John Calvin Commentary Acts 17:30

"The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked; but now he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent:" — Acts 17:30 (ASV)

And the times of this ignorance. Because it is commonly thought that whatever has been practiced for a long time and is approved by the common consent of all people must be good, it might have been objected to Paul: Why do you annul those things which have been received and used continually since the beginning of the world? And whom can you persuade that the whole world has been deceived for so long? Indeed, there is no kind of abomination so filthy that the Papists do not think is well fortified with this shield.

Paul anticipates this question, showing that men went astray for so long because God did not reach out His hand from heaven to bring them back into the way.

It may seem a strange thing that men endowed with reason and judgment should err so grossly and shamefully in a most important matter. But Paul’s meaning is that men never stop erring until God helps them. And he assigns no other cause for why God did not correct this sooner, except His good pleasure.

And assuredly we are not able to comprehend the reason why God suddenly set up the light of His doctrine, when He allowed men to walk in darkness for four thousand years. At least since Scripture conceals it, let us here value sober restraint more than presumptuous wisdom.

For whoever will not allow God to speak or hold His peace at His pleasure attempts to confine Him within limits—which is a most unseemly thing, and contrary to nature itself. Again, those who will not be content with His wisdom and secret counsel must inevitably murmur against Paul, who teaches clearly that ignorance reigned in the world for as long as it pleased God to overlook it.

Some others interpret it differently: that God spared ignorance, as if He overlooked it, being unwilling to punish it. But that surmise is entirely contrary to Paul’s meaning and purpose, who did not mean to lessen man’s fault, but to magnify the grace of God which appeared suddenly. And it is proven false by other passages, because those who have sinned without law shall notwithstanding perish without law (Romans 2:12).

In sum, Paul’s words convey only this meaning: that men were given over to blindness until God revealed Himself to them; and that we ought not too curiously and boldly demand the reason why He dispelled darkness no sooner, but that whatever pleased Him ought to seem right and just to us without further fuss.

For though it is a hard saying that men were miserably deceived for a long time while God acted as though He did not see it, yet we must be content with, and rest upon, His providence. And if at any time a vain and perverse desire comes upon us to know more than is fitting for us, let us immediately call to mind what Paul teaches in many places: that it was a mystery hidden since the beginning of the world that the light of the gospel appeared to the Gentiles suddenly (Romans 16:25; Ephesians 3:9), and that this is a sign of the manifold wisdom of God, which overwhelms all human understanding.

Again, let us remember that God’s not healing their errors does not lessen men's fault, since their own conscience will always hold them convicted, so that they cannot escape just damnation. And Paul said that the world erred while God overlooked it—not so that he might lay the fault and blame upon God, but so that he might cut off the occasion for curious and harmful questions. By this we learn how reverently we ought to think of God’s providence, lest anyone should be so bold—as human nature is proud—to demand from God a reason for His works.

Furthermore, this warning is no less profitable for us than for the people of that time. The enemies of the gospel, when it begins to spring up again, consider it a great absurdity that God allowed men to go astray for so long under the apostasy of the Pope, as if (though there appears no reason for it) it were not as lawful for Him now to overlook men’s ignorance as in times past.

And we must principally note for what purpose He says this: namely, that the ignorance of former times may not hinder us from obeying God without delay when He speaks. Most men think that they have a plausible excuse for their error if they have their forefathers to keep them company, or if they derive some sanction or defense from long custom. Indeed, they would willingly find an escape here, so that they may not obey the word of God. But Paul says that we should not seek an excuse from our forefathers’ ignorance when God speaks to us because, though they are not guiltless before God, yet our sluggishness is more intolerable if we are blind at noonday and remain as deaf, or as if we were asleep, when the trumpet of the gospel sounds.

Now He wills all men. In these words Paul teaches that we must listen to God as soon as He speaks, as it is written, Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts (Psalms 95:7–8; Hebrews 3:7–8). For the stubbornness of those men is without excuse, who neglect this opportunity when God gently calls them to Himself.

Also, we gather from this passage for what purpose the gospel is preached: namely, that God may gather us to Himself from the former errors of our life. Therefore, as often as the voice of the gospel sounds in our ears, let us know that God exhorts us to repentance.

We must also note that he attributes to God the role of the speaker, though He does it through man. For otherwise the gospel does not have such full authority as the heavenly truth deserves, except when our faith looks to Him who is the governor of the prophetic function and depends upon His mouth.