To the Unknown God-Part D

Paul left Athens at present for them to consider it at alter time. There was not much fruit on his preaching at this time, but wherever he went certain men followed him and wanted to debate with him and learn about this new doctrine. Two people were worth mentioning and one of them was an eminent man, Dionysius the Aeropagite, one of the high court council who sat at Aeropagus, or the Mar’s Hill. Paul was summoned to appear before him, because he was the judge, senator, and he became his convert. Dionysius was bred at Athens, studied astrology and took note of the appearance of the miraculous eclipse at the passion of Christ. When he disputed with Paul, he was corrected from his error and idolatry, instructed by Paul and became the first Bishop of Athens. The other convert was Damaris, who was a person of some quality. So with these two converts mainly people of some quality, and some other believers, Paul cannot say he has laboured in vain.

Paul exhorts the believers of Athens to give much to reading and meditating based on 1 Tim: 4: 13-15; “Till I come , give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.  Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all”.^a

The unknown God is made known

^”No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”. Jn: 1:18.

What is the mystery of this unknown God?

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory;”Eph: 1:1-14

What was the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began?

Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. Rom 16: 25-27.

Book References:

1. Millard J. Erickson. Christian Theology. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House: 1983-85. 

2. R.T. Kendall. Understanding Theology, Developing a Healthy Church in the 21^st Century. 1996.

3. Jay E. Adams. A Theology of Christian Counseling, More than Redemption. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979.

4. Louis Berkhof. Systematic Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996.

5.  Robert P Lightner. Handbook of Evangelical Theology, Historical, Biblical, and Contemporary Survey and Review. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1986.

6. Charles Ryrie. Basic Theology. Chicago: Moody Press, 1986, 1999.

7.  A. H. Strong. Systematic Theology. New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Co, 1907.

8.  Wayne Grudem. Systematic Theology, An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994.

9. Steven W. Waterhouse. Not By Bread Alone, An Outlined Guide To Bible Doctrine. Amarillo: Westcliffe Press, 2007. 

10. John Theodore Muller, Th.D. Christian Dogmatics, A handbook of Doctrinal Theology for Pastors, Teachers, and Laymen.  St. Louis, Mo: Concordia Publishing House, 1934.  

11. Prayers To Move Your Mountains. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000.

12. John White. Parables, the Greatest Stories ever Told. Illinois: Inter varsity Press, 1988, 1999.

13. ESV Study Bible. English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, Wheaton, Illinois: Publishing ministry of Good News publishers, 2008.

14. The Matthew Henry Study Bible. King James Version. Iowa falls: World Bible Publishers, Inc. 1990.

Website References:

1.        Unknown God - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_God

The Unknown God or Agnostos Theos is a theory by Eduard Norden first published in 1913 that proposes, based on the Christian Apostle Paul's Areopagus speech in Acts ...

2.        Acts 17:23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at ...

biblehub.com/acts/17-23.htm

For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore you ignorantly worship, him declare I to you.

3.        Acts 17:16-34 NIV - In Athens - While Paul was waiting for ...

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts 17:16-34&...

Acts 17:16-34 New International Version (NIV) In Athens. 16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, ... to an unknown god.

1.        Witness to the Unknown God: Paul in Athens - Bible Studies ...

https://www.intervarsity.org/bible-studies/acts-17

Witness to the Unknown God: Paul in Athens. Getting Started “The world’s major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam, are making inroads as are a variety of ...

2.        Biblical Archaeology "To the Unknown God"

www.biblehistory.net/newsletter/the_unknown_God.htm

... “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD ... Greece and Rome dedicated to unknown ... altars to an unknown god” Paul also quoted to the Greeks two of their famous ...

