Gentiles (1:18-32)
Jews (2:1-3:8)
Summary: All People (3:9-20)

Verse 18
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.

The wrath of God is being revealed... - The wonder of God's amazing grace in Christ cannot be understood without a clear recognition of the total depravity of man. Church history makes it abundantly clear that whenever man's sinfulness is minimized or compromised the end result is always a loss of the Gospel. Modern, man-centered Christianity has little to say on the subject of the wrath of God. Contemporary preachers look down with condescending scorn on the stern puritan preachers of the pastors who reduced entire congregations to tears with fiery sermons about Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God. In a misguided attempt to achieve relevance, the Church of today seeks to make the Gospel of Christ attractive to men in a variety of ways:

1. We minister to man's felt needs, identifying a lack or longing which the listener will acknowledge, which then becomes the point of contact to gain a hearing for the Gospel - presented as an answer to meet whatever your self-perceived need may be. Unfortunately, sinful man is universally unable to recognize what his needs really are (i.e. Adam and Eve's fig leaves) (cf. 2 Timothy 4:3).

2. We present the Gospel as the promise of earthly, material reward, if only the listener will accept Jesus. Jesus wants to make you wealthy, healthy, and successful, if you will become a believer. The most flagrant example of this approach is the notorious prosperity gospel proclaimed by prominent TV evangelists who offer untold wealth in return for faith and the appropriate contribution to their ministry.

3. We present the Gospel by the route of personal experience, stress what Jesus has done for us and commend Him to other people so that they might have the same wonderfully fulfilling experience.

Paul takes an entirely different approach which is God-centered, not man-centered. He recognizes that in the end what matters is not whether we feel good or have our felt needs met or receive a meaningful experience. What matters is whether we come into a right relationship with God by faith in Christ. For that to happen we must first come to see things as they truly are. That is the function of the Law which presents the grim reality that we are under God's wrath and in danger of eternal condemnation at His hands because of sin. In his magnificent essay Law and Gospel, Dr. C.F.W. Walther writes:

There is nothing kind or comforting on Mt. Sinai...How beneficial is a sermon in which the preacher begins with the Law in all its severity and expounds it spiritually! Many people will think: `If what he says is true, I am lost!' To be sure, some will think: `That is no way for an evangelical preacher to act!' Yes indeed, he must act that way or he is not an evangelical preacher. If the Law does not precede, the Gospel cannot succeed. First Moses, then Christ: first John the Baptist, then Christ. At first some people will think, `O, how terrible that is!' But then the preacher, with eyes aglow, comes to the Gospel. Now the people are glad and they understand why the preacher first proclaimed the Law, namely so that they could see how polluted they are with sin." (Walther, p.57)

Hence the inspired apostle begins by showing at length that all men are utterly lost and cannot possibly be saved except by the wonderful gospel righteousness of God. The concept of the wrath of God is clearly and frequently emphasized in Holy Writ. J.I. Packer writes: One of the most striking things about the Bible is the vigor with which both Testaments emphasize the reality and terror of God's wrath. (Packer, p. 134,135) The Old Testament includes nearly 600 important passages on the subject. The wrath of God is completely unlike the capricious anger or malice of human beings which flares in a fit of temper and then quickly disappears to be replaced by remorse and regret. Human anger is often the result of selfish annoyance or impatience. The wrath of God, on the other hand, is the necessary result and expression of His essential holiness. This contrast is clearly expressed in the terminology of Scripture. The Greek language has two main words for wrath or anger. One is thumos, from a root which means to rush along fiercely or to be in the heat of violence. It is typically used in reference to uncontrolled fury, a fit of temper or rage, which flares and then disappears quickly. With the single exception of a verse in Revelation, which describes the final outpouring of God's wrath, thumos is never used in reference to God in the Bible. The other word is orge from a root which means to slowly increase or gradually ripen. This is the word which the Bible characteristically uses to describe the wrath of God. The wrath of God is God's constant, consistent, righteous anger over all that is evil and that thereby denies His nature as a righteous, holy God. God could not be holy and not be angry with sin. Holiness cannot tolerate unholiness (cf. Habakkuk 1:13). John Murray's careful definition is precisely to the point: Wrath is the holy revulsion of God's being against that which is in contradistinction of his holiness. (Murray, p.35) George Rodgers said it well when he wrote: "God's righteous anger never rises, never abates: it is always at flood tide in the presence of sin because He is unchangeably and inflexibly righteous." (Rodgers,I,p.40) Paul uses the term wrath (Greek - orge) 10 times in the Letter to the Romans. As James Boice correctly observes:

His point is not that God is suddenly flailing out in petulant anger against something that has offended him momentarily, but rather that God's firm, fearsome hatred of all wickedness is building up and will one day result in the eternal condemnation of all who are not justified by Christ's righteousness. (Boice, p.132)

Those who flinch from the concept of God's righteous wrath fail to recognize that even among human beings outrage and indignation against cruelty, crime, and vice have always been recognized as essential elements of human goodness. The fact that our modern culture has lost its capacity for outrage and has come to tolerate even the vilest manifestations of evil is the clearest possible indication of our utter moral collapse. God is absolutely intolerant of evil because He is absolutely good. His holy fury against sin is the decisive demonstration of that goodness. Those who have come to soft-pedal the wrath and judgement of God would do well to ponder John MacArthur's penetrating assessment:

How could One who delights only in what is pure and lovely not loathe what is impure and ugly? How could He who is infinately holy disregard sin, which by its very nature violates that holiness? How could He who loves righteousness not hate and act severely against all unrighteousness? How could He who is the sum of all excellency look with complacency on virtue and vice equally? He cannot do those things, because He is holy, just, and good. Wrath is the only just response a perfect, holy God could make to unholy men. Righteous wrath is therefore every bit as much an element of God's divine perfection as any other of His attributes. (MacArthur, p.74)

R.A. Torrey, a great Bible teacher of the 19th century, makes the same point in an even more forceful and comprehensive way when he contends:

