What's Wrong With Atheism?

"Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." --Bertrand Russell, atheist philosopher, and mathematician  "There is no accountability since God does not exist" (Psalm 10:4, HCSB).  "The fool has said in his heart [notice it's the heart, not the mind] that there is no God" (cf. Psalm 14, 53:1).   

Atheism is a bankrupt faith that cannot be proved and is only believed because of a gut reaction or animosity to God because they don't think He's fair, He didn't give them something they wanted, they see injustice and cannot rationalize it, or justify the ways of God to man, as did Milton in Paradise Lost.  Atheism doesn't have a leg to stand on because you cannot prove a universal negative:  how would you prove there are no little green men, for example, without being present everywhere and knowing all?  Only God knows for sure!  And so you would have to be God, quite ironically, to disprove God.   Atheists often claim they are good people but have no motive other than selfish ones to be so.  But they cannot explain goodness or why there's evil in the world.  The biggest obstacle is that most people know there's a God as certainly as the law of cause and effect and see the evidence of a Designer from all the design in the cosmos.

The issues they cite are that they believe science, namely evolution, has undermined the Bible; God is merely a "delusion" or neurosis to be cured; God is the "opiate" of the people (what Marx thought) or anti-depressant; God is a "neurosis" or "projection" like the desire for a "father figure", a la Freudian theory; or that He is unnecessary to explain reality.   The cosmos cannot be all there is because there is evidence of intelligence in the universe and this cannot be explained away as random energy or atoms in motion--there's something other than matter/energy!  The cosmos had a beginning, and needs a cause or Beginner; because we know that everything in time and space had a beginning, but who began the so-called big bang to begin everything? ( It is a principle of logic that everything that begins to exist has a cause and everything captive to time had a beginning.)

Atheists need to know that they are people of faith also, and really of blind faith because they have no hard evidence that there is no God, they just cannot explain issues that have answers but they refuse to accept.  They may be offended by God and have objections but not proof.  There's more evidence for God than against Him, but one doesn't need all the answers to believe, even though there is sound evidence to base faith on. Norman Geisler wrote a book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be An Atheist, quite appropriately. 

There is an ulterior motive for being an atheist:  They don't want accountability, culpability, or responsibility!  Just as Albert Camus said, "The absurd is sin without God," and Dostoevsky said, "If there is no God, all things are permissible."  They want to believe they are mere animals and not in God's image, thus they act like animals by and large not answering to anyone.  They want no righteous judge to watch their behavior, and supernatural creator to worship, and no divine lawgiver to obey!  How convenient to feign intellectual problems when it's a matter of the heart!  The heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart! 

The knowledge of God can be suppressed or muffled, but not destroyed--atheists live in a state of denial hiding behind smokescreens to muddle the issues or change the subject!   Most atheists think of themselves as superior intellectually or as assuming the moral high ground, as they see Christians as hypocrites, but this is not the case because Christianity is defensible in the open marketplace of ideas and in the public square.  Atheists do worship something or someone even if they claim to be nonreligious or have no God you can worship yourself or your abilities. 

Man is by nature a religious being and must worship something, for we are hard-wired for worship.  You can be religious without having a religion too, according to John Dewey!  Atheism has even been declared a religion in the high courts.  In the final analysis, they want to start with man and explain away God, rather than start with God and explain man!   It's similar to the Protagoras, the Greek philosopher, saying, "Man is the measure of all things."  Dostoevsky said that if we don't worship God, we'll find something else to worship 

This applies to Christians too because they can become practical atheists, living as if there were no God, despite faith in Him.  Dostoevsky was right:  "Man has forgotten God." And Will Durant puts it quite bluntly that "the greatest question of our time is whether men can bear to live without God," for in the eyes of many, "God is dead", and man has killed Him, like Nietzsche claimed, or made Him irrelevant and unnecessary.  Atheism raises more questions that cannot be answered. It cannot answer life's ultimate questions.  One paradox to consider is why so-called militant atheists have such animus toward a God that they don't believe exists, as if they hold a personal grudge--what did God do to them?  What we are witnessing is anti-theism or militant atheism whereby they have declared war on people of faith.

