What is a heathen?

The Hebrew word goi is also translated 'Gentiles,' and 'people,' and very often 'nations.' It is used in contrast to Israel, whether or not the people described are civilised. All the nations were idolaters, but that is not implied in the word goi, nor in the ἔθνος of the New Testament, which is more often translated 'nations' and 'Gentiles.' In Matthew 18:17 the word has a particular application: if an offending brother will not listen to the church, the instruction is "let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector" — that is, as an outsider, since the heathen were outside the privileges of Israel, someone to be avoided.

The reader will also find that we have translated "nations" instead of "heathen," and for this reason: the latter word, used today for unconverted idolaters, does not always represent the original. Certainly in former times all who were not Jews were idolaters, for men had turned away from God. But the grace which has visited the nations has changed all that, and although, in contrast to the Jews, they have not stopped being "nations," they are now no longer "heathen."

The Greek is ἄθεος, literally 'without God,' and it is translated that way in Ephesians 2:12. It describes Gentiles as such by nature, and it was true of the whole heathen world in their ignorance of God — not, as the term is used now, someone who deliberately refuses to admit that God exists.

They might have ranked among the most civilised, polished and generous people of the age; they might have been outwardly more moral and orderly than their neighbours; still they were without God, and had no hope in the world.

It is quite clear that, once sin had entered, mankind did not lose the knowledge of God all at once. Romans 1:18-32 may be read as evidence. Here the Apostle Paul draws a grim picture of the state of the heathen world. Along the way it reveals three things: (1) that all peoples, even the most degraded, once had the knowledge of God — it speaks of "when they knew God"; (2) that by not glorifying Him as God they gradually lost all true knowledge of Him; (3) that the whole process happened because "they did not LIKE to retain God in their knowledge." They were glad to forget Him.

The heathen are often spoken of as groping after the light and unable to find it, and it is treated as their misfortune rather than their sin, as though they were held down by circumstances too hard for them. That is not really so. The truth is, "There is none that seeketh after God"... It is man, not seeking God, but trying to escape from God, and he has escaped, so to speak, into the darkness. The darkness is the darkness of resisted light, not the absence of light.

The Gentiles did not have the law and therefore sinned without law, and they cannot escape the righteous judgment of God. They had the witness in creation, as seen in the first chapter, and besides this there is conscience, which testifies about what sin is; they have the knowledge of good and evil and are therefore morally responsible.

He who needs nothing for Himself makes His sun rise on evil and good, and sends rain on just and unjust. Nor has He left Himself without witness in doing good, giving fruitful seasons from heaven, and filling hearts with food and gladness. So it was among all the nations whom in past times He allowed to go their own ways of ignoring Him: He gives to all life and breath and everything.