Article #392
by Bill Nugent
Early in recorded history, God took a test tube and dipped it into humanity. The contents of the test tube are the Jewish people, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God took another test tube and dipped it into humanity. The contents of this second test tube were the famous Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and their followers.
It can be said that each and every nation is in a test tube. God deals with all nations in varying ways. God reveals Himself to all nations. India, China, the nations of Africa, Europe and the Americas are all “test tubes” on which God works. In this article we’ll focus on the Jews and the Greeks.
God Spoke to the Jewish People in Plain Language
God’s revelation of Himself to the Jewish people is unique for several reasons. One major reason the Jewish people are unique is because God spoke to them in plain language. This is called propositional revelation. In other words the Jews didn’t have to grope from nature alone to infer that there must be a maker of all things.
God took the initiative and spoke in plain Hebrew to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses and to all who followed them. The content of the propositional revelation gave details about God Himself and about how to approach Him.
God revealed himself as holy. God revealed His love for all people. God revealed Himself as a forgiver of sins. God revealed that forgiveness of sins comes not by self-effort but by substitutionary atonement.
God required animal blood sacrifices. The sins of the people were transferred to the sacrificial lamb or goat and it was slaughtered and burned on an altar. The very fact that God required such sacrifices of animals shows that human effort alone cannot atone for sin. If human good works could get us to heaven, God would not have required animal sacrifices.
God said all nations would be blessed through Abraham. “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).The way that all people will be blessed through Abraham is that revelation about substitutionary atonement and many other aspects of God will be revealed to every person on Earth.
God is Revealed in Nature to the Greeks
Let’s look at the Greeks. God said that He can be known by the things that are made. His power and intelligence is revealed through nature. God has two books: the Bible and nature. God inspired both books.
Regarding nature, the Bible says:
“Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20*).
“He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26-27).
The ancient Greeks didn’t have the Bible. In ancient times, only the Jews had the Bible. The Greeks had nature. In Acts 17, God says that if they would grope for Him, they would find Him because He is not far from any of us.
The Greeks were strong thinkers. They had a unique ability to ponder and look within themselves and outside themselves and come up with amazing things through reason alone. Socrates said “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
The ancient Greek philosophers used their reasoning ability in their examination of themselves and nature to come up with laws of logic, ideal forms (archetypes), great accomplishments in mathematics, especially geometry and many other insights. Their philosophical emphasis was on metaphysics which has to do with that which is not physical or material. They wrote books and they established schools of philosophy.
The ancient Greek philosophers, through examination of nature and introspection of self, pondered the meaning of life and attempted to answer the three major questions: How did I get here? Why am I here? and Where am I going?
The ancient Greeks pondered about the afterlife. They wondered what occurred after death. Many strayed into error by establishing a works based, self-effort salvation.
Self-Salvation: Elysium or Tartarus
Many, if not most Greeks believed that the virtuous went to Elysium (paradise) and the wicked went to Tartarus (hell). There was no substitutionary atonement by animal sacrifices or by a Messiah (Christ). They believed a person must save himself by personal virtue.
This was a scheme of self-salvation. In fact all of paganism, including Hinduism and Buddhism, are schemes of self-salvation. The ancient Hebrews; that small nation several hundred miles away from Athens, was given revelation from God and a sacrificial system to obtain salvation, as the gift of God, through substitutionary atonement.
We don’t know how many Greeks rejected the error of self-salvation as they pondered about nature and groped for knowledge about the true God who created nature and all things. The Bible, in Hebrews 11:6, says about God: “He is a rewarder of those who seek Him”.
The Causeless Cause
Plato and Aristotle wrote about the “causeless cause” and the “unmoved mover” as the creator of all things. These concepts touch on the principle of aseity. Aseity is the attribute of God having to do with God’s eternal existence. God has existence in Himself and is not dependent on anything else for His eternal existence.
It’s logical to reason that if anything exists now, something which always existed, brought it into existence. If there ever was a time in which nothing existed, then nothing could exist now because nothing cannot bring something into existence. Nothing comes from nothing. Plato and Aristotle were thinking about aseity which is a very basic attribute of the God of the Bible.
I believe God visited Greeks who sought after Him. God revealed Himself to them in the depths of their hearts. He revealed His redeeming love, forgiveness of sins and substitutionary atonement. How did He speak to them? What words did He speak? We don’t know. However, God knows how to get His message across. I believe we will see many ancient Greeks (and people from every nation) in heaven.
All people are redeemed God’s way which is by substitutionary atonement. Before Christ it was by animal sacrifice. Christ came and became the sinless, perfect sacrifice who died and rose again to redeem all people from their sins. Forgiveness of sins is through Christ alone.