Shallow views of sin and of God's holiness, and of the glory of Jesus Christ and His claims upon us, lie at the bottom of weak theories of the doom of the impenitent. When we see sin in all its hideousness and enormity, the holiness of God in all its perfection, and the glory of Jesus Christ in all its infinity, nothing but a doctrine that those who persist in a choice of sin, who love darkness rather than light, and who persist in the rejection of the Son of God, shall endure everlasting anguish, will satisfy the demands of our own moral intuitions...The more closely men walk with God and the more devoted they become to His service, the more likely they are to believe this doctrine. (Torrey, p.311)

Having heard the Gospel promise that the righteous will live by faith (vs.17), we now hear the stern pronouncement of the Law which warns that those who do not live by faith will not live - they will perish on the great day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgement will be revealed. (2:5). As the Gospel is salvation and life, so the Law is damnation and death. In Verse 17 a righteousness from God is revealed in the Gospel. The identical verb is used in Verse 18 to indicate that the wrath of God is also being revealed. In both instances the verb is in the present tense to describe a process of revelation which is now in constant progress. The wrath of God over against the evil of sinful man has been revealed from heaven time and time again since the Fall. The sentence of death was pronounced; the earth was cursed and made subject to the bondage of decay; and fallen man was driven from Paradise. In the waters of the Flood and the fire of Sodom and Gommorah, God has revealed His wrath. The rise and fall of men and nations as the cup of God's wrath was poured out upon them is a part of that same process of ongoing revelation. The universal dominion of death, disease and misery, the cataclysms and catastrophes of nature, and the horror of Christ's suffering and death, have all served to reveal the dreadful wrath of God from heaven. With Christ's first coming, this weary world finally entered the last days (Hebrews 1:2). All the revelation of wrath in these last days is what Martin Franzmann has called the upbeat of that final dreadful music of damnation which will sound forth when Jesus comes again.

The object of God's righteous wrath is all of the godlessness and wickedness of men. Godlessness (Greek - asebia) refers to a lack of reverence for, devotion to, and worship of the true God, a failure that inevitably leads to some form of flase worship. Wickedness is a broad term which includes every form of immorality. Wickedness is the inescapeable result of godlessness. Irreligion always manifests itself in immorality and immorality is the evidence of irreligion.

Of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. - One of the most basic characteristics of sinful man is an inherent, unyielding opposition to the truth of God. Despite the testimony of conscience, the clear evidence of nature all around us, and the revelation of God's inspired and inerrant Word, man continues to stubbornly and defiantly cling to the lie. R.C.H. Lenski comments:

Here Paul explains in one little clause how, despite the constant revelation of God's wrath, men go on in their wickedness; whenever the truth starts to exert itself and makes them feel uneasy in their moral nature, they hold it down, suppress it. Some drown its voice by rushing on into their immoralities; others strangle the disturbing voice by argument and denial...These denials and these arguments are not altruistic; they are the efforts of the ungodly to suppress the disquieting truth in the interest of their own ungodliness. They face an inescapeable alternative in their moral nature, an either - or; either to yield to the truth and give up ungodliness and unrighteousness, or to hold firmly to these two and then of necessity to squelch the truth. (Lenski, p. 93)

The verb suppress (Greek - katechein) means to hold down, restrain, or repress. It is an excellent term to describe man's obstinate, willful resistance to the message of Law and Gospel (the truth). That suppression places sinful man in a state of denial, in conflict not only with the revealed truth of Scripture, but also with his own most basic instincts, and the clear evidence of his evvironment and experience. Lenski's comments once more are precisely to the point:

This fact of the wrath from heaven constantly breaks through the clouds of human perversions, false reasonings and philosophies, blatant denials and lies, beneath which men seek to hide in helpless efforts to escape...We must not be confused by the follies of atheists and moral perverts or by heathen blindness concerning God. Man's moral nature remains and instinctively responds to the revelations of this wrath wherever they occur. Conscience makes cowards of us all. It is a hopeless effort to destroy man's moral nature and to rid him of his reactions to the judgements of God. (Lenski, p. 91)

Verses 19-20
Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities - His eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

Since what may be known about God is plain to them... - God has chosen to reveal something of Himself in nature. God, to the extent that He can be known, can be clearly discerned in that which He has made. This visible manifestation of Himself can be universally known by man. Thus the vast majority of mankind has no knowledge of God not because that knowledge is not readily available to them but because they rebel against that knowledge and reject it (who suppress the truth by their wickedness -vs.18). They are not ignorant of God but rebellious against Him: not atheists, without God, but anti-theists, against God. This assertion of man's natural knowledge of God is linked to the preceding declaration of God's righteous anger at the godless and immorality of man with the explanatory conjunction since (Greek - dioti). Men cannot seek to excuse their godless immorality on the basis of ignorance of a God who has hidden Himself from them. On the contrary, the apostle insists, God is constantly revealing Himself to them every day - by His whole work of creation, by countless beneficent providences, by ever-renewed retributions, and by man's own mind, especially by his moral nature and his conscience (Lenski, p.96)

For since the creation of the world... - Paul now explains the means by which the Creator God has chosen to reveal Himself to His creatures. This divine self-disclosure has been available from the beginning of time - For since the creation of the world. It is universal in its scope, available to each and every human being. When God determined to bring the universe into being from nothing He simultaneously created a natural theology which clearly reveals His identity and His nature. A striking oxymoron (a contradiction in terms) serves to emphasize the apostle's point - God' invisible qualities....have been clearly seen. That which is invisible, not perceived by the senses, becomes visible in the things which the Creator God has made - being understood from that which has been made. This natural revelation is not dim or uncertain for that which it uncovers has been clearly seen. God's invisible qualities are defined in the text as His eternal power and divine nature. While not comprehensive or exhaustive, this carefully chosen combination serves to highlight the essential characteristics of God. The concepts of eternity and omnipotence are at the core of God's nature. He is Yahweh, the Great I AM. He has always been and will always be. He has no beginning or point of origin but is the source of all that is. His omnipotent power is eternal - without beginning and without end - because He is eternal. Paul's reference to divine nature is more general and describes the sum of the invisible perfections which characterize God...the totality of that which God is as a being possessed of divine attributes. (Murray, p.39) Scripture emphatically and repeatedly affirms this natural knowledge of God as the following sampling of passages indicates:

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speeach or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. (Psalm19:1)

The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice. Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne. Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side. His lightning lights up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim His righteousness and all the peoples see His glory. (Psalm 97: 1-6)

We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless idols to the living God who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them...Yet He has not left Himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. (Acts 14:15,17)

The vast majesty of the natural world and its incredible intricacy proclaim the reality and the glory of the Creator God so clearly and unmistakeably that only The fool says in his heart, `There is no God.' (Psalm 14 :1). Therefore, unrighteous, unregenerate man are without excuse.

