And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
Paul spoke these words on Mars Hill to the idolatrous yet learned men of Athens, declaring to them the true God they ignorantly worshiped as Creator and Judge. The times of ignorance were the ages of darkness before Christ came, when God passed lightly over heathen idolatry. Now through His Son He has sent the light of truth and commands all men everywhere, high and low, to repent unto salvation because He has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness by the risen Christ. Greater light brings greater responsibility, so sins once committed in ignorance can no longer be indulged without guilt once clearer truth is given. No one can repent unless the Holy Spirit draws the heart, yet repentance is the immediate duty of the unconverted, turning at once from disobedience to Christ for forgiveness in preparation for the judgment.
Paul Preaching at Athens
Paul spoke these words on Mars Hill, the Areopagus, to the men of Athens, including Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who regarded his preaching of Jesus and the resurrection as strange doctrine. His hearers were Greek sages and great and learned men, a proud and self-sufficient people who with all their knowledge, refinement, and art were yet idolatrous and sunken in vice. He pointed them to their altar to the unknown God in order to declare the God they ignorantly worshiped. That God is the One who made the world and all things, Lord of heaven and earth, who does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is worshiped as needing anything. He gives to all life and breath and all things, made of one blood all nations to dwell on earth, and fixed their appointed times and boundaries so they should seek the Lord and find Him who is not far from any. In Him we live and move and have being and are His offspring, so that the Godhead is not like gold or silver or stone carved by man.
With tact born of divine love he rebuked their idolatry without making a direct attack upon their gods, but carefully drew their minds away from heathen deities to the true God who was to them unknown. Remaining faithful to God amid difficulty, he publicly proclaimed faith in Christ before them and warned of judgment to come. He met false philosophy with true philosophy, eloquence with eloquence, logic with logic, and science with science. His evidences were not of human invention but from God, bearing Divinity's stamp and of heavenly origin and divine character that no earthly power can quench. His reasoning met their logic, science, and philosophy, and his hearers were astonished and silenced.
Yet it did not bring the success he had hoped for, and few accepted the gospel. His work there with learning and eloquence disappointed him, and the poor effect showed that something above human wisdom, even the wisdom of learned men, is needed. Power must come from a higher source, and the Spirit must come into the work and sanctify every intellectual development in order to convict and convert sinners. A clever or elaborate presentation alone did not bring many to faith. Afterward he chose a different, simpler approach, pointing people to Christ as the Saviour of sinners, especially Christ crucified, as at Corinth, determining to know nothing else because the short lifetime leaves time for nothing else.
His labor in the very heart of paganism was not wholly in vain, for though many mocked and turned away, several became converts. Among them was Dionysius, one of the most prominent citizens, and some others who accepted the message and united themselves fully with the believers. His words, with the account of his attitude and surroundings, were handed down to all coming generations as a treasure of knowledge for the church. They bear witness of unshaken confidence and courage in loneliness and adversity and of victory gained for Christianity.
Overlooked Ignorance, Commanded Repentance
The times of ignorance are the ages of darkness before the advent of Christ, when the divine Ruler passed lightly over, bore lightly with, and overlooked the idolatry of the heathen. That overlooking belonged to the world's dark ages, when idolatrous ignorance prevailed without the light afterward given.
Now through His Son He has sent men the light of truth, and He commands all men everywhere to repent unto salvation. The command reaches not only the poor and humble but also the proud philosopher, the princes of the earth, and rulers. It is given because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the ordained Man, giving assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.
No one can repent unless the Holy Spirit works on the heart. The Saviour continually draws people to repentance, and they need only submit to that drawing for their hearts to be softened and melted in penitence. No one should wait until he believes he has already repented before turning toward Jesus. Repentance is the immediate duty of the unconverted and prepares people to meet God in peace at the judgment. It means turning from disobedience at once by accepting Christ as forgiver of sins, feeling is not its measure, waiting for deeper conviction is misleading, and God has already supplied on His part grace and power to turn the heart to love Jesus.
Greater Light Brings Accountability
God formerly bore with human ignorance, but greater light brings greater responsibility. Abundant opportunity is now given to understand Bible truth and to respond to it. Sins once committed in ignorance can no longer be indulged without guilt when clearer light is given. As truth reveals error, lives and characters must be changed to agree with that light, or people become more stubborn and perverse, incur guilt, and face condemnation in the judgment.
