So That Men Are Without Excuse
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. – Romans 1:20 (NIV)
A curious thing has been happening for a century or two. The prevailing sentiment among the educators and the educated seems to be that the more knowledge we obtain through scientific study, the more apparent it becomes that religion of any stripe is but mythology. This is not to say that everyone who holds this view sees no value in religion whatsoever, but its value is relegated to emotional well-being or personal “wholeness”, at best. While religion might help us cope with the intangible aspects of human life, it has no relevance in the explanation of either the origins or the workings of the cosmos. The more we study, the more we know. The more we know, the less we do not understand. The less we do not understand, the less we need to rely on an unseen god or supernatural explanation for our everyday experiences.
The Bible actually prophesied this explosion of knowledge would take place as the end of history approached.
4 “But you, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.”
(Daniel 12:4, New King James Version)
Have you ever wondered why this explosion of knowledge has taken place so rapidly relative to the whole of human history? The Biblical worldview teaches that mankind has existed from the beginning, and that the history of the world, man, and the cosmos spans approximately six thousand years. While there have certainly been technological and engineering marvels throughout history – inventions that changed the world in dramatic ways (gunpowder and the printing press, just to name a few) – the industrial revolution of the 19th century and the ensuing technological revolution of the 20th century have changed the world in the last 150 years in ways unparalleled and unimagined for the previous 5,850 (give or take a few, of course). Why would God, the sovereign Author of history, ordain such a dramatic increase of knowledge in such a short period of time? Furthermore, does it not seem counterproductive from God’s perspective if His goal is for all people to know Him and be saved? If ever-increasing scientific knowledge drives mankind away from God, why would God seemingly wake up at the last historical minute and open the floodgates?
There is a great irony at work here. While we are being told that scientific research increasingly explains the idea of God away, the truth is that this is not the case. Those who use science to promote a naturalistic, materialistic, atheistic worldview do so precisely because they have a worldview to promote. Remember, a person will always interpret the world in which he lives through the lens of his worldview, i.e., his set of presuppositions. They that have already decided that there is no God, or that if He exists, He is not the transcendent Creator of all things as revealed in the Bible, are naturally going to interpret every piece of scientific knowledge as “evidence” supporting that worldview. The question is, does the evidence actually support that worldview, or is it more compelling evidence for the Biblical worldview?
I do not have time or room in a short blog article to enumerate the many, many facets of modern scientific discovery that refute Darwinian Evolution and support the Biblical history of origins. I have discussed these topics at length with my students in our worldview classes. Additional resources are available from Answers In Genesis. Focus On The Family’s The Truth Project is also an excellent resource. Suffice it to say that the more we actually know about everything from microbiology to cosmology – knowledge made possible by mind-blowing technological advances – the more obvious it becomes that the cosmos is the work of an Almighty Creator God. As the Scripture says in Romans 1:19,
since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. (NIV)
I submit to you that this explosion of knowledge in the last days is in perfect accordance with God’s divine will. Why? So that men will be without excuse. For precedent we need look no further than the early chapters of the book of Exodus and their account of God’s deliverance of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. If God wanted to set His people free, why not just beam them out of there at night? Why not just kill Pharaoh and his army right at the outset? Why go to all the trouble of the ten plagues, especially since those plagues also brought terrible persecution upon the very people God had promised to deliver? The answer is so that men – in this case, Pharaoh and the people of Egypt – would be without excuse. Though God has no need to explain Himself or His perfectly righteous judgments to any of His created people, still He seems interested in leaving absolutely no doubt whatsoever that when He judges, He is perfectly justified in doing so. Without doubt this is an aspect of God’s mercy and longsuffering, not being willing for any to perish. God, who stands ready to forgive, who wants to forgive, goes out of His way to make absolutely certain beyond any shadow of doubt that those who reject Him do so utterly. God will not be accused of injustice. In the final seconds of Pharaoh’s life, as the waters of the Red Sea crashed down upon him, he knew that he had been warned ten times over. I do not believe that Pharaoh was surprised by his ultimate defeat. He hated it. He loathed it. He despised the God who required repentance of him. He did not, however, doubt His existence or authority. It had been made plain to him.
Why is God allowing such rapid advances in technology and expoential growth in scientific knowledge, especially when it seems that these advances are bringing ever-increasing persecution to the followers of Christ? Remember Pharaoh.
Fast forward to the end of the Book, to Revelation where we see a time of Great Tribulation coming upon the earth. The judgments God will send at that time will make Pharaoh’s plagues pale in comparison. Still Revelation tells us that in spite of all the great judgments God will send upon the earth, mankind will not repent. He will harden his heart, just as Pharaoh did. When God ultimately destroys the heavens and the earth with fire, and casts all the unbelieving into everlasting punishment, will any of them have an excuse? No, they will not. Years of scientific research revealing the incredible majesty of God in His creation will testify against them. God went out of his way to make it plain to them, not just in preaching from the pulpits, but in the vastness of the galaxies and the incomprehensible complexity of the design and workings of a single living cell. The heavens declare the glory of God, so that men are without excuse.
A common complaint among unbelievers is that it would be unjust for God to condemn to hell those who grow up with religious or cultural traditions and ideologies that are not Christian. How can one be held accountable for not believing in Jesus if Jesus is neither a name nor a concept to which they have ever been exposed? To be sure, we Christians are charged with the preaching of the gospel for this very reason. After all, how can they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? But the same Apostle who asked that rhetorical question in Romans 10, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, anticipated the accompanying excuse in Romans 1. God has made it plain to them through His creation, so that no one has an excuse. Never has this Biblical fact been more apparent and easier to defend than in the information age.
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