Caller:  I have some friends who use the excuse that if they don’t know, or don’t have the knowledge, then they won’t be held accountable, and I’m not sure how to get back to them.

Pastor Doug:  That’s a bad argument.  Let me tell you.  Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected knowledge”, now lack of knowledge and rejecting knowledge are two different things.  Not knowing because you can’t know is different from not knowing because you reject the opportunity.  It sounds to me like your friends are going to be destroyed, if they don’t repent, because they’re  rejecting knowledge.

Caller:  That’s what I’m afraid of.

Pastor Doug:  They have no excuse.  You know, if a person gets in a car and starts driving a brand new car, there’s an owner’s manual and they never do any maintenance, and they say ‘I thought if I didn’t look at the manual I wouldn’t have to do any maintenance’ and then the engine blows up, they can’t say, ‘but I didn’t know.’  That ignorance is not going to help them.  They had a manual right there.  So, if people have a map to heaven and they don’t get on the right road, they can’t say ‘Well, I’m not accountable because I didn’t have a map’, well-- they do.  The Bible is within reach.

Caller:  Okay.  What was that verse you quoted.

Pastor Doug:  Hosea 4:6

Caller:  Hosea 4:6.  Okay. That will hopefully help me put them on the right track.