20 Getting to Know the Unkown God

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Acts 17:16–21 ESV
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
In his Sunday morning message of January 7, 1855, a young Charles Haddon Spurgeon addressed the following words to his congregation:
It has been said by someone that “the proper study of mankind is man.” I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.…
Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. (“The Immutability of God,” in The New Park Street Pulpit [Pasadena, Tex.: Pilgrim, 1981], 1)
Although spoken well over a century ago, Spurgeon’s words speak forcefully to today’s church. In this age of liberalism, neoorthodoxy, pragmatism, psychology, emotionalism, experientialism, and man-centered theology, the church desperately needs a proper perspective of God.
To the unbelieving world, rife with skepticism, antisupernaturalism, rationalism, mysticism, and the hopeless despair each produces, the Christian offers the only message of hope. Man is not a cosmic accident, a personal being trapped in an impersonal universe. There is a God, who is both the creator of the universe and its sovereign ruler. Not only does He exist, but He is also knowable and has revealed Himself to man. God created men to know Him (John 17:3) and through that knowledge to glorify Him (Matt. 5:16; Rom. 15:6; 1 Cor. 6:20). Man’s intimate knowledge of God was lost in the Fall but is restored through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Sin is forgiven, and alienated people are reconciled to God for time and eternity.
For the believer, the highest level of spiritual maturity belongs to those who “know Him who has been from the beginning” (1 John 2:13). Knowing God is the key to contentment (Phil. 4:11), happiness (Pss. 33:12; 144:15), and peace (Isa. 26:3; Rom. 8:6). Faced with a crisis, it is “the people who know their God” who “will display strength and take action” (Dan. 11:32).
In Acts 17:16–34, Paul proclaims the good news that the one and only true and living God is knowable to the pagan city of Athens. The apostle had arrived there alone after having been forced to flee Thessalonica and Berea (17:1–15). He sent word back with his escort for Silas and Timothy to meet him there (17:15). It was not in his nature, however, to remain idle while he waited. The result was a classic confrontation between God’s man and Satan’s city.
As a Hellenized Jew, Paul had been exposed to Greek culture with its outstanding traditions in art and philosophy. Athens was the center of that culture. In its heyday, several centuries before Christ, it had been the greatest city in the world. Socrates, his brilliant student Plato, and Plato’s student Aristotle, perhaps the greatest and most influential philosopher of all time, taught there. So also did Epicurus, founder of Epicureanism, and Zeno, founder of Stoicism, two dominant philosophies.
By Paul’s day, Corinth had replaced Athens as the most important political and commercial center in Greece. Yet Athens had lost none of its cultural significance, was still the philosophical center of the ancient world, and was the home of the world’s most famous university. Athens was also a religious center, where almost every god in existence was worshiped. The pagan writer Petronius sarcastically quipped that it was easier to find a god in Athens than a man (R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles [Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1961], 708). Every public building was dedicated to a god, and statues of gods filled the city (17:16, 23).
It was that gross manifestation of pagan idolatry that stirred Paul to action. Luke notes that while Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was beholding the city full of idols. Rather than viewing it from the perspective of a tourist, he saw Athens as a city full of lost men and women, doomed to a Christless eternity.
Jerusalem moved the Lord both to tears and to anger, and Athens likewise stirred Paul to holy anger. Provoked does not bring out the full force of paroxunō, which means “to become angry, or infuriated.” Luke used the corresponding noun to describe the “sharp disagreement” between Paul and Barnabas (Acts 15:39). Paul hated idolatry because it robbed God of His glory (cf. Rom. 1:23). Nineteenth-century missionary Henry Martyn expressed what Paul must have felt. He wrote concerning a discussion he had with a Muslim:
