One of the biggest battles Christians are facing now, is the battle against an apostate, new age, liberal thinking with the preaching that there are many pathways to God and it does not matter which god we serve and worship; because, after all, they all lead to the same place! I remember about nine years ago one of my friends left the Church because she just could not believe that our Church believed that Jesus is “the only way!”. Some non-Christians ask the question…,
“what about those people who worship different gods in the remote parts of the earth and never heard the name Jesus?”
The Bible proclaims in Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” The Gospel is being preached to all nations, like no other time in history and God will judge accordingly.
They may also ask…
“If someone lives their entire life as a “good person”, will they go to hell because they did not believe in Jesus”
The Bible gives us a clear answer.
“The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Psalm 53:1-3
We all need Jesus, He is the only one qualified to save us, by His redemptive work on the cross, not by our “good works”. The belief that we can reach God by any means, is not just a new age thinking, the idea is rooted in many cultures. In India today, there is a temple that is decorated by carvings of all the gods you can ever think of, circulating all the way to the sky; they go as far as to say that Christians are paupers (lacking) because we only have one God.
The Unknown God by loswl
When Paul visited Athens he found practically the same kind of worship taking place, the people of Athens were so religious that they had an alter for all the known gods, and just to make sure that they did not miss out on any, they erected an alter to “The Unknown God”. Paul took this as an opportunity to proclaim the good news to the people of Athens. He did this by revealing some truths about the unknown God:
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” Acts 17:22-31
The Truths Revealed About The Unknown God:
- He created the Universe and the Earth and everything in it!
- He does not live in temples made by man and does not need anything from man, because he gives everything!
- He made the first man and from that one man, made every nation!
- He determines how long each person has on the earth and where on the earth they will live!
- He placed people in different and remote places on the earth so that they will seek after him!
- In Him we live and have our being!
- We are His offspring!
- He is not made of Gold, Silver, stone or anything made by the design and skill of man!
- He has overlooked such worship in the past but now he expects better from man!
- He calls for all to repent!
- He will judge all men with Justice by Jesus!
- He has given us proof of this to all men by raising Jesus from the dead!
Paul was swimming upstream, while everyone around him was swimming downstream, but he still proclaimed the word of God and the truths revealed to Him by God. He was just as unpopular as any Christian today. How will you respond to the claims that there are millions of ways to God!, as proclaimed by world renowned, Oprah Winfrey and many evangelicals who are being deceived and have turned away from the Gospel of Christ and forgetting the first commandment of God.
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” Exodus 20:3
We must continue to proclaim the death, burial and resurrection of Christ in season and out of season because by this men will be saved.
7 thoughts on “The Unknown God Revealed”
Have you heard yourselves? All gods are made up. It’s so obvious if you ever think about it.
Don’t worry, i’m not staying to harrass you, I was on a search for images, but I had to drop a note.
Peace, Darren.
I respectfully agree with that statement Daz, “all gods are made up”; however this conversation was not highlighting the existence of the gods of past and present, but that of God. There is only one God and He is the I Am. In other words, He, God is the only one in history that ever said I Am God and the statement resounded true and He, God. is the only one to date that can speak that word and it remains true. There is too much evidence to support this fact throughout history for it to be falsified.
Why do you think we have not thought about “it”? However, it was not this deep thought that brought us face to face with the truth. Everything we proclaim about the God we know, was not revealed to us by flesh and blood, but by God, the one we will proclaim until the death of our mortal bodies.
Thanks for leaving your comment Daz, to answer your question…Yes, we have listened to ourselves, but it really does not matter what we say, we do not make the truth about God, we just proclaim it and whether we believe that there is a God or not, He still exist and we will be held accountable.
I agree with your statement too. “All gods are made up” millions of gods have been made up and are still being made up by man, ever wondered why mankind does that? why we just don’t live life and die and don’t worry about a God somewhere out there?
