shalag
08-30-2007, 07:18 PM
An excerpt from Oswald Chambers from Baffled to Fight Better
The Conception of Invincible Ignorance
"What you know, I also know (v2)
This verse is a description of the fanaticism which builds on one point of view only and is determinedly ignorant of everything else. This is the thing Job rages against all the time - "God must be other than you have stated because of what I have experienced," and Job is right. It is possible to build logical edifices on a theological position and at the same time to prove in practical life that the position is wrong. For example, on the metaphysical line the predestinations of God seem clear, but our conception of those predestinations may prove dangerously false when we come to the actual facts of life.
The theological view ought to be constantly examined; if we put it in the place of God we become invincibly ignorant, that is we won't accept any other point of view, and the invincible ignorance of fanaticism leads to delusions for which we alone are to blame. The fundamental things are not the things which can be proved logically in practical life.
Watch where you are inclined to be invincibly ignorant, and you will find your point of view causes you to break down in the most vital thing. An accepted view of God has caused many to fall at the critical moment, it has kept them from being the kind of people they ought to be, and only when they abandon that view of God for God Himself do they become the right kind of people.
The Conception of Invincible Ignorance
"What you know, I also know (v2)
This verse is a description of the fanaticism which builds on one point of view only and is determinedly ignorant of everything else. This is the thing Job rages against all the time - "God must be other than you have stated because of what I have experienced," and Job is right. It is possible to build logical edifices on a theological position and at the same time to prove in practical life that the position is wrong. For example, on the metaphysical line the predestinations of God seem clear, but our conception of those predestinations may prove dangerously false when we come to the actual facts of life.
The theological view ought to be constantly examined; if we put it in the place of God we become invincibly ignorant, that is we won't accept any other point of view, and the invincible ignorance of fanaticism leads to delusions for which we alone are to blame. The fundamental things are not the things which can be proved logically in practical life.
Watch where you are inclined to be invincibly ignorant, and you will find your point of view causes you to break down in the most vital thing. An accepted view of God has caused many to fall at the critical moment, it has kept them from being the kind of people they ought to be, and only when they abandon that view of God for God Himself do they become the right kind of people.