In sum, atheism doesn't have all the answers and ignores the obvious evidence given to all, and God says they are without excuse (cf. Rom. 1:20)!  No amount of evidence, circumstantial, experiential, or direct, will convince some doubters and skeptics.   In the end, one must ask the atheist what evidence is there that there is no God!  Christians see evidence everywhere, while they ask where is the evidence there is not God.   There's ample evidence to the open-minded and willing, but never enough to convince those who don't want to believe!   We can be assured God doesn't believe in atheists!

CAVEAT:   WHERE YOU BEGIN HAS A LOT TO DO WITH WHERE YOU'LL END UP!    Soli Deo Gloria!

The World's Soccer Team In Jeopardy

The boys in a Thai soccer team got inadvertently trapped in a cave and were in danger for 18 days before rescue attempts were successful--this newsflash spread around the world like wildfire and enraptured and engrossed the people of every nation's attention and concern away from politics.  Prayer certainly went out, and volunteers, professionals, and expert divers from all over the world (some 1,000) came to the rescue and conducted a coordinated and concerted plan of attack. 

One wonders why God would allow such meaningless jeopardy and some even though it was the kid's fault for venturing into the cave in the first place--but when you're pointing the finger in blame you cannot solve the problem at hand. I'm sure they were on every Christian's prayer list who watched the news and knew about it.  This was an answer to prayer and proves prayer works and changes things.  These boys will not be able to forget nor deny this experience with answered prayer and I hope the world will neither; this was nothing short of a miracle in its timing.

The point, in fact, is that we do not realize God's grace unless we see it in contrast to what comes natural or is deserved.  Grace is giving us what we don't deserve, while mercy is not giving us what we deserve--they go hand in hand.  It was not fortuitous that the cave's pump failed soon after the last boy was rescued and they escaped in the nick of time--a sign of Providence guiding the operation and that cannot be denied by anyone of faith.  This is an answer to prayer, but there are skeptics who can find some reason to discount it and attribute it all to coincidence.  But with God, there are no flukes or coincidences--not even luck!  These boys were not lucky, but fortunate beneficiaries of God's grace and blessing!

The lesson learned is that we saw that there is still some good in the world and that we can focus on something besides ourselves and our world, and even current events and news cycles that are so nerve-wracking.   Truly, there might be movie rights and this team may become adopted as the world's boy soccer team and enrapture the world's love and admiration for their courage and the miracle of their rescue which involved only the best of the best divers and organizers in the world.  It was a concerted effort and the world can be proud it pulled together for this. Now we know what courage and bravery are by their example in survival and rescue as a lesson from God.

So this may have just happened as God's way of getting our attention and a wakeup call to see if we will glorify God and reward those who seem to have thankless professions behind the scenes--God meant it for good.

CAVEAT: THIS COULD'VE BEEN YOUR KIDS AND THIS MAY HAVE BEEN A TEST TO SEE IF YOU CARE FOR THOSE IN NEED AND APPRECIATE OUR UNSUNG HEROES.    Let's all thank and praise God WHO WAS FRONT AND CENTER BEHIND ALL THE DRAMA AND TRAGEDY!      Soli Deo Gloria!

Who Needs Religion?

"In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God" (Ps. 10:4, NIV).
"There is no fear of God before their eyes"[no place for God in their worldview] (Rom. 3:18, ESV).
"The only system of thought where Christ will fit into is the one where he is the starting point." --Athanasius, Father of Orthodoxy

A chaplain was once told by a recruit that he had tried religion already and it didn't work for him, according to a famous anecdote, and then the chaplain retorted with the comeback that he had tried religion too--for fifteen years and it didn't work for him either; then he tried Christ!  Another anecdote:  A soldier in battle noticed the bravery of the padre and told him that if that's what Christ can do for you, then he wants Him too.  There's a difference between religion and Christianity and I just want to make the point that a lot of people don't try Christianity, not because it has failed people and found wanting, but that it's difficult and people don't want to commit!

The reason that Buddhism and Secular Humanism are so popular is that you can be good without God and that these faiths require no personal sacrifice--Christ demands that we give up or deny ourselves and follow Him, wherever He may lead.  That's what Humanism is:  deifying man and dethroning God and goodness without God.  They all contend that you can be good without God, so why invoke a Deity?  Islam is also popular for geopolitical considerations.