The times of ignorance were overlooked, but now that great light has been shining upon the church for the last thirty years the time of excuse is ended. God is watching to see what His people will do with this light. He requires aggressive work to warn the world, no trifling with mercy and warning, practice in harmony with known truth, wholehearted giving of self to Christ, and earnest zeal in learning of Christ to save souls. Failure to do even a thousandth part of what might be done leaves His people years behind where they might have been and wearies His patience.
Those who in ignorance accepted the changed day of rest and unwittingly placed themselves under Satan's banner were excused, but now that light has dawned it is demonstrated that the law of God needs no change. Jesus came to magnify the law, and His death for sinners proves heaven's law cannot be changed. All are now required to turn from the false sabbath and from disobedience at once by accepting Christ as forgiver of sins and by openly obeying God's law in keeping His Sabbath without shame. Feeling is not the measure of this turning, and waiting for deeper conviction is misleading, for God has already supplied on His part grace and power to turn the heart to love Jesus and to train thoughts to dwell on Him. Former ignorance does not excuse transgression once clear light is available, and people are now held responsible to heed the instruction and knowledge given, including guidance about health reform.
In long-suffering God gives opportunity to come to their senses and grants a time of probation, but now calls upon men everywhere to repent of transgression of His law. If they go on making gold and silver their god, erecting expensive buildings, and accumulating iniquity by false dealings, they may expect nothing but an outbreak of the Lord's indignation to extinguish the sinner. Those deceived by satanic agencies deceive others to their eternal ruin, and those foolish enough to trust in man and make flesh their arm will be deceived and deluded to certain ruin. Sin in physicians is not overlooked or excused because they are physicians. Physicians in health institutions are under the same obligation to follow Christ as workers in colleges or publishing houses, with strict honesty and fidelity in all dealings and no selfishness, dishonesty, hypocrisy, partiality, carelessness of morals, looseness, impurity, vice, or soul-destroying guilt under cover of the medical calling, but with the heart garrisoned with the grace of Christ and placed in the channel of light to do justice and judgment.
The deep wrong of taking large, exorbitant wages from God's treasury that were not earned or deserved is not overlooked while other conscientious workers doing faithful work in integrity receive small wages. Strict principle and equity are required, selfish robbery of the treasury brings sure repayment from God, and conversion requires returning to the treasury every dollar received above what should have been received.
Paul spoke these words on Mars Hill to the idolatrous yet learned men of Athens, declaring to them the true God they ignorantly worshiped as Creator and Judge. The times of ignorance were the ages of darkness before Christ came, when God passed lightly over heathen idolatry. Now through His Son He has sent the light of truth and commands all men everywhere, high and low, to repent unto salvation because He has appointed a day to judge the world in righteousness by the risen Christ. Greater light brings greater responsibility, so sins once committed in ignorance can no longer be indulged without guilt once clearer truth is given. No one can repent unless the Holy Spirit draws the heart, yet repentance is the immediate duty of the unconverted, turning at once from disobedience to Christ for forgiveness in preparation for the judgment.
Paul Preaching at Athens
Paul spoke these words on Mars Hill, the Areopagus, to the men of Athens, including Epicurean and Stoic philosophers who regarded his preaching of Jesus and the resurrection as strange doctrine. His hearers were Greek sages and great and learned men, a proud and self-sufficient people who with all their knowledge, refinement, and art were yet idolatrous and sunken in vice. He pointed them to their altar to the unknown God in order to declare the God they ignorantly worshiped. That God is the One who made the world and all things, Lord of heaven and earth, who does not dwell in temples made with hands nor is worshiped as needing anything. He gives to all life and breath and all things, made of one blood all nations to dwell on earth, and fixed their appointed times and boundaries so they should seek the Lord and find Him who is not far from any. In Him we live and move and have being and are His offspring, so that the Godhead is not like gold or silver or stone carved by man.
With tact born of divine love he rebuked their idolatry without making a direct attack upon their gods, but carefully drew their minds away from heathen deities to the true God who was to them unknown. Remaining faithful to God amid difficulty, he publicly proclaimed faith in Christ before them and warned of judgment to come. He met false philosophy with true philosophy, eloquence with eloquence, logic with logic, and science with science. His evidences were not of human invention but from God, bearing Divinity's stamp and of heavenly origin and divine character that no earthly power can quench. His reasoning met their logic, science, and philosophy, and his hearers were astonished and silenced.
