I believe that the area of greatest ignorance probably has to do with Biblical finances. This is a big subject and I could write a book on it, but for the sake of simplicity, let me throw in the following thoughts in the hope that it will pave the way to further debate.
1. The Bible is not against the wise use of money. It is against the love (idolatry) of money.
2. The Bible encourages financial and Business wisdom and prosperity that is given by God.
3. The Bible has a covenant place for the use of money, which the Church largely ignores, or overlooks, or misunderstands.
4. By focussing on a few scriptures that tell us that the love of money is bad, at the exclusion of all other wealth and money-related scriptures, great damage is being done to the Church and its Kingdom potential.
5. When man does not understand a subject as he should, he tends to swing to the extremes. In this case they are money is all bad and should be avoided. Ie; poverty is good. - to - You must give as much to the Church as possible to 'buy' God's blessings and prosperity.
6.
Hos 4:6 says, ' My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...' This is nowhere more true than when it comes to the subject of money. I see this when retirees call me for help, because they are underfunded and scared. I see this when people save for 10, 20 or more years to pay off their homes and then lose them anyway. And on, and on.
More tragically, I see this in the pitiful contribution that we make to missionary causes, primarily, because we do not understand how to use money effectively and to grow it so that there can be abundant support forever.
As an example, our congregation gathered together $8,000 for a missionary cause and everyone was self proud and satisfied with a job well done, which it was - except for the fact that with the right knowledge and financial strategies that $8,000 could have been $80,000 or $800,000 or even more.
I wonder how many souls will not be reached, because we are so busy keeping ourselves in financial ignorance?
Food for thought. Hope it helps.
