The danger of ignorance. 

The Apostle Paul was vitally aware of the subtle arrogance of ignorance. His own determination in not knowing what he didn't know caused the death of many people before his humbling on the road to Damascus.

So, the Apostle repeatedly wrote to his church friends, "I don't want you to be in ignorance about this, dear brothers..." What would follow that greeting would vary, depending upon the need and inspiration pressing upon Paul.

I believe Paul's primary concern was the re-education of those people who made up the 'early' church. Some were Jewish, but with increasing numbers the majority of the churches were becoming Gentile (anyone who wasn't Jewish).

He knew that they didn't know what they didn't know. Most people are quite content with what they think they know. It seems to be a pattern of humanity through the ages.

Prejudicial preconceptions have always been part of the dogma, or philosophical narrative of any group of people down through the ages. Those concepts and narratives are passed on from generation to generation until a veneration takes place.

This process institutionalizes, codifies and makes sacred that which was the 'faith' (beliefs) of my father's father and his father before him.

That might be well and good in some things, but it tends to preclude the personal discovery of the 'holy' and the continuing revelation of God to us individually. If there IS that personal discovery of the 'holy' and a continuing growth in our relationship to, and understanding of a God who is relative to our generation and our world and our society...then those historical and traditional dogmas that were good enough for great-grandpa to negotiate his black and white world - probably are going to be superceded by our own experience with God.

Those folks who don't, for whatever reason, risk the unknown and the uncertainties of their own pilgrimage into faith, content themselves with the concepts and experiences of their fore-fathers.

The ethical complexities facing this generation have never been experienced by any generation before us. I wouldn't encourage anyone to use investment advice from your great-grandpa's era. The world today is too complex to depend upon your ancestor's experiences for your own survival.

Likewise, your ancestor's spiritual experiences and knowledge of God are not adequate to enable you to live anything better than a merely religious life. Those content to live the religious life suffer the dangers of the arrogance which comes to those smug in not knowing what they don't know.

They assume they know what great-grandpa knew. The Apostle Paul discovered that the knowledge of his fore-fathers was woefully inadequate...on the road to Damascus.