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…because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them.
For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse:
because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. (Rom. 1:19-21)
In the above scripture, Paul, the irrepressible apostle of Christ, described the Atheists, Humanists, and Secularists of ages past, declaring of them, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (v. 22). To such folk, he said that God had manifested His existence clearly in the things He had created. However, they rejected the abundant evidence in their vain and senseless reasoning, thereby corrupting their hearts.
Paul continued, reporting the consequences of their denial and rejection of God:
- First, they invented their own ”gods” and began worshiping creatures instead of the Creator (men are incurably “religious” and must worship something). Do not miss the irony of men, the apex of God’s creation, bowing before images of other mere men and even of lower life forms (v. 23).
- Second, denying God meant abandoning His benevolent law; they exchanged “the truth of God for a lie” (v. 25a). In their moral and spiritual vacuum, they strayed into the forbidden fulfillment of every imaginable “vile passion” (including murder, deceit, absence of natural affection, and male and female homosexual practices) (vv. 26–31).
- Third, they brought the wrath of God down upon themselves (v. 18). Because of the wealth of evidence for His existence and His benevolence and because they chose the lies of their own dark hearts over His Truth, they were “without excuse” for their behavior (v. 20b). Thus “God gave them up” to their own dedicated rebellion and wickedness (vv. 24, 26, 28). God is longsuffering (2 Pet. 3:9), but He “shall not strive with man forever” when he is determined to persevere in wickedness (Gen. 6:3). Make no mistake: Men can become so perversely corrupt that even God gives up on them.
God’s moral attributes and His moral requirements of us are static (Psa. 102:27; Heb. 13:8). His attitude has not changed toward those in our time who, in the face of the overabundance of evidence of His existence and creative power, obstinately deny Him. It is abject hypocrisy to admit (as every Atheist must) that even a paper clip had a designer and a maker, but then insist that the vast universe—which our deepest space probes cannot begin to fathom—is the result of a huge, witless, inexplicable “explosion” and that life “somehow” sprang from that which never lived.
The elitist God-denying academics, philosophers, and scientists of our day are “without excuse,” for “professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.”
[Note: This article was written for and published in the Denton Record-Chronicle, Denton, TX,February 28, 2014. DM]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
