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and Stoics, the intellectual "liberals"
and "conservatives" of Athens at
that time, and a teacher from far-off
Antioch, in Syria.
This teacher is well known to
most in the Western world as Paul,
the apostle. His comments to those
leading Athenians are recorded in
the biblical book of Acts.
Here is the account: "So they [the
intellectuals] got hold of him [Paul]
and conducted him to their council,
the Areopagus. There they asked
him, 'May we know what this new
teaching of yours really is? You talk
of matters which sound strange to
our ears, and we should like to know
what they mean.' (For all the Athe–
nians, and even foreign visitors to
Athens, had an obsession for any
novelty and would spend their
whole time talking about or listen–
ing to anything new.)" (Acts
17:19-
21 , J. B. Phillips translation.)
The Greeks were accustomed to
their polytheistic religious system in
which a number ofmythological fig–
ures were deified. But the gods and
goddesses ofGreece were mute. The
Greeks couldn't turn to them for
answers to the vital questions of life.
The Athenian deities carried no real
authority, and thus the Greeks by
looking to their gods could not
know the answers to these ques–
tions.
No wonder, then, that Paul's mes–
sage sounded "strange" to the Athe–
nians. For Paul revealed to them the
Person who could give the answers
to their questions!
The Declaration on Mars' Hill
Again in Acts 17:22-28: "Then
Paul stood in the midst ofMars' hill,
and said, Ye men of Athens, 1 per–
ceive that in all things ye are too
superstitious. For as 1 passed by,
and beheld your devotions, 1 found
an altar with this ínscription,
TO THE
UNKNOWN GOD.
Whom therefore ye
ignorantly worship, him
declare
1
unto you.
"God that made the world
and all
things therein, seeing that he is Lord
38
of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in
temples made with hands ; neither is
worshipped with men's hands, as
though he needed any thing [from
us], seeing he giveth to all life, and
breath, and al! things; and hath
made of one blood all nations of
men to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and has determined the times
before appointed, and the bounds of
their habitation; that they should
seek the Lord,
if
haply they might
feel after him, and find him,
though
he be not far
from every one of us:
for in him we live, and move, and
have our being."
The Bible records a time in which
this "unknown" God was dynamic–
ally real to men. But men's very
nature led them to resent the near–
ness of this God. With the passage
of time, men began to forget even
who God was - and, as the inevi–
table result, who they were as well.
Histories became confused and ob–
scured. By the time Greek culture
had reached its height, this great
being had receded in men's minds
to such a nebulous memory that an
altar constructed in his honor could
only be inscribed
"to the unknown
God"
The Modern Athenians
Paul may have anticipated that
his words would have little effect on
the Athenians. lf so, he was not to
be disappointed. Many of those
present openly mocked and ridi–
culed him, refusing to believe their
personal concepts of life could be so
wrong. Others in the crowd evi–
denced only casual interest in hear–
ing more.
After Paul left Athens, the altar
on Mars' Hill stood alone, as it had
before, amidst shrines and temples
to mythological heroes and her–
oines. The all-important knowledge
of the true God and the once-re–
vealed master plan of that God re–
mained, except to a scattered,
precious few, as it had been -
unknown.
When men today read that ac-
count in Acts
17,
most of Paul's
words somehow manage to sail over
their heads, just as they did 2,000
years ago.
Almost two thousand years of fur–
ther "enlightenment" have, if any–
tbing, only led us farther down into
the abyss of ignorance, making a
cruel mockery of our vaunted mate–
rial advances. The paradox of the
ages is tbat man, now so eminently
capable of astounding technological
and scientific feats, still cannot even
explain with solid facts that most
basic of all issues - his own exis–
tence.
But with today's society facing
more and more escalating crises,
time may well be running out.
We've got to know.
We must be will–
ing to forego our preconceived
im–
pressions and opinions and turn to
the one source that can give us an–
swers. We must open-mindedly ex–
amine the one unfailing foundation
for all knowledge.
That foundational source is our
Creator God and bis instruction
book for mankind, the Bible. lt's
time that this "mystery" book be
opened for all to see. lt's time tbat
we understand.
Who - What - Are We?
The logical place for us to start is
at the beginning, with the true ori–
gin of mankind.
The Bible opens by displaying a
finished pbysical creation. The be–
ginning chapters of Genesis explain
that, contrary to theories of evolu–
tion, man was shaped and molded
in the very image of his Creator.
Thus roan was clearly distinguished
at creation from all other life forms
(Genesis 1:26-27).
God, significantly, is revealed
here as not merely a lone individual
but rather a divine family. (Com–
pare Genesis 1:26 with Hebrews
1:2; Colossians
1:12-19;
Romans
8:14, 29;
1
John
3: 1-2;
Ephesians
3: 14-15.) The family name, trans–
lated "God" in English, comes from
the original Hebrew word
Elohim
PLAIN TRUTH September 1973