Introducing the Creator

“Imagine this scenario: you have to introduce someone who you really admire to a friend who really knows nothing about them. The person might be famous in their own field, but unknown outside of it. You might need to tell your friend something about the one you were introducing. You would want to tell them something that would help your friend to appreciate them. The Apostle Paul had that kind of a problem in ~50 AD when he was in Athens. He had been invited to address the philosophers on Mars Hill, the Areopagus.

“So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.” Acts 17:22-23 (ESV)

It was different than talking to his Jewish brothers or others who knew much about the Jewish ideas. How would he introduce his God? How could Paul introduce God so that these Pagan listeners could relate to him? He chose to start with the most fundamental way that we know God:

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, Acts 17:24-27 (ESV)

God is identified as the creator over and over through the Bible. God has ultimate ownership rights to all of the universe, including mankind by virtue of the fact that we owe our existence to Him. If the universe always existed, the God of the Bible does not exist. I look at the creation, the scientific evidence that demands a creator, the way the events of earth’s history have been fine-tuned to allow advanced life to exist and I am confident that a personal God exists. When I look at the Bible, I see evidence that the God of nature also reveals Himself through this book.  Some people could say, “but I didn’t have access to the Bible” or maybe “people didn’t tell me” or “they were such sorry witnesses that I just didn’t know about God”. The Apostle Paul shot this down in Romans 1.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Romans 1:18-23 (ESV)

God reveals Himself to all mankind through nature! Ultimately this means that all of mankind is responsible to their creator because His creation bears witness of Him.