May we consider the way and means that all man was uniquely created to respond to the Most High Creator God of the universe, to bridge the gap between sinful man and a Holy God, and once and for all, fill the hole and void that God created in universal man’s deepest longings in their Spirit, Soul & Body, Heart, Mind, & Will, to WORSHIP & TO BOW DOWN IN JOYFUL ADORATION to the Unseen God that the Apostle Paul so eloquently detailed on Mar’s Hill as recorded in Acts 17:16-34.
Paul began his lecture by observing that the Athenians, or for that matter, any of the soon to be forthcoming Five Major World Religions, if not already on the stage, including even those beyond yet the imagination of man, by addressing the Greeks false beliefs focusing on their altar to an “Unknown God,” being not Zeus or some other concocted deity, but rather, the true God, Jesus Christ, who had created all things and every man, giving life and breath to their existence, explaining that it was God who created from one individual all men and nations and even appointed the times and boundaries of their dwelling.
Furthermore, he explained the closeness of God and the people’s need to repent of their rebellion against Him. Paul completed his message by introducing the Athenians, and all readers of the account since, by introducing them to the One before whom all would stand one day and be judged; Jesus Christ, whom God had raised from the dead.
Though only a few believed Paul’s message, this should be an encouragement today to the modern empowered Christ-Followers, in the face of apparent rejection of the Gospel by the masses, we are still called to share the good news. Yes indeed, hardened hearts will scoff, while searching hearts will ponder, and believing hearts will be saved. Rather than trying to discern the state of the hearer’s heart and tailoring the message to fit the hearer’s needs, today’s empowered Christ- Followers, must in the spirit of Paul, passionately preach the truth of the Gospel in its fullness and leave the rest up to God.
BOTTOM LINE:
Folks, this is the essence of the Great Commission, and it is perhaps exemplified nowhere better in all of Scripture than in the account of Paul’s speech on Mar’s Hill. Today, we now have the benefit of a technologically driven historical perspective that the Six Major Cradles of Civilizations and the Five Major World Civilizations, defined I believe much more accurately as such, rather than religions, since there is actually only one true religion, that being the only Most High Creator God, His Son Jesus Christ, our Savior; and the Holy Spirit, His empowering helper, for all of mankind, regardless of genealogy, race or civilization. Since the creation of man, we descendants, have been and yet are, feverishly expending all our feeble attempts at intellect to satisfy our selfish inner innate longings of worship of “something,” whether to a created physical idolatrous form, satanic in origin, yet while so ascribed and empowered therewith, demanding our allegiance to “it,” even to the point of human sacrifice of ourselves, themselves, or even to sacrifice the innocent lives of millions of others, as we have, and may well continue to witness, all in the name of religion, including christianity, or rather, their current form of civilization.
NEXT UP: . Further clarifying definitions are offered in Post #4.