Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Why does Paul say in Acts 17:30 that God commands all men to repent? Is this so that men can receive eternal salvation? Why else would Paul say this? Thank you, friend, for joining us today. This is Grace in Focus. We come to you weekdays from the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is faithalone.org. We have a magazine and online seminary and a bookstore, where you can find Bob Wilkin’s latest book, The Gospel Is Still Under Siege. That is at faithalone.org. 

And now with today’s question and answer discussion, here are Bob Wilkin and David Renfro. 

DAVID: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Renfro Radio Show. I’m here with my laughable sidekick, Dr. Bob Wilkin. 

BOB: Wait a minute, nincompope, what are you talking about? This isn’t Renfro Radio. This is called Grace in Focus. And I’m not your laughable sidekick. You’re my laughable sidekick. 

DAVID: How did I get so confused? 

BOB: I don’t know. But do we have a question today for Grace in Focus Radio? 

DAVID: As a matter of fact, we do. Someone named Austin is asking about—it starts with the idea of repentance being required for eternal salvation. 

BOB: Which is what some people say, but now Austin doesn’t believe that, but Austin wonders about this verse. 

DAVID: Yeah, he says, I ran across a passage in the book of Acts that has stumped me with my biblical understanding of repent. The passage is Acts 17:30. It says repent to all men. And then he says this, which I think is funny. He says, Paul is addressing Areopagus in parentheses, not sure who or what it that is. So is Paul telling believers to repent or unbelievers? And why does it say all men repent? Thank you for your time. 

BOB: All right, good question. So I’ve not been to Athens, but I believe you have. And as I recall, the Areopagus is a hill somewhere in Athens where philosophers liked to gather. And so Paul went to a place where the philosophers were gathered. But you’ve actually been there, right? 

DAVID: I’ve been to Athens. And I was walking up toward the Parthenon, you know, the Acropolis and everything. And then I noticed this big old rock, huge rock. And then I noticed a plaque on this rock. It was in Greek. And I was so happy that I knew Greek because it said this was Mars Hill. 

BOB: And Mars Hill’s another name for the Areopagus? 

DAVID: That’s right. 

BOB: And so you actually climbed up. 

DAVID: You had to climb up some steps that they etched into the rock. And you go on the top of the rock there. And it’s a beautiful scene because you get to see a kind of a panoramic view of Athens, but right below you, when you’re standing there on Mars Hill, down below you is a bunch of ancient like a, it’s their old marketplace, right below Mars Hill. And now in modern Athens, you have these ancient ruins that are 2,000 years old across the street, there’s a bunch of modern apartment buildings. The contrast is incredible. But yeah, I’ve been to Mars Hill. It is a huge rock. The size of a pretty large building, really. 

BOB: Okay. So now in verse 22 of Acts 17, “Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, ‘Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things, you were very religious.'” He talks about the unknown god. But what does he mean in the midst of the Areopagus? This is a hill. It’s an area. So does this mean in the midst of the people who were gathered on the Areopagus? 

DAVID: It could be. The top of the Mars Hill, based on my experience, was fairly flat. And you could walk around. A lot of people were walking around just like me looking at the thing. And what I envisioned was Paul standing kind of in the middle of that rock, you know, that—

BOB: In the flat area. 

DAVID: in the flat area. And people were either standing or sitting around that. I get the idea that that was a place where the philosophers met. They didn’t go to a bar. They went to the Areopagus or Mars Hill to talk shop. 

BOB: What’s it called in London? Isn’t it Hyde Park, I think? 

DAVID: Probably so. 

BOB: And they will gather and people stand on soapboxes and stuff. 

Well, look at verse 30. I’ll read it. Paul is talking, and he says, “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world and righteousness by the Man”, capital M, in the New King James, “whom he has ordained, He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead. And when he spoke of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked while others said, we will hear you again on this matter.” And it goes on in verse 34 to say, “Some men joined him and believed. And also a woman named Damaris and others with them.” So there were some that came to faith. 

But notice what Paul is talking about here is what I would say is pre-evangelism. In other words, he doesn’t say, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have eternal life. In fact, here he doesn’t even mention his name. He just says, a man whom he raised from the dead. So Jesus is alluded to here. But Paul is not mentioning him by name. 

So what happened? I think when verse 34 says, “some men joined him and believed”, I think that means they believed subsequently to this point because Paul gave them additional information—the name of Jesus and the fact that if you believe the name, you have eternal life. 

DAVID: Well, I think he introduces that in verse 23 when he says, I even found an altar with this description, “To the unknown god”. Paul goes on to say, well, He’s not unknown to me. Exactly. And he goes on and explains the whole scenario of the God of the Jews and sending his son Jesus. And it could be that it’s a result of that discussion that’s not recorded in Scripture, it doesn’t look like, people did believe. 

BOB: Yes. 

ANNOUNCER: The Grace Evangelical Society’s Seminary, GES Seminary, is getting ready for the 2025 Paul semester. All classes are online. And we are now ready to receive your application. GESSeminary.org is where you apply. And if you want to begin study this fall, we must receive your application by July 29th. That’s GESSeminary.org. Classroom size is limited. So let us hear from you soon. Apply now GESSeminary.org.

