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A Message to Unbelievers About God When the apostle Paul came to the city of Athens, he saw the plentiful evidence of their deeply-ingrained idolatry, and was stirred in his spirit to speak to them (Acts 17:16). After speaking with some at the Areopagus about Jesus and the resurrection, some wanted to hear more and he took the opportunity (vv. 17-22). Referring to the altar to “The Unknown God” [probably erected to not anger a god they might have overlooked], he proceeded to tell them about this God they did not know — the true God (vv. 23-31). In his words are some lessons we would all do well to heed, for they speak about the God we serve, and the God some of you who read this may not know. So what does Paul teach us about God? He Is Creator. (v. 24) The opening words of the Bible tell us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). The first two chapters tell us of His work in creation, and there are numerous references throughout the Bible that point back to this fact. If we deny the first verse of what is called God’s word, then we will have to deny everything else in it, too. This one verse gives us the basic factors of all creation: a force [God], action [created] space [the heavens], matter [the earth], and time [in the beginning]. The writer of the book of Hebrews, in speaking about what true faith is (Heb. 11:1), went on to say, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (v. 3). Don’t let the so-called ‘experts’ tell you that you cannot believe in anything you cannot see; the evidence of His creation is here for us to see (cf. Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:18-20). He Gives Us Life. (v. 25) Scientists will go through a long, intensive explanation as to how living beings actually live, but what they are really telling us is how we continue to live; they cannot tell you how we began to live, nor the actual explanation of why we live. That is beyond their ability to know or explain. But God’s word, once again, tells us plainly from where we came and how: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). He gives further detail in the next chapter when he reveals, “the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Gen. 2:7). If you don’t want to believe in God, you will, of course, reject this explanation, but the explanations of men are downright comical. And the God who gave us life continues to give us life in that He does not take it away [though He could] and He maintains His creation that we may live. Elihu said it well: “If He should set his heart to it and gather to Himself His spirit and His breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust” (Job 34:14, 15). Other passages speak of His continual care, providing for man and beast (cf. Psa. 104:10-30; 145:15, 16; 147:8, 9). God did not, as the deist argues, create it all and then leave it to itself. The Creator cares for His creation! He Set the Boundaries of Man’s Existence.(v. 26) Not only did God create mankind from one blood [literally, one father -— Adam], but He predetermined the location of each particular race and nation and when they would live there. We see the beginning of the divisions of the people at Babel, when He confused their languages and each went to his or her own lands, based on what language was spoken (cf. Gen. 11:1-9). Note there that it was God who “scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” He had the right to do so as Creator. Unfortunately, men have tried to make unnecessary distinctions among themselves because of skin color, physical differences in appearance, or geographical location on the earth, and used these distinctions to start wars and attempt to eliminate certain races from the face of the earth. If we remember that we all came from the same Creator and if we remember that, in Christ, there are no distinctions (cf. Gal. 3:28), we will putt away from us forever these foolish thoughts about one race being superior to another or one nation being more ‘righteous’ than another and redirect our focus on Christ and then set about helping our fellow man. He Wants Us To Seek Him. (v. 27) God established the boundaries of man’s existence and times of our existence to remind us that He is. An honest heart, upon examination of man’s history, could surely see that something greater than himself was at work. That ‘something greater’ is God! He has worked providentially throughout history to accomplish His will, and those workings are sometimes recorded in the Bible for us to see. Some of His workings we may never know, but He has left us evidence that He exists in the Creation itself (cf. Acts 14:17; Rom. 1:18-20). We cannot say we didn’t know or couldn’t know! We may not want to admit His existence, but we cannot say we didn’t have the evidence. He wants us to find Him! So how do we find Him? The evidence in Creation is enough to cause honest hearts to admit a Creator, but it is not enough to tell us what He wants us to do; that is where we turn to His divinely-inspired and written word, the Bible, to find what He would have us do. It is within God’s word that we find more about God and who He is, but we also find His will for us and the revelation that we are all sinners. He doesn’t tell us this just to make us feel bad; He wants us to then seek Him for the answer to our sins! He Demands Repentance. (v. 30) This same God who created us all, who cares for us, and who has established our place and time on earth that we might seek Him wants us to seek Him that we might have salvation from our sins and obtain forgiveness from Him, though we are clearly undeserving of it. When Paul spoke to these idolatrous Athenians, he no doubt looked around at the numerous idols and, thinking of man’s history of pagan idolatry, declared, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent.” No longer will God tolerate man following after the false gods or declaring themselves gods; now, He expects all men to listen to Him and what He has declared to us: that Jesus Christ is His Son and our Savior (cf. Matt. 17:5). It is tragic that even among professing believers, there are some religious leaders and preachers who are now saying repentance is unnecessary. Some will tell you, “God loves you as you are; just come to church and we’ll worry about the rest later.” Friends and brethren, if God loves us as we are, for what reason did Christ die? God loves us, yes (John 3:16), but not as we are! He wants us to change — repent! He Has Appointed Christ as Judge. (v. 31) Many people don’t like hearing “God” and “Judgment” in the same sentence because they mistakenly believe that God is too loving to condemn anyone to eternal punishment, though Jesus Himself said that would be the fate of many (cf. Matt. 7:13; 25:42-46; 13:41, 42). The fact is, though, Jesus Christ will be the judge and He will condemn many [the disobedient and unbelieving]; but He will reward some, too [the obedient believers]. By what will we be judged? Since judgment is certain (Heb. 9:27; 2nd Cor. 5:10), don’t we need to know the law by which we will be judged? Let me ask you this: If you were about to go to a foreign country and you knew that there was a possibility you would be brought before a judge at the end of your time there, wouldn’t you want to read up on their laws ahead of time to make sure you would not be jailed? In that same sense, we would be very wise to read the laws by which we will be judged for our eternal destination! But what law is that? Some people will tell you we are not under any law today, citing Romans 6:14. This is a gross misunderstanding of the text because Paul was trying to get them to see that they were no longer a law that only condemned them for their sins, but were now under the grace of God, which brought them forgiveness. The law [the Old Law] did not bring forgiveness, just condemnation; under Christ, there was forgiveness by grace. Let us not forget that without law, there is no sin (cf. Rom. 4:15); if there is no law, how will God condemn anyone? But there is a law (1st Cor. 9:21; Gal. 6:2) and it is that by which we will be judged (John 12:47, 48). Is this the God you know? —— Steven Harper
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