Engaging Idolatry: Paul's Encounter with Athenian Philosophers

Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. [00:00:43]

And then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown God.' Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you. [00:01:55]

God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things." [00:02:25]

Paul comes, and he's overwhelmed with pain because he sees beyond the temples, beyond the architecture, beyond the philosophical grandeur of its history, to the heart of Athens, which was idolatry. One ancient writer said somewhat satirically that there were so many temples in Athens to gods and goddesses that it was easier to find a god in Athens than it was to find a human being. [00:09:27]

Here we see Paul not functioning merely as the missionary, the preacher, the prophet, but now we see him in action as the premier apologist of the Christian faith, as that he undertakes the process of reasoning with these people about their idolatry. He reasons, we are told, in the synagogue and then in the agora, the marketplace, every day with whoever happened to be there. [00:10:32]

They differed significantly with each other about most things, but they had one thing in common. They both were profoundly skeptical about human ability to come to a knowledge of ultimate truth. And they represent a period in Greek history of radical decline of the grandeur of earlier philosophy. [00:11:42]

And listen to what he says. They took him to the Areopagus and said, "Let us hear the doctrine of which you speak." For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in doing nothing else but telling or hearing whatever's new. [00:19:25]

Paul said, "He who you worship in ignorance, I declare to you in power." And then he goes on from there to one of the most brilliant expositions of the character and nature of God that I believe is one of the most in-depth answers to all of the quests of the ancient philosophers that comes right after this initial declaration. [00:25:29]

Paul knew very well that God was not unknown. Modern sociologists, anthropologists go all over the world studying human customs, human religions, find out you can't go to any culture on the planet where you find no religion. Every culture is religious, so much so that the philosophers speak of man now as being homo religiosus, incurably religious. [00:24:05]

But yet these religions that you find around the world are filled with idols. People worship totem poles, pea trees, rivers, cows, whatever. But the sociologists tell you that if you probe them, they'll speak about the God who lives on the other side of the mountain, the God who remains vague in their consciousness, but they'll even acknowledge that that one is the most high God. [00:24:45]

Paul came to Athens to declare not one more idol, not just another religion, because even Christianity can be a religion where Christians can so distort the character of the biblical God that we worship and serve an idol rather than Yahweh. [00:25:05]

And then his brilliant student, Plato, constructed a whole new understanding of ultimate truth, very sophisticated, very profound. And once again, the quest for ultimate truth was in full gear until Plato's brightest student, Aristotle, came up with an alternate view of reality, challenging his own mentor. [00:14:57]