Change Your Mind
“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like… an image formed by the art and thought of man…God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should REPENT, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” (Acts 17:22-31)
Paul is speaking to the educated Greeks in Athens and tells them plainly that ALL of them and everyone else are children of the one true God unknown to them.
The Greek word translated "repent" is "metanoeo" and means to change your mind. All Greeks worshiped a god of some sort at the time. These false gods had images made up by men and were depicted as needing to be appeased with gifts in order to avoid their wrath.
Paul says it was time for mankind to change their minds with regard to the idea of a god we must appease or suffer his wrath. He does NOT tell them to repent of their sin and offer gifts to God, but to change their mind about the nature of the one true God.
Jesus gave Paul new information about our Father God that had previously been hidden from man. These revelations came AFTER Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. It revealed that salvation is for all and by the GRACE God, not by works. As our Father, God chastens all of his sinful children out of Love in order to mold them into His image, a process to be completed in their resurrection to immortal life.
“He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation…and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead…For it was the Father’s good pleasure…through Him to reconcile all things to Himself… the mystery which has been HIDDEN from the past ages and generations…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present EVERY man complete in Christ.” (Colossians 1)
Just before his death Paul admonished Timothy to teach this new information of the salvation of all by the Grace of God:
“it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope of the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Prescribe and teach these things...therefore, my son, be strong in the GRACE that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (1 Timothy 4:9-11; 2 Timothy 2:1-2)
Paul is speaking to the educated Greeks in Athens and tells them plainly that ALL of them and everyone else are children of the one true God unknown to them.
The Greek word translated "repent" is "metanoeo" and means to change your mind. All Greeks worshiped a god of some sort at the time. These false gods had images made up by men and were depicted as needing to be appeased with gifts in order to avoid their wrath.
Paul says it was time for mankind to change their minds with regard to the idea of a god we must appease or suffer his wrath. He does NOT tell them to repent of their sin and offer gifts to God, but to change their mind about the nature of the one true God.
Jesus gave Paul new information about our Father God that had previously been hidden from man. These revelations came AFTER Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. It revealed that salvation is for all and by the GRACE God, not by works. As our Father, God chastens all of his sinful children out of Love in order to mold them into His image, a process to be completed in their resurrection to immortal life.
“He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation…and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead…For it was the Father’s good pleasure…through Him to reconcile all things to Himself… the mystery which has been HIDDEN from the past ages and generations…which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present EVERY man complete in Christ.” (Colossians 1)
Just before his death Paul admonished Timothy to teach this new information of the salvation of all by the Grace of God:
“it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope of the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Prescribe and teach these things...therefore, my son, be strong in the GRACE that is in Christ Jesus. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (1 Timothy 4:9-11; 2 Timothy 2:1-2)