No human being is infinite. Infinitude belongs exclusively to God. Yet, in spite of our finite nature, human beings do seem to have an alomost infinite capacity for some things. One of them is for making excuses for reprehensible behavior...Our text says that in spite of our almost infinte capacity to make excuses, we are all without excuse for our failure to seek out, worship, and thank the living God. (Boice, p.153,154)

Verse 21
For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.

For although they knew God... - Paul now continues his description of the tragic results of man's stubborn rejection of the knowledge of God which all people could possess through God's extensive disclosure of Himself in the works of nature. In Verse 18 we learned that sinful man is guilty of stubbornly suppressing the self-evident truth of God. The problem is not that they do not or cannot know God, but rather that they refuse to know God.

They neither glorified Him as God - Fallen mankind exhibits its rejection of God by its refusal to give Him the glory that is His due. A bit of etymology will be most helpful in uderstanding the intent of the text. The Greek word glorified (dokeo - to glorify) originally meant to appear or to seem. As the noun glory (Greek - doxa), the term's root meant opinion - that is, how a person or thing appears to the one observing it (i.e. the English words orthodox - one who holds the correct opinion; heterodox - one who holds a different opinion, and; paradox - a contradictory opinion). Originally the Greek words dokeo and doxa were neutral, used in reference to both good and bad opinions, but eventually they came to be used especially and then exclusively in reference to good opinions. From that point, the words evolved to mean praise or honor - the glory which was due to one about whom such good opinions were held. This use of the word has come into the English language in the term doxology, which is a song of praise. With that background, the apropriateness of Paul's use of the word in the context of sinful man's refusal to glorify God is quite clear. Unregenerate humanity will not glorify God because it does not hold to a right opinion about Him. It refuses to acknowledge His sovereign power, holiness, and perfect love, and therefore will not praise and glorify Him. Thus, mankind's refusal to glorify God is the direct result of its suppression of the truth. John MacArthur writes:

The worst deed committed in the universe is the failure to give God honor or glory. Above everything else God is to be glorified. To glorify God is to exalt Him, to recognize Him as supremely worthy of honor, and to acknowledge His divine attributes. Since the glory of God is also the sum of all the attributes of His being, of all that He has revealed of Himself to man, to give God glory is to acknowledge His glory and extol it. We cannot give Him glory by adding to His perfection, but by praising His perfection. We glorify Him by praising His glory! As the Westminster Catechism eloquently declares, "The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever!"...But recognizing God's glorious attributes and acts and glorifying Him for them is precisely what sinful man do not do. Millions upon millions of people have lived in the midst of God's wonderful universe and yet proudly refused to recognize Him as its Creator and to affirm His majesty and glory. And for that willful, foolish rejection they are without excuse as they stand under God's righteous judgement. (MacArthur, p. 84)

Nor gave thanks to Him - The unbelief of rebellious mankind further results in ingratitude. Like their refusal to glorify God, so also their failure to give thanks to Him is based upon a willful unawareness of the most basic facts about God and a deliberate failure to recognize their aboslute dependence upon His merciful goodness. Every human being on the face of the earth is totally dependent upon the gracious providence of God every moment of His life. It is God alone who gives you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons. He provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy. (Acts 14:17) The ediface of natural man's ingratitude is erected upon the foundation of his suppression of the truth and his refusal to glorify His Creator. Thankfulness must be the hallmark of all those who truly know God. In contrast, ingratitude is one of the basic characteristics of those who suppress the truth about God.

But their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened - Choices have consequences. St. Paul now proceeds to describe the dreadful consequences of man's obstinate rejection of the Creator God. Man's rebellion against God robs him of the reason with which mankind was created in the beginning. The word thinking (Greek - dialogismois) refers generally to the working of the human mind but in the New Testament, the word always carries a very definate negative connotation. It could well be translated with the English word rationalization. No matter how impressive or meticulous, godless reasoning is never more than the rearrangement of error. The rationalizations of unregenerate man are empty and useless. The apostle uses the classic Old Testament term futile which originally referred to an empty puff of wind (cf. Ecclesiastes 1:2,14; 2:1,11,15,17). Such rationalization leads nowhere; accomplishes nothing; and achieves no real goal. It is utterly and completely worthless. But the empty mind does not remain empty. Sin makes fools of those who have turned their backs on God. The fool says in his heart, `There is no God.' (Psalm 14:1; 53:1) Their empty minds and foolish hearts become like vacuums which draw in falsehood and darkness to replace the truth and light that have been rejected. We flounder helplessly and hopelessly around in the darkness that we have brought down upon ourselves.

Verses 22-23
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Although they claimed to be wise... - The moral and intellectual degeneration of sinful man also results in in religious degradation. The sheer folly of man's ridiculous pretensions is revealed. The word wise in the original is the Greek sophoi from which a large number of English words are derived - i.e. sophistry, sophisticated, sophomore, and philosophy. The search for wisdom apart from and in defiance of God has been the cause of humanity's downfall since Adam's fateful encounter with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But sinful man fails to recognize that The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). The human attempt to replace this genuine wisdom with its own speculations and philosophizing is the ultimate demonstration of foolishness. It is even more pathetic when these futile, foolish, worldly speculations are allowed to infect the church. The sad story of modern theology tells a tragic tale of theologians who have accepted the unfounded foolishness of unregenerate man above the flawless truth of God's inspired Word. The impotence and irrelevance of much of Christianity today is the consequence of their foolishness. Martin Lloyd Jones perceptively observes: The whole drift toward modernism that has blighted the church of God and nearly destroyed its living gospel may be traced to an hour when men began to turn from revelation to philosophy. (MacArthur, p.88) The folly of those who are infatuated with this worldly wisdom is described by the Greek verb they became fools (emoranthesan). This powerful term means to become silly or foolish, It is drawn from the root word moros which means fool, as in the English derivative moron. The greatest fool in all the world is the man who exchanges God's wisdom of truth and light for man's wisdom of deceit and darkness.