Mirza Seid Ali told me of a distich (couplet) made by his friend in honour of a victory over the Russians. The sentiment was that Prince Abbas Mirza had killed so many Christians that Christ from the fourth heaven took hold of Mahomet’s [Muhammad’s] skirt to entreat him to desist. I was cut to the soul at this blasphemy. Mirza Seid Ali perceived that I was considerably disordered and asked what it was that was so offensive? I told him that “I could not endure existence if Jesus was not glorified; it would be hell to me, if He were to be always thus dishonoured.” He was astonished and again asked “Why?” “If any one pluck out your eyes,” I replied, “there is no saying why you feel pain;—it is feeling. It is because I am one with Christ that I am thus dreadfully wounded.” (Constance E. Padwick, Henry Martyn [Chicago: Moody, 1980], 225–26. Italics in the original.)
Paul channeled his emotion into action. So, because of his outrage over the Athenians’ blasphemy of the Lord God by their idolatry, he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. Following his normal pattern of ministry, Paul went on the Sabbath to his countrymen, reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles. The rest of the week, he took on all comers in the market place (Athens’s famed agora), dialoguing every day with those who happened to be present.
Not only did Athens affect Paul, but he also made an impact on the city. Among those he engaged in debate were some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. They, along with the Cynics, represented the three most popular contemporary schools of philosophy.
Central to Epicurean philosophy was the teaching that pleasure and the avoidance of pain are the chief end of man. They were materialists, who, while not denying the existence of the gods, believed they did not intervene in the affairs of men. They taught that, at death, the body and soul (both composed of atoms) disintegrate; there is no afterlife.
The Stoic philosophers, on the other hand, saw self-mastery as the greatest virtue. They believed self-mastery comes from being indifferent to both pleasure and pain, reaching the place where one feels nothing. In contrast to the practical atheism of the Epicureans, the Stoics were pantheists.
The extremes of Stoicism and Epicureanism sum up the futility of man’s existence apart from God. F. F. Bruce writes:
Stoicism and Epicureanism represent alternative attempts in pre-Christian paganism to come to terms with life, especially in times of uncertainty and hardship, and post-Christian paganism down to our own day has not been able to devise anything appreciably better. (The Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971], 351)
Although they differed radically in their philosophic beliefs, both Stoics and Epicureans were united in their contempt for Paul’s teaching. Some of them were saying derisively, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?” Spermologos (idle babbler) literally means “seed picker.” The word
“evoked images of a bird pecking indiscriminately at seeds in a barnyard. It referred to a dilettante, someone who picked up scraps of ideas here and there and passed them off as profundity with no depth of understanding at all.” (John B. Polhill, The New American Commentary: Acts [Nashville: Broadman, 1992], 367)
Others, misunderstanding completely Paul’s message, thought him to be a proclaimer of strange deities—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. They may have thought Paul used the term anastasis (resurrection) as the proper name of a goddess.
Paul created enough of a stir that finally they took him and brought him to the Areopagus. The Areopagus was a court, so named for the hill on which it had once met. The power of that tribunal had fluctuated over the centuries but in Roman times was considerable. (Athens was a free city in the Roman Empire, with the right of self-government.) Paul was not formally tried before this court (which several centuries earlier had condemned Socrates), but he was informally required to give an account of his teaching.
The proceedings opened with the question, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; we want to know therefore what these things mean.” They had no genuine interest in the gospel, however, as Luke’s parenthetical comment shows: (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.) Luke’s opinion of the Athenians’ love of novelty finds an echo in other ancient writers.
The theme of Paul’s message to the assembly was how to know the unknown God. That involves three steps: recognizing that God is, recognizing who He is, and recognizing what He has said.

