It Gets Personal

Saturday, May 16, 2020

A historian described the city of Athens in the first century A.D., specifically in the days of St. Paul: “Athens taught the world the concept of democracy, the rule of the people. It had been the great center of philosophy, the love of wisdom…but its glories had dimmed, and it was no longer the chief city of Greece.” Luke recorded in Acts 17:16ff that St. Paul had visited the city and while waiting for fellow believers in Christ, Silas and Timothy to join him Paul found himself in the busy marketplace and saw an opportunity to witness of the Christ and His resurrection as the Savior who had been long promised by prophets chosen by God now fulfilled in Jesus. Paul became distressed as he observed “that the city was full of idols”. It was a custom of Paul to visit the city’s synagogue, which he did, to talk to the religious Jews. But they took him to the Areopagus, also known as Mars Hill, to meet with what some would call intellectuals. Paul remarked that he had found them to be “religious men” because of the sign he saw dedicated “to an unknown god”. Paul was there to identify to them who God is but to them unknown, blinded by their own self-delusions of wisdom.

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