Getting Comfortable with, "I Don't Know."

[Dunkle] Good afternoon, brethren. Glad to be here. Happy Sabbath, and thank you, Kayleen and Kourtney. It was beautiful, and I'm always amazed at how well siblings' voices can blend together. And I don't know if when they're twins, if they blend even better, but that was terrific

So, if you keep up with national and world news, lately you've had a lot to keep up with. Maybe it's always that way, but one of those sayings is, may you live in interesting times. And I think we do. I'm thinking of some of the things going on. Russia and Ukraine are still at war, even though it seems every week I hear they're so close to a peace settlement, and it's going to happen, but now there's a problem

I think, what does that mean for us? You know, is it part of end-time prophecy? When we read the Bible, phrases like “kings of the east” and “Gog and Magog” come to mind, and that tends to make us think about Russia and other Slavic nations, perhaps

There is a fragile peace... no, I shouldn't say peace, a fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas right now in Gaza, but it's pretty fragile. Is there going to be more fighting? You know, if you're like me, you've watched the news, and you might have wondered, is this the beginning of armies surrounding Jerusalem, as Christ mentioned in Luke 21:20?

But there's also been military action in Israel on and off since 1948, when the state of Israel declared its independence. It hasn't been the end yet, but surely one of these times it's going to be the beginning of Armageddon, right? Now, there seems to be a revolution underway in Iran. Notice I say seems to be, depending on which news channel you turn on and what day it is. Maybe it's not, maybe it is. And what do we make of that? What is going to happen next?

Well, honestly, I don't know. I know scripture tells us that we should pray for the peace of Jerusalem. That's something we can do. Looking to this hemisphere, you know, U.S. forces went into Venezuela, took the president there, and whisked him out of the country. Some people are outraged. Others applauding. And I've heard some analysis discussing how this will affect the balance of power around the world, even especially between the United States and China

China? Really? Well, I don't want to get into explaining what may or may not be, you know, the turn in international commerce and politics. Today, I want to consider prophecy. To consider the things we know, and especially that there are things that we don't know. And I'm going to say up front, I did not talk to Mr. Porter before services. Actually, at one point, especially when he put those five W's and how on the screen, I thought, uh-oh. He's going to cover my whole subject in only 12 minutes and probably do a better job of it

But perhaps God was moving us together, because when we see things going on, it's natural to ask, how do these things relate to the fulfillment of Bible prophecy? You know, I remember more than once when I was a kid growing up in the church hearing sermons with this title: Where Are We Now in Bible Prophecy? The crowd here looks younger than I might think. How many have heard sermons with that or an approximate—yeah, boy, more than I thought

I distinctly remember hearing a sermon by a man who was a leading minister in the Church in which he listed 20 reasons why I'm certain that Christ will return within the next 10 years. That was in the summer of 1995. And I don't say it to be critical, just noting that many times before we've been certain of what we knew. But we were—I wasn't going to say wrong, I don't want to say wrong—mistaken might be a better way to say it

Now, I don't want to give the wrong impression, because I want to say it is our business to study the Bible. We're to understand what it tells us. We're to live by it. And Jesus Christ told His disciples to watch. Watch and be ready. Now, the rest of what He said I'm going to come to in a moment. We'll turn there in scripture. But the uncomfortable truth is, there are things we just don't know

Not only about prophecy. Prophecy might seem easy, but there are things about history, things about God's ancient law, and sometimes questions of how to apply that law to what we're doing here today. I think of example some I deal with in classes. Why didn't God outlaw slavery in ancient Israel? Why didn't He forbid polygamy?