And exchanged the glory of the immortal God... - Now we come to the climax of this silliness. The glory of the immortal God is the sum total of His attributes as these constitute His essence, the sum of the perfections of His being, but as shining forth to us and revealing what God is to us. (Lenski, p. 105) That glory is made manifest the wonder of creation. Among the Children of Israel, the glory of God was revealed in the shekinah (Hebrew - the One Who Dwells) which rested over the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle and later the Temple (cf. Exodus 4034-35; Leviticus 16:2; 1 Kings 8:10; 2 Chronicles 5:13). Thus the prophets frequently refer to God as the Lord enthroned between the cherubim (Psalm 80:1; Isaiah 37:16; Ezekiel 9:3). This visible manifestation of God's Glory was the assurance of God's presence in the midst of His people. The apostles of the New Testament apply this powerful image to Christ Who dwells (literal - tabernacles) among us and in Whom we behold the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father (cf. John 1:14).

The incredible foolishness of sinful man is further emphasized by the fact that it is the glory of the immortal God which they recklessly cast aside. Eternity is of the essence of God. He is above and beyond the limitations of time, without beginning and without end. Amid the change and decay of everything in this world, He alone is forever the same - the constant, unfailing Refuge of those who trust in Him.

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord God, our Father!
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changeth not; Thy compassions they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be!
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided -
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.

And what does sinful man receive in exchange for the glory of the immortal God? He fashions his own false gods - helpless, lifeless idols, created by his own perverted imagination. The ridiculous nature of the exchange is heightened by the text's effective use of contrast. Real glory is abandoned in favor of empty image. The immortal God is replaced by mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. It is a fool's exchange indeed! The prophets scornfully dismiss the folly of idolaters who bow down before gods which their own hands have fashioned (i.e. Isaiah 44:9-17) St. Paul's language here is strongly reminiscent of a scathing denunciation of idolatry in the Apocryphal Wisdom of Solomon:

A skilled woodcutter may saw down a tree easy to handle and skillfully strip off all its bark, and then with pleasing workmanship make a useful vessel that serves life's needs, and burn the castoff pieces of his work to prepare his food and eat his fill. But a castoff piece from among them, useful for nothing, a stick crooked and full of knots, he takes a carves with care in his leisure, and shapes it with skill gained in idleness; he forms it like the image of a man, or makes it like some worthless animal, giving it a coat of red paint and coloring its surface red and covering every blemish in it with paint; then he makes for it a niche that befits it, and sets it in the wall, and fastens it there with iron. So he take thought for it, that it may not fall, because he knows that it cannot help itself, for it is only an image and has need of help. When he prays about possessions and his marriage and children, he is not ashamed to address a lifeless thing. For health he appeals to a thing that is weak; for life he prays to a thing that is dead; for aid he entreats a thing that is utterly inexperienced; for a prosperous journey; a thing that cannot take a step; for money-making and work and success with his hands he asks strength of thing whose hands have no strength...But the idol made with hands is accursed, and so is he who made it; because he did the work and a perishable thing is named a god. For equally hateful to God are the ungodly man and his ungodliness for what was done will be punished together with him who did it. Therefore, there will be a visitation also upon the heathen idols because, though part of what God created they became an abomination, and became traps for the souls of men and a snare to the feet of the foolish. (Wisdom of Solomon, 13:11-19; 14:8-11)

The idols of this world are powerless delusions. As the French philosopher Voltaire sarcastically observed: God made man in his own image and man returned the favor. Every form or idolatry is a form of self-worship. And yet the Bible warns that the devil and his demons are all too happy to take advantage of the ungodliness of men by impersonating the characteristics which the man-made gods are supposed to have, thus, endowing the idol with supernatural power from hell. Through these false signs and wonders Satan encourages and perpetuates the superstitions of foolish men (cf. Exodus 7:11,22; 8:7) In reference to the idol worship of the Gentiles, St. Paul notes: The things which Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons. (1 Corinthians 10:20). The variations of idolatry within our culture today are endless. The proliferation of the New Age Movement, astrology, and other occultic practices demonstrates that even the coarsest forms of idolatry have maintained their allure among modern sophisticates. Many of our contemporary idols are more subtle and therefore more dangerous. John MacArthur properly denounces the pandemic moral and spiritual pollution of modern society as a degenerative and addictive form of idolatry (MacArthur, p.95). As the poet J.H., Clinch wrote:

And still from Him we turn away,
And fill our hearts with worthless things;
The fires of greed form the clay,
And forth the idol springs!
Ambition's flame and passion's heat,
By wondrous alchemy transmute earth's dross
To raise some gilded brute to fill Jehovah's seat.

Verses 24-25
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator - Who is forever praised! Amen.

Therefore God gave them over... - The fearful, cumulative, self-reinforcing consequences of sin are now described in grim detail. The very wickedness of men, by which they have suppressed the truth, becomes the means of their punishment. Men do what they want to do, but God makes of what they want to do a hell of His imposing...In doing what they want to do they become the executors of God's wrath upon themselves. (Franzmann, p. 41)

What follows is the result of what precedes. Each of the three phrases in vs. 24-32 reveal a different dimension of God's judgement upon sin. Each phrase begins with a conjunction (vs.24 -Therefore: vs. 26 - Because of this: vs. 28 - Furthermore) which links the penalty to man's rejection of God, described in the preceding verses: that is, man's rejection of God despite God's clear revelation of Himself (vs.19-21); his rationalization of his rejection (vs. 18b,22); and, his creation of substitute gods of his own design (vs.23).

