Dear Knowledge Without Teaching
We can't experience God until we know about Him

Martin,

Haven’t read your book yet but I don’t need to be convinced of Paul’s gospel. This is a gospel that I have believed in for a little over two years now. I did enjoy some of your insights however, and appreciate that you were diligent enough to put these things together.

I write for two reasons: 1) to share a personal experience, and 2) to make a comment that could be reflective of the masses that may some day follow your teaching.

As I explored the potential truth of the salvation of all mankind, I experienced times of great ecstasy and great sorrow because of the pushback I received. In seeking to know the truth on this issue, I replaced the knowledge of the truth over my relationship with God, and thus I found myself back in the same category of all religions or sects of Christianity: a lifeless system of thought and not a life-giving relationship.

That’s my experience, now my comment. Because I have been in the position of being taught from people with similar doctrines, I have sometimes only been left with a new system of thought. I understand my personal responsibility in this and do not assign blame to those who have done the teaching; it has been extremely helpful on my journey. However, James 3:1 has taken on greater meaning for me in that I understand the consequences in this lifetime of what I present. My concern is in the lives of those that I present my ideas to, for building them up.

If I am leading them to Christ, an awareness of their inheritance, and what that offers now and for eternity, then the other issues, questions and debates do not get in the way.  I trust that the Lord will resolve those things as belief in the truth, and an awareness of His life-giving Spirit increases in their lives. The questions that the Lord was gracious enough to allow you and me to ask will come to them as they begin to have revelation of who He is and what that means to them and humanity.

Do not seek to convince people of heaven or hell, do not seek to convince people of eternal torment or lack thereof. Seek to convince people into the One who satisfies their insatiable thirst for knowledge and understanding. When we experience Him, as you well may know, our doctrines, our position, what we believe or who we oppose matters not.

It is only in the place of His presence that we can be like Stephen and glow as an angel as our persecutors stone us to death. We consciously forgive those who have sought to enslave us with their teachings and ideas, that we may consciously receive greater revelation and experience of Him. We consciously give up our right to be right and trust in the authenticity and power of the Spirit of the risen Lord. We walk even as He walked, in perfection, not judging any man but committing all judgment to the one true and just judge. We must, or the reality of what we believe will never come to pass.  Keep giving them the gospel, tear down those doctrines of demons and the strongholds they create, but decrease so that He may have preeminence in their lives.

Go deeper, Martin, go further. You have gone far already in your thirst for truth, but I am the One Who is true, says the Lord.

John 5:39.

Grace and Peace. 

Dear Knowledge Without Teaching,

Thanks for your letter; I appreciate your heart in it. But I cannot separate the Giver of truth from truth. I am sorry that you prioritized knowledge over relationship in your life, but there is no relationship with God without knowledge.

Paul spoke of "superabounding in knowledge," of "being enriched in all knowledge," and of being "filled with all knowledge." Even according to Peter, "all of His divine power, that tends to life and devoutness, has been presented to us through the recognition of Him Who calls us." Recognition leads to life and devoutness. This is what I give: Recognition. This is what I study for. By giving knowledge and recognition, I am building another’s relationship with God. By knowledge and recognition, one comes to know God. It is unfortunate that you, personally, esteemed knowledge over a relationship with God. Your mistake, I think, is assuming that this is the common course. For most others, knowledge of God leads to a better relationship with Him, that is, a more honest one.

I can hardly imagine anyone calling the knowledge of the salvation of all and the sovereignty of God "a lifeless system of thought." I have never, before you, heard of it referred to as that. Your experience is an anomaly.

Do you consider debates over the sovereignty of God—"other issues?" I suspect, from your words, that you do. Yet knowledge of God’s control of all is a key to knowing God. How is it that you "trust that the Lord will resolve those things?" What is the Lord going to do, whisper in a seeker’s ear during the night? Write on a wall like He did with Belshazzar? Teachers are His means of teaching. And these teachers, sent by Him, are to teach all His counsels, not some of them. They are not, in this day, to withhold anything for fear that some person might mistake truth for a lifeless system of thought.

"Do not seek to convince people of heaven or hell, do not seek to convince people of eternal torment or lack thereof. Seek to convince people into the One who satisfies their insatiable thirst for knowledge and understanding. When we experience Him, as you well may know, our doctrines, our position, what we believe or who we oppose matters not."

Do not seek to convince people of heaven? Where do you find that exhortation
in scripture? Do not seek to convince people of the lack of eternal torment? These exhortations of yours contrast starkly with the exhortation of Paul, when he charges Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:90-11: "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all welcome (for for this are we toiling and being reproached), that we rely on the living God, Who is the Saviour of all mankind, especially of believers. These things be charging and teaching."

Again, how do you suppose God satisfies the human soul and spirit apart from teachers who dispense His good news? Have you not heard that faith comes by hearing, hearing by tidings, tidings by those sent to bear them? If not, then read the tenth chapter of Romans. We are nowhere advised to throw people to God and say, "Good luck. God will show you all." The logical response to that irresponsible exhortation would be: "How will God show me all?" God has made us His ambassadors, and has put His counsels into the mouths of His trained teachers. God shows all, through His anointed teachers.

To experience God is not enough; show me one scripture that says it is. Rather, it is knowledge of God, recognition of God, and belief in God that come before us again and again in Scripture. "Experience God" sounds like a New Age buzz-phrase to me. We are in the business of helping people to know God, not running them through a Disneyland of "experiencing" Him.

"Keep giving them the gospel," you say, "but decrease." Well, as soon as I find that advice in Scripture, I’ll heed it.

Yours in Him,

Martin