Not Much Has Changed
Dearly beloved of God, we live in challenging times. There are many today who are like the Athenians in Paul’s day that do not know the One True God, yet they were very religious; so religious that their city was full of idols.
The Apostle Paul reasoned in the synagogue with the Judeans and to the devout persons and daily in witnessed in the marketplace with whoever happened to be there. He even spoke to certain of the philosophers.
What was there response? Some called him a babbler, others said that he seemed to preach strange gods because he proclaimed the gospel concerning Jesus Christ and the resurrection. So, they took him to the Areopagus where they met on Mars hill and wanted to know what this new doctrine was that he spoke about. They thought what he spoke of was indeed strange.
They asked him what these strange things meant. These people spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear something new. Paul found one idol with the inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD, whom they worshipped, so Paul declared him to them. The record is in Acts 17.
He told them that He was the Creator of the earth and all things in it. Being the Lord of heaven and earth, He didn’t dwell in handmade temples, no is He worshipped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, seeing He gives life and breath to everything living. He made every nation of mankind to dwell on all the face of the earth, and He determined appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God.
He told them that God was not far off. In Him we live and move, and have our being as some of their poets said, “So we are also His offspring.” Insomuch as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s imagination.
Paul told them that God overlooked the times of this ignorance, and charges all men everywhere to repent, because He has set a day in which He is to judge the world with justice by the man He has determined, Jesus Christ, “having given to all people [the foundation for] believing in that He has raised him from the dead.”
What was their response to God’s apostle when he spoke of the resurrection of the dead. Some mocked, some said they would hear him again of this matter; certain others believed what He said.
Things haven’t changed all that much have they. More religion, more philosophy, and the same unknown God to most.
God sent the prophets, so that men could know him; they killed them. He sent His Son; they killed him. He sent more like the Apostle Paul; he met the same fate. Despite all of this, God so loved that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes on him might have life, eternal life.
Christ is coming, dearly beloved, never doubt it; he is coming, and he will perform all of God’s will. Some of us rejoice to see his day. Until then, go, stand, and speak all the words of this life.
We are His and He is ours. He is not the Unknown God to us, He is our Father and we are His dearly beloved. Speak while it is yet today.