I'm not sure. That's not at all to say that we have no idea. We actually have some pretty good ideas. We have some plausible explanations. So please, if I keep saying I don't know, I don't mean that we're ignorant and stupid. We're not at all. We've studied the Bible. There are lots of things that we do know

But it can't surprise us to think that sometimes we have to say, I don't know. I just attempt to say, I don't know. You don't want to do that when you're in a position of instruction or authority. And my point in the message today is that I think we'll do well to accept this, and as much as is possible to try to make ourselves comfortable with the concept of I don't know, at least in some situations at some times

We should never lose sight, though, of the things that we do know. And by the way, I want to say that not being able to know the answer to everything does not at all mean we shouldn't study and we shouldn't strive to know. We should study Bible prophecy. We should watch world events. We should ask questions. We should find the answers when we can

But for now, it's worth it to realize that it seems to be God's will that there are things in the Bible and things about prophecy that we don't know. One of the things we would like to know the most—I'm pausing here, I'm wondering what all went through your heads. I wish we had little screens I could read, but I'd have to get my glasses out

Now, what we want to know: when is Christ coming back? By the way, among the things that we do know, we do know He is going to return. It's unquestionable. But we want to know when, and so did His disciples. If you turn with me to Matthew 24, we'll see they outright asked Him. Now, He sort of—I don't know if I'd say He planted the question. We know this is near the end of Christ's ministry, partly because it's near the end of the book

But we know this narrative, and they were leaving Jerusalem, going out. They were on the Mount of Olives across the valley, and they were amazed looking at the temple. Might have been one of those sunny days where it just looked so impressive. And they're saying, look at that! And He says there's going to come a time when there's not going to be one stone left on top of the other, which must have taken them aback. So later, I will read in verses 3 and 4. Matthew 24, verse 3:

“Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’” (Matthew 24:3)

When are you coming? When is this going to happen? He answered them and said, 

“Take heed that no one deceives you” (Matthew 24:4)

Okay, so He's going to go off and tell them you could be fooled. I'm not going to read all the answers. They're asking though, when's it going to go down? And He told them many things to watch for. Okay, this is going to happen. This is going to happen. This is going to happen. But He also told them some things pretty bluntly. If you look ahead to verse 36, after He told them the things to watch for, He said, 

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36)

Skip down a few verses to verse 42. He told them, 

“Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming” (Matthew 24:42)

One more I'll read here. Verse 44: 

“Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44)

And we as the Church of God, I would say, have a long history of not being comfortable with this. And I'm not all that comfortable with it. I want to know. And through the ages people have studied. They looked at the prophecy, developed interpretations to figure out when

I mentioned a sermon that I heard 30 years ago listing ten reasons why Christ would return within ten years. You might have heard of the Millerite movement. I'm not sure there's got to be a better term for that, but in the 19th century William Miller studied the Bible, analyzed all the prophecies, and he developed charts and graphs, and he determined the exact date Christ would return in 1844

People who accepted his interpretation famously, on that bright October morning, gathered on hilltops. Some stories say they wore white robes and they'd given away all their possessions because we know he's coming this day. And they waited. And waited

And this is known in history as the Great Disappointment. Now, I don't know anyone in God's Church in the modern era who's gone quite that far, but at times we've been disappointed, have we not? It's funny, I didn't think to write it when I was putting my notes, but I could find on my shelf in my office a book titled 1975 in Prophecy. To be honest, I think many people have heard of that book and misunderstood it because it wasn't as specific as some people think, but a lot of people have been disappointed

Now please remember what my point here is not—that we should ignore prophecy, not that we should ignore what's going on in the world. I'll mention this. I forgot to say hi to those on the webcast. Glad to have you here. My in-laws have moved in with us, and my father-in-law is diligent about watching the news, and I've been catching up more than I might have otherwise. It's good to know what's going on, and so we're keeping track

Many times Jesus said to watch. I'd like to turn to Luke. If you'll turn with me to Luke 21, we'll begin in verse 34. Luke 21, verse 34. And by the way, Luke 21 is a parallel account to Matthew 24. So Jesus is telling his disciples, 

“So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the Kngdom of God is near. Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:31-35)

It's going to catch people by surprise, but He says watch. Don't get taken by surprise. But He also said you're not going to know in advance when it's coming. At least not very far in advance. And maybe it's good to say we won't know exactly when He'll come. Can we be comfortable with not knowing?

