Wisdom of Informed Ignorance about the Future (Edited by ChatGPT)

  

When Jesus came as the one and only Christ, the people had one expectation while God had another plan. What God had planned was confusing not only to the people but even to Peter, who tried to advise the Lord, and to John the Baptist, who ended up in doubt. Scripture makes it clear that the Christ would come to free God’s people from their enemies and save the world — yet how that salvation unfolded revealed that, as heaven is distant from earth, the ways of God are far removed from the ways of man. We are playing checkers while God is playing chess — that is why we don’t know it all.

 

Since we cannot merge all biblical truths into one perfect theology, and because some verses revealing the mystery of Christ’s death can easily be overlooked, we must learn the wisdom of informed ignorance. We may grasp the general picture, but in many details, we should not be too certain. Wisdom demands we leave room for error. Does that mean accepting another gospel? No. But we must not force God to fit into our theology. We know God, and our theology expresses that knowledge — yet God Himself is more than our theology. Therefore, we need a margin for error.

 

We know that faith was corrupted by the devil into dead religions, as Jesus foretold. But where in the Bible do we find prophecy about the discovery of the New World or the Reformation movement? Scripture is silent on such events. It says angels will gather the wheat and burn the weeds, but the major shifts in faith history are not written in the text. The discovery of the New World is not in the Bible — but does that make it insignificant? What about the mighty works of the Holy Spirit in recent centuries?

 

If our theology could not foresee such pivotal events in the past, why are we so certain about the future? We know the big picture: there will be a rapture, there will be an antichrist, and Jesus will return when every eye sees Him. There will also be a great falling away before His coming — all true. But to insist that the next thing must be the antichrist, with no other major work of God in between, is arrogance. If our predictions of yesterday were partial, how can we be so sure about tomorrow? Such confidence is not faith — it is vanity.

 

Consider the evangelical work of Billy Graham. It rose during a time when faith seemed to be dying — when youth were turning to hippie culture, the world was flirting with communism, and Europe was sprinting toward atheism. To many, it looked like the end of the world. So, if someone had prophesied that a young man from the West would preach the gospel to the whole world and millions would follow Christ again — would that have been a false prophecy? Or would he be branded an antichrist in sheep’s clothing? The world was ending, yes — but Jesus still had other plans in the middle. We know the general picture, but we must not assume we know it all.

 

By that same logic, to think that the next phase of God’s work can only be apostasy and nothing else is ignorance. Yes, the falling away is real — it has been unfolding for decades. The French Revolution, Europe’s anti-faith movements, communism, and materialistic capitalism all reveal decaying faith. These trends will culminate in the rise of the antichrist.

 

Yet the fall of the early church into dead religion did not end the world. The collapse of faith in Europe did not end the world. So, the decline of faith in both the West and the East is not necessarily the final sign of the world’s end. The world is ending — but the details belong to Jesus.

 

That is why, when prophecies arise about the renewed work of the Holy Spirit in our age, instead of evaluating the nature of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit while standing firmly on Scripture, we tend to trap God within our limited knowledge. That, indeed, is ignorance.

 

What comes next may be the antichrist — or it may be another mighty work of Jesus. So focus on the nature and fruit of the Spirit, always measuring everything by Scripture. To claim otherwise is pretension, not faith. We are not blind to accept a different gospel, but neither are we Jesus to know all things with certainty. Therefore, our biblical understanding must include a healthy measure of informed ignorance.

 

This is a friendly reminder to all who watch for the end — because I believe a great work of the Holy Spirit will come before the antichrist.