BOB: When he says in verse 30, “God has commanded all men everywhere to repent”, 

well, that’s true. God wants everyone everywhere to turn from their sinful ways. 

In fact, this is getting off into another difficult passage. Well, it’s not really difficult. But 2 Peter 3:9, “God wishes none to perish, but all to come to repentance”. That verse is very similar to this. The point there is God is awaiting the Tribulation judgments in which more than half of the world’s population is going to die in terms of our current population, four or five or six billion people are going to die during the Tribulation. 

God doesn’t enjoy the death of people. And so as long as there’s enough worldwide repentance, the Tribulation judgments are suspended. That’s what 2 Peter 3:9 is saying.

Do you remember God had said, the Lord Jesus, pre-incarnate Lord Jesus, He said to Abraham, “If there are ten righteous people, I won’t destroy the city”? Well, there weren’t. There wasn’t enough repentance in the city. 

And you had the same thing, God waited 120 years before He destroyed the world at the time of Noah, because the unrighteousness wasn’t filled. 

You remember the Canaanites. He didn’t allow Israel to go in and take the Promised Land until the sins of the Canaanites were full. So that’s what this verse is saying. God commands all man everywhere to repent. And it’s interesting as a pre-evangelistic technique, he can mention this and he can mention that there’s a coming judgment of all people. 

Remember in John 16 verses 7 through 11, he says the Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and—

DAVID: Was it judgment? 

BOB: Yes, and the judgment He speaks of here. So the fact that there is a Great White Throne Judgment can be used as a pre-evangelistic tool and say, look, everyone’s going to be judged, either at the Judgment Seat of Christ for believers or the Great White Throne Judgment for unbelievers, and will be recompensed. Will either receive rewards at the Judgment Seat of Christ or degrees of torment at the Great White Throne Judgment. 

But either way, he’s pointing to Jesus and he’s alluding to the fact, you need to believe in this one. But I would say he went on to give more details when some people were attracted to it. 

And the Lord Jesus sometimes would give pre-evangelistic talks. For example, Zane Hodges argued when Jesus was talking to the rich young ruler and He pointed him to the second half of the Decalogue. But He didn’t mention the 10th commandment about covetousness and then he says, okay, sell all you have and give to the poor and you’ll have treasure in heaven, which is a reward—that’s not eternal life. 

Hodges’ argument was He was basically showing him he couldn’t be saved by his works. He couldn’t be perfect by his works, even though he seemed to claim that. And He was pointing him to the fact that he needed to believe in the One who was speaking to him, Jesus, and if he did, then He would not only give him everlasting life, but if he followed Him and gave Him his all, he would have treasure in heaven. 

And I think there are a number of places in Jesus’ teaching where He’s pre-evangelistic. He’s simply getting people to see their need, but He doesn’t actually tell him the message of John 3:16 or John 5:24 or John 6:47 and this kind of thing. 

So I would see here, Austin, the call to repentance. So there’s nothing inappropriate. If you have children and let’s say your children are unbelieving, wouldn’t you want them to turn from their evil ways? 

DAVID: Let me throw, since this is the Renfro Show— 

BOB: Yeah, you’re gonna throw a wrench in here?

DAVID: No, actually more of a question, because in the Old Testament, the word for repent is translated turn. 

BOB: Yeah, shuv. 

DAVID: Yeah, shuv, especially like— 

BOB: Or you would say it better. I’m sure you have some special Hebrew way of saying it.

DAVID: Well, Hebrew with a Texas accent. What a horrible thing. But it means to turn and could this mean instead of turn from your sins, turn from your pagan thinking, your pagan following to turn to the one true God. 

BOB: And that is more or less what I argued in my dissertation when I was on repentance. I would say yes, that’s probably in there, but I think it would include turning from their wicked ways because the issue here is not, you need to do this to be born again. The issue is to do this in light of the coming judgment. 

DAVID: Well, that’s what I was about to say is they need to turn from their wicked ways, but they have to have a reason. And the reason is that there is a God that exists and he will judge. 

BOB: And He’s not unknown. 

DAVID: He’s not unknown. 

BOB: Even though they talk earlier, but you have a plaque here to the unknown god, I’m telling you about the one true God and the one true God sent His Son. And I’m sure in his following discussion, after some of them wanted to hear more, he told them about John 3:16. 

DAVID: Probably so. 

BOB: Yeah. And so yeah, good question, Austin, and thank you all and keep those questions coming. And I love Austin that you wrote a simple, easy to follow, short question. If when you send your question into radio at faithalone.org, keep them simple. And remember, friends, keep grace in focus. 

ANNOUNCER: Be our guest and subscribe to our 48 page magazine, six issues per year, also called Grace in Focus, by emailing your name and snail mail address to ges@faithalone.org. That’s faithalone.org. On this program, we keep our requests for financial partners to a minimum. But if you’re interested in becoming a financial partner with Grace in Focus, you can find out how to do that at faithalone.org. 

On our next episode: What does it mean to partake in an unworthy manner? Please join us and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.