Romans 1:19,20 - Plain to all

1:19

Now this verse is controversial, for it says that what may be known about God is plain to all, and why is it plain? Because God has made it plain. We will consider how God has done this when we consider the next verse, but the cry of many atheists is that it isn’t plain at all, it isn’t obvious that God exists. We will also consider this in the next verse. However, the truth is that man is without excuse. Now the knowledge of God here is not saving knowledge, rather it is knowledge of His existence and some things of His nature. In short it is plain that there is a God, yet despite this man chooses to live as though God does not exist. Or, with other religions, as though idols, or a multitude of gods, rule the world. We choose to live in ignorance but have to suppress the truth in order to do so.

1:20

Paul now elucidates what has been made and these are “His invisible attributes, namely His eternal power and divine nature”, and he says these have been “clearly perceived since the creation of the world”. Now this is actually historically true. Greek philosophers said that it was clear that the world was designed. In fact, throughout most of history it has seemed to be patently obvious that the universe is designed, and the design argument is a key argument for the existence of God. Nowadays many atheists would dispute this, and evolution plays a key role in this thinking. However, even Richard Dawkins says life has the appearance of being designed. A lot of modern thinking is that the world came about by pure blind chance. Such thinking leads to philosophical contradictions and seems to be very much at odds with what we observe, and I would say it is driven by a desire to “do away with God” rather than being a reasonable logical conclusion. At the same time some Christians do not help matters. Saying that God created everything does not say how He created things, and the order in the universe is wonderfully complex.

Anyway, without wishing to get sidetracked by this, the point that Paul is making here is that it is absolutely clear that the world was designed and created with a purpose. Indeed, not that long ago there was a news report that children’s inherent belief is that the “world was made”, and, of course, atheists believe that they need to be educated out of this belief.