The terrible refrain God gave them over is repeated three times (vs.24,26,28). In each instance, the word order of the Greek text is unusual in that the verb occurs before the subject for special emphasis. Give them over did God would be a literal translation. The verb gave them over (Greek - paradidomi) is extraordinarily intense Paul uses it elsewhere of giving one's body to burned (1 Corinthians 13:3) and of Christ's giving Himself up to death (Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2,25). The term has a judicial flavor and is often used in reference to judgement (Matthew 5:25; 10:17,19,21; 18:34; 2 Peter 2:4) or being sent to prison (Mark 1:14;Acts 8:3). In this passage the word describes the judicial act of God in which the sinner is completely handed over to his sin and its destructive consequences. This involves first of all, the removal of the restraints which God normally places upon sin through conscience and outward hindrance. Stoeckhardt writes:

Wherein does this divine arrangement consist? Through His Holy Spirit God disciplines and holds sinful man in check, at least outwardly. He instills them with fear and terror of sin. One who has inwardly conceived wicked plans, He warns concerning the actual deed, as He warned Cain before he became a murderer. The Lord admonishes the conscience. In the way of the evil intention, He places all sorts of outward hindrances, and thus attempts to restrain the outburst, or at least the coarse outbursts, of the evil lusts of the heart. If, however, man despises these divine exhortations and increase ungodliness, God completely gives the ungodly up to his sins, so that nothing stands in the way of the gratification of all his lusts. (Stoeckhardt, p.13)

But this action is not merely passive non-interference with the natural consequences of sin. God's wrath is expressed in His abandonment of defiant sinners to more intensified and aggravated cultivation of the lusts of their own hearts. His punitive justice hands the sinners over completely to their sins in an accelerating downward spiral of destruction. Those who have abandoned God are abandoned by God as He uses sin itself to punish the sinner. Men who so love the cesspool of sin are sent into it by justice; what they want they shall have. (Lenski, p.109) As the Lord declares in the Psalm: Israel did not obey me, so I gave them over to the stubbornness of their heart to walk in their own devices. (Psalm 81:11,12) James Dunn offers this helpful assessment:

But now the spiral of man's sin and sinning is given a sharper twist: God determines the consequences of man's sin. God handed them over; the word denotes a measured and deliberate act, but also the resigning of direct control over what is thus passed on. It is this last aspect which is the clue to what follows. They wanted to pursue the desire of their own hearts, and so God gave them over to what they desired; He did not, it should be noted, give them their desires, rather He gave them to what they desired and the consequences of what they desired. God handed them over to the freedom for which they yearned; not their freedom to them, but them to their freedom. The control of God once removed left them like a faulty rocket plunging out of control. For what this vaunted liberty consisted in was nothing other than freedom to indulge in immorality which insulted themselves and their bodies. The desire to be independent of God in achieving its end showed itself to be nothing higher than the desire for a degrading impurity. (Dunn, p.73)

In the sinful desires of their hearts for sexual impurity... - The spiritual condition of man is not determined by his outward circumstances but by the inner condition of his heart. Sin is not merely what we do. It is what we are by nature. The individual transgressions of God's Law which we commit are the symptoms of the spiritual disease with which we are afflicted. They are not the disease itself. Accordingly, Scripture tends to focus its warnings against sin on the lusts in which the actions originate - the sinful desires of their hearts. The term of their hearts refers to an individual's identity and personality, including mind, feelings, and will. Using the term in this way, wise King Solomon once advised: Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. (Proverbs 4:23); and sadly noted: The hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. (Ecclesiastes 9:3). Jesus declared: For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean; but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean. (Matthew 15:19-20) The prophet Jeremiah proclaimed: The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. (Jeremiah 17:3)

The word which the NIV renders as sexual impurity (Greek - akatharsia) is a general term for uncleanness, often used in reference to decaying matter, especially the contents of a grave. In an ethical context the word usually referred to or was closely associated with sexual immorality. Paul uses the word nine times in his New Testament epistles. Those who indulge in such sexual impurity diminish and degrade themselves. Human sexuality was designed by the Creator God as the physical expression of the love and commitment between a man and a woman within holy marriage. This uniquely human capacity was the direct result of our creation in the image of God with the ability to love (cf. Genesis 2:18-25). When human sexual activity becomes the pursuit of mere physical pleasure, the Creator's intent is frustrated and our identity as creatures originally fashioned in the image of God is denied. Sexual activity is then just one more egocentric effort to satisfy my own physical needs and emotional desires. Those whom I use to achieve those selfish goals become mere sex objects through which I attain my own satisfaction. The inescapable result of this approach to human sexuality is personal degradation - for the degrading of their bodies with one another. This is what the apostle has in mind when he warns the Corinthians against the unique personal damage potential of sexual sin - Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18; cf also vs.12-19). When we demean our sexuality, we are tampering with a crucial component in our nature as creatures originally fashioned in the image and after the likeness of God.

They exchanged the truth of God for a lie... - The underlying cause of mankind's godlessness is re-emphasized. At the root of humanity's sinfulness, and God's judgement upon that sin is a fundamental rejection of the Creator and His truth. A deliberate, voluntary trade has taken place - they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. God and His Word have been cast aside and thrown away as worthless. Through His prophet Jeremiah, God had warned apostate Judah, You have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood. (Jeremiah 13:25) Fallen mankind is captivated by falsehood and lives in bondage to Satan who is the Father of Lies (John 8:44). The Greek text actually says the lie referring not to falsehood in general but to the specific lie of idolatry, the worship of created things rather than the Creator.

