NO QUESTIONS, NO ANSWERS
DIVINE TRUTH, THE QUEST OF ALL TRUTHSEEKERS -- HOW ACHIEVED
The quest for Truth, that is "Divine Truth", the journey itself, is a long, arduous one. It is an odyssey, with many pitfalls along the way. Like the legend of Odysseus's adventures in his 10-year attempt to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War. And adventure filled with hardships and thrills along the way. The road to God's "Truth", Divine Truth, is the same. It is a long, long journey for mankind.
Like many of you, I walked away from the WTS and Jehovah's Witnesses (more than 10 years ago) wondering, "Where did we go wrong?" And "Where is Jehovah, in all of this confusion?" Today, after much intense scrutiny & study of this matter, its my sense that with so many thousands, possibly 10s of thousands stumbled, spiritually injured worldwide, I've found this to be, NO EASY QUESTION TO ADDRESS." No, not at all.
It takes real, real "effort" before truth, Divine Truth can be achieved. It is gained with real effort, "earnest effort". 2 Peter 1:5
And that's why boards like this are so important,
One thing I've found out over the years is, "with all that you acquire, acquire understanding." (Proverbs 4:7)
In other words, with our quest for knowledge, we must also make a concerted effort to acquire "understanding" too. You see, from God's perspective, acquiring knowledge and acquiring "understanding" are entirely two different things. But, both are necessary.
First we must acquire knowledge, facts, data and so on. In other words, we must come to "know" our subject matter. In this case, what is stated in the Bible, God's Word per say. I think, if the truth be told, the WTS really helped us in this area, by providing bibles, concordances, bible dictionaries and so on. Because from these, it became possible for us to acquire the "facts". The WTS helped us to better acquaint ourselves with the contents of the Bible itself, of course, by reading it.
But now, for true "understanding". This is another goal alltogether. Yes, remember Paul the former Pharisee, actually had "knowledge", he knew facts about God's Word. But did Paul have "understanding", Divine "Understanding" before becoming a "christian"? I think most would agree, he simply did not.
So though, even after acquiring knowledge of God, facts if you will, still Paul had to work for true "understanding". He had to work for "Divine Truth". And today, so do we. The WTS could not give this to us. Because God didn't give it to them. His choice. And therefore, they could not give it to us, this Divine Truth. And this is what we all found out, the hard way.
Only God can reveal this. And it takes, real effort on our parts. And real faith. Real faith to believe what God is showing us.
Matt. 13:11 shows us something. God's Divine Truth, whichis His Special "Understanding" of matters pertaining to Him, His "confidential matters" is rightly called: God's "Sacred Secrets" or the Great "Mysteries [Greek: Mysterions] of God". Therefore, for one to gather such special information from God, from Jehovah God, he will have to make a genuine, real "effort" to acquire such. That is a simple fact that we must all accept to get anywhere. We must "seek" for it, to "acquire it", as God's Word says. -- Prov. 4:7; Amos 3:7; Matt. 7:7,8, 14
And it will also require real faith on our parts too.
For example, in Ezekiel 44:1-3 we read of a Mystery "Chieftain". The information has been posted many times on this particular Discussion Board. Clearly no one on this discussion board has volunteered any clarifying information on the subject. No explanation. Though the information has been posted for a couple of years now. Its obvious to me, no one has even a clue about this biblical personage. And yet, no one seeks.. What I mean by that statement is, no one asks any questions, no one wants to know more about it, no one is inquisitive, no one "seeks" to gain more "understanding" on the subject. Instead, we show we are simply not concerned at all. We are "willingly ignorant" on the subject matter. -- 2 Peter 3:5 KJV
Paul said of certain derelict first century christians, "But if anyone is ignorant, he continues ignorant." -- 1 Cor. 14:38
In short, we are "ignorant" because that is what we choose for ourselves, ignorance of God's Divine Will. So, the truth of the matter is, if God has provided, and we are found "ignorant" of His stated purposes, we are to blame completely. In the face of this situation, if God has provided and done His part, and we simply don't know, that means we chose NOT to konw. We made a conscious choice before God and Jesus Christ. We simply choose NOT to know, which means we don't CARE to know. We are "willingly ignorant", which is a grave sin before God and man. It is an attitude of "ridicule" of God and His Word. And by doing this, by adopting this attitude, we are self-condemned before God. (Proverbs 9:12)
Instead, Almighty God and Jesus said it would be a prerequisite and mandatory on our parts to,
'...keep on seeking...keep on searching...keep on knocking and it will be opened to you, it will be given to you. Because EVERYONE that seeks, finds and to EVERYONE that knocks, it will be opened to him'...but clearly we are not doing this, are we? But he said, "everyone" who does this, will find. Everyone. -- Matt. 7:7, 8
Also Matthew 7:14 says, "...whereas narrow is the gate and cramped the road leading off into life, and few are the ones FINDING it." The road to life, must be FOUND. As in, looking...as in searching. To get life, one must search for the "road" leading off into life. One must keep looking for real "truth", real "understanding", and only then, after they are searching for it, ... and of course, they find it! They find it!
So after someone brings such a thought-provoking subject matter to our attention, we should ask ourselves, "have I ever read the material on the mystery "Chieftain" before in Scripture?" If not, we need to ask ourselves, why?
Or, if I am somewhat familiar with the contents of the book of Ezekiel, chapters thru 40-48, shouldn't I be more willing to investigate further in the matter? Go a little deeper, if you will. We should ask ourselves, shouldn't I be busy making an attempt to better understand such an important passage of scripture, about the mystery "Chieftain"? Obviously, he must occupy some important position with God, based upon what I am reading? Actually, one must think this way to find real "understanding" of God's purposes. One must be willing to make a real "search" for Divine Truth, if he ever hopes to find it. -- See Ezekiel 44:1-3; 45:16, 17, 22; 46:2, 16, 17
PLEASE NOTE: For one to find Divine Truth, he or she must be at least willing to "knock". To put forth some effort. That one must put forth the effort to "seek", if we expect to "find" true understanding from God -- Divine Truth. Real effort is needed to gain a genuine "understanding" of God's purposes. These "Hidden" purposes within the prophetic books of the Bible. We should want to know more about the subject matter. And we show this by asking questions. By inquiring. As they say, "inquiring minds want to know!" So, we should want to grow, expand our minds in learning. -- Matt. 7:7,8, 14; Romans 16:25, 26
Proverbs 9:9 says,
"Give to a wise person and he will become still wiser. Impart knowledge to someone righteous and he will INCREASE in learning."
This should be all of our attitudes, as servants of God. This is how we grow in "understanding". This is how we "increase in learning".
So after we've accumulated the facts, the data while we were JWs, and now that we' have LEFT the WTS, its time to move on to the next phase of our journey. We should now be willing to put "earnest forth", real effort to acquire "understanding", just as Jesus directed. We should seek to gain knowledge of God's "sacred secrets" [Greek: mysterion], as revealed in the "prophets" of old. -- Matt. 13:11; 2 Peter 1:5; Rev. 10:7; 22:6
We live in an age when this special "understanding" can become our possession. The mystery "Chieftain" is a good place to begin that quest, I believe.
Remember, Jehovah and Jesus have done their parts. They have provided. So then, No Questions, then means, No Answers...because we didn't search for it. We didn't put forth effort, to know. And of course, No Answers means no "DIVINE UNDERSTANDING", which inescapably means no "DIVINE TRUTH". Its our choice.
bjc
Mystery "Chieftain" Link: http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.aspx?id=10030&site=3
Edited by - bjc2012 on 15 October 2002 16:51:55
Edited by - bjc2012 on 15 October 2002 17:14:12