RECOGNIZING THAT GOD IS (Romans 17:22-23)

Acts 17:22–23 ESV
22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.
Standing in the midst of the Areopagus, Paul began his address by conceding to them their religious devotion: “Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. He took as a point of contact something he observed while passing through and examining the objects of their worship: an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’
The Athenians had taken the first step toward knowing God in that they were supernaturalists. It is obviously impossible for those who deny God’s existence to know Him, since “he who comes to God must believe that He is” (Heb. 11:6). No one will search for a path to a destination they believe does not exist. And they must have believed there was a god (among all their deities) whom they did not know.
The Bible does not offer formal arguments for God’s existence. His existence is ultimately a matter of revelation and faith (Heb. 11:6; cf. John 1:18; 20:29). Such faith, however, is not a blind leap in the dark but is founded on fact. It is true that while God’s existence is not provable in the sense of a scientific experiment or a mathematical equation, it is rational and logical in a cause-and-effect world.
The Bible reveals powerful and convincing evidence for God’s existence. Externally, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands” (Ps. 19:1). Internally, “that which is known about God is evident within [people]; for God made it evident to them” (Rom. 1:19).
The law of cause and effect argues for God’s existence. Common sense dictates that every effect must have a cause. Yet there cannot be an endless chain of such causes. Therefore, there must be an uncaused first cause. Theologians refer to that line of reasoning as the cosmological argument. (For an exposition of this form of the cosmological argument, see Norman L. Geisler and Winfried Corduan, Philosophy of Religion [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988], 175ff.) An alternate form of the cosmological argument runs as follows: Everything that begins to exist has a cause. The universe began to exist. Therefore the universe must have a cause. (For a defense of this form of the cosmological argument, see William Lane Craig, Apologetics [Chicago: Moody, 1984], 73ff.; Francis J. Beckwith, “Philosophy and Belief in God: The Resurgence of Theism in Philosophical Circles,” The Master’s Seminary Journal 2 [Spring 1991]: 72ff.)
The Bible acknowledges the principle of cause and effect in Hebrews 3:4, where the writer of Hebrews asserts that “every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.” A house requires an efficient cause; it would be absurd to put a pile of building material in the path of a hurricane and expect the storm to assemble a house. How much more absurd is it to imagine that the immensely complex universe in which we live had no efficient cause?
Nature also displays remarkable evidence of design. Biologist Michael Pitman writes, “Through any but blinkered eyes the biological world shows clear signs of planning and order” (Adam and Evolution [London: Rider, 1984], 27). From the baffling complexity of the cell, to the miraculous transformation of caterpillars into butterflies, to the precise engineering of the earth to support life, examples of design are everywhere. Botanist Alan Radcliffe Smith cites one:
The Lady’s Slipper Orchid is an example of a 2-stamen orchid. As the common name implies, the lip is very distinctive, being shaped like a shoe or slipper. The inside of the lip is very smooth and this, together with the inrolled edges, prevents the easy departure of an insect visitor by the same way in which it came. Instead, it is forced by the shape of the lip and the nature of the surface to move towards the back, or point of attachment, where there are two small exits. In order to gain these exits, the insect must first pass beneath a stigma and then brush past one or other of the two stamens, which deposits pollen onto it, after which it is free to fly off. If it then goes to another slipper, it will pollinate it with the pollen gained from the previous one; the second slipper will not be on the same plant as only one flower is open on a given plant at any one time, and thus cross-fertilization is very efficiently effected.… The complexity of interaction between plant and insect is truly staggering and, for those who will see, it clearly bears the hallmark of the all-wise creator. (Cited by Pitman, Adam and Evolution, 82)
A plan requires a planner, a program requires a programmer, and design requires a designer. Since the world so clearly exhibits evidence of design, it must have had a Designer. That is the essence of the teleological argument for God’s existence: the order and complexity of the universe could not have arisen by random chance. The Bible also presents that truth. In Psalm 94:9 the psalmist wrote, “He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see?” Intelligence comes from intelligence, moral judgment from a moral being. To argue that they came from dead matter is the height of folly.
Since the evidence for God’s existence is so overwhelming, the question arises as to why there are atheists. The Bible teaches that the reason is not intellectual and rational but moral and spiritual. David wrote in Psalm 14:1, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ” That the foolishness in view is moral, not intellectual, is clear from the rest of the verse: “They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.” Atheism’s rejection of God appeals to people who wish to avoid judgment for their sinful lifestyle.
Romans 1:18–23 makes clear that the matter of rejecting God is willful and due to the love of sin:
Romans 1:18–23 ESV
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Into the confusion caused by conflicting philosophies and idolatry, Paul spoke forcefully the truth that the one true God not only exists but can also be known: What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. That God can be known is the clear teaching of the Bible (Deut. 4:35; 1 Kings 8:43; 1 Chron. 28:9; Ps. 9:10; Jer. 9:24; 24:7; 31:34; John 17:3). This God who can be known is the believer’s message of hope to the lost world.

RECOGNIZING WHO GOD IS (Romans 17:24-29)

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

Having established that God exists and can be known by men, Paul introduces his hearers to Him. He presents God as creator, ruler, giver, controller, and revealer.

CREATOR (Romans 17:24a)

