A Visit to Mars Hill

I decided to spend some time this week with the Lord alone to let Him teach me more about Mars Hill. Since so many are fighting for the right to gain common groud with everyone, to bring the culture into the Church in hopes that an unbeliever will be attracted to what WE offer, I felt it was time to come with my heart and mind open and let the Lord speak to me. I asked the Lord to show me, if these guys are right, if they are only doing what Paul did and it is pleasing to you Lord then show me so that I may stand in unity with them. I am in no way above being corrected. In fact, I would rather the Lord correct me now, before it is to late, so that I can get back on the straight and narrow path. I admit, before I got alone with the Lord to look at this scripture, I had no real answers. I only knew that what these guys defend and teach, even when I worked on staff with them in the Church, was not right. I would like to share with you what the Holy Spirit taught me this week. 

So my question to the Lord was, since Rob Bell and all these other men use Acts 17 to justify finding common ground for the sake of advancing the true gospel of Jesus Christ, are we seeing the exact same method and result that Paul saw? Are we ending up bringing in strong, true believers for Christ? To find out we must test Mr. Bells and others methods to scripture. Not to our own opinions, or likes and dislikes, only to scripture! So here I will begin to share with you what the Holy Spirit taught me based on my time with our Lord.

As we begin in verse 16 we see that Paul is greatly distressed by all the idols that have filled the city. Now if you are a true believer you can already begin to relate to Paul here. As a true believer of Jesus Christ, Paul surely had to feel distressed by all the false religious idols and worship he saw. I know that I do. Now it is here that I would begin to wonder then, how will Paul handle this distress? Will he overlook it? Maybe he would turn to meditation and yoga to ease the stressful feelings he is having inside. Maybe he will find that he is just being to negative and critical of someone else’s religion. (Those are all things our world would tell us we should do.) Or maybe, it will stir up such a passion for these lost people that Paul will begin to preach the truth in the marketplace to these people. I will go with the last one for Paul. Now as Paul does this, a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. The first thing I note here is that it is the unbelievers that dispute with Paul here, not those “within” the Church of Christ. If Paul were finding some common ground, if he were saying things that were somewhat acceptable to these men, I find no reason for them to dispute with him. Just the fact that they call him a “babbler” shows their animosity towards him. They had no understanding of what Paul was preaching about. And it is not Paul that goes and seeks them out to find some common ground with them that he may try to convert them. No, it is they that seek Paul out and take him to the Areopagus.  Now just the fact that they are easily irritated shows why they would bring Paul here to try and debate with him. What pride! Note that Paul is not on trial here, he can come and go at his own free will. But Paul is now prepared to go speak to these unbelievers about the One true God. Once I get to verse 21 I am instantly thrown into our modern day emerging/seeker movement. Was it Paul (the true Christian) that spent all his time talking about and listening to the latest ideas? Did Paul just have conversations for the sake of conversing about new ideas and re-inventing Christianity? Or does that sound like the the group of pagens meeting at Mars Hill?   Read the verse and you decide. You must dear friend, for in our Laodicean church day it will be one group or the other that you will follow.

Next, in verse 22 we see Paul starting off by calling these men’s attention to their objects of worship. Paul says, “I see that in every way you are very religious”. The correct interpretation is “superstitious”.  Now I know many try to distort this and turn it into “complimentery Paul”, but that could not be further from the truth. All orginial versions hold to the greek word deididaimonesteros for this scripture, which you will find when you look it up means “superstitious”. It is the greek word threskeia that means “religious”, and that is not used in this scripture. It would seem to me, that if Paul wanted to find some common ground to just build relationships on, he would have started out on a more complimentary term. Maybe he could have tied in some things he liked about their worship or their idols. Maybe found some type of agreement with their teachings and pointed out that their religion had some forms of truth that pointed to Jesus. Then Paul would have been more like the men of our day, (a little more inclusive). Of course he would never do that so Paul draws their attention to the “Unknown God” that they worship. What they worship as unknown, he will now take the opportunity to reveal to them.

