Page 4 - Bible Doctrines II w videos short

because of the following reasons. 1) What was supposed to be known about God was evident through
the creation of the world (vv19-20). Paul said that God the Father chose to expose Himself to man for no
other purpose except His desire to be known to man. Isn’t that awesome? 2) And they themselves knew
God but they did not worship or express thankfulness to Him. How did they know God? Nobody knows
but since Scripture is truthful and trustworthy, man through inner senses somehow knew that God
existed. On this, Millard J. Erickson summarizes well by saying that “Neither humanity’s natural
limitations nor the effects of sin and the fall prevent humans from recognizing and correctly interpreting
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the Creator’s handiwork.”

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In Psalm 14:1; cf. 53:1, the author says, “ The fool says in his heart, “There’s no God.” They are corrupt;
they do vile deeds. There is no one who does good” (CSB). From those passages above, we find that
while people have the innate sense of the existence of God, still, as Wayne Grudem notes, they “actively
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or willfully reject” the existence of God. But then, what causes this rejection of the existence of God?
The passages we have looked at above including Psalms 10:3-4 state that it is sin that causes that active,
willful, and prideful rejection of God’s existence.

How can this sin be overcome? From 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, apostle Paul says, “ In their case, the god of
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this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the
glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord,
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and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. For God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has
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shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ” (CSB).
From this text, important truths can be observed. First, Paul mentions the one behind the blinding of
people in order to keep them from seeing the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. That is, the god
of this age, Satan. Second, he states the proclamation of Jesus Christ as Lord as one of the greatest
means by which people who are blind would come to the knowledge of God. Third, he and his
companions denied preaching themselves to people because in the message about them or their
achievements there is no revelation of the righteousness of God, that is, salvation by grace through faith
in Christ Jesus (cf. Rom. 1:16-17). Third, since it is God who declared that light should shine out of
darkness and that He shone in the apostles’ hearts when he saved them (especially, Paul is in view here
[cf. Acts 9]), He Himself should also be regarded as the one to shine His light in the hearts of those who
are blinded by Satan.

On this issue, Dwight L. Hunt summarizes very well:

The darkness that covered the earth in Gen 1:2 is parallel to the darkness that blinds the minds of
unbelievers.

And just as the omnipotent God spoke light into the darkness at creation, He also has dispelled the
darkness that was in our hearts (cf. 2 Cor.4:4). He removed the darkness to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul was able to share this knowledge
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with others” (2 Cor. 4:1).

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