Sometimes I could wish that the Truth was more accommodating and less matter of fact.

In Romans 1:18-20 Paul declares that God is angry because people are suppressing the truth. The truth they are suppressing is the knowledge of God and they suppress that in two ways:

1. Internally, if people are just honest with themselves they know that God has witnessed within them that He is (cf. John 1:9). Children know this, adults by and large have had that innocent knowledge knocked out of them, sometimes at quite an early age.
2. Creation clearly shows a creator. Even agnostics admit this. I particularly like Mary Oliver’s take on it:

“Why do people keep asking to see

God’s identity papers

when the darkness opening into morning

is more than enough?

Certainly any god might turn away in disgust.

Think of Sheba approaching

the kingdom of Solomon.

Do you think she had to ask,

“Is this the place?”

(“I Wake Close to Morning” from Devotions: the Selected poems of Mary Oliver).

We have had many opportunities to see the darkness opening into morning and, indeed, it is more than enough.

Only God can create videos on this scale.

You can take your pick from the manifold fecundity of God’s creative imagination: plants, animals, stars to microscopic creatures not to mention the wonders contained within our own dust destined bodies. So much knowledge is now available to us and yet it remains true that man continues to suppress the obvious.

Later on it says (vv. 21-23) that we become futile in our reasoning as a result of this deliberate truth suppression. That’s not to say that the reasoning is incorrect – if there is no creator God there is indeed nothing but futility all around. But that leads to depression – existentialist angst as the humanists say – or a darkening of the heart as Paul describes it.

Professing to become wise they became fools.

I didn’t say that. Paul wrote it a long time ago.

But there is hope. God can open people’s eyes and help them to understand, and so bring them from this place of hopelessness into a place where there is hope.

After all, His anger has now been taken out on His Son.