Meanwhile, Over at Jerusalem
God’s revelation to the Jews in the Old testament of the Bible makes it clear that God highly valued obedience to the laws he gave to the Jews through Moses but also that obedience to those laws do not earn salvation. The requirement of the sacrifice of animals on altars, in itself, refutes any notion of self-salvation.
The requirement of animals offered in sacrifice is proof positive that animals were the substitute needed to bridge the gap between God and man. Yet the animals were a mere prophetic picture of the coming Messiah who was to come and be the ultimate sacrifice who would “give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
In Isaiah 64:6 we read: “all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment”. Human obedience, because of the fallen sinful nature of man, because of original sin (Romans 5:12-19), is tainted with selfish motives, self-aggrandizement, boasting and self-glorying.
It’s been said that God is easy to please but impossible to satisfy. In other words God is pleased with good works and obedience. We see this all through the Old Testament and New Testament. Even though our works are tainted with selfishness, God, in a general sense is pleased with our obedience.
However, to satisfy God, that is to actually earn salvation, is impossible. That’s why we read in Isaiah 59:16, “His own arm brought salvation to Him.” In Isaiah 53:1-12, the coming Messiah (Christ) is called “the arm of the LORD” (Isaiah 53:1).
Jesus, the only begotten son of God is sinless and His death on our behalf is the basis on which we must receive forgiveness of sins. Jesus came in fulfillment of hundreds of Old Testament prophecies and He worked miracles of healing to prove that He is the promised Messiah and redeemer.
The 70 Bulls of Numbers 29
It is interesting that we read in the Old Testament, in Numbers 29:12-39, regarding the feast of Tabernacles, that the Jewish people were commanded by God to offer 70 bulls in sacrifice over several days.
It has been claimed that those 70 bulls were sacrificed to atone for the sins of all the nations of the earth. This is in the Old Testament. It was before Jesus, the Son of God, who came to be the ultimate sacrifice for all nations of the earth. God was providing substitutionary atonement for all the nations of the earth even before Jesus came.
The nations of the earth were required to seek God. This indicates that God was reachable by all people at all times, even by those who didn’t have a written Bible at hand. Those that did have a Bible have a great advantage. The Bible spells out in plain language the message of salvation.
All salvation and forgiveness of sins is through the name of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, the promised Messiah of Israel who came and fulfilled all the Messianic prophecies and fulfilled the animal blood sacrificial system and died on the cross as the ultimate sacrifice and was raised from the dead.
“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
All the animal sacrifices were a prophetic picture of the coming Messiah. Now that Messiah has come no animal sacrifices are to be offered. The New Testament does not require animals to be sacrificed.
Once we receive Christ as Savior and commit to following Him as Lord and obeying Him, then the Spirit of God gives new life to our human spirit within us. This imparted righteousness means that we can do good works from the heart and the good works are pleasing to God and not tainted with human sin. This is the basis for all righteous Christian service to God in obedience to Jesus as Lord.
It’s All About Love
God so loved the world that He gave His Son to be our substitute to redeem us. It is love in our hearts by which we serve God with righteous good works all the days of our lives after we receive salvation. Our spirit is born again but our soul and body still have the sin nature. This is expressed very clearly in the New testament in the seventh chapter of the book of Romans.
In Romans chapter 7, Paul, the apostle, expresses how he wrestles with the sin nature and that the sin nature in his flesh inhibits him from doing holy works. Paul is a reborn Christian at this point in his life, yet he still struggles against the sin nature in his fleshly body. Paul calls the sin nature: “the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:23).
Yet Paul knows that God is pleased with good works. As a committed Christian, Paul serves God in righteousness by his human spirit which is in his heart and by the Holy Spirit of God who dwells with his human spirit. Paul’s fleshly body still had the sin nature, which Paul had to subdue. The body will become experientially righteous and holy at the resurrection of the dead (Romans 8:18-25).
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
Walking with God
It’s a one-on-one, loving relationship with God through Christ as we walk in obedience to the Holy Spirit who lives within us and lives with our human spirit.
God calls all people to turn to him and receive salvation through Jesus Christ who purchased our forgiveness of sins. No more are we to struggle to gain good karma through hundreds of lifetimes of reincarnation.
Hebrews 9:27 says: “it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgement.”
No longer are we to struggle under Islam which claims you must do good deeds in order to balance out the bad deeds. Human works done by the fallen sinful flesh do not earn salvation. Only the finished work of Jesus Christ has gained salvation for us.
I invite you to call upon the name of Jesus Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins!
*All Bible quotes are from the New American Standard Bible.
(c) Copyright 2025 William (Bill) Nugent, all rights reserved except permission is granted to republish and distribute for Christian outreach.
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Prayer to receive salvation:
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!