The Palpable God

Efficiency in Cultures

While Paul was carrying out the mission trips to evangelize the first nations that were to be evangelized, he had to adapt his preaching to a great many kinds of cultures. Hence the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 9:21-22,

1 Corinthians 9:20–22 NASB 2020

To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the Law, I became as one under the Law, though not being under the Law myself, so that I might gain those who are under the Law; to those who are without the Law, I became as one without the Law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who are without the Law. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some.

This is seen in the diverse sermons Paul preached according to Acts, many of which we may talk about sometime. Paul’s idea here is not the violate the liberty of conscience bestowed on all Christians, but to assign that liberty of conscience the task of hailing the glorious gospel of God in the most efficient way possible, which involves fine-tuning our rhetoric to best strike the hearts of our listeners according to the culture they’re immersed in. The culture that Paul preached to in our passage is the ancient Athenian culture. Most of you, I suspect, have heard of Athens and have heard of it as an honorable city — the birthplace of democracy! These commendations aren’t totally without merit; democracy was one of the defining and unique features of Athens, but it’s not what Paul seems especially concerned about. Instead, when Paul left Berea for Athens, it is recorded that he first noticed that the city was infested with idols. Paul’s entire first impression of Athens is this:

Acts 17:16–21 NASB 2020

Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he observed that the city was full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be present. And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger of tidbits want to say?” Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean.” (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

Epicureans and Stoics — Church Fathers

Some knowledge of what the Epicureans and Stoics taught should be beneficial to us before we enter Paul’s sermon to them. Athanasius, one of the great heroes of the early church and famed defender of the Trinity gives us a little knowledge of what these Epicurean fellows believed in his treatise “De Incarnatione Verbi Dei”, or “On the Incarnation of the Word of God”, saying, “For some say that all things came into existence of themselves and by chance; as the Epicuræans, who against themselves idly say that there is no Providence over the universe—speaking contrary to clear and evident fact.” (De Incarnatione Verbi Dei 1.2). However, the Epicureans did believe in something like God; they simply believed that God was an idle God who doesn’t concern Himself with the affairs of men, much like the deists of the Enlightenment. Clement of Alexandria points this out in his work “The Exhortation to the Greeks”, saying that “Epicurus alone I will banish from memory, and that willingly, for he, pre-eminent in impiety, thinks that God has no care for the world.” (Clem. Al., Prot. 5). The Stoics had a notably less egregious philosophy about God. They were polytheists, usually; although, most of them believed that there was a Sole Ultimate Reality, which is what we usually define God as. It was a pantheistic sort of God they had, or at least a God that filled everything, as Clement of Alexandria explains in the same work I just quoted a moment ago by lumping the stoics in with the idolaters, saying “I will not refrain from mentioning the audacity of these others. Xenocrates of Chalcedon intimates that the planets are seven gods and that the ordered arrangement of the fixed stars is an eighth. Nor will I omit the Stoics, who say that the divine nature permeates all matter, even in its lowest forms; these men simply cover philosophy with shame.” (Clem. Al., Prot. 5). But should all the fine details I’ve just told you about the Epicureans and the Stoics miss you, just at least understand this: they both believed in something like God. You’ll notice in the passage a certain excitement from these philosophers; they actually wanted to know what Paul had to say. This was because of Athenian culture, a philosophical culture summarized in that last verse wherein it says that all who lived in Athenians spent all their time in nothing but hearing new ideas. In fact, there was such a thing in Athens as “the Areopagus”, which was a great stage any lay philosopher could ascend to preach his newfangled ideas to a sizable crowd. Hence, when Paul was asked to share his ideas, he ascended the Areopagus.

Mars Hill Sermon

So Paul’s sermon is recorded in Acts 17:22–31

Acts 17:22–31 NASB 2020

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I see that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything that is in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might feel around for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His descendants.’ Therefore, since we are the descendants of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by human skill and thought. So having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now proclaiming to mankind that all people everywhere are to repent, because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all people by raising Him from the dead.”

Paul is very particular in the assumptions he makes about his audience. First, Paul is educated in Greek philosophy. He is quoting a Greek poet when he says “For we are also His descendants.”; the original quote says that

‌

“All the streets and all the market places

‌

of humanity are full of Zeus.

‌

Also full of him are the sea and the harbors,

‌

and everywhere we all have need of Zeus.

‌

For we are also his offspring.” (Aratus of Soli in Cilicia, Phaenomena 2–5)

‌

Likewise, when Paul says that in Him “…we live, move, and exist…”, he is quoting Epimenides, although the original quote is lost — we only know this because early church fathers consistently attribute the quote to Epimenides. Both of these quotes are from Stoic poets, which is why Paul says that he says these things even as they’re own Greek poets said. When Paul speaks of God in His sermon, He doesn’t even bother explaining precisely what He means by God because the people of Athens already have an idea of what God is. The apostle is doing nothing more than polishing the rugged worship of the true God that some of the Greeks already practiced. (Perhaps Paul found so little merit in Epicurean philosophy that he decided not to even bother trying to Christen their writings.) — however, this is the virtue I want to expound on: the christening of good, heathen things. For example, Paul saw it fit to say that the Divine Nature is not like precious metals because the Stoics were something like pantheists, so many of them thought God was everything, precious metals included. This was so that he could take the blurry concept of God and Christen and clarify it as the proper God. This is what I mean by Christening heathen things; Paul christened the Greeks' heathen understanding of God, who made them. As the apostle says in his sermon, God is not far from anybody; grope diligently for God in the dark and you may find Him just as you may find a light switch that you grope for diligently in the dark.

Efficient Evangelism

We know that it is our call to hail the gospel of Christ to the heathen, even to the remotest part of the earth. Our treatment of impious cultures is critical to doing that with efficiency. Christ is the goal, that they would know Him; however, there is difficulty in clarifying Christ to people who know nothing about Him, of which there are many. If we desire our evangelism to be effective at clarifying Christ to those who know next to nothing about Christ, we ought to explain to them using concepts familiar to them. Clarifying Christ is the goal because glorifying God is the goal, and to be “glorified is the same as to be clarified.” (Tract. lxxxii, c, cxiv in Joan.), as Augustine succinctly explained. You are Christians, most of you — devout ones at that, most of you. That’s why I’m quoting church fathers to you and not anything else. But if you were Muslims, for example, and I were trying to explain the gospel of Christ to you, it would benefit me immensely to familiarize myself with passages from the Qur’an and narrations from the Hadith wherewith to clarify Christ to you. Because I could take the unobjectionable statements of, in this example, the Qur’an and Christen them, point them toward Christ, re-purpose them for the kingdom of God. There is no place where God isn’t, and you can always find traces of the Good (which is God) in even the most decadent minds and cultures. Do not, therefore, isolate yourself from the heathen things of this world as though God is not able to transfigure into something pious for His glory, for He is competent enough to manipulate the evil things of this world to His benefit. So do the same.