The last two weeks, I have been criticizing the picture of the afterlife that conservative Protestants try to sell, but you may remember that I started this series more as a response to Rob Bell’s liberal book, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, And the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. What Bell’s position and the conservative one have in common, despite their incompatible conclusions, is their certainty in what they believe. They both are sure that they know what will happen ‘to every person who ever lived.’ I think this is wrong, because this is a matter about which we do not have certainty. But isn’t that a bad thing? Wouldn’t it be better if God clued us in on this important matter?
I want to focus this week on the virtue of ignorance. You may recall Jesus’ words to his disciples in Acts 1:8: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses…to the end of the earth” (ESV). My favorite word is that verse is ‘but,’ which indicates a contrast. So what is contrasted? In verse 6, the disciples ask Jesus when he will restore the kingdom to Israel. Then in verse 7, Jesus informs them that this is not information that is “for you to know.” Then the contrast word – ‘but’ – and then, “you will receive power” from the Holy Spirit.
What Jesus is implying is that when the disciples asked for that information, they were also asking for power. I believe that the old adage – ‘knowledge is power’ – is true. That means, at least partly, that when one has knowledge that another does not have yet want, the knower has power over the ignorant. This leads to another feature of knowledge: it “puffs up” (I Corinthians 8:1).
Now, there are some things we need to know if we are to live as Christians, but there are also a lot of things we do not need to know. One example, as discussed in Acts 1:8, is when the world will end. I think knowing ‘the fate of every person who ever lived’ is also an example. What these two pieces of information have in common is that they do not help us live as Christians. Thus, all they can do is to make us prideful.
