but it is profitable for giving instruction to those who are already possessors of the Spirit and who already know God, and thus are spiritually enabled to receive instruction.
The modern mi$$ionary movement has to make great claims for its accomplishments, because money is the engine that drives it, and unless those giving the money think that their aims are being fulfilled, the money will soon dry up. So the Missionaries must claim that people are being saved by their efforts, that people are being taught to know the Lord by their preaching. Their claims are completely spurious, however. Billions of dollars are being spent on something Christianity was never commanded to do, has never been able to do, and indeed was directly commanded not to do. From The Christian Pathway.