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That which may be known of God is
manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.
Rom 1:19
 When someone asked the atheistic philosopher Bertrand
Russell: “What will you do if, after you die, you find out there is a God? What
will you say to Him?” Russell answered: “Whenever I would appear before the
Lord, which I do not believe will ever happen, as I do not believe He is there,
but if it would happen and he should ask me why I did not believe in Him, I
would say “Not enough evidence, Lord. There was not enough evidence”. The
apostle Paul would strongly disagree with Russell and others of his ilk, and
argue that God has given men and women enough evidence. He
asserts in Rom 1:19 that the truth and knowledge
about the Creator is ‘evident’ (Amplified Bible) and ‘plain’.
This knowledge is not hidden but is clear and
transparent for anyone to see. Of course, there is a great deal about God that
people cannot see, but some things all of us can know about Him. Two
revelations about the Creator are mentioned in Romans Chapter 1. Firstly,
Rom 1:19 in the Amplified Bible reads that the
knowledge about God is ‘made plain in our INNER
CONSCIOUSNESS, because God (Himself) has shown it to us’. People,
Paul asserts, know something about the Creator WITHIN their hearts, minds
and consciences. Mankind’s inner sense and instinctive knowledge of God are
strong.
The second indicator of a Creator, Paul asserts, is
creation itself: For the invisible things of Him from the creation of
the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even
His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.
Romans 1:20
What Paul is saying here is that the natural visible
things speak of the invisible. That means we may understand spiritual things
about the Creator by looking at the natural things He has created. Since GOD is
a Spirit (John 4:24), He is therefore
invisible. However Paul writes that the invisible things of God are ‘clearly
seen’,
not “unclearly seen”. How can we see what is ‘invisible’? The answer is
simple. God can be ‘seen’ (figuratively speaking) in the universe and in all of
life’s circumstances. As Psalm 19:1 puts it:
The
heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.
 The universe tells us something about the One who
created it. Its immense size; its beauty; its design. The unfailing orbit of
the planets. The bounty of earth’s resources – all these things speak to us of
an omnipotent, intelligent Being. As a shadow gives some indication of what
casts it, so creation reflects something of the Creator. So, in
Rom.1:19-20, Paul tells us that the knowledge of
God is not shrouded in obscurity. It is available to all.
Why then, in the light of the above, do many men and
women reject or neglect the existence of God? Paul’s explanation is that
people, in their sinfulness, “repress and hinder the
truth” (Amp. Bible), (Rom 1:18). As
the New English Bible puts it: “In their wickedness
they are stifling the truth (about God)”.
The fact is that those who seek God with a pure heart
and an open mind will find Him, for His revelation in nature is clear, but for
those who have already made up their minds that they won’t believe nature’s
testimony, God will let them remain in their unbelief. The real cause of atheism
is not a lack of rational proof for God, but the presence of a rebellious pride
against God. For many it is not an unfortunate lack of information but a
deliberate rejection of the information given. It is the spectacle of the
creature shaking his fist at the Creator and declaring: “I refuse to believe
in You even if You are there”. It is not that someone CANNOT believe – it
is that he WILL NOT believe (John 5:40). No
wonder God is very ANGRY (Rom 1:18).
No human was present at the beginning of creation – no
one saw what happened. So speculation and scientific exploration continue to
this day. But the believer accepts that it is “by faith
we understand that the worlds were formed by the Word of God”
(Heb 11:3).
(Adapted from a message by Peter Hedley, Albania)
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