Well, maybe if we look at the things He said to do, which He did. But my point today is we need to somehow be comfortable with the fact that we're not going to know. And I want to turn to a passage in the book of Revelation that—it's my go-to on this. It's Revelation 10, starting in verse 3. Revelation chapter 10 and verse 3 has this little vignette in the apostle John's vision and communication that just stands out to me because it's so different than the opening

Ah, there we go. Sorry, I was beginning to think my Bible wouldn't let me turn there. Okay, so as you know John is having this vision. He's on the Isle of Patmos, and he's shown things that give us a good sequence of how things will unfold leading to the end of this age and the return of Jesus Christ. And there's a scroll with seven seals, and they're opened. Then the seventh seal has seven trumpets. The seventh trumpet has seven great last plagues and bowls. And of course Christ is going to return. There's going to be a happy ending. We know these things. But in the middle of this, in Revelation 10 verse 3, it says this

“And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. When he cried out, seven thunders uttered their voices” (Revelation 10:3)

Now, when the seven thunders uttered their voices, 

“I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Seal up the things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them’” (Revelation 10:4)

Hmm. Oh, I put “hmm” in my notes, and I just said it without reading. That was good prophetic planning. Now, why didn't God just have someone tell John, don't even mention those seven thunders? Leave that out. But He didn't. You know, we don't need to know there were ever seven thunders or that they said something, right?

You know, that's not what we see here. What we see is a record that there are seven thunders—whatever that is—and they said something. We're not allowed to know what they said. Have you ever had someone come up to you and say, I know something you don't know? And isn't that annoying?

Now, in my view, it's impossible that God put this here just to be annoying. I don't see God doing that. But He has it here for a reason. Perhaps the reason is this is His way of telling us there are some things we're not going to know. You know, maybe there are things we just don't need to know yet

That's where I'm kind of excited. You know, we know there's going to be a generation of Church members that are alive at the end when Christ returns. If I'm one of them, I'm going to keep my ears open for those seven thunders and finally know what they say

But we don't know. And this bit about the seven thunders has been in our Bibles for about 2,000 years. That's something we just have to accept. Perhaps something to get comfortable with. You know, I think God would like us to be comfortable with, at times, having the answer, I don't know. You know, I've thought of this. I'm privileged at Ambassador Bible College to get to teach the Pentateuch class. And one of my favorites is the book of Genesis

But, you know, when you look at Genesis, the first 12 chapters cover approximately 2,000 years of human history. But we can cut some of those out. The first chapter covers a week. Then there are three chapters focused on Noah's flood. So then we're down to like eight chapters and still about 2,000 years of human history

That's a lot of summarization. There's a lot we don't know about the history of humanity on earth in ancient times. You know, one of the things we'd like to know is how and why did they live so long? You know, I believe those numbers are accurate, but we can just speculate on why they are. I'm certain Genesis does tell us what we need to know. It tells us what God wants us to know, and leaves us with a lot of frustrating questions about things we'd like to know, but it doesn't tell us

You know, I like to say Genesis is not a science textbook. It's not really a legal treatise. In some ways it's not even a thorough history in some ways. But Genesis is what God wanted it to be, just not necessarily what Frank Dunkel wishes it was at any particular time. Yeah, I have to get comfortable with I don't know, and so do my students. Some of them are in the room because they hear me say I don't know an awful lot

I'd like to look at a case study. A case study of a particular thing that's been in our culture, in the Church, and it's in the Bible, but it brings up a question we've had for a long time. So let me begin by describing an incident that happened when I was, I think, 19 or 20. I don't remember all the particulars, but I remember I was with a couple friends in the car, and it's Friday late afternoon or evening. We're going somewhere for dinner, and it's one of those hazy days

So the sun is getting low on the horizon, and it seems this red circle, you know, because there's humidity in the air or whatever, and it just really looks bold, maybe because of the atmospheric conditions. So one of my friends looked at the other and said, what would you do if suddenly you saw like a shade coming down and it just goes dark, and you see the moon and it's bright red? And my friend said, I don't know. I'd say, where's Mr. Armstrong? Where do we go from here? What do we do?

