Did you know that when Paul preached the Gospel
to Gentiles he never mentioned Hell or Sin? Sometimes he never even mentioned
Jesus by name at all.
Instead, Paul told them about the God who “has shown you kindness” and who
“fills your hearts with joy” and who was “not far from each one of us”.
Seriously.
Just read Acts 14 when Paul speaks to the
Gentiles in Lystra, or Acts 17 when he speaks to the Athenians and see for yourself.
No mention of Hell, no mention of their sins, and hardly any mention of Jesus.
What you’ll see is Paul expounding on this
beautiful God who calls us “His children” and “in whom we live and move and
have our being”.
You’ll see Paul describe a God who is our Father, and who “gave
rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying (our) hearts with food and
gladness”.
You’ll hear Paul entice people to discover “the
unsearchable riches of Christ” and to know a God who loves them more than they
ever imagined.
Isn’t that refreshing?
Wouldn’t it be great if those people who hold
signs and scream at people through megaphones were expressing these same ideas
about a God who is good and who loves us?
Wouldn’t people want to find out more
about a God like that?
I know I would.
-kg
**
“We are also men of
the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain
things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is
in them. In the generations gone by He permitted
all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did
not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave
you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying
your hearts with food and gladness.” [Acts 14:15-17]
““Men of Athens,
I observe that you are very religious in all respects. 23 For
while I was passing through and examining the objects
of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN
GOD.’ Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God
who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of
heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is
He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life
and breath and all things; 26 and He made
from one man every
nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed
times and the boundaries of their habitation,27 that
they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though
He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him
we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also
are His children.’ 29 Being
then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or
silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. 30 Therefore
having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now
declaring to men that all people everywhere
should repent, 31 because
He has fixed a day in which He will
judge the world in righteousness through
a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising
Him from the dead.” [Acts 17:22-31]
