I once had a teacher tell me – “You need to KNOW what you know and you need to KNOW what you don’t know.” For many who would call themselves Christians today, “knowing what we know” has become a real problem. The generic term given for someone who would call themself a follower of Christ is an “evangelical”. A new poll recently came out which reveals just how much evangelicals truly believe about some core principles of the Christian faith. Take a look at these statistics:

• 62% strongly agree that “Jesus was a great teacher, but He is not God”


• 73% strongly agree that “Learning about theology is for pastors and scholars only”


• 69% strongly agree that “Modern science disproves the Bible”

A large MAJORITY of those would call themselves Christians have come to reject the very fundamental truths upon which their faith should be based. How has this come to be? The response must be the same as Paul gave to the church in Thessalonica. In 2 Thessalonians 2:15, he gave them three things which would keep the core of their faith from being eroded out from under them and are important reminders for us as well.

1. “Stand fast” – People like to stand up for the oppressed, for social justice, for the poor and needy. But this is talking about standing fast, clinging desperately, not letting go of the truth found in God’s Word at any cost. God’s truth has not changed. Sin is still sin. We must have the courage to take a stand on the truth that really matters.


2. “Hold the traditions” – I understand that cultures change, fashion trends change and the best methods to reach people change as well. Paul isn’t calling us in the 21st century to hold to the traditional way the first century church ate, dressed, or conducted evangelism. Rather, it is a call for us to hold to the traditional values, truths, core beliefs, and fundamentals upon which our faith rests. Jesus IS God. We ALL need to learn God’s Word. The Bible must NEVER be undermined. We must hold to these traditions.


3. “Ye have been taught” – We have been taught and we must continue to be taught God’s truth “by word” (through preaching) and “our epistle” (through studying the Bible). Preaching is not popular in today’s churches. Even many of those churches which preach God’s Word have relegated it to an add-on “pep talk” at the end of the service. Preaching services on Sunday evenings are dying at an alarming rate. In the same way, deep and dedicated personal or corporate Bible study has become a relic as well. We get our “verse of the day” on social media with a nice picture behind it and feel that we are being taught. Diligent Bible study is hard work, making us wrestle with difficult theology as we feed on the meat of God’s Word. Preaching and Bible study should be a vital part of the Christian’s walk.

I recently had a respected Christian friend say to me, “You know, I always try to be out at the services to be under preaching because I need it. It might not be that every message applies to me personally, but I never know when God might use something in the preaching to deal with me directly. I don’t want to miss that.”

The old saying does not hold true - Ignorance is NOT bliss! Stand fast on what you know and find out what you don’t know about God’s Word. Prove Romans 12:1 to be true in your own life – “be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”