Yes, but God's standard is high and He raised the bar, and He looks at the motive--is it to gain the approbation of man or some other ulterior motive, bolster his pride, or to unselfishly please God?  Man cannot please God in the power of the flesh and all his righteousness is considered garbage or a menstrual rag in His sight.  Yes, in the eyes of mankind you can be good; look at Ted Turner donating $1 Billion to the UN, for example; but his motive wasn't to please God or do His will, but to bolster his self-righteousness and ego in the eyes of others.  The whole issue of goodness is that evil is the distortion of good and a guise of it and may contain the appearance of good, but it isn't.  Evil is privation or distortion of good (it's a parasite); it cannot exist independently.   It's just good enough to deceive and inoculate from the real thing!

But the problem is that you cannot explain "good" apart from God.  Just like they say your morals or ethics by the same token.  A moral or ethical person may not even believe in God for that matter.  But where did goodness come from but the source of all goodness--God?  God is the "moral center of the universe" and demands man's repentance and high morality, and gave him a moral compass, and he has no excuse to sin but culpability, which is for anything against God's nature, the virus affecting all mankind, and our so-called Declaration of Independence from God--our birthright from Adam.  According to Dostoevsky, "if there is no God, all things are permissible."

God is the Supreme Good according to Plato and the Ultimate Good as the standard of all, by which we measure our achievement.  He is the source of all goodness and blessing.  The problem with man is that he thinks he's all right and doesn't need Him, that he is already good, and Christians are called to be a light and show that they fall short with the help of the conviction of the Holy Spirit using the Word of God in the heart as seed implanted.

A person may say he can be good without God so why invoke a Deity, for what reason?  As Bertrand Russell said, "Unless you assume a God, the question of life's purpose is meaningless." Christianity is not an AA pledge, the turning over of a new leaf, or a self-improvement course, but trusting Christ to make you into a new person from the inside out and a transformed individual.  It is an insult to say that a believer has "found religion" since there are so many contrasts between the do-it-yourself proposition of religion and the work of grace in Christ. The primary difference between religion and Christianity is "do" versus "done."

In Christ, the work of salvation is a done deal and accomplished fact to be availed by the believer in faith.  Christ sets us free from the power of Satan, sin, and self and gives us the power to live in the Spirit availing ourselves of this transforming power--"I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection," cf. Phil. 3:10.  He's still in the resurrection business!  Paul said that he counted all else rubbish or manure in comparison to knowing Christ as his personal Savior.

Christ does all the work from start to finish--we cooperate as works in progress.  "Salvation is of the LORD," (cf. Jonah 2:9).  We just let God do His thing and have His way with us.  The biggest proof of the resurrection of Christ was the transformation of the timid, disillusioned, and cowering disciples and especially what happened to Saul on the road to Damascus--his testimony was heard in very high places far and wide across the Roman empire.

In sum, Christ didn't come to make bad men good (goody-goodies), but to make dead men alive;  Christ makes us good from the inside out we are transformed into new creatures in Christ, it wasn't a matter of human effort, turning over a new leaf, or an AA pledge, or New Year's resolution, but a surrender to God in Christ and a receiving of a new life as a gift in return. There are a plethora of religions based on human achievement--but you never know where you stand!  Christianity is based on God's accomplishment!   Bear in mind that our righteousness is God's gift to us, not our gift to God (cf. Isaiah 45:24)!    Soli Deo Gloria!

Public Acknowledgment Of Christ

"I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.  That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel..." (Rom. 1:14-16, NIV). 

We don't want to be God's secret agents or Clairol Christians where only our hairdresser knows for sure whether we are believers.  We are called to openly confess Christ before men with no embarrassment or shame.  The extreme of flaunting our faith is just as wrong as to hide it and keep it a secret though.  True faith expresses itself; the world has nothing against those who privatize their faith and keep it to themselves, but we have a mission to fulfill!  We must not be apologetic or timid in our witness either; there should be no doubt where we stand, and that is not on the sidelines either.

You can never tell where lukewarm believers stand.  We are in the world but not of it (cf. John 15:19).  Sometimes it takes more faith to stand alone like Daniel did to defy the king's edict.  Doing the right thing is not the popular thing to do, nor the easy thing to do. We must be Christ's ambassadors in the world, though we are not of it.

