"Ignorance vs. Ignorance"

  I heard of a fellow, he was a brother in Christ, that was opposed to education. He often called those with high education people without any sense! He wasn't bashful about making it known. One day he prayed in public: "Lord, I thank Thee that I am ignorant, and I pray that Thou will make me ignoranter." Another brother sitting close by whispered quietly to the Lord, "Lord, I don't think you can do that!!"

  Ignorance, under the Law of Moses, was still sin. Sins done in ignorance (Lev. 5:17-19) or unknowingly had to have sacrifices made for them and they would be forgiven. They were different from sins done in high handed rebellion (Numbers 15:30-36). Those who did things knowing they were against the Lord were rebelling and despised the word of the Lord. It cost them their lives!

  Paul speaks that he had received mercy for his blaspheming and persecuting and being a violent aggressor because "I acted ignorantly in unbelief." (I Tim. 1:13-14).

  While speaking at a lectureship, I had a lady share with me that she realizes the more you know from Scripture the more accountable one becomes so she concluded the less she knew, the better off she was! That's not ignorance but down right insane.

  But there is another side to ignorance that Scripture deals with and that's with the moral rather than a purely intellectual connotation. This type of ignorance is linked with hardness of heart. "Being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart." (Eph. 4:18) This is not a knowledge or intellectual deficient, but a willful refusal to know God and honor Him as God (Rom. 1:21).

  Sometimes ignorance even goes beyond hardness of heart and becomes arrogant and self-assertive. Not only is the heart hardened to the point the Lord can't touch but they are going to assert themselves upon others to accept things their way no matter what anyone says or thinks. People like this are unreasonable and are certainly standing as an obstacle that the Lord will have to remove. This type of ignorance does not even realize the depth of trouble they are in and what is headed their way. The bottom line, there is more than one kind of ignorance but every form is a root of misfortune!