And it seemed interesting, but he thought of Mr. Armstrong. Of course, Herbert Armstrong was still alive at the time, and we had the idea that he would know what we're supposed to do, and particularly where do we go. Because in the Church at that time we had this belief—and by the way, I want to say this carefully, I'm not saying that we don't have this belief—but we emphasized some things a little differently then

But we talked about a time to flee, you know, when the Church would have to go to a place that we called a place of safety, where we would be spared from plague and persecution on all the earth. And by the way, that's a great—I'm greatly abbreviating things that will happen and things we do know

And I put in my notes to be clear to say I'm not being critical of the idea of the Church fleeing or being in a place of safety, and I'm not saying that it won't happen. What I'm saying is that decades ago we spoke with much more certainty about some things on which the Bible doesn't speak with certainty

I'm sure God is quite certain, but He hasn't revealed everything to us, and that includes some ideas of what people taught about going to a place of safety. Let me describe the way I perceived it when I was a boy in the Church. And I know you look at these white whiskers and say, boy, that must have been in a previous century. No

But when I was young, you know, we thought about how it would be. And so this might not reflect what ministers actually taught, because you know how 12-year-olds hear things differently than what was said. But the way we looked at it, there would be a time when the world is troubled with wars and rumors of wars and things like that—kind of like now

And suddenly one day we'd get a phone call via the church's phone tree. You know, a phone tree—like the pastor would call four people, each of them would call five or six people, and they would call five or six people. If we put it in modern terms, you'd get a text or whatever

Or we might be at Sabbath services and somebody walks up to the speaker. He opens up the message and says, brethren, it's time to flee. Okay, we would go somewhere, probably to a local airport. We would board planes—hopefully 747s—and we would fly to the kingdom of Jordan and take a bus to Petra. And we would be there for three and a half years living in caves, and at the end of that Christ would return and the Kingdom of God would start

Now, does that sound completely familiar to many of you? I'm wondering, does it sound totally unfamiliar to anybody here? Maybe some. Yeah, so it's largely a generational thing. I'm thinking if you've been in the Church 15 years or less, maybe not so much. And I would say what I just described would sound to people in other churches that call themselves Christian—they would look at me like I'm totally insane

Because they know when you die you go to heaven or you go to hell. What are you talking about? Christ returning? So what I want to say though is this understanding of the Church going to a place of safety didn't come from nowhere. It didn't come from an overheated imagination. It's based on Scripture. I'm just going to add that we might have been uncomfortable with the gaps in between where we might say, I don't know, so we filled them in

Let's consider what the Bible does tell us. Let's go back to Luke 21, if you will. Luke 21, beginning in verse 20

“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those who are in the midst of her depart, and let not those who are in the country enter her” (Luke 21:20–21)

“For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled” (Luke 21:22)

Okay, so this gives us an idea that there would be at the time of the end a time to flee. Now, this is particular for the people in Judea, but we presumed it would be for the whole Church. Those in Judea are told to go to the mountains. Well, there's a mountainous area—I want to point to my map that I usually have in class that's too small for the students to really read—but if you look to the south and east, in areas that were formerly Moab and Edom, now mostly in the kingdom of Jordan, there are mountainous areas

That brings to mind a couple of other scriptures we read which I want to read today. If you go to Isaiah chapter 16 verse 4. Isaiah 16 and verse 4

“Let My outcasts dwell with you, O Moab; be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler; for the extortioner is at an end, devastation ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land” (Isaiah 16:4)

In Moab—a shelter. Fits fairly well with Isaiah 26 just ten chapters ahead. Isaiah 26 and verse 20

“Come, My people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past” (Isaiah 26:20)

This seems to clearly be talking about protection for God's people during some time of punishment. It addresses Moab, which qualifies as being in the mountains near Judea. There's one place that really stands out in that area if you go to look, and that's in the region that used to be a city of the Nabataean kingdom known as Petra. Okay, I mentioned Petra earlier

And if you've seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, you've seen one of the best images of Petra. From what I understand now, Petra—it's remote, doesn't look all that comfortable—but it sure looks like a good place to hide, except for the hotels and the tourists that are there now. Petra is not mentioned by name in the Bible, but Moab, mountains, and such are. And of course it's in the wilderness