If they harassed Christ and taunted Him, how much more us who have an imperfect witness.  Our testimony is so important that Christ said that if we don't confess Him before men, neither will He confess us before the Father (cf. Matt. 10:32-33).  We represent the gospel in shoe leather to the world and to some people, it's the only gospel they'll know or experience.  A life lived to His glory does a lot to honor our Savior.  Those who are hypocrites and don't live out their faith are doing more harm than good to the cause of Christ.  We want to be vessels of honor, not of dishonor.  In other words, we don't want to be what Christians ought not to be as the example of learning what to avoid.

Baptism is the initiation into the local body and represents our commitment to follow on to know the Lord in discipleship. The first act of obedience after baptism should be to fulfill the Great Commission and do our part.   If Christ got baptized, how much more do we need it!  Standing up for Jesus entails a lot more than preaching in season and out of season, it means when it's inconvenient and it might cost us something or be a sacrifice.  Yes, we might lose friends, but those are the kind we don't need!  Let the offense of the gospel be the only true stumbling block to the infidel's coming to know the Lord, not our personal offensiveness.

Like Paul, we need to pray for open doors and the skill to preach the Word efficaciously (cf. Eph. 6:19).  We don't just use a machine-gun type approach aiming our guns at everyone with the same ammo!  We must adapt our message to whom we're a witness to, and be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit.  God will indeed give us opportunities if we are prepared with the fish bait for the catch of a lifetime--a soul for Christ.  We must be savvy about these God-given chances and opportunities, because they may not come again, and if we miss them, hopefully, we will learn from our negligence and naivete.  We are all slow learners when it comes to following Christ's perfect witnessing example and high standards--He really raised the bar and we must learn from our experience sometimes.

Remember, you may be the only person that can reach out to that person in your orbit or circle of influence and God has entrusted you with the message of reconciliation. It's not a matter of scalp counting or thinking that the more conversions we muster, the better witness we are (God's not so obsessed with the numbers game as a correlation to success or faithfulness); quality is just as important and to whom much is given, much is required--we must be faithful stewards:

To what God has blessed us with--our talents, gifts, opportunities, ambitions, energy, vacations, vocations, relationships, physical abilities, free time or down time, time itself, skills, areas of expertise, education and training, knowledge, wisdom, responsibilities, social life, acquaintances, contacts, real estate, possessions, resources, money, portfolios, belongings, reputation,  friends, co-workers, servants, bosses, and even relatives that we are blessed with and will give account for.  What God is looking for is a bold witness who will speak up at any opportunity and open door presented without shame or timidity--He will open doors to those ready and willing.     Soli Deo Gloria!

As A Matter Of Fact

'The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him--a Spirit of wisdom and understanding, a Spirit of counsel and strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD" (Isaiah 11:2, HCSB).  

DEFINITIONS FROM DAVID A. NOEBEL:  KNOWLEDGE IS JUSTIFIED TRUE BELIEF.  FACTS ARE INDISPUTABLY KNOWN TO BE TRUE OR THINGS KNOWN TO EXIST IN REALITY, DEPICTING AND CONFORMING TO IT.    PRAGMATISM IS THE BELIEF THAT PROPOSTIONS DO NOT MIRROR REALITY AND SHOULD THEREFORE BE TREATED AS TOOLS AND JUDGED ONLY BY THEIR PRACTICAL CONSEQUENCES [IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER IT'S TRUE, BUT ONLY RESULTS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED].  TRUTH, ACCORDING TO THE CORRESPONDENCE THEORY OF TRUTH IS THAT WHICH CORRESPONDS WITH REALITY.  

NB:  CARL SAGAN SAYS EVOLUTION "IS FACT, NOT THEORY."  HE UNDERSTANDS NEITHER FACTS, SCIENCE, NOR THEORY.  EVOLUTION IS UNPROVEN AND UNPROVABLE!  ANY EVIDENCE IS HARD TO COME BY AND THERE IS ZERO FOSSIL EVIDENCE TO BACK UP THE THEORY OF MACRO-EVOLUTION--NO AUTHENTIC MISSING LINKS OR TRANSITIONAL FORMS, WHICH WAS A WORKING HYPOTHESIS, CHAMPIONED AS THEORY, AND NOW TOUTED AS FACT!  SCIENCE DEPENDS UPON EXPERIMENTS, MEASUREMENT, REPEATABILITY, AND OBSERVATION--NOTE THAT NO ONE WAS THERE!  

