Knowledge Doesn’t Make a Person Free, Only the Truth Does!!!
A few years ago, I was invited to speak at a conference of church leaders. It was a fun and blessed event. Many of these leaders came from different theological backgrounds than mine, but we all still had a lot in common. The main speaker was a fascinating gentleman with a tremendous testimony. I will never forget. He and I became friends at this conference and we hung out and shared insights we each had about God’s Word.
He shared with me how he had studied at a prestigious seminary in Scotland under some very well-known theologians. He had earned many degrees and doctorates to his name.
After ten years of pastoring, he attended a small ministers’ meeting and was troubled why he couldn’t understand or relate to what these pastors were saying. One minister said to him, “I think why you don’t understand us is that you aren’t born again.” This man was deeply offended and he wanted to take them into his office and show them his numerous degrees and doctorate he had hanging there.
He was deeply troubled by what had happened at his ministers’ meeting. He paced in his office trying to process what happened that day. He decided to study the topic, and in a short time, he realized he wasn’t born again. That day in his office, he knelt , received Jesus Christ into his life, and was wonderfully born again. Suddenly, the Scriptures start making perfect sense to him.
He looked at me and said, “Ed, I pastored for over ten years. I believed I was saved, but I didn’t know Jesus. I knew theology, religion, and church history. But I never knew Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I considered myself knowledgeable about the Bible, and had many degrees to prove it but all that knowledge never set me free life knowing the truth has. Jesus is that truth!” Ed Elliot