Week 3 - Wednesday

The Foolishness of Man

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, (Romans 1:21-22)

We gave already seen that because of the natural revelations of God, every person has enough evidence of God's existence to be held accountable by God for how they respond to Him. God has put a basic knowledge of Himself in human hearts. He has created an awesome universe so that we can observe His eternal power. God has richly provided us with everything we need for life. Instead of accepting the most obvious answer, that everything was created by God, men throughout history have devised futile speculations about how it all might have happened without Him. Consider the ancient religions of the Egyptians, the Greeks and the Romans. They each invented their own complex hierarchy, consisting of many gods, to replace the simpler truth of one creator God. Human nature hasn't changed at all since then. As man continues to gain increasingly more knowledge about the complexity of the universe, you would think it would cause him to see all the more the necessity for a creator God who designed and watches over it all. Instead most people feel that's too simple. The Bible's account of creation and of Adam and Eve are looked at as fairy tales for little kids. They think people who believe that kind of stuff have checked their minds at the door. More intelligent people demand more complicated answers and wanting to satisfy their intellectual pride they turn to evolution.

Not only has sinful man failed to honor God for what He has done, but they refuse to give thanks to Him as well. What if you were a father and you had provided for all your children's needs. What if your children grew up never thanking you. What if they said that you were not their father, that someone else had provided all those things for them. Or how about if they said that you didn't even exist and they had done it all themselves. How would you feel? How do you think God feels when that happens? God's wrath against mankind is justified because after all God has revealed about Himself and all that He has done to provide for them, they knowingly suppress the truth, they choose to continue to sin, and they refuse to give God honor or thanks. Then to top it all off they invent their own gods or devise theories about how it all could have happened without Him. Adding even more insult to God, they even think they are more intelligent when they do so. As a result of being so foolish, man's heart was darkened. The result of rejecting God is spiritual darkness. People may think they are wise when they don't believe in God but the Bible says the opposite is true, that in fact they are fools.

Readings for today: Neh. 9:6; Rev. 4:11; Jer. 13:15-16; Psalm 53:1