{"id":7881,"date":"2020-07-30T14:46:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T14:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=7881"},"modified":"2022-02-21T16:34:21","modified_gmt":"2022-02-21T16:34:21","slug":"fools-ancient-and-modern-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=7881","title":{"rendered":"Fools\u2014Ancient and Modern"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\"><strong>Note:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 1<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>\u00a0\u2026because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, <\/strong><strong><em>even<\/em><\/strong><strong> his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>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)<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <span style=\"font-size: 12pt;\">In the above scripture, Paul, the irrepressible apostle of Christ, described the Atheists, Humanists, and Secularists of ages past, declaring of them, \u201cProfessing themselves to be wise, they became fools\u201d (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.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paul continued, reporting the consequences of their denial and rejection of God:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>First<\/strong>, they invented their own \u201dgods\u201d and began worshiping creatures instead of the Creator (men are incurably \u201creligious\u201d and must worship something). Do not miss the irony of men, the apex of God\u2019s creation, bowing before images of other mere men and even of lower life forms (v. 23).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Second<\/strong>, denying God meant abandoning His benevolent law; they exchanged \u201cthe truth of God for a lie\u201d (v. 25a). In their moral and spiritual vacuum, they strayed into the forbidden fulfillment of every imaginable \u201cvile passion\u201d (including murder, deceit, absence of natural affection, and male and female homosexual practices) (vv. 26\u201331).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\"><strong>Third<\/strong>, 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 \u201cwithout excuse\u201d for their behavior (v. 20b). Thus \u201cGod gave them up\u201d to their own dedicated rebellion and wickedness (vv. 24, 26, 28). God is longsuffering (2 Pet. 3:9), but He \u201cshall not strive with man forever\u201d 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.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 God\u2019s 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\u2014which our deepest space probes cannot begin to fathom\u2014is the result of a huge, witless, inexplicable \u201cexplosion\u201d and that life \u201csomehow\u201d sprang from that which never lived.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The elitist God-denying academics, philosophers, and scientists of our day are \u201cwithout excuse,\u201d for \u201cprofessing themselves to be wise, they became fools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note:<\/strong> This article was written for and published in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX,<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">February 28, 2014. DM]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution:<\/strong> From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 1\u00a0 page.] \u00a0\u2026because 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&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=7881\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  Fools\u2014Ancient and Modern<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91,110,18,193,115,194,200,92,214,33,201,202,217,250],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-evolution","category-false-teachersdoctrine","category-god-2","category-god","category-fear-of","category-worship-of","category-humanism","category-hypocrisy","category-moral-issues","category-religion","category-practice-of","category-secularism","category-spiritual-maturity","wpcat-91-id","wpcat-110-id","wpcat-18-id","wpcat-193-id","wpcat-115-id","wpcat-194-id","wpcat-200-id","wpcat-92-id","wpcat-214-id","wpcat-33-id","wpcat-201-id","wpcat-202-id","wpcat-217-id","wpcat-250-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7881"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7881\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19023,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7881\/revisions\/19023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}