Who is forever praised! Amen. - This doxology is a spontaneous outburst of adoration evoked by the mention of God as the Creator. It comes as a blessed interruption in the midst of this sordid description of mankind's' perversity. Perhaps unable to continue discussing such vile things without coming up for air, as it were, Paul inserts a common Jewish doxology about the true God. (MacArthur, p.104) It is a natural and irrepressible tribute of reverence toward the God whom men have dishonored by their idolatry. The apostolic affirmation of the blessedness of God is sealed with a solemn Amen. This is a transliterated Hebrew word which means truth and came to be used in a number of other languages as an emphatic expression of the speaker or writer's confidence in the verity of that which has been said. The role of the Amen in Jewish and Christian prayer and praise was well established even at this early date. Its usage is quite common in the Pauline epistles (cf. Romans 9:5; 11:36; 15:33; 1 Corinthians 16:24; Galatians 1:5;6:18; Ephesians 3:21; Philippians 4:20; 1 Thessalonians 3:13; 1 Timothy 1:17; 6:16; 2 Timothy 4:18). Kittel's Theological Dictionary of the New Testament explains the development of this important term in this way:

In the OT the word is used both by the individual and the community (1) to confirm the acceptance of a task allotted by men in the performance of which there is need for the will of God, (2) to confirm the personal application of a divine threat or curse, and, (3)to attest the praise of God in response to a doxology. In all these cases, "amen" is the acknowledgement of a word that is valid, and the validity of which is binding for me and then generally in this acknowledgement. Thus "amen" means that which is sure and true. In Judaism the use of Amen is widespread and firmly established. An extraordinary value is attached to its utterance. In synagogue, though not in temple worship, it occurs as the response of the community to the detailed praises which the leaders utters with the prayers or on other occasions and to each of the three sections into which the priests divided the Aaronic benediction of Numbers 6:24-26. It was the confession of the praise of God which was laid on the community and which the community was to affirm by its answer. And it was the confession of the blessing of God which was pronounced to the community and which the community was to make operative by its Amen...There is a shift in meaning in the few instances in which it is a concluding wish at the end of one's own prayers. In such cases it is not so much a confirmation of what is, but rather hope for what is desired...In the New Testament and the surrounding Christian world the Hebrew is usually taken over as it stands. It is used in three ways: (1) It is a liturgical acclamation in Christian worship... (2) Christian prayers and doxologies mostly end with Amen...It expresses the fact that in divine service prayer and doxology have their place before the people whose response they evoke or anticipate...Christ Himself can be called "the Amen" in Revelation 3:14. He Himself is the response to the divine Yes in Him. And to the extent that in Himself He acknowledges and obediently responds to the divine Yes which is Himself, He is the reliable and true Witness of God. (3) Jesus uses the Amen before his sayings 49 times in the Gospels to show that as such they are reliable and true and that they are so because Jesus Himself in His Amen acknowledges them to be His own sayings and thus makes them valid. (TDNT,I,pp.335-337)

Verses 26-27
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Because of this... - This phrase parallels the Therefore of verse 24 and links the perversions now described with the godlessness and suppression of the truth which introduced this section. For the second time the ominous phrase God gave them over is heard. But whereas he first spoke of godlessness and uncleanness in general he now advances to shameful lusts and forcefully demonstrates his point with specific application to the most shameful of these passions. Homosexual abominations are cited as the most overt evidences of the degeneracy to which God in His wrath had given over the nations. In Verse 24, Paul warned of sinful desires. The escalation of evil which the apostle has in mind is signaled by the use of a much stronger word in this phrase. Desire (vs.24, Greek - epithumia) means a single evil yearning which may yet be controlled. Lust (vs.26, Greek - pathe) means a constant burning passion, a conflagration that overwhelms all constraint and controls a man completely. Yearning mutates into lust; lust metastasizes into compulsion; and soon an entire lifestyle had been engulfed in evil. Lenski observes:

God removed all constraint so that desires grew to passions, and from the desires He gave them up to these passions. The judgement is increased. Base desires carry men into acts of vileness, but reaching their climax in passions, they not only plunge men into scattered vile acts, they drown them in vileness. (Lenski, p.113)

Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. - Lesbianism, the practice of female homosexuality, begins the presentation of these shameful lusts. Charles Hodge explains: Paul first refers to the degradation of females among the heathen, because they are always the last to be affected in the decay of morals and their corruption is therefore proof that all virtue is lost. (p.42) The apostle indicates the degrading nature of this perversion in that he does not use the Greek word gune which is the ordinary term for women, but rather theleia which simply means the female of the species and may be used in reference to any animal life form. The same linguistic shift is also present in the following phrase which describes male homosexuality. Those who indulge in such things have descended to brutish level of being nothing more than creatures of sex, without the most basic dignity of a human being. The term relations here refers to sexual activity and specifically to the act of intercourse. For the third time in this section (cf. vss. 23,25) the verb exchanged occurs to indicate the deliberate action of reciprocal giving and receiving. Natural relations are given up and replaced by unnatural ones just as the glory of the immortal God was given up and replaced by images made to look like mortal man (vs. 23) and, the truth of God was given up and replaced by a lie (vs.25). From beginning to end, man's downfall is a series of horrible trades in which that which is good, right, and true is cast aside in favor of that which evil, wrong, and false.

The contrast between natural and unnatural is crucial for a correct understanding of this passage. In the immediate context of Romans 1 Paul has argued that knowledge of God is plainly available to men in the world of nature which God has created. Therefore man's failure to glorify God and his suppression of the truth of God are inexcusable. In the following chapter, the apostle will further argue that every human being possesses an instinctive recognition of right and wrong in the natural law, or conscience, written by God in the hearts of men. In this context, Paul's understanding of the words natural and unnatural is clear.

In the New Testament, the "natural" pertains to the created world, and its present general order as ordained by God, ranging from ordinary living things such as animals or plants or biological processes to the fundamental, original condition of things, without artificial intervention - either their innate characteristics or inherited condition. God has ordained the natural function for sexual relations in His creation order; the normal, and normative, pattern of male and female becoming one flesh. God's creation ordinance, with the specific distinction between male and female, intended for heterosexual relations to be "natural." Man's inherited condition, and ordinary biological process, the essential character of his sexuality where there is no artificial intervention and willful reorientation, is therefore heterosexual. This information is clearly known from creation and conscience even by those who disorder the natural function of sex (Romans 1:32). There is, in the Biblical perspective, no such thing as "natural homosexuality." It is always, at base, a perversion of the created order. (Bahnsen, p.56,57)

In the same way, men also abandoned natural relations with women... - The practice of male homosexuality receives the same scathing denunciation as its female counterpart. It is difficult to imagine how the language of the text could be any stronger or more straightforward. This unequivocal denunciation is completely consistent with every other Biblical text on the subject of homosexuality (cf. Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; 1 Corinthians 6:9,10; 1 Timothy 1:9-11) The opening words of Paul's comments on male homosexuality closely parallel his stern critique of lesbianism. As lesbians exchange natural relations for unnatural ones so also male homosexuals are guilty of having abandoned natural relations with women. Homosexual activity is contrary to nature itself, as the natural order reflects the Creator's design and intent.

