How Are God’s Attributes “Clearly Perceived” by Everyone?

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2016

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Romans 1 tells us that the existence of God, along with his attributes, are evident to everyone. Does this mean that even atheists have some knowledge of God?

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	What does Paul mean in Romans 1 when he writes that God's invisible attributes, namely his
0:13.7	eternal power and divine nature, are plain and clearly perceived by everyone?
0:20.5	I have heard this verse used to say that there is no such thing as an atheist, but there
0:24.9	have been times when I have felt unsure whether God truly exists even though I want to
0:28.6	believe that he does. How can I reconcile my experience with Paul's words?
0:34.0	One of the great things about the Bible, one of the things that I love so much is that it creates
0:41.2	problems in itself and then solves them problems which we think we created with no solution.
0:52.2	Yeah, right. So for example, the Bible says in Romans 121, this is what Chris is referring to,
1:01.2	they knew God, referring to every person who has ever failed to honor God and give thanks to him.
1:11.1	So verse 21 goes like this, although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to
1:19.6	him. So every person who fails to worship God knows God, Paul says, then we meet someone
1:32.4	or maybe we are that one who says, well, I totally do not know God and I do not honor him as God
1:40.7	and I do not give him thanks because I don't even believe God exists. And suddenly we think,
1:45.7	oh, we've created a problem for the Bible. Well, we have it because the Bible already created
1:53.3	that problem five times over. It isn't our atheist friend or our atheist self that created this
2:03.2	problem for the Bible. The Bible created the problem for the Bible so that we would not be surprised
2:11.2	when we create the problem for the Bible. Four times Paul says that people don't know God.
2:24.5	1 Corinthians 121, since in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom.
2:32.5	It pleased God through the follow what we preached to say those who believe or Galatians 4.8.
2:39.6	Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those who were by nature no gods or
2:47.3	first Thessalonians 4.4. Each of you should know how to control his own body and holiness and
2:53.9	honor not in the Passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God. Or 2 Thessalonians 1.8,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Desiring God, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Desiring God and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.