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to know! They are willingly in igno–
rance of this most important knowl–
edge and relationship possible in
human life!
Astonishing-but
TRUE!
And why have humans been
wi/1-
ingly
ignorant of man's most impor–
tant relationship? One explanation,
only, is possible! All nations have
been
deceived!
(Revelation 12:9.)
Amd the
jact
of this universal decep–
tion makes certain the fact of a super
DECEIVER! More of this, later.
The scholarly of the world in the
first century were the Athenian intel–
lectuals. Sorne of them encountered
the apostle Paul in Athens.
"Then certain philosophers of the
Epicureans, and of the Stoicks,
encountered him, and sorne said,
What will this babbler say? other
sorne, He seemeth to be a setter forth
of strange gods, because he preached
to them Jesus and the resurrection.
And they took him and brought him
unto Areopagus [atop Mars Hill],
saying, May we know what this new
doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is?
"Then Paul stood in the midst of
Mars hill and said, Ye men of Ath–
ens,
J
perceive that in all things ye
are too superstitious. For as I passed
by, and beheld your devotions, [ob–
jects of worship-Revised Standard
Version] 1 found an altar with this
inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN Goo.
Whom, therefore, ye ignorantly wor–
ship, him declare 1 unto you. God
that made the world and all things
therein, seeing that he is Lord of
heaven and eartb ... he giveth to all
life, and breath, and all things; and
hath made of one blood all the
nations of men for to dwell on .. . the
earth ... For in him we live, and
move, and have our being .. .' "
(Acts 17:18-19,22-26, 28).
And now what of the scholarly of
our Western world
today?
First of all, one would think, the
most highly educated ought to know
WHO and WHAT God is! Suppose you
ask at random 100 university deans,
" Do you· believe in God?" Perhaps
three or four would answer, "Oh, 1
believe in the existence of God-as a
'first cause.' " But they cannot tell
you WHO Or WHAT God is! T hey
40
cannot tell you what God is like!
Perhaps another six or eight of the
hundred will admit they are agnos–
tics-they do not .know "for sure"
whether God exists.
I
bave said that education has
become a matter of memory instilla.–
tion. From e1ementary grades to
higher graduate 1eve1s of study, our
educational systems inject ready–
made concepts, ideologies, and a
mixture of facts and fab1es into the
unsuspecting minds of children,
youths and young adults. Students in
our school systems are graded ac–
cording to how well they accept,
memorize and can recite or write in
tests what has been taught- whether
true or false .
Modern education has given uni–
versal acceptance to the fable of
evolution. Evolution is the atheist's
attempt to explain the existence of a
creation without the preexistence of
the Creator.
lt
removes God from the
picture.
1quoted above from the first chap–
ter of the book of Romans. The 28th
verse says, " ... they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge." Lit–
tle or nothing is taught about God,
but even in the elementary grades the
basic concept- the APPROACH to
knowledge- is evolution.
Is it any wonder, then, that the
scholarly do not know WHO or WHAT
God is? They believe what they have
been taught.
As
J
write I have just returned
from a four-day visit in Beijing (Pek–
ing), as the first religious leader from
the world of Christianity · to be
invited to speak before large groups
at the Chinese capital, and with ·a
one-hour prívate conference with the
vice chairman of the Standing Com–
mittee of the National People's Con–
gress, Tan Zhen-lin.
In speaking with him, 1 was speak–
ing to one of three top officials now
molding the minds and beli'efs of ONE
BILLION people- almost a fourth of
a11 the people on earth. China, in
population, is the, world's largest
nation. Even in very ancient times
the religion in China was ancestor
worship. Then carne Confucianism,
rivaled by Taoism. Later Buddhism
was introduced from India. Today
the nation is communist- atheist.
1 found them to be a very cordial,
friendly and courteous people- but
knowing WHO and WHAT God is m
o:,.
certainly is not what they are now
concerned about. 1 did not try to tell
them WHO and WHAT God is, but
I
did tell two large and important
audiences of leaders, and one of their
two vice chairmen, what God is very
soon going to do-and
I
announced
this forthcoming book, which
I
am
writing now.
India is the second largest nation.
What have they known about WHO
and WHAT God is? NOTHING!
Russia is third largest in popula–
tion. They did have Russian Ortho–
dox Christianity, and now atheism.
l
am not condemning or judging
these people- and
I
presume they
are as we11-meaning as any people.
God is not judging them NOW- as
J
sijall explain later. Neither is He
condemning them.
He ~
!oves them
and wi11 call them all to eterna!
salvation in His own time. But they
DO NOT know WHO or WHAT God
is.
In ancient Egypt they worshiped
the gods Isis and Osiris-Egyptian
names for Nimrod (Genesis 10) and
bis mother-wife Semirami s. The
Greeks and Romans anciently had
mythological gods such as Jupiter,
Hermes, Dionysus, Zeus, Apollo,
Diana and many others. But they did
not know, and their peoples do not
know today, WHO and WHAT God is.
But
WHY?
Already, in the quotation from the
first chapter of Romans, I have given
you a reason-they were
willingly
ignorant of the things of the true
Goo. But
WHY?
Why
willingly
ignorant?
There was a cause for this willing
ignorance. And the Bible clearly tells
us that cause, which is dual: 1) what
occurred prehistorically, and
2) what God Himself instituted fol–
lowing the original sin of Adam. AH
this , and the CAUSE of all the escalat–
ing evils of today's world, are clear1y
revealed by God Almighty in His
Word the Holy Bible. And this will
be made plain as we progress.
But first, what does the Bible ·
reveal about WHO and WHAT is God?
l t is
only
in this inspired Book that
-God reveals Himself. But mankind in
general has never believed God–
that is,
what God says!
God spoke
faceto face, personally, to Adam and
Eve, the first created humans. Then
The
PLAIN TRUTH