Were inflamed with lust for one another. - Homosexual passion is presented as an uncontrollable blaze which consumes and destroys those who indulge in it. The Greek words used in this phrase do not occur elsewhere in Scripture. A similar passage in the Old Testament Apocrypha warns:

Let neither gluttony nor lust overcome me, and do not surrender me to a shameless soul...The soul heated like a burning fire will not be quenched until it is consumed; a man who commits fornication in the body of his flesh will never cease until the fire burns him up. To a fornicator all bread tastes sweet; he will never cease until he dies. (Sirach 23:6,16,17)

Paul paints a grim picture of perversion that turns in upon itself in a tightening spiral of self-destruction. One is reminded of the Sodomites who were so passionately consumed with their lust to rape Lot's guests that even after they were struck with blindness they still wearied themselves trying to find the doorway into Lot's house (Genesis 19:11). The compulsive nature of male homosexuality in modern America, where it is not unusual for homosexuals to have 300 different sexual partners a year, is indicative of the accuracy of the Biblical indictment. Men who engage in sexual intercourse with other men are guilty of having committed indecent acts. The Greek text literally says - males with males committing that which is shameless. These same terms are used in the Greek Old Testament in reference to the vilest abominations and defilements of the Canaanites for which the penalty among the people of God was death (cf. Leviticus 18).

And received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. - The judgement of God is never arbitrary or capricious. The punishment always fits the crime. Throughout this segment the theme has been the abandonment of defiant sinners to the consequences of their sin. Those who have chosen to live in sin are ever more enslaved by those sins as the divine Judge gives them over to the punishment which they have decreed for themselves. This is particularly true in specific reference to homosexual behavior. The text notes that the penalty which they have received in themselves is precisely that which is due...for their perversions. Long before the advent of AIDS, the 19th century commentator W.J.T. Shedd described that penalty as the gnawing, unsatisfied lust itself, together with the dreadful physical and moral consequences of debauchery. (Murray, p.48) Pestilence sweeps through the homosexual community today, spilling over to strike down IV drugs users and hemophiliacs. It is difficult to dispute John MacArthur's grim conclusion: The appalling physical consequences of homosexuality are visible evidence of God's righteous condemnation. Unnatural vice brings its own perverted reward. AIDS is frightening evidence of that fatal promise. (MacArthur, p.107)

Verses 28-32
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, He gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, greed, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents, they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, they also approve of those who practice them.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile... - The grim catalog of the godlessness and wickedness of man (vs.18) against which the wrath of God is being revealed (vs. 18) comes to its dreadful climax in these verses. To gaze upon the reality of man's total depravity, here graphically described, is, as one commentator remarked, like lifting the lid of hell (Boice, p.186).

The apostle reiterates the essence of the problem as he repeats the basic accusation against sinful mankind for the fifth time in this segment - they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God (cf. vss. 18,21,23,25). Paul leaves no room for doubt about the direct link between humankind's rejection of God and its disordered state. All of the chaos and confusion with which humanity struggles every day all stems from the basic refusal to recognize God. The verb think (Greek - dokimadso) means to test, examine, prove by testing, or accept as proved. It was often used in reference to coins which were carefully tested on a scale and only those having full weight of gold or silver were accepted. The rest were disapproved, rejected, and cast aside.

The implication then is of a deliberate act of disqualification. It was not simply a case of humans being distracted by something else and losing sight of God: they gave God their consideration, and concluded that God was unnecessary to their living...They tested God and found him wanting. They discounted God as a factor in shaping their lives. (Dunn, p.66)

He gave them over to a depraved mind to do what ought not to be done. - For the third and final time God's judicial abandonment of impenitent sinners to pronounced. Man has chosen to exclude God from his life. That choice to be free of God has been at the root of all evil since the very beginning (cf. Genesis 3:5). The thrice repeated they exchanged clearly underscored humankind's responsibility for the sad state of affairs in which they find themselves. But the creature cannot exclude the Creator. This is clearly evidenced by the threefold repetition of the awesome He gave them over. God remains in control and rebellious humanity cannot escape His righteous judgement upon sin. Righteousness through faithful dependence on the Creator leads to salvation. Unrighteousness through self-deceitful pride and self-indulgent desire leads to the wrath of God and self-destruction. The tragic irony of man's disqualification of God in the preceding phrase (Greek - dokimadso) is emphasized by the use of the adjective depraved (Greek - adokimon) in reference to man's mind. The term comes from the same Greek root and literally means disqualified. Man tested God and decided that He failed the test. Only a mind that is itself substandard, disqualified, would have considered making God the subject of such a test. The mind of the creature depends upon the light of God to function properly. When that mind scorns God and is abandoned by Him it is inadequate, unqualified for the task of understanding reality. The mental incapacity of the mind that fails to stand the test reveals itself in unacceptable behavior - to do what ought not be done.

