Is there really such a thing as an atheist?

In Acts 17:19-28, the Apostle Paul stands before the thinkers of Athens and points them to the God they do not know. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt shows from Scripture that deep down, everyone knows God is real.

Athens was full of idols, and the people even had an altar marked “To the Unknown God.” Paul used that altar as his starting point. He preached one true God who made everything, who needs nothing from us, who made every nation “from one blood,” and in whom “we live and move and have our being.” Drawing on Romans 1, Dr. Holt explains that people do not really lack the knowledge of God; they suppress it. Paul’s task — and ours — is to make the God they already sense known to them in Jesus.

Questions this study answers:

1. How are agnostics different from atheists? An atheist claims there is no God, while an agnostic says a God may exist but cannot be known. Paul speaks to both by proclaiming the God who has made Himself known.

2. What was Paul doing in Athens? Surrounded by idols, Paul reasoned with the city’s thinkers and preached the one Creator God to people who worshiped many false ones. He turned their altar “to the unknown God” into a starting point for the gospel.

3. Does anyone truly not know God exists? According to Romans 1, no. People know God through what He has made, but they suppress that truth. Paul’s job was to make the God they secretly know clear and named in Christ.

“I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.” — Acts 17:23 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This sermon is part of the Acts Explained study from New Geneva Theological Seminary. Find more verse-by-verse teaching across the Bible at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.