Let's add another place in Revelation chapter 12. Revelation 12, beginning in verse 12. And I'll remind you again that I'm saying we need to be comfortable with not knowing things. But I say if we say some of the scenarios we painted seem extremely detailed—as I said, they didn't come from nowhere. There's stuff in the Bible to lead us to that

“Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Revelation 12:12)

And then skipping down a little

“But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent” (Revelation 12:14)

We could go on. Of course the serpent spews out water, the earth opens up and swallows them. But let's move ahead to the end of the chapter in verse 17

“And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Revelation 12:17)

In Bible prophetic symbolism, a woman is commonly used to portray a Church—or I believe in this case the Church. Time, times, and half a time fits with other elements in the book of Revelation to indicate this is end-time prophecy. We interpret this to refer to a three and a half year period

So this does seem to be saying that at the time of the end it seems that we have members of the Church going to her place. And I've heard ministers point out that the term place of safety doesn't appear in the Bible. But her place certainly does, where she's nourished, and I would presume kept safe, for three and a half years—which also could be called 42 months, which also could be numbered as 1260 days

Not hard from these scriptures and several others in the Bible to see why in times past ministers in the Church of God taught this. In the end time, God will miraculously—possibly using jet airliners—transport His people to the stronghold of Petra. And while most people in the Church will be protected there, there's going to be two witnesses

Who are they? I don't know. But they're going to preach the gospel for three and a half years. Now we get asked, does the Bible say all these things specifically? Well, not all the details. It does say some of these things. It implies others pretty strongly. And that's great. Implications and indications are good as long as we're prepared to admit that's what we're dealing with

You know, we don't have to do a thorough study of end-time prophecy today. I'm not going to, because that's not my purpose. But we can consider some things we know about it, some things the Bible does tell us. We see in Scripture there will be that time—I'm using the term plagues and persecution to summarize a lot. I mentioned seven seals, seven trumpets, seven last plagues, and they're pretty horrific

But you wonder, what are those locusts? You know, don't know for sure. They might—you know, could be locusts. It's clear that Christ is going to establish His Kingdom. Time of plagues and persecution will stop. There will be a thousand-year reign. Peace and righteousness and God's Spirit poured out. In the midst of that, do we know protection for God's Church will be in Petra? Will it be anywhere in Jordan?

Well, the Bible doesn't say that, at least not as clearly as I wish it did. You know, are we going to be protected in one particular place? I've heard ministers with a lot of influence say that maybe God will protect people wherever they are scattered around the world. I'm not convinced of that myself, but I have to give at least some thought to it

Do we know how we'll get the answers to these questions? You know, say we do get a message: it's time to flee. How are we going to find out? Will it be via the phone tree? Will God send a text message? I'm stopping there because when I talk about questions we knew the answers to, I often say God will not answer my texts. But it's a joke. I don't have His number anyway

Although I do talk to Him, and I'm sure that He hears, but He's not sending me these answers. But how will we travel? Airplanes? The woman is given wings of a great eagle

But then again, in Exodus 19 verse 4, God told Israel, “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself” (Exodus 19:4)

But the preceding chapters describe them walking through the wilderness. Okay, so in Exodus at least, it's a poetic metaphor. Is it a metaphor in Revelation 12? I don't know. I need to be comfortable being able to say I don't know. Now I'll say this. Because I teach prophecy classes quite a bit, people sometimes ask me, where do you think the place of safety will be?

My stock answer is, well, if God has a sense of humor—Petra. Now I have to pause there because I'm actually very certain God does have a sense of humor. I'm not quite as certain about Petra. But I have to say I'm not certain that it won't be Petra. Because I'm talking about the things we can't prove in the Bible. But when it comes to proving otherwise, okay, there's still uncertainty

You know, so not being certain is not the same as disbelieving. Now I'm going to mention—and I think it was about 35 years ago—I heard a minister who was a leader in the Church at the time give a sermon in Pasadena. And I still remember the title was Fun with Prophecy. Some of you might have heard that one yourself. And I'll confess, I wouldn't recommend it if you could—well, the funny parts I would recommend listening to. It was entertaining

