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NASB | Acts 17:30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 17:30 "Therefore God overlooked and disregarded the former ages of ignorance; but now He commands all people everywhere to repent [that is, to change their old way of thinking, to regret their past sins, and to seek God's purpose for their lives], |
Bible Question:
AO, thank you for your answer. It really addressed the topic of the question. But I was left wondering concerning the following comment: " could it be they had not asked? In other words, is it not possible that none questioned the truth of their pagan religion? Instead of imploring God for the truth, they set off to find it through man-made avenues." But this kind of hypothesis rules out the unique evidences that single individuals out of pagan societies could really have a fair opportunity to be saved. There doesn't seem to be any pattern from among the pagans that could justify that these isolated individuals had the same fair choice as the evangelized do. Which makes the following verses sound contradictory: NAS Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. NAS Acts 17:30 "Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, NAS Acts 14:16 "And in the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; Thank you, Finder |
Bible Answer: As I see it, all that must be known about God, can be known. All men will stand before God without excuse. God has or will reveal Himself to "all men" either by way of internal special revelation, or external natural revelation. Rom 1:20 NLT From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God. Rom. 1:19-20 "makes it clear, that there is a revelation of God in nature that every man sees and knows. It is clear enough so that no one can miss it and universal enough so that no one can claim to be ignorant of it." Verse 19 says it two different times: "Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them." Then verse 20 says it again: "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen." "The truth about God is clearly seen in creation. That truth is available to every person. That truth "gets through" to every person. That explains why every culture on earth has some conception of a Supreme Being" Robert Mounce offers this helpful summary of the biblical teaching (Themes From Romans, p.12): No one is excluded. No one can get away with saying, "I don't believe in God." As someone has said, "You can't turn out the light by closing your eyes." The heathen who has never heard the gospel or the name of Jesus is as responsible as anyone else. Not for failing to accept a message he has never heard, but for rejecting the knowledge of God revealed in creation. People do not suffer eternal exclusion from God for not having been born to the right parents in the right part of the world, but for rejecting that knowledge of God which is readily available for all. Adrian Rogers tells of a man who owns a trucking company in the south where part of the hiring process is a lie detector test on which one of the questions is “Do you believe in God?". They have observed that even avowed atheists who answer this question "no" are shown to be liars by the lie detector! Note - I included some various short comments in my above reply from sources unknown to me." |