“I know all I need to know.” Those words were spoken to me by a dear, much loved, uber-religious relative who had just been informed that God commands church people to continually and honestly study to gain the approval of God (2 Tim. 2:10-15). The Apostle Paul was referring to the Holy Bible that contains everything we know about the Lord. Note that Paul was writing to a well-established evangelist, a leader in the early church, telling him that he must diligently study the Truth in order to understand the way to salvation (vs. 10). The message to Timothy was basically two-fold: 1) We must study (not read) God’s Word, believe and obey it in order to gain His approval. 2) We must have His approval in order to be saved. My aunt, however knew all she needed to know.

Having spent most of my life in the church into which Satan had lured her (see Bait and Switch), I understood why she believed what she did. The difference between her and me was that I studied God’s Word in search of His Truth and she did not. She chose to take the word of her church leaders. I left that part of the Counterfeit Church System and never looked back. She died in its heathen clutches. At the time of her statement she believed that she knew all she needed to know and was dead set against knowing anything else.

And why should she? She had been “saved” according to that organization’s doctrines. It was finished, the die was cast, the fix was in. “Once saved-always saved” being one of its foundational principles, to go beyond that meant that one would burn in hell forever. To dare entertain the possibility that there was more to salvation than believing John 3:16 was heresy. With the above quoted statement, my dear aunt answered all three parts of The Ultimate Question: God’s plan for her was to believe John 3:16; she was not willing to go deeper into the Bible than John 3:16; she was not going to believe or obey anything beyond John 3:16. According to her denomination, she was saved, born again and Rapture ready. So what does this attitude have to do with death? We will get there.

The seven words spoken by my pillar-of-the-church aunt would produce a resounding “Amen” from the two billion + people who today know “all they need to know.” God rejects both them and their attitude. I have studied God’s Word for over six decades and I still do not know all I need to know. To the contrary, I find that I have learned more about the will and way of God over the past few years than I learned during all the previous years of my life. Over the years I have found that as my desire to know more about God grew, the more knowledge, understanding and faith He gave me. Just as a mother feeds her child only when he is hungry or thirsty, God feeds His children only when they hunger and thirst for His spiritual food. The food He feeds the hungry and thirsty Truth seeker is His Word, which Jesus called “Truth” (Jn. 17:17). The job of His ministers relative to spiritual food is written about in John 21:15-17. Here Jesus is preparing His disciples to do the work He had assigned them–to feed His Word to His sheep and lambs. Note that He told Peter to “… feed MY sheep,” to “… feed MY lambs.” Those who do not want Truth will not be fed. And His sheep and lambs are to be fed His Word only when they hunger and thirst for it. Most church people, like my aunt, never hunger or thirst for more of God, but are content to live their lives nursing on the milk from the church’s breast (Isa. 28:9/Hos. 4:6/Heb. 5:12-14). And when someone offers them the milk of Truth, they reject it, thereby rejecting the Lord (Jn. 12:44-50) L.J.