Question

In Romans, chapter 1, verse 18, it talks about the sin of man, but verses 18-32...I don't understand it when in verse 21, it says, "For they knew God..."...in verse 22, "They became fools, therefore God gave them over..."...in verse 25, "for they exchanged the truth..."...the "theys" and the "thems," and then it says in verse 28, "God gave them over to depraved minds..."...I thought we were born utterly depraved.  Who is the "they" and when did this happen?

Answer

What you are asking about Romans, chapter 1, is,"Is this the personal experience of every unbeliever or is this a chronological picture of human history?" I personally would opt out for the fact that what you are seeing here is a chronological picture of world history.  So, what you have from the beginning is that man, after he was created, was obviously created with the knowledge of God.  Adam knew God, right? And Eve knew God, and their family knew God, and so in that earliest generation of human history, God had planted in the heart of man and in the environment of man the evidence of His existence, His power, His Godhead and so forth. But man then began to decline and what you have here is the chronology of man who originally worships God, knows God--even looking at Adam.  Even Adam, after the fall, still knew who God was, still recognized the voice of God, that's why he hid from Him, still understood the law of God.  His children, Cain and Abel, understood the revelation of God.  Abel obeyed the revelation of God, Cain violated the revelation of God, but then you have as you move toward the flood, the terrible decline of the human race and by the time you get to Genesis 6, God drowns the whole civilization, because they have gone so fast from the knowledge of God to a reprobate mind.  That moved very fast and from that point on the whole of civilization, really has been in that situation.  When you have a restored civilization from the loins of Adam, after the flood, still by the time you get to Genesis chapter 11, they are building a ziggurat, a temple of false idols and God has to scatter them and change their language.  So, what you have to see here is not the pilgrimage of every person from the knowledge of God to ignorance, but the pilgrimage of mankind, from an intimate, unfallen state to idolatry and that reprobate process ending up with a whole civilization of reprobate people who just keep reproducing each other.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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