But he discredited the idea of there being any place of safety. And he cited evidence from the Bible to show that he said you can prove that it will be in Vail, Colorado. And a lot of us thought, well, if I had a choice between three and a half years in Petra or three and a half years in Vail, pretty sure which one I'd go for. Now the reason I bring that up is, you know, I'm a proponent that we should know and understand what the Bible does say

We should also be aware of what it does not say. Scripture does not explicitly say that the Church will flee as a group and that it'll be to a place that was Moab. But it also gives us some pretty clear indications that we should consider that. And by the way, the first-century church certainly fled Judea and Jerusalem and went to that territory. And as I said, you can't find scriptures to explicitly disprove those things, because if they were there I'd be telling you about them

To be honest, I think a lot of our old teaching about the place of safety seems more plausible and provable from the Bible than a lot of things I've heard people say to argue against it. Well, by the way, if you're thinking, boy, that guy's wishy-washy! My point is to acknowledge the things we don't know and be comfortable with that. And you might say though, well, what do we know? Is our whole religion and our whole way of life based on assumptions about things that we just don't know for sure?

No. Absolutely not. And that's something I can say for sure. You know, I've made a case for trying to get comfortable with saying I don't know. But I want to assert there are many things that we do know, and we know that we know. And we need to build on that and have great confidence. For me personally, it's very comforting to think about the many truths that we know, and to understand we certainly do know the things that we need to know

You've heard the phrase, that's on a need-to-know basis. You know, so some things God's telling us we don't need to know yet. But some things we do. There's a passage of Scripture I like to consider along with that one from the seven thunders. It's in Matthew 19. Matthew 19 verse 16. It's an incident during Christ's ministry. He's traveling. He's speaking to crowds. And it says here in verse 16:

“Now behold, one came and said to Him, ‘Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?’” (Matthew 19:16)

I could do a show of hands. Anybody here interested in eternal life? I'm guessing that's part of why we're here. Yes. Now Jesus first corrects him. Why are you calling Me good? There's One good, and that's the Father. So He addresses that. But then He says:

“But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Matthew 19:17)

Okay, if you want to enter eternal life, keep the commandments. And that makes sense. But as I go through this I always like to pause and say, notice some of what Jesus did not say. He didn't say, if you want to have eternal life, figure out where the place of safety is. He didn't say, you got to identify the 144,000. He didn't say, okay, eternal life—tell Me which modern nations are descended from which of the tribes of Israel. He didn't even say we need to figure out when He's coming back, which is good, because later He'd tell us you're not going to know when I'm coming back. Now I want to assert that I would dearly love to know all of those things. I want to know

But I've had to get comfortable with, I don't know. What I do have to know is, keep the commandments. Jesus said that. We could be like the young man who had a follow-up question in verse 18. He said to Him, well, which ones? You know, there's a lot of commandments if you turn through the Bible. Jesus didn't list all of them, but He started reading really from the Ten Commandments: 

“You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 19:18–19)

As I said, several of the Ten Commandments, and the last one could be said to summarize them. We sometimes wonder why didn't He list the first four commandments? And I don't know. But I've got a guess. I think maybe because in Judea at that time they were really emphasizing those. You didn't see a lot of Jews taking God's name in vain. They went to an opposite extreme. They were so careful about the Sabbath, they made a lot of extra rules that they probably didn't need, and such like that

So don't take this to mean that those commandments can be thrown out the window. Not at all. And matter of fact, the man answered in verse 20, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” (Matthew 19:20). It's like, I don't need to do anything more

Jesus did add one thing, though. He says, “If you want to be perfect… go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21)

No, no. He didn't say, if you want to be perfect, now you're ready to go on to graduate study, and we'll get into the 70 weeks prophecy. And I'm going to teach you the right way to pronounce My name in Hebrew and Greek. No. It's that if you want to be perfect, sell what you have and give to the poor, you'll have treasure in heaven, and come follow Me

We interpret Him saying, come follow Me, to be… become My disciple. You know, come with these people that are learning from Me. I always also like to think of it as, put God first above all your physical possessions. You know, this isn't a command for each of us to sell everything we have. That's not so easy to do, I found. But that's what we need to do

