What does the word blind mean? It simply means the inability to see. When we are not able to see physical objects with our eyes we are physically blind. We can also be blind to events or happenings in our life because we don't want to acknowledge those events or we simply just don't get it. A husband or wife can be blind to a spouse who is cheating on them. A father or mother can be blind to the fact that their child is using drugs.

Blindness has many form but the blindness talked about in this article is spiritual blindness. Being spiritually blind has eternal consequences yet most the world remains in spiritual blindness. The world "blind" appears 73 times and the word "blindness" appears 7 times. In the book of Isaiah, addressing the people of Israel in chapter 43, states, " 8 Bring out the blind people who have eyes, And the deaf who have ears."

Here Isaiah was saying that although his people had eyes to see and ears to hear, they were not hearing or seeing. What were they doing? They were building idols to worship, falling into sin, and completely ignoring God and His commandments. They were blind to their very own history and they had to pay severe consequences for their spiritual blindness. This spiritual blindness culminated in the rejection of their Messiah, Jerusalem being destroyed, and the Jewish people having to live among other nations for almost 2 thousand years

The world today is becoming blind to its own history and blind to the things of God. In fact, the Bible itself predicts a time of complete spiritual blindness which will result in 7 years of hell on earth. The theme of An Unseen World is "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

If what we see is only temporary and what we do not see is eternal, how then do we start looking at eternal things if we are blind to them? Most people live each day giving little thought to the fact that they could be dead tomorrow. After death, then what? Pretending death will not come for you does not change the fact that it will.

The fact is every person on earth is born spiritually blind. They are born with a sin nature and cannot understand or ever comprehend the things of God until their spiritual blinders are removed and it is God who removes the blinders.

An example of this is given when Jesus appeared by the two men walking on the road to Emmaus. Jesus expounded on all the scriptures that referred to Him and by the end of the day, "31 ....their eyes were opened and they knew Him; and He vanished from their sight".

To lose our spiritual blinders we have to say yes to the gospel message: Christ died on the cross to atone for your sin and mine. We have to accept that free gift of pardon. When we do, God puts His spirit into us which begins the process of of removing our spiritual blindness. We begin to see things we never saw before as we pray and read the Holy Bible.

The Bible talks about 3 groups of people who are blind. The first group is Israel or, more specifically, the Jews. Jesus Christ is the Jewish Messiah yet most of the Jewish people reject this truth. The Jewish people are still waiting on their promised Messiah being blind to the simple truth that He has already came and He promised that He would not return to Israel until that nation, in one unified voice, cries out for Jesus.

This will happen during the coming tribulation period after the false messiah is exposed and begins to persecute the Jewish people.

Why is this happening to Israel? What is wrong with those people? Why can't they simply read the old testament prophecies that talk about Jesus and come to an understanding Jesus was indeed the Messiah. The scriptures answer the question, "For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in." Romans 11:25

Part of the reason Israel is spiritually blind is so the Gentile people would have an opportunity to get to know Christ. The scripture states that the time of the Gentiles is limited. One day in the future it will be the Jew who rules the planet not the Gentile. That is why the country of Israel is so hated today. It is a legitimate threat to Gentile control and Gentile control is, in fact, controlled by Satan.

Islam is simply a tool that Satan will use to try and destroy Israel in an effort to prolong his being cast into the lake of fire.

The second group of blind people mentioned in scripture is unbelievers. Anyone who rejects the gospel of Christ is spiritually blind and somewhat of a fool.

Paul states in Ephesians 4 "17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the a Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness."

I get so tired of hearing a narrator droning on and on about how a certain species of animal evolved over millions of years to become what it is today. These narrators state these assumptions as if these were absolute validated facts but it is really nothing more than a fairy tale. There is no truth in it.

Evolution is an invention of a non believer. The inventors of the theory of evolution rejected the spiritual truth of the Holy Bible and invented a truth of their own. In other words, they exchanged the truth for a lie.

What about those people who have never read a Bible or heard the name of Christ? Do they have a legitimate excuse for being spiritually blind or do they behave like most of the world and refuse to see the truth?

Paul tells us that creation itself is proof of God. In Romans Chapter 1 Paul states, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,".

Paul states that the physical creation is the proof of the existence of an unseen God. We see his invisible attributes as we are fearfully and wonderfully made. There is no way our complex bio systems happened by chance. Paul also tells us that man has no excuse for rejecting this truth yet most of man does exactly that. He also tells us this is due to mankind being blind in their hearts to the truth.

One of the most frustrating things in the world is to tell someone a truth and them not believe you. This happens everyday in every walk of life. A child will tell a parent he did not break something and the parent does not believe the child even though the child is telling the truth. A parent gets frustrated when a child does something that he or she was warned not to but does it anyway because they did not believe the truth then they get hurt or in trouble.

I imagine God gets frustrated with us at times but He is more patient than we are.

A third kind of blindness mentioned in scripture is when a true believer starts believing something other than the truth. There is much teaching in the modern day church that is simply not true and cannot be found in scripture. God is not a great banker in the sky waiting to multiply bank accounts of those people who give money to a church nor He is going to bless any ministry of a pastor who is a practicing homosexual or even an adulterer yet the church promises prosperity in this life if you are a Christian and says it is okay to be gay as long as you keep it to yourself.

The abundant life promised in scripture does not mean a life full of material possessions but a life that is full and satisfying.

Peter stated in his second letter that Christians should have certain traits: faith, virtue, knowledge, self control, perseverance, Godliness and brotherly kindness. Believers who did not exhibit these traits were considered blind once again, "9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins".

Light is required for us to see and Jesus is the light of the world who has given us the light of His word so we can become lights unto others. Are we going to allow our lights to shine and lead people to Christ or are we going to become the blind leading the blind?

Copyright 2009 by Gary Goodworth