ONE-TIME EVENTS IN HISTORY ARE NONREPEATABLE AND NOT WITHIN THE REALM OF SCIENTIFIC SPECULATION.  IT IS VITAL TO KNOW THAT CHRISTIANITY DEALS IN FACTS AND EVIDENCE, AND IF IT'S DEHISTORICIZED IT'S FULLY DISCREDITED AND NOTHING BUT NOBLE ETHICS AND "PIE-IN-THE-SKY" DREAMS.  

Knowing all the trivia in the world will do you no good morally, spiritually, or practically--by definition trivia is useless info.  The only time it comes in handy is as a parlor game or on a game show as a contestant, or in the audience watching it for diversion or past-time or just to have fun things to know.  People who remember trivia tend to be disorganized for the most part because they don't organize what's useful for life; others just remember everything and know it fortuitously.  The point is that knowledge in itself is not an end in itself, it must be applied and put to work to be any benefit. Just like there's pure science and applied science.   If a trivia nut keeps telling you his "facts" facetiously tell him: "You don't say?" "Is that a fact?" 

The only knowledge that matters is that which can accomplish God's will and can be put to use productively; it is no wonder that knowledge is increasing exponentially, but our wisdom or knowing how to use it is falling proportionately--we're getting worse off! (Daniel 12:4, NIV, says, "... Many will go here and there to increase knowledge [or "and knowledge shall be increased" in KJV] .")   Knowledge need not be 100 percent certain to be called knowledge. 

Knowledge must affect your life to be of value!  We must put our knowledge to work for us.  The whole purpose of knowledge is edification, enlightenment, and inspiration or motivation for good deeds. The trouble is that we all possess trivia and even genuine, useful knowledge and don't know how to make it useful--we aren't faithful to what we do know as a rule; however, if we pass on what God has shown us He will give more light.

This can be seen also in those that study for purely academic reasons or as literature, reading the storyline and seeing the Bible as a lesson to learn much like fairy tales or myths.  Anybody can read about David and Goliath and conclude that you shouldn't let bullies boss you around or be discouraged by them--it doesn't take a spiritual mind at all!  And so, included in a trivial pursuit of Bible knowledge is to focus on the mundane and things of secular interest, such as historical facts and references.

Knowledge in itself puffs up according to 1  Cor. 8:1 and the goal should be to express it and make a loving use of it--love is the fulfillment of the law!  Gal. 5:6 says that "the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love" in the NIV.  The problem with knowledge is basically that some use it to impress others and to get proud of it for its own sake.  We all must beware of information glut whereby we know too much for our own good--not being able to apply it--and our knowledge gets ahead of us because we lose orientation and focus on our marching orders and the Great Commission; we must keep the main thing the main thing and not major on minors!

One problem in the church is the "nod-to-God crowd" doing their "duty."  They go to church in a perfunctory manner as a routine or to fulfill social obligations or to keep the conscience clean, not to apply what they hear as cheerful hearers but not cheerful doers of the Word.  These people tend to just go through the motions and have memorized the dance of the pious, knowing all the lingo of the church and are really socially engaged, as if churchgoing were a social event.  These believers are really lukewarm and need to invite Christ into their hearts so that they have more than head knowledge.  Christ must dwell in the heart to save and this is expressed in love to God and others, even enemies.  They may even apply the message to others being blind of their own depravity and spiritual need.

Now, don't mistake the hunger for the Word or the seeking of the Truth as abnormally vain or useless.  The healthy, growing believer has a genuine love for the Truth (cf. 2 Thess. 2:10) and loves the Word of God, and he will lose this passion if he doesn't apply what he knows--this is why we must pace our intake and not overload or get intoxicated with the Word only to forget it without application.  The Bible may become passe or one can get Bible fatigue as it loses its zing or pizazz, but walking close to the Lord will keep one close to the Word as it makes you hungry for more as it feeds you.  And being callous or indifferent to spiritual matters is a warning sign and the only cure is to own up to what you know and get back to the basics of love in action.

Some believers are just too distracted by the cares of this world or have too shallow of a mind to think divine meditations.  One must heed the words of Jesus in John 13:17 where He said, "Now that you know these things, blessed are you if you do them."  The Pharisees knew the Scriptures in their head but failed to understand their spiritual meaning ("You know not the Scriptures neither the power of God," in Matt. 22:29).  What they were experts at is applying it to others!  We must apply ourselves to the Word and the Word to ourselves (cf. Job 5:37).  Never discount knowledge, wisdom, and understanding as gifts of God, but to whom much is given, much is required (cf. Luke 12:48).