3.        Church, Acts, Paul, Philippi, Thessalonica, Athens ...

https://www.ccel.org/bible/phillips/CN322ACTSPaulTwo.htm

ACTS 15-18 Paul's Second ... 37.3 PAUL ADDRESSES THE PHILOSOPHERS OF ATHENS ABOUT THEIR "UNKNOWN GOD" - After Paul was driven from …

4.        The unknown God - Beswick

www.beswick.info/rclresources/E6A02Ser.htm

The unknown God. We live in a time of ... Son and Holy Spirit who was largely unknown to them. So from "an unknown god" Paul would lead them to "the unknown God ...

5.        Who is the unknown god in Acts 17:23? - GotQuestions.org

www.gotquestions.org/unknown-god.html

Why was there an altar to an unknown god in Athens? What's New; Search Our Site; FAQ Archives; ... Paul explains that this “unknown god” was the biblical God, ...

6.        Athens - Apostle Paul's Missionary Journeys - Bible Study

www.biblestudy.org/biblepic/athens-apostle-paul-missionary...

How did the Apostle Paul get the opportunity to ... Paul uses an altar he sees dedicated to "an unknown god" as a springboard for teaching those in ...

7.        PAUL AND THE UNKNOWN GOD - Christianity Oasis

www.christianityoasis.com/DailyBread/Acts/TheUnknownGod.htm

PAUL AND THE UNKNOWN GOD Christianity Oasis Ministry has provided you with this Paul and the Unknown god study on Paul and the ...

 

To the Unknown God-Part C

“The determinations of the Eternal Mind are not sudden resolves but the counterparts of an eternal counsel, the copies of divine decrees. Our times are in His hand, to lengthen or shorten, embitter or sweeten, as He pleases.” Mathew Henry. 

Paul exhorts people of Athens mostly heathen, that God is present everywhere, and we do not have to place graven images to feel His presence, and even without an altar or without a temple. There is a longing God has placed in our hearts and a longing for eternity, and a necessary and constant dependence upon His providence just like streams have upon the spring and plant life on sun. In Him we live, move, and He is our life and length of days, and we are not perished because of His patience and pity on our lives. God is our Father, and because of His Fatherly care, power, and goodness our frail life our days are prolonged. It is by His providence our souls cherishes, our thoughts run to and fro for many subjects, and our affections and love run towards proper objects. In God our souls move our bodies, we speak, we walk, and He is all in all because God has made man in His image and likeness. In Him we are a noble being ranked high, capable of knowing and enjoying God and not thrown to perish with the misery of the devil because of His love and goodness. Above all we are His offspring, formed by Him and for Him and therefore we as His children are obliged to obey His commandments. Since we are called to live for Him, we have to consecrate our entire being to Him, and become holy and acceptable to Him because there is an eternal well-being in Him.

Paul reasoned out and argued with the Athenian heathens that God cannot be represented by an image of gold, silver, or stone or graven art and by other man’s devices for the following reasons.

·         We are the off springs of God, and spirits in flesh and God our Father is a Spirit Himself, so the Godhead cannot be thought of as an image, or a mould made out of a material from this earth.

·         God does not dwell in a temple made out of our hands, and we wrong God by thinking so and put an affront upon Him. It is extremely sad when we dishonour God by making Him after the likeness of our body. We fail to realize the intensity and the depth of God’s love when He made man in the likeness of His own.

Paul now is addressing the aching question in the hearts of highly learned philosophical Athenians. How did God react towards the Gentile world before the Gospel came? 

·         Can we say that God winked at, during the time of ignorance? It is clear and obvious looking at Athens today that human learning would have flourished so much more than ever even before time of Christ coming into this world. The Gentile world was grossly flourished in all areas except the things of God and they were very ignorant. In the worship of God they were ignorant and we can safely assume idolatry was because of their ignorance.

·         God did detest and hated those times of the ignorance of the Gentiles, because He did not like His glory being parted to something or someone else. So we can safely assume and say that at this time of ignorance God did wink as an act of divine patience and ignorance.

·         God did not detest them by sending prophets as He did to Israel, but in His divine patience and forbearance He did wink and did not punish them in their idolatries but gave them the gift of His providence. He commanded all men to repent of their folly and to break off the worship of idols, and to come and worship the true and living God. He showed His love tremendously on the cross through His Son Jesus Christ, and through His authority and made it very clear that it is our duty and privilege to listen to Him. “Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.  Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good , and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and”; Acts: 14:16-17.

Paul warned them that God will judge the world that He has made, and want all the children to give an account of what they were gifted with. Male and female before God are called to give an account for the what they have done with their body; whether their body served their soul or the soul was useless to the body making provision for the flesh. It is written, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad”; 2 Cori: 5:10. He reasoned out and argued that there is a day appointed in the counsel of God which cannot be altered where the final determination of men’s state for eternity is affirmed.

·         The world will be judged in His righteousness because He alone is righteous. God’s knowledge of men’s characters and actions are infallibly true and so His sentence upon them will be contestably just and no one absolutely no one will be able to act and say anything against this. God will judge the world by whom He has ordained from the beginning of time and that man is none other than our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and unto Him all judgement is committed.

·         God has raised Jesus from death is the great proof of Him being appointed to judge all mankind, the dead and the living. God exalted Jesus Christ by raising Him up from death and that was the beginning, and Jesus Christ judging the world will be the perfection of it, because the One who begins will also make an end.

·         Consideration of the great judgement which is going to come, we should repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and turn to God. This is a serious matter, matter of life or death. This judgement day will be a terrible day for those who are living in sin, and it is a serious matter to make the judge as our friend. True penitents, those who turn from sins will then lift up their heads with joy, and they will be the redeemed of the Lord.

When Paul addressed the resurrection of the dead to Athenians he had some issues with the people and the Gospel has little success just as anywhere else. We can safely assume that the pride of the philosophers of Athens, just like the Pharisees of Jerusalem, has prejudiced them against the Gospel of Christ. There were different categories of people when Gospel was presented.

·         Many ridiculed Paul’s preaching especially when they heard about resurrection of the dead. When they listened to the resurrection of the dead, they cannot bear it totally, because this was in direct contradiction to the principle of their philosophy. They believed life once lost was totally irrecoverable. Athenians had deified their dead heroes, but never thought they would be raised from the dead, and so they could not reconcile themselves to the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and the everlasting life. Paul’s doctrine was the saints’ joy, but to their jest, and they made a laughing matter of the whole doctrine.

·         Many others were willing to listen and wanted time to consider it. They do not want to comply with what Paul has said now, but want to hear Paul’s doctrine again. They are willing to debate and learn from him but would not want to take Paul’s teaching as absolute truth. 

 

Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter. So Paul departed from among them. Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them. Acts: 17:16-34

 

 

 

 

 

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To the Unknown God-Part B

I realized that Athens is a very learned place and a place for Philosophers, when I visited I can see it has one of the best place for Universities and education. For the Athenians Christine Doctrine is worshipping of strange gods, and worshipping new demons.  So for Paul it was a harder market towards Athenians to bring the doctrine of resurrection and Jesus dying for the world to remove the sins of people. In general we can say Athenians lost the benefit of the Christian doctrine because they dressed it up in a pagan dialect and attributed it towards worshipping of strange gods. Paul was at Aeropagus which is called Mar’s Hill, and was the town house of the city where the magistrates met up for business and the court house justice was generally kept. This was also the theatre place in the University where the learned meet and often discuss and communicate their notions. In this court at Athens when someone denies any God, they are liable to the censure of this court. This is the place Paul was invited to explain the new doctrine of Christ and His resurrection. The good thing which came out after Paul’s speech was Athenians were willing to listen to this strange doctrine even though they debated, and some mocked. The natives of Athens looked upon Paul’s doctrine as strange, very different from the Philosophy they had been taught and professed. Athenians were always for new things: new government, new gods, new Philosophy, new demons, new fashioned images and altars for their gods, new schemes, new plans and forms for new government and new notions and were always given to change. When I stood at the foot of Mar’s Hill I realized that journey for Paul was not easy in that culture at that time, but for me it has been a blessing because I understand Scripture in depth after my visit.