For He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation [settlements, lands, and abode], So that they should seek God, in hope that they might feel after him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us. Acts 17:26-27
I know from your statement you are including “God” too, but If all you see and know leads you to this conclusion, you must not have given great thought to His existence at all. Given the fact that we as humans are not “all knowing” This question of a God must rest upon our hearts, because we see the evidence of His creation in everything. We see His handy work in nature, the moon, stars, galaxies, animals, plants, we even see His work in the molecular levels of study and the mathematical language of the DNA structure.
We cannot take this question as lightly as your answer, so I implore you to give a little more thought to the question of His Existence.
I liked the way you wrote this message. You know? Those people that accuse GOD of being unjust because of people that died on their sins without knowing Jesus (as you know, the gospel of the Lord has not been preached yet to the world as a whole, but in parts.) People that didn’t know Jesus are still taken as guilty because GOD did not leave man on its own (Romans 1.18-21).
“Because the wrath of GOD is revealed from the Heavens against all wrongdoing and injustice of men that stop the truth with injustice; because what it is of GOD it is manifested unto them,and known to them. Because the invisible things of Him, His Eternal Power and Deity, make themselves clearly visible since the creation of the world, being understood by the means of the things made, so there is no excuse. For having known GOD, did not glorified Him as GOD, nor thanked Him, but they made their vain reasoning, and their stubborn heart was darkened. Stating themselves as wise, made themselves stubborn, and changed the glory of the un-corruptible GOD in resemblance of the image of the corruptible men, of birds, of four-legged and of reptiles.”
So, GOD leaves witnesses all around the Creation He Made, and the Creation glorifies Him, testifies of Him. Man is full of sin and will not accept. There is an example of this situation, of a man that accepted this truth.
A man named Job existed (according to the bible), and throughout the book that has his name, the name of “Israel” does not appear at all. This can lead us to the conclusion that GOD had not yet revealed Himself unto Abraham,and not even the name of Israel had been given to Yaakov (Abraham’s son) yet. Meaning that GOD had revealed Himself unto Iyov (Job) a long time before, or probably around the same time. GOD tells satan “Have you not (considered) seen mi servant Iyov? That there is no one like him on the earth,perfect man, reveres GOD and is separated from evil?”
Job knew that there was a GOD because of His Creation (it testifies of GOD, the wonders and the miracles of life). The thing is that GOD revealed Himself unto Iyov by Name and his friends knew also GOD by Name. GOD had, has, and is revealing Himself to the generations that seek the good. If this is so, GOD will reveal unto them.
Man that are evil of heart and do not intend to ask themselves “why am I here?” or never thought of the idea that is VERY CLEAR..”is there a Creator?”..Of course there is a Creator, these things that surround us cannot just “happen”. Life could just not have begun with lifeless things, but LIFE yields life.
Creation (heavens and the Earth) and GOD’s Power are called witnesses in the Bible against mankind. More obvious than this cannot be.
I hope what i wrote will help others.]
Hi Leo,
What you speak is true and of God. We pray the eyes of the unbeliever will open and see the truth of God, the truth of man is a lie. Yes, all the necessary proof for our God is all around us but man’s system of thinking and putting away the ways of God has caused God to give them over to the type of mindset they love – a reprobate one. Some of us were in that state too and God called us out of it through His Son Jesus Christ to a new mindset. The time is short. It’s important that we continue to spread the good news of Jesus Christ. I am encouraged. Blessings.
I remember studying this story in high school, (obviously not in the US) in a Religious Knowledge class. I was amazed at how brave Paul was to stand up in that place and proclaim the Gospel. Three things I learned from that study:
1. Don’t be afraid to speak to people who seemingly, do not want to hear the Word. Only God can tell the hearts condition of a man.
2. When you speak, you are planting a seed that will germinate in the hearer and may eventually grow into faith in Jesus.
3. God will give you the words to speak. Don’t try to over think your audience. Sometime they know more than you do about the things of this world, but, the things of God will shine light into darkness and give birth to faith.
Great work, and a well written commentary! I would just like to add.
Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.