The God who made the world and everything in it,

Paul’s bold assertion that God made the world and all things in it was a powerful and upsetting truth for some of the Athenians to hear. It ran contrary to the Epicureans, who believed matter was eternal and therefore had no creator, and to the Stoics, who as pantheists believed everything was part of God—who certainly couldn’t have created Himself. But it was still the basic approach required. Whenever the logic of a creator has been eliminated, people are cut off completely from God.
The truth that God is the creator of the universe and all it contains is just as unpopular in our day. The prevailing explanation by the ungodly for the origin of all things is evolution. It is taught dogmatically by its zealous adherents (including, sadly, many Christians) as a scientific fact as firmly established as the law of gravity. Yet evolution is not even a scientific theory (since it is not observable, repeatable, or testable), let alone an established fact.
The impressive scientific evidence against evolution can be briefly summarized as follows. First, the second law of thermodynamics shows that evolution is theoretically impossible. Second, the evidence of the fossil record shows evolution in fact did not take place. (Among the many helpful books presenting the scientific case against evolution are Michael Denton, Evolution: A Theory in Crisis [Bethesda, Md.: Adler and Adler, 1985]; Duane T. Gish, Evolution: The Fossils Still Say NO! [El Cajon, Calif.: Institute for Creation Research, 1995]; Henry M. Morris, The Biblical Basis for Modern Science [Grand Rapids: Baker, 1985]; Henry M. Morris and Gary E. Parker, What Is Creation Science? [San Diego: Master Book Publishers, 1984].)
The second law of thermodynamics, one of the most well-established principles in all of science, states that the natural tendency is for things to go from a more ordered to a less ordered state. Noted atheist Isaac Asimov acknowledged that “as far as we know, all changes are in the direction of increasing entropy, of increasing disorder, of increasing randomness, of running down” (cited in Henry M. Morris, ed., Scientific Creationism [San Diego: Creation-Life, 1976], 39). Yet, incredibly, evolutionists argue that precisely the opposite has happened. According to them, things have gone from a less ordered state to a more ordered one. Attempts to harmonize evolution with the second law of thermodynamics have not been successful, and it remains a powerful witness against evolution (cf. Emmett L. Williams, ed., Thermodynamics and the Development of Order [Norcross, Ga.: Creation Research Society Books, 1987]).
The only way to determine if evolution has happened is to examine the fossil record, which contains the history of life on earth. Although presented in popular literature and textbooks as proof for evolution, the fossil record is actually a major source of embarrassment for evolutionists. The innumerable transitional forms between phylogenetic groups demanded by evolution are simply not found. Although an evolutionist, David B. Kitts of the University of Oklahoma admits,
Despite the bright promise that paleontology provides a means of “seeing” evolution, it has presented some nasty difficulties for evolutionists the most notorious of which is the presence of “gaps” in the fossil record. Evolution requires intermediate forms between species and paleontology does not provide them. (“Paleontology and Evolutionary Theory,” Evolution 28 [September 1974]: 467)
Even Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard University, perhaps the most well-known contemporary defender of evolution, candidly admits,
The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil record persists as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of fossils. (“Evolution’s Erratic Pace,” Natural History LXXXVI [May 1977]: 14)
Paul’s affirmation that God made the world and all things in it finds its support in Scripture. The Bible opens with the simple declaration “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). In Psalm 146:5–6 the psalmist writes, “How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God; Who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them.” Isaiah asks rhetorically, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable” (Isa. 40:28). In Isaiah 45:18, Isaiah describes God as “the God who formed the earth and made it.” Jeremiah 10:12 says of God, “It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom; and by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.” Taking comfort in God’s power, Jeremiah exclaims, “Ah Lord God! Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee” (Jer. 32:17). Zechariah 12:1 refers to God as He “who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.”
The New Testament also teaches that God is the creator. Ephesians 3:9 declares that God “created all things.” Colossians 1:16 says of Jesus Christ, “By Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created by Him and for Him.” The great hymn of praise to God in Revelation 4:11 reads, “Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.” In Revelation 10:6 an angel “swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things in it, and the earth and the things in it, and the sea and the things in it.”
Still, the truth that God is the creator of all things is widely rejected—even by some who profess to believe in His existence. They see Him as a remote first cause, who merely set in motion the evolutionary process and can make no claim on anyone’s life. But the creator God can and does. Sinful men are uncomfortable with the thought that they are accountable to One who created them and hence owns them.
When preaching to Jews, Paul began with the Old Testament Scripture; but with Gentiles, he began with the need to explain the first cause (see the discussion of 14:15 in chapter 7 of this volume).

RULER (Romans 17:24b)

being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

Because God created them, He is Lord of heaven and earth, and their rightful ruler. Genesis 14:19 describes God as “possessor of heaven and earth,” while David says in Psalm 24:1, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it.” The psalmist wrote: “The Lord has established His throne in the heavens; and His sovereignty rules over all” (Ps. 103:19). Humbled by God’s devastating judgment on him, the pagan king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was forced to admit:
[God’s] dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, “What hast Thou done?” (Dan. 4:34–35)
The God who created the universe obviously does not dwell in temples made with hands. In 1 Kings 8:27 Solomon said, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain Thee, how much less this house which I have built!” (cf. 2 Chron. 2:6; 6:18). David expressed that same truth in Psalm 139:1–12:
O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, Thou dost know it all. Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, and laid Thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it. Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Thy hand will lead me, and Thy right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, and the light around me will be night,” even the darkness is not dark to Thee, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to Thee.
The folly of idolatry is most clearly seen in its denial of God’s infinity.