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge" (2 Pet. 1:5, NIV).

Faith comes via the spiritual miracle and gift of preaching!  We must go a step further: turn our creeds into deeds and practice what we preach.  Christianity is not just a creed to believe but knowing a person and putting that creed into action!  Everyone needs to be convicted of sin and inspired to godly endeavor in the body, not just the immature ones!  We have never "graduated" in church when we don't need other members of the body, especially teaching and preaching.  Disciples are "learners" by definition and have enrolled in the school of Christ for the long haul.

We must never become complacent and think we know it all and have no need of preaching.  Some have been called to teach, prophesy, and preach, while others to submit to their God-given authority in so doing.  Those who don't get convicted or inspired are in danger of being out of touch spiritually, and if they don't apply it, they can lose it, even backslide or fall temporarily into apostasy.  There are no Lone Ranger believers who can say they can worship God in the cornfield or on the mass media or even social media because there are no spiritual hermits or loners in the body.

Knowledge is not meant to be an intellectual thing where smart or intelligent people have the advantage--the heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart.  A point in fact:  Nobody can absorb it all, everyone must be selective--you cannot be effective without being selective.  Some people try to do too much or learn too much--books can become burdensome if one doesn't learn to organize his studies and realize what God wants for him to know and apply--he must know how God uses him.  That's where knowing our place in the body and our spiritual gift comes into play so that we don't attempt too much and accomplish nothing.

Knowledge is vital, but it's not everything!  God's "people perish for lack of knowledge" (cf. Hos. 4:1, 6,14).   We must never lose our focus and perspective or discernment.  We cannot escape knowledge because that is not an option for the believer, it leads to spiritual suicide!  How can Protestants dissent, disagree and protest if they are ignorant?  The Bible tells us that the righteous are hungry for the truth, but the fool feeds on trash in Prov. 15:14, and we have all heard the computer slogan garbage in, garbage out.  And so knowledge is the byproduct of a walk with Christ:  "... [B]earing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God," in Col. 1:10; "But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..." in 2 Pet. 3:18, NIV.

The only test of genuine knowledge in action or faith is obedience to the Word.  NB: Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "Only he who believes is obedient; only he who is obedient believes."  Obedience is the only measure of faith and the second part of the Great Commission, to teach them to obey all that Christ taught--i.e., being disciples or students of the Word ("Study to shew thyself approved unto God...," in 2 Tim. 2:15, KJV or "be diligent to present yourself ..." in NKJV).

And we must have pure motives for attaining knowledge (we must not stop there and fail to complete our mission)--it's the means to the end, not an end in itself, and not just to have all the answers or to outsmart and pull rank on the preacher or prof either in order to boost our own ego. Two major issues of growth stunting in the church are apathy and ignorance--they don't know, and much worse, they don't care!  To begin learning we must admit our ignorance according to Socrates.

In sum, there's a vast difference between knowing about the Bible and knowing the Bible, which can only be done if one knows the Author when God is our teacher, whereby we grow in the grace and true knowledge of the Lord, which is a humbling experience.

Words to the wise shall be sufficient:  In Scripture, Moses, Dr. Luke, and Paul were men of great learning.  Just like the British scientist (who founded the scientific method) and philosopher, Sir Francis Bacon, is credited with the 1597 maxim, "Knowledge is power," there is the skilled use of it--that's where wisdom comes in:  Scripture says, "The wise prevail through great power, and those who have knowledge muster their strength [i.e., increase their strength]" (Prov. 24:5, NIV).  Knowledge is necessary for spiritual growth, but not sufficient--IT'S ONLY PART OF THE EQUATION; it must be lived out in love. We don't believe in knowledge for its own sake! 

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing because some know enough to be dangerous!  NB:  Knowledge per se is no measure of spiritual status or growth, it must be commensurate with love in action.  

CAVEAT:  WE MUST BEWARE OF HAVING A ZEAL FOR GOD, BUT NOT ACCORDING TO KNOWLEDGE AS PAUL WARNED IN ROM. 10:2 AND SOLOMON IN PROV. 19:2.   By all means:  "The beginning of wisdom [the right use of knowledge] is this: Get wisdom.  Though it cost you all you have, get understanding" (Prov. 4:7, NIV).    Soli Deo Gloria!