Bible Questions Answered:
“Why did God wink at the wickedness
of old testament people but today sends people to hell?”
Randy/ New York, New York
Bible Answer:
Bible Text:
Acts
17:16-34 NLT (Apostle
Paul before the High Council of Athens.)
16 While Paul
was waiting for them (Silas and
Timothy) in Athens, he was deeply troubled by all the idols
he saw everywhere in the city.
17 He went to
the synagogue to reason with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles,
and he spoke daily in the public square to all who happened to be
there.
18 He also had
a debate with some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. When he
told them about Jesus and His resurrection, they said, “What’s
this babbler trying to say with these strange ideas he’s picked
up?” Others said, “He seems to be preaching about some foreign
gods.”
19 Then they
took him to the high council of the city. “Come and tell us about
this new teaching,” they said.
20 “You are
saying some rather strange things, and we want to know what it’s
all about.”
21 (It should
be explained that all the Athenians as well as the foreigners in
Athens seemed to spend all their time discussing the latest ideas.)
22 So Paul,
standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of
Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way,
23 for as I was
walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had
this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you
worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
24 “He is the
God who made the world and everything in it. Since He is Lord of
heaven and earth, He doesn’t live in man-made temples,
25 and human
hands can’t serve His needs—for He has no needs. He himself gives
life and breath to everything, and He satisfies every need.
26 From one man
He created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided
beforehand when they should rise and fall, and He determined their
boundaries.
27 “His
purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their
way toward Him and find Him—though He is not far from any one of
us.
28 For in Him
we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We
are His offspring.’
29 And since
this is true, we shouldn’t think of God as an idol
designed by craftsmen from gold or silver or stone. (Exodus
20:1-6 KJV)
30 “God
overlooked (Winked at-KJV)
people’s ignorance about these things (those
seeking God through idolatry) in earlier times, but now
He commands everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to
Him.
31 For He has
set a day for judging the world with justice by The Man He has
appointed, and He proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from
the dead.” (John 5:22 KJV)
32 When they
heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead, some laughed in
contempt, but others said, “We want to hear more about this later.”
33 That ended
Paul’s discussion with them,
34 but some
joined him and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member
of the council, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
*Winked: Greek-Hupereido
(Hoop-er-i-do): To overlook, i.e. not punish: wink at.
Acts 14:15,17 NLT
15
“Friends...We have come to bring you the Good News that you should
turn...to the living God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and
everything in them.
16 In the
past He permitted all the nations to go their own ways,
17 but He
never left them without evidence of Himself and His goodness. For
instance, He sends you rain and good crops and gives you food and
joyful hearts.”
Acts 17:30 NLT (The Apostle Paul
before the High Council at Athens.)
“God overlooked people’s
ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now He commands
everyone everywhere to repent of their sins and turn to Him.
Who were the people
the Apostle was talking about?
He was talking
about people of Old Testament, Old Covenant individuals, who like the
Athenians, who out of ignorance, and who may have been sincere, but
who were sincerely wrong in their worship of God.
God's way of
worship:
Galatians 3:6-9
NLT
6 In the same way, “Abraham
believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
7 The real children of Abraham,
then, are those who put their faith in God.
8 What’s more, the Scriptures
looked forward to this time when God would declare the Gentiles to be
righteous because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to
Abraham long ago when He said, “All nations will be blessed through
you.”
9 So all who put their faith in
Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.
In
Old Testament times, many lived in sin, and open rebellion but some,
God's chosen people (though also under inherent sin) served God to
the best of their ability, and their faith
was accounted to them as righteousness.
II Peter 3:9 KJV
The
Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count
slackness; but is long suffering
to us-ward, not willing
that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Their faith was
accounted to them as righteousness.
How
could this be?
It
could be because the benefits of Calvary. Calvary covered believers
sins from the “past,” as well as up to our present day.
The
benefits of Calvary were as much “retroactive” as they are now,
(after Calvary), “active.”
When
Christ died for the sins of the world, He died for all sin
from Adams' to the last individual who will receive God's
Perfect-Sacrifice.
