14:14,15
Barnabas and Paul were appalled at this and “tore their clothes”. This was a traditional sign of grief. They then rushed to the crowd to remonstrate with them. They stressed their humanity. Paul and Barnabas were just the same as all men. The good news was about Jesus, all men were in need of forgiveness and repentance. So they needed to turn from worthless things. Zeus and Hermes did not even exist, that was a measure of how worthless they were. They needed to turn from these things, and turn towards the living God who created all things. There are at least a couple of points to note from this. First, we must never get ideas above our station. God’s work should be apparent in us, but it is so purely because of the grace of God, we are not special in that sense. Secondly, the world needs to turn from worthless things. Many of the world’s ideas are useless at best, and harmful at worst.
14:16-18
We now get an explanation of the change of times. God allowed man to go his own way, but now, in the gospel, He has called us all back to Himself, He has shown us the way of salvation. The gospel is a command not an option. Even so, when He left man to his own devices God still left witnesses to Himself. God provided food for us. Yes we have to plant the seeds and harvest the crops, but who makes it grow, who provides the seeds in the first place? Science and faith are often set in opposition to each other, but this opposition is false. Any sensible view of nature must lead one to the conclusion that there is a creator, a designer behind the whole show. The notion that everything just happened by chance is truly nonsensical. This is not to support a naive view of creation, the processes can be very complex (eg as in quantum mechanics), but there is a process there.
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