GIVER (Romans 17:25)

25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Paul points out the absurdity of imagining that God, the creator and ruler of the universe, should need to be served by human hands, as though He needed anything. Job 22:2–3 asks, “Can a vigorous man be of use to God.… Is there any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous, or profit if you make your ways perfect?” God declares to Israel:
I shall take no young bull out of your house, nor male goats out of your folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell you; for the world is Mine, and all it contains. (Ps. 50:9–12)
Far from needing anything from men, God gives to all life and breath and all things. Psalm 104:14–15 reads:
[God] causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the labor of man, so that he may bring forth food from the earth, and wine which makes man’s heart glad, so that he may make his face glisten with oil, and food which sustains man’s heart.
To the Romans Paul wrote, “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36). He commanded Timothy to “instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). “Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above,” notes James, “coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow” (James 1:17).
Nor does God give only to His children. Jesus said in Matthew 5:45 that God “causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” God blesses all men, even the most hardened sinners, with the benefits of common grace.

CONTROLLER (Romans 17:26)

26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

God is not only the sovereign ruler of the universe but also the controller of the affairs and destinies of men and nations. Paul declares that He made from one (Adam) every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. That statement was a blow to the national pride of the Greeks, who scornfully referred to non-Greeks as “barbarians.” All men are equal, because all were created by God. He determined their appointed times; the rise and fall of nations and empires are in His hands (cf. Dan. 2:36ff.; Luke 21:24). God also set the boundaries of their habitation, placing certain nations in specific geographical locations (Deut. 32:8) and determining the extent of their conquests (cf. Isa. 10:12–15).

REVEALER (Romans 17:27-29)

27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for

“ ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;

as even some of your own poets have said,

“ ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

God’s providential activity as creator, ruler, giver, and controller should move men to seek Him. Reason should send them from the greatest effect (the universe) back to the first cause—God. In all that He has done in creating and sustaining the universe, God has revealed Himself to mankind. Such self-disclosure should encourage men to grope for Him and find Him. The natural revelation of God in the human conscience (Rom. 2:14–15) and the physical world leaves all men without excuse (Rom. 1:18ff.), since He is not far from each one of us. Even those who never heard the gospel are still accountable to God for failing to live up to natural revelation. Had they done so, God would have brought them the special revelation they needed to be saved.
The Greeks certainly could not plead ignorance. Even their poets acknowledged the revelation of God in nature, though they wrongly saw it as a revelation of their false gods. The Cretan poet Epimenides noted that in Him we live and move and exist, while Aratus, from Paul’s home region of Cilicia, added, For we also are His offspring. Those quotes illustrate the universal revelation of God as creator, ruler, and sustainer. While Paul could easily have documented those truths from the Old Testament, he chose instead illustrations familiar to his pagan audience, who were unfamiliar with Scripture.
Since man is the offspring of God, as even the pagan poets acknowledged, it is foolish to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. If God created man, He must be more than a mere man-made idol. Paul used quotes from their own poets to highlight to his audience the absurdity of idolatry.
The best starting point for evangelizing pagans with no knowledge of the Scripture is to explain the power and Person behind the creation. Satan’s invention of evolution cuts off that path of reason that leads to God.

RECOGNIZING WHAT GOD HAS SAID (Romans 17:30-34)

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” 33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

To recognize that God exists, and even understand who He is, will not lead to a saving knowledge of Him. That comes only from an understanding of special revelation. Accordingly, Paul concludes his message by presenting to his hearers God’s special revelation in the Person of Jesus Christ.
The coming of Christ brought about a change in God’s dealing with humanity. In the past, God overlooked the times of ignorance, that is, He didn’t always intervene with special judgment (though sin always caused consequences) against the nations who did not know Him. But God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent. Natural revelation is insufficient to save, and merely serves to draw men to God. There is no salvation apart from Jesus Christ, “for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
There is coming a day in which God will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed—Jesus Christ. In John 5:22–27 Jesus said:
John 5:22–27 ESV
22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man.
God furnished proof of that to all men by raising Him from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus Christ showed God’s approval of Him, and qualified Him as judge. There are no excuses now—the proof of the Word of the Lord is all in. Sinners will be judged by what they do with that truth.
The response to Paul’s message was predictable, considering the contempt his hearers had previously expressed toward him (cf. v. 18). When they heard Paul speak of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, since there was no place in Greek thought for a bodily resurrection. Others, a little more charitably, said, “We shall hear you again concerning this.” They never would however, since Paul went out of their midst and soon left Athens, never to return.
Paul’s apologetic for Christianity was not entirely ignored, however. Luke notes that some men joined him and believed. They included Dionysius the Areopagite, a member of the Areopagus court, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. They not only recognized God’s existence and who He is but also took the final step and listened to what He said to them through His messenger. Because of that, they alone came to know the “unknown God.”
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