Head Knowledge or Heart Knowledge

A Christian talk show recently spoke of a survey which was conducted. A group of men and women were questioned about their personal knowledge of the Bible. I don’t remember the actual statistics but I found it very interesting that the atheists and agnostics scored higher in their positive responses to the biblical questions. Christians were able to answer a smaller number of the questions correctly in a descending percentage according to their denominations. I find this to be a very sad commentary on us.

As I thought about this survey, I thought about the difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge. An individual, no matter how smart or well read he or she is, cannot logically come to faith in God. Faith is a gift. If one comes to the scriptures with a closed mind and a closed heart, reading the Bible as literature or history, not seeking God, he or she will receive the facts, not the faith. The atheists and agnostics questioned were probably well educated. That they, at present, were unbelievers is not to say that God will not change the circumstances of their lives and open their hearts and minds at a future time. God has said that His word will not return void.

In the survey, why did Christians know less about the scriptures than atheists and agnostics? I think it is because we come to God in faith believing. We receive God into our lives and feel secure in that belief and in our salvation. Many of us stop there and never continue to study and grow in the word. The scriptures say that so many of us stay baby Christians and only get fed milk. God wants us to get into the meat of the word. He wants us to become mature Christians.

Children don’t grow up learning the Bible. The Bible has been taken out of American Schools. I don’t think as many of our children attend Sunday School and Religious Instruction as compared to years ago when I was growing up. Now on Sunday mornings we find parents taking their children to sports practice and games instead of Church or Sunday School. The Bible stories and songs which I learned in Sunday School were the beginning of my faith foundation.

I think that some Christians depend on their pastors or priests to study the word and they never open up their own Bibles. Many people who attend a Christian Church are still only practicing a Religion and have not yet found a personal relationship with God through Christ with the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Read 1Corinthians chapters 1,2,and 3. It tells us that God’s wisdom is foolishness to the world. Chapter 1, verses 18- 22 says, “For the message about Christ’s death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God’s power. The scripture says, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and set aside the understanding of the scholars.’ So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world’s wisdom is foolishness! For God in His wisdom made it impossible for people to know Him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called “foolish” message we preach, God decided to save those who believe.”

In 1Corinthians 2:12-14 we read, “We have not received this world’s spirit; instead we have received the Spirit sent by God, so that we may know all that God has given us. So then, we do not speak in words taught by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, as we explain spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit. Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from the Spirit. Such a person really does not understand them; they are nonsense to him, because their value can be judged only on a Spiritual basis”.

The door to God is open to everyone. There is a door in each of our own hearts. He is knocking and wants to come and live within us. The Holy Spirit will convict our heart. We come to Him, believing that He is God. We must ask him to help us turn away from the life and habits that are destructive to us. As He forgives us, we are to forgive others. We then receive Him, His gifts, and His promises. The Holy Spirit indwells in our spirit, and as we study and read the Bible, the Words become alive in our hearts. We now have a heart knowledge of God, not just a head knowledge.