Yet it did not bring the success he had hoped for, and few accepted the gospel. His work there with learning and eloquence disappointed him, and the poor effect showed that something above human wisdom, even the wisdom of learned men, is needed. Power must come from a higher source, and the Spirit must come into the work and sanctify every intellectual development in order to convict and convert sinners. A clever or elaborate presentation alone did not bring many to faith. Afterward he chose a different, simpler approach, pointing people to Christ as the Saviour of sinners, especially Christ crucified, as at Corinth, determining to know nothing else because the short lifetime leaves time for nothing else.
His labor in the very heart of paganism was not wholly in vain, for though many mocked and turned away, several became converts. Among them was Dionysius, one of the most prominent citizens, and some others who accepted the message and united themselves fully with the believers. His words, with the account of his attitude and surroundings, were handed down to all coming generations as a treasure of knowledge for the church. They bear witness of unshaken confidence and courage in loneliness and adversity and of victory gained for Christianity.
Overlooked Ignorance, Commanded Repentance
The times of ignorance are the ages of darkness before the advent of Christ, when the divine Ruler passed lightly over, bore lightly with, and overlooked the idolatry of the heathen. That overlooking belonged to the world's dark ages, when idolatrous ignorance prevailed without the light afterward given.
Now through His Son He has sent men the light of truth, and He commands all men everywhere to repent unto salvation. The command reaches not only the poor and humble but also the proud philosopher, the princes of the earth, and rulers. It is given because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the ordained Man, giving assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.
No one can repent unless the Holy Spirit works on the heart. The Saviour continually draws people to repentance, and they need only submit to that drawing for their hearts to be softened and melted in penitence. No one should wait until he believes he has already repented before turning toward Jesus. Repentance is the immediate duty of the unconverted and prepares people to meet God in peace at the judgment. It means turning from disobedience at once by accepting Christ as forgiver of sins, feeling is not its measure, waiting for deeper conviction is misleading, and God has already supplied on His part grace and power to turn the heart to love Jesus.
Greater Light Brings Accountability
God formerly bore with human ignorance, but greater light brings greater responsibility. Abundant opportunity is now given to understand Bible truth and to respond to it. Sins once committed in ignorance can no longer be indulged without guilt when clearer light is given. As truth reveals error, lives and characters must be changed to agree with that light, or people become more stubborn and perverse, incur guilt, and face condemnation in the judgment.
The times of ignorance were overlooked, but now that great light has been shining upon the church for the last thirty years the time of excuse is ended. God is watching to see what His people will do with this light. He requires aggressive work to warn the world, no trifling with mercy and warning, practice in harmony with known truth, wholehearted giving of self to Christ, and earnest zeal in learning of Christ to save souls. Failure to do even a thousandth part of what might be done leaves His people years behind where they might have been and wearies His patience.
Those who in ignorance accepted the changed day of rest and unwittingly placed themselves under Satan's banner were excused, but now that light has dawned it is demonstrated that the law of God needs no change. Jesus came to magnify the law, and His death for sinners proves heaven's law cannot be changed. All are now required to turn from the false sabbath and from disobedience at once by accepting Christ as forgiver of sins and by openly obeying God's law in keeping His Sabbath without shame. Feeling is not the measure of this turning, and waiting for deeper conviction is misleading, for God has already supplied on His part grace and power to turn the heart to love Jesus and to train thoughts to dwell on Him. Former ignorance does not excuse transgression once clear light is available, and people are now held responsible to heed the instruction and knowledge given, including guidance about health reform.
In long-suffering God gives opportunity to come to their senses and grants a time of probation, but now calls upon men everywhere to repent of transgression of His law. If they go on making gold and silver their god, erecting expensive buildings, and accumulating iniquity by false dealings, they may expect nothing but an outbreak of the Lord's indignation to extinguish the sinner. Those deceived by satanic agencies deceive others to their eternal ruin, and those foolish enough to trust in man and make flesh their arm will be deceived and deluded to certain ruin. Sin in physicians is not overlooked or excused because they are physicians. Physicians in health institutions are under the same obligation to follow Christ as workers in colleges or publishing houses, with strict honesty and fidelity in all dealings and no selfishness, dishonesty, hypocrisy, partiality, carelessness of morals, looseness, impurity, vice, or soul-destroying guilt under cover of the medical calling, but with the heart garrisoned with the grace of Christ and placed in the channel of light to do justice and judgment.
The deep wrong of taking large, exorbitant wages from God's treasury that were not earned or deserved is not overlooked while other conscientious workers doing faithful work in integrity receive small wages. Strict principle and equity are required, selfish robbery of the treasury brings sure repayment from God, and conversion requires returning to the treasury every dollar received above what should have been received.