Sometimes, the most difficult words to say are “I don’t know.” Saying these words means that we don’t have the answer to the particular question at hand. Often, we like to pretend like we know it all and, as a result, we cannot bring ourselves to admit that there is actually something that we do not know. I’ve seen this many times in my own personal interactions with others regarding life in general. I’ve had people making stuff up to me in an effort to appear as if they really knew. Sadly, I’ve done the same thing to others trying to prove my “intelligence” on a particular subject about which I really knew nothing. The reality is that we don’t know everything. That doesn’t mean that we have a low IQ or anything like that. There is just too much information to be learned and we will never master every detail of every subject. This is also true when it comes to Bible knowledge. While we should always strive to study and learn all that we can (e.g., 2 Tim. 2:15), we will never know the perfect understanding of every text in the Bible. At times, we may simply not have enough information to know the “what” or “why” of something (e.g., what Jesus wrote on the ground, why Nicodemus came at night, what was Paul’s thorn in the flesh, who wrote Hebrews). I’ve seen good brethren spend hours debating topics like these for which there isn’t a known right answer. Other times, the information that we do have may be very difficult for us to understand properly. For example, in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12, Paul discusses “the man of lawlessness.” Clearly, this was something that he expected the Thessalonians to understand. However, they were privy to previous conversations that Paul had with them that we don’t have to give us better insight. While there are many good educated guesses out there (e.g., Roman Emperor, the Roman papacy, the personification of evil, a figure still to come in the end of times), the truth is that no one can really be dogmatic about his/her interpretation because of the difficulty of the text. While I certainly believe that some things are so clearly revealed and demand dogmatism (e.g., the deity of Christ, the essentiality of baptism), there are just some texts that are not as black and white as we would desire. I have learned that it is perfectly acceptable to say “I don’t know” about those texts. That doesn’t make me a bad preacher. I never want to offer up something as a fact unless I know absolutely that it is true. I certainly believe that a person has a right to have an opinion about these texts and even has a right to offer up that opinion as long as it is presented as an opinion instead of a fact. Like everyone, I have very strong opinions. For example, I don’t believe that Paul wrote Hebrews, but I’ll be the first to admit that I may be wrong. Also, I believe that the Greek word “anti” in 1 Cor. 11:15 (often translated as “because of”) means that a woman with long hair could simply wear her hair in place of a man-made covering like a veil, but I know many good brethren who would disagree with me and they are probably right. All that I am suggesting is that we be honest enough with the text to say that we don’t know conclusively about the things that aren’t black and white. For us to think that we have to have all of the answers on everything is arrogance on our part. The oldest and wisest of preachers would still tell you that there are things that they don’t understand. We should always strive to find answers, but sometimes we just simply don’t know and that is o.k.