Verse 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. I find it interesting that the Lord has Paul first start off by revealing to these men that He is the Creator. Now what Paul was having to do at Mars Hill, the angel of the Lord was having to do for John with the Church of Laodicea (our current day Church). Notice in Rev 3:14 that Christ announces Himself in the same way. Why is this? Because just like these “talkers” in our midst today, the men of Athens were so focused on the things of nature (creation) rather than the true Creator. No doubt that just as Paul had to introuduce Christ to the men at Mars Hill this way, so Christ had to introduce Himself to the Church of Laodicea that way. So again I ask you, when we compare ourselves to Paul (the true believer) or the pagans, who do these men today and their followers remind you of? Would Paul have fought for climate change and evolution? Did he take up their causes and give a hearty agreement to their concerns? Or would he have been more concerned with pointing these debaters to the true Creator, the Lord of Heaven and Earth? Reread the scripture to answer that question. Then ask yourself the question, are you becoming more like Paul or these men in your new church movement? (Of course this in no way implies that we are not to be good stewards with what the Lord does give us.) Verse 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.   Paul would have easily dismissed here all of the pagan liturgical and temple activities these men had. They are useless when it comes to our meeting God. The Lord does not need us to do anything for Him, as if he is dependent upon our help. But He did choose to save those who would accept Him and follow after Him and obey Him. Yet if Paul is speaking against a system of works (not obedience) here, I would say all of the extra “experiences” we try to incorperate so that man can draw closer to God will not work. Since this is so much of what the seeker/emerging church draws on, I would again want to see is this what Paul did as he witnessed to these men? Or is this what these pagans were already doing that he was speaking out against? If so, who are you becoming more like in your new church movement?  In verse 27 Paul declares that “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.”  Greek myths taught that a god could be found after a spiritual struggle or mystcial quest. Yet Paul states that God is near us and wants us to know the truth and turn to Him. There is no secret way to Jesus. Yet many in the emerging/seeker movement would want you to take a journey “into the mystic”.  They want your life to be about a journey or quest so that then you can know God. Paul never teaches that. In fact he states quite the opposite. He says that God is already near us. I have no doubt that is why Paul had to warn as he pointed forward to our day about these false teachers in 1 Tim 4:7 Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives tales, rather, train yourself to be godly.  So again I ask you as I asked myself, in doing these things that these new movements are teaching and allowing, are we becoming more like Paul, or simply following what the pagans were already doing? No doubt as you read scripture, Paul was speaking against these things and pointing them to the truth. He took their “worldview” and turned it towards and ‘Biblical view.”  Ahhh! Now for the famous verse 28.  “For in Him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring”  Paul is quoting Arastus, a stoic poet from Cilicia here. Arastus wrote in a poem to Zeus that “we to are his offspring”.  Many could try to argue and defend for their belief that Paul was showing that he stood in agreement with their writers, that we ourselves are free to use the writings of other pagan religions. But as I studied with the Lord he has shown me otherwise. First of all, Paul was not drawing these men into a meeting with fellow believers. He was not quoting this writer to teach the current belivers something about the Lord they were already following. Never do I see Paul taking these relavent culture idols and beliefs INTO the church to draw them in.  He does speak with them where they already are though. Secondly, Paul never stands in agreement with the writer, he only points out the obvious. He actually calls out the contradiction within their own movement and belief system. Their own writers say “We are his offspring”.  As we see within the scriptures that follow, Paul points out their ignorance in this former way of thinking. I see it this way, (if we want to put it into modern terms).  I don’t have to agree with secular scientists and their theories of evolution and global warming to point out the fact that even some of their own colleagues argue against them in saying there are no facts to show evidence of global warming or that there are holes in the evolution theory.  I can point to their inconsitancies among their own field to show them why there is no inconsistencies in the Creator of this world. I would in no way give any compliment to their way of thinking or even try to find some truth to stand in agreement with. In fact, like Paul I would say, that in the past God overlooked this ignorance, but now He has sent His Son Jesus Christ, creator of Heaven and Earth to reveal to us the truth. We have no more excuses!

Verse 29 says “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. Paul argues here against man’s design and plans. When we try to re-invent or re-create anything it only leads to false worship and another Jesus.  It amazes me that the leaders today want to re-invent the Church to fit what they feel is true “relationship” with Jesus.  Did Paul teach as these men today teach that we can re-think who God is? Or did he teach us that we should NOT THINK that God is like any image that man tries to create or design. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that an image can only be a statue. An image is whatever you create in your own mind and decide to follow after. We all better test it back to scripture through prayer. So are we standing with Paul and becoming more like what he taught or are we becoming more like the pagans and their way of thinking? As an interesting side note, I found in my studies that Epicureans would be likened to, what we call today, secular humanists. A man by the name of Dr. Bernard Ramm wrote a book entitled, The Right, the Good and the Happy.(Waco, Word Books 1971) This was the belief of Epicureans. In his book he maintains: that the only life is this life, the only values are now values, and the only goods are this life’s goods. (page 78).  If I could put that in modern day terms (since this seems to be the relevant thing to do, it would sound a little like this), The epicurines focused on the journey here and now, in this life. The destination did not matter. All that mattered for them was the next step, doing what they believed was morally right in the here and now. Enjoyment of life and being happy. Yet this pagan belief system sounds so familier to me. As if I have heard our own men within the Church state these very things, (only in modern terminology).  Surely if they are going to change scripture to fit the current culture terminology, it would only seem fitting that they would change the pagan terminology to fit our current culture. The other side note I found of interest and almost to familer once again, was the fact that Epicureus who was the founder and leader of this group had little patience with “Religion”.  Of course I can see why they would rebel against this word now. He spent his time and teaching helping people lose their fear of the gods. In modern day terms in might have sounded something like this “The gods are not angry”. And Epicurus was an early thinker, developing the notion of justice as a social contract.  A “social gospel”. How ingenious. It seems to be a constant reminder to me that there is “Nothing new under the sun”.  No new idea. No new revelation. Only the absoulte truth of the Word. And there is no doubt that when you stand for that truth, just as in Paul’s day, there will be many who sneer at you, many who just long for the debate and entice you with their echo’s of “I want to hear you again on this subject”.  But the good news is, there will be those who hear what the Lord is saying in these last days and they will become true followers of Jesus Christ. So then my friends, the only question for you and I is which group will find ourselves in? What will you find when you make a visit to Mars Hill?  Have you come away changed by Paul’s message and met the true Jesus Christ? Or have you just been converted by the pagan philosophers in disguise? As Paul says, Examine yourselves and see if you are in the faith.  Do not accept another Jesus, or I fear  as Paul said in that same chapter of Acts, that on that set day when God will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed, you my dear friend may find you had never met him.

So what did I find?  That today at Mars Hill I met Greek philosophers masquerading as ministers of rightousness.