Our problem is not lack of knowledge, but pride

In "What Poverty Is and Isn't" Keely Emerine-Mix says,

We don't know what we need to know, and Who we need to know, to be saved from our sin and be reconciled to a Holy God. Without the proclamation and reception of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we are left with a knowledge gap as wide as the chasm between us and God. There's a Way, but it's not known to those who need it.

We could agree with that if what she had in mind is the biblical concept of knowing as a covenantal, personal act, but that does not seem to be what she has in view. Rather, she seems to be seeing it as a lack of information -- although maybe the sense that I am looking for can be said to be implicit in the use of the expression "proclamation and reception of the Gospel," because it is persons who proclaim the Gospel, and faithful reception of the Gospel is not possible without the personal work of God's Holy Spirit.

If a genuine lack of information was the issue, there would be no culpability. In that sense, the problem is not an information gap. In fact, if the problem was just a lack of information it would be our Creator's fault for having failed to provide the necessary information. But God says "they are without excuse" precisely because they actively sought to suppress the knowledge of the truth. The real problem is ethical rebellion arising out of pride and ingratitude.

We exist in contact with God at all times. We are confronted by God's reality in every fiber of our being. But we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. We reject the Good News of the forgiveness of sin because we are too proud to admit that we are sinners worthy of eternal damnation and in need of God's charity.

It would be a gross oversimplification if we were to suggest that every individual who is poor is poor because he sinned, and that every individual who is well off is well off because of his obedience. However, there is a very real sense in which we can say such things about an entire culture. However, even in that case we need to hedge our statements with the realization that both wealth and poverty can be inherited. America's overall prosperity in recent years has been largely due to the faithfulness of earlier generations of Christians rather than to any faithfulness on our part. Our progeny will inherit a much poorer world on account of our generation's widespread ethical rebellion. (Deut. 5:9-10)

One of the worst things that can befall a person is to be estranged from God while enjoying continual prosperity and good health. This is, sadly, the condition that many Americans are in today -- estranged from God and yet experiencing a long, healthy, easy life concluding in a relatively "easy" (minimized pain) death -- followed by eternal damnation. On the other hand, if the difficulties of living in material poverty happen to turn peoples' hearts toward God, it can be truly said that their poverty was used by God to be a source of blessing to them. But be that as it may, poverty, for all its many manifestations, is at bottom primarily a spiritual problem. Jesus came that we sinners might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly. When our hearts are in a right relationship with God, in principle we have become heirs of inestimable wealth, and eventually our outward circumstances can be expected to be transformed to reflect that.