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Rejection of God
(From Forerunner Commentary)

2 Kings 17:5-17  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) II Kings 17:7-17 catalogs the sins of Israel: » Widespread idolatry. Israel "feared other gods" (verse 7). "They built for themselves high places in all their cities . . . . They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree; and there they burned incense on all the high places, as the nations had done whom the LORD had carried away before them." (verses 9-11). Further, they "followed idols, became idolaters, and . . . made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal" (verses 15-16). » Pagan Religious Practices. The Israelites "caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger" (verse 17). » Rejection of God's Law. Israel "walked in the statutes of the nations whom the LORD had cast out from before the children of Israel." (verse 8). Verse 15 points out that the people "rejected [God's] statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them." The prophet Amos particularizes the epidemic of social injustice in the Kingdom of Israel. As an example, notice Amos 2:6-7, where Amos chides the Israelites: ". . . because they sell the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals. They pant after the dust of the earth which is on the head of the poor, and pervert the way of the humble." The Israelites displayed a pandemic failure to love their fellow man. II Kings 17:5-6 relates the ultimate consequence. Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. . . . The king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.   Assyria, a kingdom known as much for its innovative weapons as for their brutal implementation, conquered the Kingdom of Israel in 718 BC. So it was that, about 250 years after it was established, the ten-tribed northern kingdom became extinct as a sovereign nation. The Assyrians deported the population en masse from its homeland in Canaan, transplanting it virtually in toto to the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. The Kingdom of Israel fell below the historian's radar. Charles Whitaker Searching for Israel (Part Six): Israel Is Fallen, Is Fallen

Romans 1:18-20  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) Paul is not saying that God has revealed spiritual truth or saving truth to these people, but even what He has revealed to them in regard to Himself and His power as Creator has been rejected. How much of mankind believes the theory of evolution? That is an outright rejection of God. John W. Ritenbaugh The Holy Spirit and the Trinity (Part 2)

Romans 1:18  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) Verse 18 is an introductory statement to his argument, a kind of cannon shot across the bow, in which Paul asserts that men "stuff the truth." Mankind suppresses what is godly and right. It is evident that God exists, that He is the Creator, and beyond these, that He provides for His creation. He cares for it and loves it. But men still supress these truths and many others in unrighteousness. John W. Ritenbaugh Truth (Part 2)

Romans 1:21-23  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) "They knew God," that is, they experienced or were familiar with what He had done. Rather than following truth, man rejects the knowledge of God. He willingly turns a blind eye to His creative powers, and instead, in his mind, replaces the faultless and perfect God with frail, perishable organisms: man, birds, reptiles, etc. He is willing to elevate almost anything above the true God. And God allows this! In essence, He says, "If this is the way of life you choose, fine. Its consequences you bring upon yourselves!" The results are given in verses 24-25. David C. Grabbe What Evolution Really Means

Romans 1:24-27  (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up) What are the results of rejecting God? 1. Uncleanness, meaning moral impurity; 2. Longing or desiring, especially what is forbidden; 3. Disgracing each other by mutual consent, meaning unlawful and impure connections with one another. Verse 24 contemplates not just a perversion of sex—homosexuality—but any use of it outside of God's law, such as fornication. Paul describes more of what rejecting God leads to: For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. (verses 26-27) Should we be shocked at the explosion of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in today's world? God tells those that reject Him that such diseases are fitting penalties for the wrong use of sex. Mankind has tried to "advance beyond consequences" in this area by advocating "safe-sex" through the use of contraceptives. However, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently admitted that condoms do not prevent the transmission of most STDs. Mankind cannot outsmart God! David C. Grabbe What Evolution Really Means

 

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