Romans 3:25-27
NLT
25
For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made
right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life,
shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being
fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times
past,
26
for He was looking ahead and including
them in what He would do in this present time.
God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He Himself is fair
and just,
and
He declares sinners to be right in His sight when they believe in
Jesus.
God
never winks at blatant sin, past, present, or future.
Habakkuk 1:13
KJV
Thou
art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on
iniquity..."
Ezekiel 18:4 KJV
(Ezekiel, an Old Covenant
Prophet)
Behold,
all souls are Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of
the son is Mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Galatians 3:22
KJV
But the
scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe
Some in ancient days, sought after God, and worshiped Him, in
idolatrous ways, yet God overlooked their sin, because of their
ignorance.
And also to be “overlooked,” were Old Testament believers who
acted in faithfulness to God, and their faith was accounted to
them as righteousness, but again God “overlooked”
their inherent sin. Their sins would be overlooked because of what the Lord Jesus
would do for them, years into their future.
Though written 64 A.D. The words of the Apostle, were true in Old
Covenant times as well!
Ephesians 2:8,9
KJV
8 For by grace
are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
The Gift Of God:
9 Not of
works (religious or
otherwise), lest any man should boast.
God's Perfect Sacrifice
Hebrews 9:11-28 NLT
11 So Christ
has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have
come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven,
which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created
world.
12 With His
own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—He entered the
Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption
forever.
13 Under the
old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow
could cleanse people’s bodies from ceremonial impurity.
14 Just think
how much more The Blood Of Christ will purify our consciences from
sinful deeds so that we can worship the living God. For by the power
of The Eternal Spirit, Christ offered Himself to God as a perfect
sacrifice for our sins.
15 That is why
He is the one who mediates a new covenant between God and people, so
that all who are called can receive the eternal inheritance God has
promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty
of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
16 Now when
someone leaves a will, it is necessary to prove that the person who
made it is dead.
17 The will
goes into effect only after the person’s death. While the person
who made it is still alive, the will cannot be put into effect.
18 That is why
even the first covenant was put into effect with the blood of an
animal.
19 For after
Moses had read each of God’s commandments to all the people, he
took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, and sprinkled
both the book of God’s law and all the people, using hyssop
branches and scarlet wool.
20 Then he
said, “This blood confirms the covenant God has made with you.”
21 And in the
same way, he sprinkled blood on the Tabernacle and on everything used
for worship.
22 In fact,
according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified with
blood. For without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.
23 That is why
the Tabernacle and everything in it, which were copies of things in
heaven, had to be purified by the blood of animals. But the real
things in heaven had to be purified with far better sacrifices than
the blood of animals.
24 For Christ
did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only
a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to
appear now before God on our behalf.
25 And He
did not enter heaven to offer Himself again and again,
like the high priest here on earth who enters the Most Holy Place
year after year with the blood of an animal.
26 If that
had been necessary, Christ would have had to die again and again,
ever since the world began. But now, once for all time,
He has appeared at the end of the age to remove sin by His own death
as a sacrifice.
27 And just as
each person is destined to die once and after that comes judgment,
28 so also
Christ died once for all time as a sacrifice
to take away the sins of many people. He will come again, not to
deal with our sins, but to bring salvation to all who are eagerly
waiting for Him.
God has never “winked,” at sin and rebellion, in Old Testament
times, or New Testament times!
God “winked,” at spiritual ignorance and inherent sin,
in the lives of followers of God in the Old Testament, because the
“Perfect-Sacrifice,” had not yet been given, but would be through
His sinless Son.
John 3:14-18 KJV
14 And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must The Son Of Man
be lifted up:
15 That
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16 For God so
loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17 For God sent
not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world
through Him might be saved.
18 He that
believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is
condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of The
Only Begotten Son Of God.
And God does not send anyone to hell!
People, in their sin and blatant rebellion, send themselves there.
Hebrews 3:15 KJV
While it is
said, To day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts..."
