Two Forms of Ignorance

There are two forms of ignorance:  remedial and willful.  One can be "ignorant" of a subject, but that ignorance can be resolved through study and education.  But when one chooses not to learn they have willfully chosen to remain ignorant.

Thus, "Willful" ignorance is the condition in which the individual chooses to remain ignorant, relying instead on false, incomplete, or prior knowledge which the individual never challenged.   For example, one might have heard, as a young person, the statement "the Earth is flat".  If that person grows up retaining the belief that the Earth is flat, despite the preponderance of evidence and facts to the contrary, that person remains willfully ignorant.

But "willful" ignorance today has, in my opinion, no grounds for existence because no one (and I mean no one) in any civilized society needs to remain ignorant!  Resources are at their fingertips!  Ignorance today is fully remedial! 

To remain ignorant therefore is a choice.   Many today, will refuse to believe something because they choose to retain only what they know (or think they know),  and will not take the time to remedy their lack of knowledge.   Evidence to dispel their ignorance may be all around them, but they simply will not make the effort to improve themselves.

Ignorance itself is not "bad".  We are all born "ignorant".  Ignorance is simply the lack of knowledge of a subject.  Ignorance is not a synonym of "stupid" and is nothing to be ashamed of!  Simply not knowing something does not make one "stupid"; rather, ignorance simply means the knowledge of the subject has not yet been obtained.

   

One can find willful ignorance all the time in both Christianity and Judaism. 

Christians, having grown up being exposed only to Christian theology and dogma, will deny that there is actually any obligation on their part to OBEY God which will help them retain their salvation.  They will deny there are instructions given to us by YHWH, our God, showing us how to live a sin-free life so we can remain holy for Him.  These instructions called "Torah" are rejected by almost all of Christianity today.   Christians accept the Messiah, but miss the all-important message of His Torah and obedience.  That may seem shocking but it is true!  Since Christians accept the Messiah, but deny His commandments, they have, in fact, denied God!  Consequently, they are blind to HIS truth due to the doctrine they hold dear, and therefore they remain ignorant. 

And this I say and testify by Master YHWH, that from now on you do not walk  as the other Gentiles who walk in the vanity of their mind:  And they are dark in their understandings and are alienated from the life of Elohim because there is not in them knowledge; and  because  of  the  blindness  of  their  heart.     They  have  cut  off  their  hope  and  have  given themselves over to lust and to the practice of all uncleanness in their greed.  But you have not learned this from the Mashiyach;  If you have truly heard him, and by him have learned as the truth is in Y’shua. (Ephesians 4:17-21, AENT)

Christians, when informed of Torah, will usually respond with one of two claims:  "Torah is written on our hearts," or "Torah was abolished at the cross."   (The latter is but one of the many mistaken interpretations of the misunderstood writings of Apostle Paul.)  Making either of those claims is in complete ignorance which can be resolved - yet they choose only to believe the claims, never attempting to come to any other understanding that would allow them to grow. 

Judaism, on the other hand, recognizes Torah as absolute but they deny that the Messiah has already come!  For the most part, Jews cannot see the Messiah in scripture.  For example, in Judaism, Isaiah 53 is about Israel and not the Messiah:  

Who believes our report? To whom is the arm of ADONAI revealed? For before him he grew up like a young plant, like a root out of dry ground. He was not well-formed or especially handsome; we saw him, but his appearance did not attract us. People despised and avoided him, a man of pains, well acquainted with illness. Like someone from whom people turn their faces, he was despised; we did not value him. In fact, it was our diseases he bore, our pains from which he suffered; yet we regarded him as punished, stricken and afflicted by God. But he was wounded because of our crimes, crushed because of our sins; the disciplining that makes us whole fell on him, and by his bruises we are healed. (Isaiah 53:1-5, CJB)

(Jews do believe in the Messiah; they just don't believe that "Jesus" was the Messiah.  They see the Torahless "Jesus" of Christianity as a "false god" - and believing in another god (rightfully so) is forbidden in Torah. In this they are, ironically, correct!  "Jesus", as espoused in most of Christianity is indeed a Torahless "god" who (according to Christian dogma) came to replace God the Father and "forgive" all sin, while at the same time “abolishing Torah at the cross.”  If only the content of the New Testament were not so twisted in so many biased translations, Messiah Yeshua (the real name of Jesus) would NEVER have been viewed as having "replaced" His Father,  or as abandoning Torah!  Indeed, Torah and Everlasting Life through Yeshua are intimately connected, yet most of Christianity abandons Torah on the false belief that "Jesus" did away with it!)  

Judaism refuses to see the true, Torah obedient Messiah in scripture because -- just as Christians will refuse to understand Torah, Jews will refuse to "give up" the idea that "Jesus is a false god" and they will simply not come out of their ignorance and learn the truth.  And most Jews simply will not go against the teachings of their rabbis so they never get exposed to the real Yeshua , preferring instead to deny "Jesus" based on long-held untruth. 

 

So there you have it.  Christians remain in their ignorance of Torah, choosing instead to believe in a "Jesus" who "did away with His Father's instruction" to "give grace"; and Jews remain in their ignorance of the Messiah, choosing instead to remain steadfast in their denial that He has already come.

Remediation is possible in both cases.  There is no excuse today for the existence of these two opposing  positions.   All it takes is a little effort.

"From the cowardice that shrinks from new truth,
From the laziness that is content with half-truth,
From the arrogance that thinks it knows all truth,
Oh, Elohim of Truth, Deliver us."

-- Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan