God says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.” This is God’s knowledge that was offered to them, but was rejected by them (Hosea 4: 6).
But what knowledge exactly? It is nothing less than the knowledge of His thoughts that comprises the vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself right here on earth.
Anything biblical is part of this plan. Any biblical concept or precept like “grace” or “testimony” or “salvation” is a piece to the puzzle. “Salvation” is not God’s plan and purpose. It is an important first-step-part of His plan that God is doing, which is reproducing Himself.
The denominational churches are hung up on salvation. You go to a service in a small church. Everybody is saved in the congregation. And yet, the preacher feels compelled to have the organist play “Just As I Am” and invite the people to be saved. Why do they do this? It is because this is all they know. If they knew and believed God’s thoughts about His plan and purpose of becoming just like Him, then they would be seeking and teaching about growing up “into Christ.” They don’t know that Christ is coming back to earth the same way He left, and that He is coming to establish His government, and that the “dead in Christ” are coming with Him in new spiritual bodies.
Oh, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge!
But “whom shall He teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine?” (Isa. 28: 9). It is certainly not the pastors and preachers that are drunk on the wine of false doctrines about God. “Wine” is universally recognized to be a symbol of doctrine or teachings. God cannot teach true knowledge to those who follow and teach false doctrines about God. “They also have erred through wine…the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink…they err in vision, they stumble in judgment” (28: 7).
The old leaven false doctrines cause Christians to “err in vision.” And as long as these are not purged out of one’s thinking, He will not be able to teach them true knowledge.
To whom then can He teach His knowledge about His plan to reproduce Himself? God will teach “them who are weaned from the milk” (28: 9). Thinking spiritually, babes in Christ need the “milk of the word.” They need the fundamental doctrines of repentance from sin and faith toward God. When these teachings, called the “milk,” are solid in their hearts, then they may move on to the meat. Spiritual “babes in Christ” are mostly alive for what they can receive of the the Father. That is the definition of a baby or small child. We need only look at the natural to see the spiritual. We are admonished to grow up and be no more babes and get into the meat of the word [For more on the “milk of the word” https://themilkoftheword.wordpress.com/ ].
Many Christians in the pews of the churches are little children. Their spiritual concerns are revealed in their prayers, which are mostly about themselves and how things affect them and their families. They rarely pray for God’s kingdom to come, populated by “many sons unto glory.” They rarely pray for God’s will to be done, that He would be “all in all,” that His glory would fill the whole earth. Most don’t pray for the “manifestation of the sons of God” to become a reality. Most prayers are burning incense, infused with the acrid fumes of self.
So, God lays it out to the people a little at a time. “For precept must be upon precept…line upon line, line upon line…here a little and there a little” (Isa. 28: 13). God in ancient times revealed His vision to only a few men who spoon fed small bits to the people, for the time of the fulfillment of His vision was very far away . But now He is sewing these remnants of knowledge together to make a coat of many colors that will cover the sins of countless generations.
Knowledge of His vision of His plan to fulfill His purpose of reproducing Himself in the earth is the key that will unlock the mysteries of the Bible. For every precept presented therein is a part of the vision to accomplish His purpose. Once we see it, we can begin to connect the dots, for each biblical concept is a dot to be connected to the others. This knowledge of which we speak connects those dots.
Kenneth Wayne Hancock