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why God seems unreal.
God UNREAL to the Ancients
The scholarly of the world in the
first century were the Athenian
intellectuals. Sorne of them encoun–
tered 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 unto 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
Athens, I perceive that in all things
ye are too superstitious. For as I
passed by, and beheld your devo–
tions [objects of worship-Revised
Standard Version], 1 found an altar
with this inscription, TO THE
UNKNOWN Goo. Whom therefore
ye ignorantly worship, him declare
I unto you. God that made the
world and all things therein, seeing
that he is Lord of heaven and
earth . .. he giveth to all life, and
breath, and al! things; and hath
made of one blood all 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! Sup–
pose you ask at random 100 univer–
sity deans, "Do you believe in
God?" Perhaps three or four would
answer, "Oh, I believe in the exis–
tence of God-as a 'first cause.' "
But they cannot tell you wHO or
WHAT God is! They cannot tell you
what God is like! God is not real to
them. In other words, be is a mys–
tery. Perhaps another six or eight
of the bundred will admit they are
agnostics-they do not know "for
sure" whether God exists.
1 have said that education has
become a matter of memory instil–
lation. From elementary grades to
higher graduate Jevels of study, our
educational systems inject ready–
made concepts, ideologies and a
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mixture of facts and fables into the
unsuspecting minds of children,
youths and young adults. Students
in our school ·systems are graded
according 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 attempt
to explain tbe existence of a cre–
ation without the preexistence of
the Creator.
It
removes God from
the picture. lt blinds itself to the
mystery by attempting to remove
God altogether.
Material Creation Seems Real
The creation is material, visible, and
therefore seems real. The system of
modern education has become
entirely materialist ic. The modern
scientific concept denies the invis–
ible and the spiritual as having exis–
tence. Yet all our seemingly unsolv–
able problems and the evils in this
world are spiritual in nature.
1 quoted above from. the first
chapter of the book of Romans.
The 28th verse says, " ... they did
not like to retain God in their
knowledge." Little or nothing is
taught about God, but even in the
elementary grades the basic con–
cept-the APPROACH to knowJ–
edge-Ís 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 I write 1 recently returned
from my second four-day visit in
Beijing (Peking), as the first reli–
gious leader from the world of
Christianity to be invited to speak
before large groups at the Chinese
capi tal.
1
have met in prívate con–
ference with the vice chairman of
the Standing Committee of the
National People's Congress, Tan
Zhen-lin, and now, on this second
visit, with Deng Xiaoping, the
unquestioned leader of China.
In speaking with China' s leader,
1 was speaking to the top official
now molding the minds and beliefs
of more than ONE BILLION people–
almost a fourth of all the people on
earth. China, in population, is the
world's largest nation. 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.
l found China's leaders to be a
very cordial, friendly and courteous
people- but knowing WHO and
WHAT God is most certainly is not
what they are now concerned
about.
1
did not try to tell them
WHO and WHAT God is, but
1
did
te!! two large and important
audiences of leaders what God is
very soon going to do-and I
announced this forthcoming book,
which 1 am writing now.
India is the second largest
nation. What have they known
about WHO and WHAT God is?
Russia is third Jargest in popula–
tion. They did have Russian Ortho–
dox Christianity, and now atheism.
I am not condemning or judging
these people-and
1
presume they
are as well-meaning as any people.
God is not judging them NOW-as
I shall explain later. Neither is he
condemning them. He loves them
and will call them all to eterna! sal–
vation in his own time. But they oo
NOT know WHO or WHAT God is.
In ancient Egypt they worshiped
the gods Isis and Osiris. The
Greeks and Romans anciently had
mythological gods such as Jupiter,
Hermes, Dionysus, Apollo, Diana
and many others. But they did not
know, and their peoples do not
know today, WHO and WHAT God
is. But
WHY?
Why Willingly lgnorant
Already, in the quotation from the
first chapter of Romans, 1 have giv–
en you a reason- they were
will–
ingly
ignorant of the things of the
true Goo. But
WHY?
Why
wil/–
ingly
ignorant? In Romans 8:7 it is
stated plainly that the natural mind
of humans is hostile against God.
This does not necessarily mean that
all unconverted human minds are
actively, intentionally, maliciously
hostile. Most humans are passively
hostile against God. They simply
do not normally think about God.
If
God is mentioned tbey become
embarrassed and often try to
change the subject. They probably
do not realize, in their own minds,
that they have a hostile attitude
toward God. Yet that is the very
(Continued on page 15)
The PLAIN TRUTH