In "the times of ignorance"—all those past generations from the first human beings until Christ (except Noah's generation, Gen 6:5-8; 9:11-17)—God overlooked humankind's sin, especially false worship. He "overlooked" it not by excusing it or failing to notice it, but rather by not punishing it as it deserved (Rom 3:25; Acts 14:16). Now, however, God commands all people everywhere to repent. Each generation's problem is that their ignorant worship is culpable, rebellious, false worship. God's solution is not to receive more information but to make a radical turn from idolatry to the one true God (Acts 14:15; 26:20). Formerly humankind lived in a sinful ignorance that God in his mercy passed over. Now, after sin has been judged in Jesus' death and resurrection, comes the "day of salvation" in a gospel proclaimed in his name, calling for repentance and promising forgiveness. Today there is no room in God's economy, as Paul preaches it, for so-called B.C. Christians—persons saved without knowledge of Christ and his saving work (contrast Kraft 1979:231).

The call to repentance is urgent because the consequences for not repenting—a final judgment and eternal condemnation—are inescapable. The judgment is definite (he has set a day; Lk 17:24, 30; 21:34-36), universal (he will judge the world, or "whole inhabited world"; Acts 11:28; 17:6), fair (with justice; Ps 96:13) and personal (by the man he has appointed, Jesus; Jn 5:27; Acts 10:42). Though the Greek philosophers might envision a judgment on souls in the hereafter as part of a reincarnation scheme, they find a final judgment, as Paul declares it, incredible (Buchsel and Herntrich 1965:933-34).

The proof Paul offers to establish his argument is Jesus' resurrection. That event, itself established by many "undeniable proofs" (1:3), guarantees the reality of this future event and thus authenticates the urgency of the call to repentance. The resurrection is, then, the linchpin for both potential ways of applying the death and resurrection of the Christ to one's eternal destiny. It establishes both the warning of judgment and the promise of salvation blessings (2:32-33; 5:30-32; 10:40-42).