Acts 17:16-31Paul in Athens
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18 A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’
29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill.30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
When Paul was in Athens speaking to the Athenians about God, he would tell them how God was in their lives...And as Paul walked around, it seemed they were somewhat unaware of His involvement...Paul would tell them that God made the world and everything in it is the LORD of heaven and earth and He does not live in temples built by human hands...And God is not served by human hands, as if He needed anything...Rather, He Himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else...It is God who is in complete control...From one man named Adam, He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and God marks out our appointed times in history on earth and where we live...God does this so that we might seek Him and maybe even reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us....And He involves Himself in our lives...For in Him we live and move and have our being...As some of the Athenian poets have even said, ‘We are His offspring.’...Therefore since we are God’s children, we should not think that God is like gold or silver or stone—and is an image made by human design and human skill...He LOVES His children and wants us to seek Him...In the past God overlooked our ignorance about idols and human godly designs, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent...For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed...He has given proof of this to everyone by raising Him from the dead...St. Paul saw that God was in control and has sent His Son to save us, and therefore be involved in our lives...
Long ago when Thomas Aquinas wrote "If all things that are done here below, even contingent events, are subject to Divine Providence, then seemingly, either Providence cannot be certain, or else all things happen by necessity."...Aquinas is telling us that chance events and random events can be a part of God’s will…All that happens is under His control...He is outside of time and space...He is Spirit...
So, even as Thomas Aquinas writes this around 1200 a.d. in his Summa contra Gentiles, around eight hundred years ago, he saw God as being able to be involved in random and chance events...So if there are those who believe that there was, in fact, a Big Bang Random Type Theory, God could be involved in it, when it happened or even after it happened...This allows one to believe, if you accept what St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that even with random and chance events, a Divine Designer has and can play a role in these happenings by some sort of Grand Knowledge of Knowing All Things, and that His involvement becomes part of His Plan...And the way, I read St. Thomas Aquinas, then the randomness has been taken out of that action or at least the chance or randomness has been greatly lessened with God’s Intervention. and becomes a part of His Plan...And this helps me better understand the fate of my life and the role of fate in others...
This makes God, an active participant in our world and in our lives, because when we make a choice, let’s say a random one of going this way in our lives instead of the other way, God is always there and can affect the final outcome, or even any an earlier outcome in our lives...This makes God in control...And these interventions, His interventions are done is such a gentle, soft, subtle and spiritual way, we must most of the time miss the event of His intervention...Randomness and God can work together, if He chooses to...And that makes God's Plan at times to look random, yet He is in control and organized in eternity...