Well, on what you wrote about Paul’s words to the people of Athens, in Acts, you’ve taken the two phrases out of context of both his address, and even moreso, the whole Bible. By doing that, their meaning becomes very vague and ambiguous. And too, though you are doing that to come up with your interpretation, you are saying that it is foolish not to agree with your interpretation. Yet again, the only wise way to interpret Scripture is with total surrender to the Lord, relinquishing any rebellion or claim to self-interpretation, asking that His will be done if it conflicts with ours, and that He might correct us when we are at odds with Him. We have no right to depart from His will for us. No, we are never in this world perfectly in His will, but we have to completely yield ourselves and all we are, do, and have, to Him. And yes Christians may be at different points, but again we must yield to wherever the Lord wants to take us next.
Ok, would you agree that there have been people who have been saved who did not have access to the Bible, for example, before Jesus Christ walked the earth?
The passage is pretty straightforward, we aren’t supposed to worship handmade items but God’s handiwork points to it’s Creator. Paul even quotes from Pagan literature while making clear that the time for ambiguity and the “unknown god” is over. Here it is in the Amplified Version:
Acts 17:22-34Amplified Bible (AMP)
22 So Paul, standing in the center of the Areopagus [Mars Hill meeting place], said: Men of Athens, I perceive in every way [on every hand and with every turn I make] that you are most religious or very reverent to demons.
23 For as I passed along and carefully observed your objects of worship, I came also upon an altar with this inscription, To the unknown god. Now what you are already worshiping as unknown, this I set forth to you.
24 The God Who produced and formed the world and all things in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade shrines.
25 Neither is He served by human hands, as though He lacked anything, for it is He Himself Who gives life and breath and all things to all [people].
26 And He made from one [common origin, one source, one blood] all nations of men to settle on the face of the earth, having definitely determined [their] allotted periods of time and the fixed boundaries of their habitation (their settlements, lands, and abodes),
27 So that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find Him, although He is not far from each one of us.
28 For in Him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring.
29 Since then we are God’s offspring, we ought not to suppose that Deity (the Godhead) is like gold or silver or stone, [of the nature of] a representation by human art and imagination, or anything constructed or invented.
30 Such [former] ages of ignorance God, it is true, ignored and allowed to pass unnoticed; but now He charges all people everywhere to repent ([a]to change their minds for the better and heartily to amend their ways, with abhorrence of their past sins),
31 Because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world righteously (justly) by a Man Whom He has destined and appointed for that task, and He has made this credible and given conviction and assurance and evidence to everyone by raising Him from the dead.
I’m going to include the rest of the verses in this passage, people sitting there that day became Christians.
32 Now when they had heard [that there had been] a resurrection from the dead, some scoffed; but others said, We will hear you again about this matter.
33 So Paul went out from among them.
34 But some men were on his side and joined him and believed (became Christians); among them were Dionysius, a judge of the Areopagus, and a woman named Damaris, and some others with them.
And no, I’m not saying that is foolish not to agree with me, but that if what I have said is correct it is foolish not to look for clues and traces about God in his handiwork.
Perhaps in the interest of clarity I should have put:
IF God had put enough of himself...
THEN we are foolish not to look...