Where God Is A Stranger

It is not surprising that the one true God would be as a stranger to pagan nations in times past. For example, to the Athenians, the apostle Paul was one who seemed to be a “setter forth of strange gods” (Acts 17:18). To them, his proclamation of God’s word was as a "strange thing" to their ears (Acts 17:20). However, what is difficult to understand some 2,000 years later, is that God and His word are comparative strangers to many folks in our so-called “Christian” nation. Many Americans have certain illusions and concepts of God just as the ancient Athenians had — and just as false. Many claim to believe on God and believe that He “is” (Hebrews 11:6), yet very few know little of His true nature. And in the absence of such knowledge, it is conveniently easy to “whittle” out a concept with the imagination. Thus, we find ourselves in the land of many “strange” gods.

In our modern Athenian type society, we hear of a fiendish and cruel kind of god who robs us of our loved ones. We hear of a dead god; or an indulgent, grandfatherly-type god who condones almost any kind of conduct. Some speak of a god who honors good intentions and sincerity even above obedience to His own will and others speak of a god who would never allow even the wicked to be punished eternally. Some claim to serve a god who enables them to speak in tongues and heal the sick. Many claim allegiance to a god whose revelations are not confined to the Bible. It is not surprising then that such groups would find the message of their god at variance with those given by other gods. Yes, strange gods are a way of life in our religious world. The fact that these imagined gods do not take the form of graven images, doesn’t really change anything. The man who conceives of a god who differs from the true God, is himself little different from the pagan idolater of old. Paul saw the need for setting forth the nature of the true God (Acts 17:22-31). That remedy is no less needful in our times of sophisticated idolatry.

Soul-saving faith begins with a knowledge of the true nature of God (Colossians 1:9-10) — a thing we often take for granted, especially in our teaching and preaching. Man’s “view” of God must be determined by the inspired Scriptures, for all we can hope to know of the true God is there revealed (Romans 1:16-20). Perverted concepts of God will persist among the uninformed and the misinformed (Gal. 1:6-7). To these folks, the God of the Bible will remain a stranger and His word will seem a strange thing to their ears.

Where God is a stranger, so is His love and man’s imitation of it (1 John 4:7-11). And so is His goodness and the repentance it produces (Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:8-10; cf. Matthew 26:75). Where God is a stranger with those who serve spiritual illusions, so is His authority, power, sovereignty, and will. Where God is a stranger, so will His people be (Ezekiel 14:1-5).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets