"Outward appearances are not everything". Though a cliche, this has much truth in it. Ours is a
very image conscious society from fashion and dress through to name, qualifications and lifestyle.
It may not seem self-evident to us in Western society but there is a common recognition of the
existence of a Supreme Being as the originator of all that exists. This is foundational to our human
nature and distinguishes us from sentient animals. Yet it is remarkable in the light of widespread
multiplicity of beliefs about God. It is true of remote tribes across most continents and in the
myths of origins of the Greek and Roman gods. While Greek philosophy has greatly influenced
the West, it was in ancient Athens that they had built an altar to "An Unknown God". Ancient
secular writings confirm the existence of such an altar. To a superstitious society such as theirs, or
indeed ours, it may have seemed only sensible to guard against failing to recognise the true God
and so offending him. Such an altar was an attempt by religious people to avoid a critical
oversight. In time this altar became the focus of Christian explanation to a cosmopolitan culture.
The apostle Paul was one of Jesus's earliest and most educated followers. Arriving in Athens
alone on his travels he responded to prevalent ideology by taking the opportunities to reason with
the people in the Jewish meeting place and the public marketplace. This interaction involved him
in some dialogue with a mixed group of philosophers. This included some who were secular in
outlook and did not believe in a God who involved himself intimately with his creatures. They
thought that this present life was all that there is. Others present considered God to somehow be
all pervasive but not personal and distinct from themselves. These two differing views are widely
held in cosmopolitan societies today. The influential city of Athens was a favourite place for
sophisticated people to discuss and gossip novel ideas. Some of the general public, which included
Jews and people associating themselves with Judaism, appeared to be uncomprehending and
others discerned that the religion advocated by them originated from abroad. Since his early years
in Tarsus-of-Cilicia, modern Turkey, Paul would be familiar with the typical circumstances of
such an isolated Jewish community in a foreign environment. Paul's message for these mixed
audiences was about the significance, for them, of Jesus and the resurrection. On a first hearing
"Jesus and the resurrection" may have sounded like the names of two new deities.
Perhaps some felt a need to evaluate the public speaker to be assured he was not radical, inciting
unrest or otherwise disturbing the peace. Such charges had been levelled at him in towns of
northern Greece. Certainly his ideas came over to the gathering as highly original. Ironically it was
Mars Hill (the Areopagus) where this spiritual battle was to take place. The meeting place of the
town council was very likely near the altar already referred to. Here the widely travelled and
highly educated apostle Paul gave a speech explaining how God is very different from the material
world about us and to the gods fashioned as personifications of material things and phenomena.
This council were guardians of religion, morals and education just as our local councils often seek
to be today.
Respectfully, Paul acknowledges that they are very religious people. He had taken note and
observed carefully their objects of worship. Among them was this altar with the peculiar
inscription, "An Unknown God". That which they had worshipped as unknown Paul declared
himself able to reveal to them. That is, "the God who created the world and all within it is the
Ruler of heaven and earth", the physical and spiritual realm of existence. This includes the
material, tangible and visible as well as the largely unknown, mysterious and invisible realms. God
is not localised restricted and dependant. Hundreds of years later Boniface an early missionary
from Britain to Germany, demonstrated this truth by cutting down a sacred oak challenging their
pagan god to strike him down.
God is in existence totally independent of his created world and of humankind. He is not
dependant upon a life-support system. Nowadays people seem to believe in our origin by
infinitesimal chance events having occurred. Yet God is the one upon whom all living creatures
depend day by day. History is in his control. Paul sensitively agrees with their Stoic belief in the
immediacy of God's presence, though only to a limited extent. All races of men are descended
from a common ancestor and their interactions and realms of authority are limited by God's
choice. These limitations were designed to lead men to seek God and by his provision to find him.
Now Paul quotes Epimenidies, one of their ancient philosophers, emphasising how close God is to
each one. Poets, seeking to express something of man's spiritual nature, have recognised that we
are creatures who depend upon God. Quoting Aratus, friend of the Stoic's founder 450 years
previously, Paul draws a connection between our personal nature and our creation by God.
Now therefore, Paul challenges, we should not imagine that we rightly conceive of God in the
superficial, man-made images in common use. Through the ages men have twisted the truth and
lived as rebels against God's rightful authority. This has been endemic in humankind.
Nevertheless, only the Christian belief consistently explains our basis for knowledge and morality,
or our existence and that of the Bible records. Deviant understandings of God have been passed
over by him but now he requires a change of heart. One day, yet to come, he will justly judge the
world by his appointed human agent, Jesus Christ. He has proved this by bringing him back to life
from death. This status or agency to judge the world implies that Jesus Christ is on a par with
God, for all knowledge and power is entrusted here to him. He judges both as God and with
understanding as man.
However, on that occasion Paul's explanation seems to have been cut short and further debate
stifled. So much for free speech in this prototype enlightened and educated community ! To their
understanding it was not simply the thought of resurrection that was unacceptable but the idea
that this would be a physical resurrection. The physical was deemed of inferior value in Greek
thought but not to the apostle Paul and Christian belief.
Those who apparently were concerned to follow up this subject expressed interest in a further address by Paul. Some pursued things further and with additional instruction believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Among them was one of the Council members. A foundation had been laid. The response to Paul's explanation of the Christian faith was not a huge one but was a life changing and relevant response to the truth they had heard.
Read about God's Promises
Footnote:
Hinduism in it's pure, rather than its popular form, also has such a figure. And Islam shares the
Jewish and Christian belief in one Creator God, the maker of heaven and earth.
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 14:11-17
When the crowd saw what Paul had done, they shouted in the Lycaonian language,
"The gods have come down to us in human form!"
12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker.13
The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city, brought bulls and wreaths to the city
gates because he and the crowd wanted to offer sacrifices to them.
14 But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and rushed out into the crowd, shouting:
15 "Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them.
16 In the past, he let all nations go their own way.17 Yet he has not left himself without
testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he
provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."
ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 17:22-30
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said:
"Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious.23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands.25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live.27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.
28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.'
As some of your own poets have said,
'We are his offspring.'
29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone--an image made by man's design and skill.30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."