Thoughts on Christian Living Book #2 by Dr. W. A. Dillard - HTML preview

WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN HURT YOU

I know you have heard it. I refer to the old, flippant casting aside of the importance of details by the proverb: “What you don’t know won’t hurt you.” Secular history as well as Holy Writ is filled with so many instances that prove the proverb wrong. So for the sake of this article, I ask that you think with me about it in terms of reversal: “What you don’t know can hurt you!”

The citizens of Troy did not know Greek soldiers were hidden away in the wooden horse that they claimed as a prize, but they were, and it was their downfall. U. S. forces in Hawaii did not know the Japanese were about to attack them on that lazy Sunday morning, but they did and thousands died. Thousands more did not know nor could they conceive that Arab radicals would hijack airliners and fly them with their passengers into those twin towers in New York City on 9-1-01, but they did. Indeed, what one does not know can hurt deeply.

The antediluvian world did not know that the earth could be swallowed up in a flood of water, but it was, and they perished. Pharaoh did not know that the Red Sea that gave passage to the Hebrews could suddenly collapse on his army and destroy them all, but it did.

Herod did not know that wrongfully receiving praise from men, praise that belonged to God, would cause his immediate death and consumption by worms, but it did.

Lot’s wife did not know that looking back at the destruction of Sodom and Ghomorrah would immediately turn her into a pillar of salt, but it did. What you do not know can hurt you!

There is more, much more, and as long as human beings are alive in sinful bodies on planet earth, it will continue. But, it should have ended long ago. The altogether lovely Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Christ, came into the world: the express image of the invisible God, and paid the penalty of sin for every offspring of Adam who would repent of sin, trusting Him.

The line of His testimony has gone out to the ends of the earth. “There is no language where their voice is not heard.” Rom 10. Psalm 19.

It is the love of God that gives everyone the opportunity to be saved by grace through faith. Heaven is real, hell is hot, and Jesus is coming again. He is either your Savior or He will be your unyielding Judge. Ignorance will not be pleaded on that day, and judgment will be final, even forever!

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