Now we can understand when Paul stood at Mar’s Hill and spoke it was a new sermon and a new doctrine to the heathens at Athens. The scope of their discourse was completely different, while for Paul his aim was to bring them to the knowledge of the only Living and true God. He wanted to instruct them in the first principle of all religions and that is there is a God, and one and only true God and warned them not to worship the false gods made out of human hands. Paul is really concerned that they were mingling the idolatries in all of their current affairs and day to day life and in fear worshipped demons, the spirits which inhibited the images. He is warning about the superstitious beliefs of the people and he charged them in that crime for giving the glory to the false gods and not the true God.

Athenians had a set up an altar “To the unknown God,” and Paul addressed their written inscription to the unknown God. When they inscribed as “unknown God” that means Athenians have acknowledged that there is a God, and the only God which was unknown to them at that time. It is extremely sad to know Athens, being a place for monopoly of wisdom, the true God was inscribed as an unknown God.

·         Some people think this ‘unknown God’ is the God of Jews, whose nature is unsearchable and whose name is ineffable. It is also possible they heard from the Jews and from the writings of the Old Testament about the God of Israel who proved Himself to be above all other gods, and also who hides Himself based upon Isaiah 45:15; “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour”. The heathens of Athens also believed that this God of Jews is an uncertain God and for them an uncertain deity of Moses without a name.

·         Some other people of Athens think that it will be their happiness to know Him. There was a narration at Athens especially when there was a great plague. When the plague raged when there was continuous sacrifice, people were advised to let go of some sheep as pleased, where they lay down and they wanted to build a proper altar to a proper God who is in charge of removing that kind of pestilence and plague. Athenians do not know what to call Him, and they inscribed it, “To the unknown God”.

·         The Gentiles in general and the Athenians in particular, their devotions were not governed by their philosophers but by their poets and their idle fictions. Homer’s works became the Bible of their pagan theology which is demonology, and their philosophers tamely submitted to it. They rested in their speculations, disputed among themselves and taught it faithfully to their scholars.

Paul wanted to reform their philosophy and give them the notion of the one and one true God, and bring them off from their polytheism and idolatry. Paul taught them the one whom he serves is the God Almighty, God of heaven and the earth and he wanted Athenians to serve that God alone leaving idolatry and polytheism. The world has been like this from the beginning and it was from eternity is the Aristotle’s school of thought and they denied that God formed the heavens and the earth. The world was made by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, which has been in a perpetual motion, and accidently jumped into this frame was the Epicurus school of fancied thought pattern. Paul has been continuously debating with the scholars of the above schools of thought and maintains that God is the alpha, the Omega and the beginning and the end. He reasoned out with them that God according to the contrivance of an infinite wisdom and power made the world and all that is there in. He tried to part the notion that God is the proprietor, rightful owner and possessor of all powers, riches, in this world and in the heavens who is invisible. Do we think that this kind of reasoning is easy? If we think that mission work is hard today, and the ground is hard, what do we think of this place Athens as a mission ground?

Paul reasoned out using the Word of God that God is the great benefactor of the whole creation, including mankind to whom He has given His breath. He breathed into the first man, gave us this soul and He formed the spirit of man within him. God holds our souls in life, every moment the breath goes out, and He gives it back to us in His grace the next moment, and it is His air we breathe, but in His Hands is our breath; Dan: 5:23;  “But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified.”

Paul taught them how all the people of this world are made of one blood, but placed in different nations, in their different political capacity. God has dispersed them into communities for their mutual preservation and benefit even though they were made of one blood and of one and the same nature. What God has determined regarding an event must not be disputed because it is unchangeable and cannot be altered because it was determined before even it is appointed. God has appointed the time of our coming into the world and the time of leaving based on Ecc: 3:1-2.  “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted”.