ChristOnly: Recent Episodes
Eric Voellm
Excerpt: The intelligent man and the ambitious man get all puffed up by himself with his knowledge and his learning. And remember, knowledge puffs up, love builds up. So the intelligent man is always in the business of accumulating knowledge because knowledge is power, as we so often hear. And so he puffs himself up, makes him look big, makes him look powerful. And so he adopts an attitude of contempt and even hatred for those he considers of lesser quality. And having adopted a contempt, now he feels entitled to exploit other men as his natural right because of his obviously superior status and his obviously superior intelligence, who was able to do, by virtue of his intelligence, make good and sound and just decisions because he is intelligent. And they believe their decisions to be right.
Intelligent people have great respect and admiration for one another, and they puff each other up as well as themselves, and hang medals and certificates on their chest and on their walls, proving to all who might come by and see that they are intelligent visionaries who know what's good for all of us, and they can see the future as these visionaries. But you know what? Like I said before, these intelligent people are deluded in the sense that intelligence is not wisdom. It doesn't get you to the truth of the matter. It doesn't help you to understand people, and what our true situation is, and how we should truly be treated and governed. Intelligence is so often put into the service of darkness, into the service of evil; but wisdom is always put into the service of God. God is looking for men of wisdom. He's not looking for men of intelligence. Intelligence is of nothing to him. He's not impressed by your intelligence. How can the being who created all this out of nothing be impressed by man's intelligence?
No, he's not impressed by intelligence at all. He is impressed if man seeks wisdom because wisdom leads to all the virtues, as wisdom leads to faith. Wisdom leads to love. Wisdom leads to joy. Wisdom leads to a deeper existence. How many intelligent men have driven the world into despair, into violence, into anarchy, into chaos, into murder, into all kinds of evil things? Marx and Darwin and Nietzsche and Kant and Freud and so many other charlatans. Men of high intelligence have led the world so astray, and their intelligent thinking led us into spiritual chaos 'cause their intelligence is not wisdom. They know their facts and they know their figures, but they don't know the truth, and they don't know that the truth will set us free. They don't know the difference between good and evil. It is the wise man that rules justly to the benefit of all. It is the wise man that God is looking for. Intelligence is always seeking and pursuing earthly objectives. Wisdom is from heaven, intelligence is from nature. And wisdom is spiritual, and it pursues the objectives of truth and love and purity and justice. It is the wise man that God is looking for.
In the story of Solomon, that impressed God, that when he asked Solomon, "I'll give you anything you want because your father was David, and as a reward for being this or that, or for making this decision or that decision. Anything you want, Solomon, is yours. The riches, the power, all the kingdom. Anything you want, Solomon." And what did Solomon ask for? Wisdom. He asked for wisdom because Solomon knows that wisdom is the fount of all truth and goodness and decency, and that wisdom ends in God. That's where wisdom leads. So it's wisdom that God is seeking in us; wisdom is what delights God. Intelligence is given to us through our DNA. Wisdom is given to us by God's Spirit. So God seeks wise men and wise women, people of discerning hearts and good judgment, who know God, and seek justice and seek mercy, and seek sacrifice and love and kindness and patience. These are the things that God is looking for. These are the people that God is trying to mold and develop.
Why Christ Only? Listen to Eric explain how this ministry made it onto a podcast, and what to expect in upcoming episodes.