Okay. What matters most to God are things that we do know, and we understand. Think of some of the things. We know that God exists, and He is the creator of all the universe. We could turn to the beginning of Genesis, but I'm sure you've read this a number of times

We know that God created mankind in His image and in His likeness. And when we think of God is there and mankind, we know there is God the Father. It says it quite plainly, and that Jesus Christ is His Son. But we also know that Jesus Christ was from the beginning, you know, well before all things. Maybe I should turn to John 1:1 and make sure I say it properly. No, I could say it from memory now

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1)

We know that. We know that man was created to be brought into God's family. If you want to back up, you could note “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). And I am going to turn to Luke 12 because it's very encouraging to me. Luke 12, verse 32. I hope it'll be encouraging you because I'm going to read it anyways

Jesus says, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32)

Good pleasure to give us the kingdom, which includes having us born into His family. It's not grudging. It's not, oh, okay, baby, I'll let you in. It's His good pleasure because God loves us and wants us to be in His family

And we know that. We know that Jesus Christ died for our sins to redeem us from death. Note “Christ died for our sins” (1 Corinthians 15:3). That's one of the first points in the Gospel as Paul writes it

We know that all men who have ever lived—not just men, all humans—who have lived and died will live again. We know it. The Bible says it clearly. And those who have not yet repented and turned to God's way will have that opportunity. They're not written off

Those who are ultimately condemned, which we take as choosing not to repent, okay, they will cease to exist, but they're not going to be tortured forever. We know that

We know, and we know that we know, that living by God's commandments is the way that's compatible with eternal life. I chose that carefully because I don't want to say the way that brings eternal life, because we can't earn it. We can't deserve it. It's a gift

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23)

You know, that greatest command of all is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind… You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39). Jesus said, “On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:40)

I like to say God's law, the other commandments, spell out how to love God. They tell us how to love our neighbor as ourselves. I could keep going on like this for a while, but I'd start repeating myself

You know, we know God sanctified the seventh day of the week. He set it aside for worship and for rest. And that is why we're here, right? We know when the Sabbath is. We know it's a holy convocation

Admittedly, there are some questions that fall within that. I like to walk students through and say, yeah, the Bible tells us it's holy. It tells us not to work. It tells us it's a holy convocation. It doesn't tell us all the details. Like, what does it mean to not seek your own pleasure, not speak your own words?

We could delve into that. People have differing opinions on whether or not a Christian should eat in a restaurant on the Sabbath, or iron a shirt, or drive a certain distance. But we know the Sabbath is holy time. We know God told us, keep it holy

We also know that God ordained annual holy days. And although the Bible doesn't specifically say these describe the plan of God, it's a pretty strong implication. And so I'll say, I know in my heart that the holy days show us how God is unfolding this plan of salvation for mankind. I'm confident of that

We know Christ told us to watch. I read it earlier in the sermon, watch and be ready. One of the ways that we “be ready” is by living a godly way. Yeah, I know the grammar was bad on that, but I wanted to quote it

I'm not going to continue listing all the things we do know, but a lot of what I just did is I was thinking of what's in our booklet of the United Church of God's fundamental beliefs. And I honestly meant to go next door to the postal room and pull out a copy of the booklet and show you, but honestly it looks like a church booklet. So think of a little rectangle with writing on it. I'm holding it up and telling you, you'd do well to take a look at it if you're wondering what do we know and know that we know

We know those things, and they're powerful things to build a life on

Brethren, it does serve us well to get comfortable with I don't know. You know, and I've discussed just a few things that we have uncertainty about. Okay, we have some uncertainty, and we can continue striving to know. Ignorance is not something to brag about. We shouldn't do that

But at the same time we can take comfort that we know a lot. So going in, I didn't mean this message to be discouraging, never to be critical or disparaging of the ways we've taught things in the past. I want us to be hopeful. I want us to be confident, to be happy

God has revealed to us so much. There's so much in this book that we know. It's encouraging to me to consider the great truth that God has revealed through His scripture and His Word. You know, I just listed a fraction of them. I've got great confidence in God's truth

And I say, when we consider the things that God has allowed us to know, the things He's let us be certain of, the things we don't know seem pretty small by comparison. All that we do know is pretty great