Romans 1:18-23 – For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. ¹⁹ For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. ²⁰ 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. ²¹ 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. ²² Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

“Fire and Ice” – The sun sets over the icy shores of Caesar Creek Lake on a cold January evening.  Caesar Creek State Park, Waynesville, Ohio.

I cannot look at a sunset like the one I was blessed to watch earlier this evening without giving thanks and praise to God for his magnificent creation.  And yet, there are many who would say God does not exist, that this incredible, complex, and beautiful world we live in is merely the result of time and chance.  We as Christians are seen as fools for denying the likes of Darwin, and actually believing that there is a God and Creator who spoke all of this into existence, a God who is sovereign over the universe and all that is in it.

“Great thinkers” of yesterday and today are lauded, nee idolized, for their theories that explain everything from the origins of the cosmos to the origins of the amazing diversity of life found here on earth, especially if their theories do not require the Creator’s hand.  It is considered the height of scientific achievement to devise a newer and better explanation for how we came to exist on this random ball of water and rock orbiting a minor star on the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy, but only if that explanation does not involve the God of the Bible.

They scoff at the notion of idols because they no longer bow down before carved images of stone, and yet their theories and reliance on their own supposed knowledge are no less idols than those of ancient man we now unearth on some archaeological dig.  You see, anything that replaces the one true God as the sole object of our worship is an idol, whether a piece of wood or a prized scientific theory they are really no different.

Christian, take heart!  They are the ones who “suppress the truth.”  They are the ones who deny the overwhelming evidence that surrounds us, the evidence that cries out for no possible explanation other than our sovereign God and Creator.  They are the ones who will be seen in the end as the fools and objects of God’s wrath, because the evidence is so obvious that there can be only one explanation, “So they are without excuse.”

Read more about my “God is Revealed…“ category of posts

© Todd D. Nystrom and Todd the Hiker, 2014.