Acts 17:23
A common verse used to argue that members of non-Christian religions worship the same God we do is Acts 17:23 where Paul says to the Gentiles at the Areopagus:
“For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.”
The argument then is that the Athenians truly worshiped God, but did so in ignorance of his real name.
But Paul recognizes that this “unknown god” is not the one true God, but an idol. In verse 16 we read: “Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.” When Paul makes reference to the unknown god, he does not say, “who therefore you worship,” but “what therefore you worship.” He uses a neuter pronoun in Greek, not a masculine one. This unknown god is an impersonal idol, not the true and living God of Scripture.
Paul uses this idol as a means to introduce the subject of the one true God they were ignorant of. If Paul believed that they already worshiped God, then why was he preaching the gospel to them telling them to believe in Jesus to be saved? The fact that they were worshiping idols as polytheists proves that they were lost because the “unknown god” was not the only God they worshiped (1 Cor 6:9). But some people were saved because of Paul’s message demonstrating that they were not saved before Paul brought the gospel to them (Acts 17:30-34).
Acts 17:26-27
Another popular argument for inclusivism is based on Paul’s words in Acts 17:26-27:
“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.”
Because God desires that all nations “might feel their way toward him and find him,” it is argued that those who do not know the gospel can seek God out right where they are and be saved.[i] Why would God desire that all nations seek him out and find him if they have no chance apart from the preaching of the gospel?
The key to answering this objection is to make a distinction between God’s revealed will of command and his secret will of decree. This verse reflects God’s will of command in desiring that all men come to salvation. God commands that all men without distinction repent and believe the gospel (Acts 17:30). This will in turn is reflected by our preaching of the gospel as we desire to see the lost turn from their sin to Christ. But God’s secret will of decree is that only the elect will be saved through the gospel.
The assumption that is being made by the inclusivist is that seeking after God to find him can be done without searching out for God’s special revelation. Verse 30 calls the period of time before the coming of Christ “the times of ignorance” because God generally left the pagan nations in ignorance of the coming Messiah. He chose Israel alone out of all the nations of the world to be his treasured possession. They were called to be a light for the nations. But Israel failed in her mission because of her repeated sinfulness and idolatry. Now that Christ has come, the gospel is to be sent to all nations rather than having all nations come to Israel. God is no longer overlooking the nations in his plan of salvation because he is sending missionaries to them.
An example of this seeking for God is seen in the Queen of Sheba who journeyed to Jerusalem to hear from Solomon. To seek God out, the nations around Israel had to come “from the ends of the earth” (Matt 12:42). Now the church goes to “the ends of the earth” to seek them out. It is exactly because no lost person “seeks for God” that the church must go to them (Rom 3:11). So how do we explain the Queen of Sheba’s seeking after God in light of Romans 3:11? In her case, she was not first seeking after God, but the wisdom of Solomon. But in seeking Solomon, she found God because she was one of his elect. As God says in Romans 10:20,“I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.”
Another problem with this argument is that it assumes that a command to do something implies the ability to carry it out. How could God command the nations to seek him if they could not because of their sinful condition and lack of special revelation? But responsibility does not imply ability in Scripture because God’s perfect standard does not accommodate itself to our fallen estate. God calls us to circumcise our heart, yet he alone can bring about regeneration (Deut 10:6; 30:6; Jer 4:4; Col 2:11). God commands people to make for themselves a new heart, yet he alone can take out the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh (Ezek 18:31; 36:26). He tells us to be sinlessly perfect as he is perfect, yet the Bible knows nothing of sinless perfection in this life (Matt 5:48; Jas 3:2).
We are called to love God with all our heart, yet our heart often condemns us (Matt 22:37; 1 John 3:20). He calls us to repent, yet he must grant repentance (Acts 17:30; 2 Tim 2:25). We are called to believe in Christ, yet our faith must be granted as well (Acts 16:31; Phil 1:29). Unbelievers are rebuked for their hard and impenitent hearts, yet God must open their heart (Acts 16:14; Rom 2:5). Jesus called upon the man with a withered hand to stretch it out even though he had no natural ability to do so (Matt 12:13).
Pagan Prophets
Some argue that because Paul quotes from pagan philosophers in Acts 17:28, they may have been Job-like prophets who spoke from God and were saved.[ii] But the reason Paul quotes from them is to create a reductio ad absurdum argument. He is exposing the inconsistency of the pagan worldview by demonstrating that it is inconsistent to believe that God is everywhere and that we are his offspring while at the same time worshiping idols. If God is everywhere and we are his offspring, then God cannot be worshiped through idols made of wood and stone. In Aratus’ poem Phaenomena, the one whose offspring we are is not God, but Zeus. Aratus was a polytheist, not a monotheist. The same is true of Epimenides of Crete who in his poem Cretica is addressing Zeus as well.
In Titus 1:12, when Paul quotes Epimenides a second time, he does call him a prophet, not because he is a prophet like those in the Old Testament, but in an ironic sense. He is a prophet in the sense that he, being a polytheistic pagan, knows better than the monotheistic false teachers who claim to be Christians. He is a prophet in comparison to them because even he knows the importance of honesty and self-control.
[i]Richardson, Heaven Wins, 91.
[ii]Ibid.
James Attebury 
One thought on “Problems with Theological Inclusivism – Part 32: Acts 17”