These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. Jude 19 (NIV).
Full confession: I’m a skeptic. Usually, I don’t trust “the experts.” Yes, especially as a Christian, I understand science (mainly because faith in Jesus is the beginning of all knowledge, wisdom, and reason, especially scientific), but I’m skeptical of anyone who says “the science says x.” Some things I know well, others, not so much. Most things, however, I’m quite ignorant of. For me, belief in Christ is enough.
In verse 19, Jude was talking about people who reject Jesus. Recall that he wrote to his friends, cautioning them that people would scoff about Jesus, would reject who Jesus was and what He said about His return. All the scoffing, all the secular beliefs, all the science in the world won’t justify someone’s rejecting Jesus. At His return, He’ll take up the matter with them. Personally.
And what of the Christian “experts” who say they can predict when Christ will return? Call me skeptical.
We don’t know when Jesus will return. Only God the Father knows, and He hasn’t said; see Matthew 24. When people say they can say with full certainty when Jesus will come back, or even that we are definitively in the end times, I usually ignore them. At best, I’m skeptical. Instead, I’m siding with Jude, thinking such people are dividers following their instincts of the world instead of the wisdom of God.
Perhaps their intentions are good, but the road to hell is paved with such things. Perhaps they truly do mean well but so do most despots in one way or another. Perhaps they have a point, but so does the same ball point pen that writes thousands of other scandalous words.
So, perhaps we should simply leave it up to God and leave it at that. The better way is to always be on our guard, maybe even a little skeptical, about what “the experts” say and, instead, jump into our Bibles and find out what God said there.
Mind you, I’m all for knowledge, college, and the like. I simply don’t accept it as the be-all, end-all of meaningful knowledge. For matters of the Spirit, a far wiser source is found in the Scriptures. We all have access to those; they’re a gift from God to everyone. So when my skepticism begins to pique, and when my eyebrows rise in disdain, I’m learning more and more to ask “what does the Bible say” as my first point of reference. God bless the experts and God bless their knowledge. Let’s all keep it in perspective.
For further reading: Matthew 24:36, 1 Corinthians 2:14-15, Jude 20
Lord of all knowledge, thank You for the gift of knowledge of You, for curiosity about things, for questions and answers
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Practical Proverbs 