1 John 1:1-4
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life - the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us - that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Ignorance is no declaration of inability, rather it is the declaration of a lack of information or experience. Having not lived in the time of the incarnation, we are ignorant of the level of physical experience the disciples were privy to. Can you imagine being one of them? To have literally walked with God in the flesh? To have eaten with Him? To have watched Him die and rise from the dead?

These are experiences reserved for those who were alive and present with Jesus when He was here. And we are dependent on their communicating to us these experiences. This is one of the reasons the Scriptures must play a central role in our lives and growth as Christians.

We do, however, have the Holy Spirit amongst us, in a way that was only dreamed of in the Old Testament times. In fact, the writer of Hebrews focuses on the same issue. After one of the most glorious retellings of OT saints and their sufferings he lays down the final verses regarding their lack of experiencing the Promise, the coming Messiah.

Hebrews 11:39-40
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Peter says much the same in his discussion of the salvation that his readers had experienced being in the midst of a lack of experience with Christ himself.

1 Peter 1:8-12
Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, thing into which angels long to look.

But in our admittedly privileged state of clarity when it comes to the gospel, we sometimes become envious of those who were able to, as John says, "see with our eyes" and "touch with our hands". We want to experience that, if only for a moment, so that our appreciation of the physical realities of the gospel would grow in the midst of our ignorance. 

But it is not so. 

God has designed that at this time in redemptive history we are to remain ignorant of the experience that the apostles lived through, that we are to depend on their testimony as the foundation of our understanding our great God.


Ignorance of the physical experience is part of it, and it is no accident. 


It is by God's design that the church would be driven to the Scriptures to see what is the truth, rather than their own experiences. When we understand that this is not intended to be a cosmic-level frustration for us, rather it is a safeguard of the church's solidity, then we may free ourselves of the pride that somehow God owes us an experience that solves our ignorance, and settle ourselves on our God-given gift of relying on Him and His plan that He knows what is best for us. Even if it means sometimes frustrating, sometimes infuriating, ignorance.

Ephesians 2:19-22
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

God's intention, rather than ours, ought to be our preoccupation. His foolishness is wiser than you, and His weakness is stronger than you. The justified ones are those who live by faith and reliance on God rather than themselves. Let's seek to grow in that faith.

If we hold the Scriptures with insecurity regarding their trustworthiness, we should expect utter ruin.

I once feared that if I was to examine the history of how the Bible was originally written and then transmitted up to the modern day that I would find an answer that would be unpalatable. That it would be a series of myths and made up stories throughout history that we have built our dependence upon. 

What if I found out that there were errors or even outright lies and exagerations in the Scriptures? 

I can tell you that it was an area of study that I avoided in my personal life for a long time because of this fear. I knew that if I found the Scriptures to be unreliable that I would rightly have to leave them behind and with them the God of which they speak.

Time passed, and I hoped that my nagging concern would pass with it, but it never did. After I witnessed too many of my friends folding on this issue thus releasing whatever minimal grasp they had on the Gospel, and I knew I could resist it no longer.

If the Scriptures are not everything they claim to be then they must be left behind.

I'll never forget beginning my study into this. Fearful I wouldn't find enough information to come to a full conclusion, and terrified I might find proof of the Scriptures fallibility. I made up my mind that whatever the evidence pointed to was what I would hold to, regardless of relationships, traditions, or outside pressures. And what I found was beyond anything I had ever imagined. 

I found that God had inspired and preserved His Word in a proveable, demonstrable, and reliable way.

In coming installments, I will briefly share my conclusions. 

If you would prefer to listen to a more comprehensive three part presentation I gave on this topic in 2012, you can download each by clicking on the following links:

Part 1: "OT and the Canon"
Part 2: "The Text and the Church"
Part 3: "Transmission and Translation"

Doubt is the result of unmet expectations in a relationship.

Luke 7:18-20
The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’”

None of us are protected from the error of doubt. It shows up in our relationships with other people when we suffer doubt regarding their loyalty or dependability. It may even be for good reason. There is no friend who is perfectly loyal or perfectly dependable. We will be let down.

But why is it that we suffer doubt in our relationship with God? Is it not that we fear He may let us down? That He may have us pass through unpleasent or even unbearable events? Dare we even think....

might God let us down?

John had to learn this lesson in the bowels of prison. The man who baptized our Lord, seemingly forgotten by all in his decrease while Jesus increased. I can see myself there. Cold. Dark. Alone. My mind racing back a forth trying to make sense of my imprisonment. I had expectations of Jesus setting up His kingdom, of me rightly taking my lowly place without the right to loose His sandle straps. 

But John's expectations went unmet. Was it because God was unfaithful? No. And John knew this. But he could not reconcile his experiences with his expectations. So he reasoned that it must be that he got the Messiah's identity wrong.

Wrong again. Jesus responded to John's messengers:

Luke 7:21-23
In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Jesus displays the power in which He comes. Not only a power to heal the sick or make the deaf hear again, but He comes with the gospel. The power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. This is the proof that He is the Lamb of God, as John himself identified, who takes away the sins of the world. This is the One he was waiting for.

Some look down on John for his lack of faith, but I find great comfort in Christ's reassurance to John. He didn't rebuke him. He responded with the answer to the question John asked. Christ also didn't go break him out of prison, but he reset his perspective in the midst of that prison.

What went wrong with John? And what goes wrong with us? When God doesn't meet our expectations is it because He has failed? Or could it be that we don't see the whole picture? Do you think that the christian walk is designed to be one of ease and comfort? Because it's not.

Let's learn alongside John this most basic of lessons, that when all seems to fail around us, it is not because God is out of control, quite the opposite, it is His very plan that is unfolding before us: That through thorny ways and winding paths, through dark dungeons and dank dispair, through loss of friend or loss of life.....

 He will bring us home.


Romans 8:31-39
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,“For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.


To download a sermon I gave on this topic:

Click here