They have become filled with every kind of wickedness... - In the preceding paragraph the description of divine retribution upon sin had been restricted to sexual perversion. With the catalog of sins which follows, the apostle reminds us that the judgement of God falls upon all sin. The moral corruption of men is pervasive. We do not dabble in sin - we are completely immersed in it - filled with every kind. The list is not exhaustive but representative. It includes 21 vices, three times the perfect seven. The vices mentioned appear to have been chosen at random. John Murray notes:

The apostle's mind ranges freely over the vices which came within his own observation in his contact with the various races and conditions of men. And no doubt his mind also ranged freely among the many sources of information available to him respecting the moral state of the nations in his own generation and in those that preceded. We are impressed with the length of the list and with the variety of vice. But after all, this is only a selection. (Murray, p.50)

Wickedness (Greek - aidkia) is a generic term for unrighteousness of every sort, everything that is opposed to divine law and holiness. Evil (Greek - poneria) refers to maliciousness and viciousness. Greed (Greek - pleonixia) literally means a desire to have more. It is strongly negative term used for insatiable covetousness and ruthless self-assertion. There is, of course, a proper and necessary kind of ambition. But when that ambition becomes a compulsive need to succeed and always have more no matter who gets hurt, then ambition has become sinful greed. Depravity (Greek - kakia) means badness and ill will - a deliberate wickedness that delights in doing other people harm. Envy (Greek - photonos) is the word used by Aristotle to describe the person who takes everything in the worst possible way. Someone who is consumed by a jealousy provoked by the success and happiness of others.. Murder (Greek - phonos) is defined as the senseless, wanton killing of human beings. Strife (Greek - eris) means contentiousnes and rivalry. The root of this Greek word means to debate. Deceit (Greek - dolos) is the self-serving treachery which is often accompanied by malice (Greek - kakoethia), spite and bitterness. The Greek is a combination of the two words evil and habits. The malicious person is one who is set against other people and is out to harm them. Gossips (Greek - psthiristas) is a colorful word which means whisperer, rumor-monger, or tale-bearer. Slanderers (Greek - katalalous) is a somewhat more negative term used in reference to malicious back-biters. There is some debate among scholars as to whether God-haters should be understood in an active sense (those who hate God) or a passive sense (those who are hated by God). The Greek word in the original text is actually passive. Our list of moral undesirables continues with three closely related terms: insolent (Greek - hubristes) - the intolerable pride that sets a human being up against God, arrogant (Greek - huperephanos) - a feeling of personal superiority that causes one to look down upon others with contempt, and boastful (Greek - alazon) - seeking the admiration of others with false claims about what you are or have done. Man, who has spurned the Creator, is himself creative only in a negative sense. As sin's self-perpetuating momentum carries on, fallen humanity demonstrates a deadly creativity in constantly devising innovative ways to practice unrighteousness - they invent new ways to do evil. One of the hallmarks of the end times is the blatant disregard for the basic structures through which God orders His creation (cf. 2 Timothy 3:2,3). At the center of all human society is marriage and the family. Those who are disobedient to parents are the bitter fruit of a culture that has spurned the will and the way of God. Godless parents raise godless children and thus get to taste the bitter fruit of their own sowing in their own offspring. (Lenski, p.122) In a closing quartet of corruption we are told that by nature men are senseless (Greek - asynetous) - without moral understanding, stupid as to the things of God; faithless (Greek - asynthetous) - drawn from a root which means to break a covenant or commitment - these are people who cannot be trusted; heartless (Greek - astorgous) - without the natural affection which is to distinguish human beings from brutish animals particularly within the family, i.e. a patricide or matricide, or a parent that abandons or kills their own children; ruthless (Greek - aleneenomas) - without mercy, delighting in cruelty and exalting in the use of power to exploit others.

Although they know God's righteous decree... - All of the aforementioned vice and viciousness is not committed in innocent ignorance. Human beings know better. The reality of God and the revelation of His righteous wrath are evident throughout creation. In addition to this natural revelation of God, the apostle will shortly add the witness of conscience, the natural law in every man's heart (cf. 2:14,15). Truly, men are without excuse. (vs. 20). People do not recognize God because they do not want to recognize Him. They instinctively suppress the truth in unrighteousness (vs.18). Listen to the stern words of Christ:

Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: light has come into the world but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. (John 3:18-20)

They not only continue to do these very things but also continue to approve of those who practice them. - At the bottom of this wretched pit of degradation is the consensus of men in pursuit of iniquity. Our eagerness to encourage others in the commission of the same damnable sins that we are committing demonstrates the completely willful nature of our actions. To justify our own sins is bad enough, but to approve and encourage others to sin is immeasurably worse. Murray asserts: To put it bluntly, we are not only bent on damning ourselves but we congratulate others in the doing of those things that we know have their issue in damnation. We hate others as we hate ourselves and render therefore to them the approval of what we know merits damnation. (Murray p. 53). Our modern culture's willingness to tolerate, sanction, and encourage any and all behavior, no matter how deviant or perverse it may be is indicative of the pathetic moral depths to which we have fallen.

Dr. George Stoeckhardt wrote the following prophetic denunciation of the decadence of western culture over a century ago. His words were true then and they are infinitely more applicable today!

Since Paul speaks of natural man estranged from God, this description of morals also fits the generation of our day. One cannot better characterize the religious and moral condition of our civilized world than with these words of the apostle. It is a God-forgetting, idolatrous generation which lives upon the earth. Who thanks God for His goodness, to which men owe their life and all blessings? The religion, the pseudo-religion of the world is the deification of the creature. The world deifies her great men, her heroes, deifies herself, her own power, wisdom, excellence, and achievements. The philosophical contemplation and adoration of God are nothing else than changing God into the image of weak, mortal man. Man view God and divine things according to human standards. The generation of this age is an adulterous one. The world feasts her eyes upon and delights in the lusts of the flesh, shame and filthiness. Man's carnal desires are no longer satisfied by common adultery but long for the unusual, the refined enjoyment. The unnaturalness and unchastity of the apostle's time have today only assumed another form and appearance. It is a murderous generation in which we live. Avarice, insatiable envy, is the mainspring of commercial life. Man has no consideration for his neighbor. Everyone strives to rise in the world and thus ruins and tramples upon others. It is idle scorn and mockery when the world writes humanitarianism or universal love upon her standard. And this stream of destruction rushes incessantly forward. One can no longer check and restrain this disgraceful state of things. In vain are all attempts at reform. Men are, as it were, chained to unrighteousness by iron fetters. And why? A destiny rules over the activities of the children of men. God has given them up to their corrupt ways. Knowledge of God and morality has not altogether ceased. Man still hears proclaimed what is right before God and men. But whatever exists of truth serves only to call forth opposition, to goad men on to do the opposite of what is right. Therefore, men have no excuse. The world is continually driving herself forward to the abyss, to the Day of Wrath and the righteous judgement of God. (Stoeckhardt, p.17)

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