Recently, I was listening to a John Robbins lecture on apologetics and something he said hit me like a ton of bricks. Robbins was speaking about Rom.1:18-21, and his explanation of a key phrase in the passage radically altered my understanding of the text.
The most popular method of Christian apologetics today is evidentialism. And those who use this method argue for the truth of Christianity by appealing to sense experience. The most famous of all evidentialist apologists is Thomas Aquinas, whose best known defense of Christianity is the cosomological argument. In this argument, Thomas founded his case for the existence of God on the fact that, “it is certain and evident to our senses, that in the world some things are in motion.” Many of today’s best know Evangelical apologists accept Thomas’ argument, including such respected scholars as Norman Geisler, R.C. Sproul, and John Gerstner.
Evidentialists have long considered Romans chapter 1:18-21 as a primary proof text for their position. The passage reads
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. – NKJV
Evidentialists take the phrase “being understood by the things that are made” to refer to the non-human physical universe. They understand the passage to say in effect that all men have knowledge of God by seeing, touching, smelling or hearing the physical stuff of this world. For example the New Geneva Study Bible, of which R.C. Sproul was the general editor, commenting on Rom.1:20, states,
Divine invisibility, eternity, and power are all expressed in and through the created order…The invisible God is revealed through the visible medium of creation.
Evidentialist Charles Hodge states much the same thing when he writes,
This divine revelation has been made apo ktiseos kosmou, from the creation of the world, not by the creation; for ktisis here is the act of creation, and not the thing created; and the means by which the revelation is made, is expressed immediately by the words tois poiemasi, which would then be redundant. The poiemata tou theou, in this connection, are the things made by God, rather than the things done by him. – Commentary on Romans
But what if “the things that are made” [tois poiemasi Gk.] refers to something other than non-human creation? Hodge himself seems not to know what to make of the words “the things that are made” when he calls them “a redundancy.” But what if the words “the things that are made” are not a redundancy but in fact refer to something new? What if “the things that are made” is a reference to men?
This is the point Robbins made in his lecture, and it’s the point that I missed the first few times I listened to it. And although Robbins’ reading of the text may seem like a stretch at first blush, there is good support for it. For while the most common reading of Romans 1:20 identifies “the things that are made” [poiema]with the non-human physical elements of the world, the only other time poiema is used in the NT, Ephesians 2:10, it clearly functions as the predicate of a human subject. The passage in Ephesians reads,
For we are His workmanship [poiema], created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Here, “we” are the subject of poiema, which is rendered “his workmanship.” And if poiema can refer to people in Ephesians, is it that much of a stretch to believe that poiema could also refer to people in Romans 1:20? By understanding poiema in this way, we can render Rom.1:20 as , “For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the men whom He has created, even His eternal power and Godhead.” If Robbins is correct, and I believe that he is, Romans 1:20, rather than being an evidentialist stronghold, is in truth a scripturalist citadel.
You can hear Robbins’ full lecture here under Collection 5: Defending the Faith, Level 2 , Lecture 2. The relevant portion starts at the 34 minute mark.
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