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November 8, 2004
When Christians face idolatry in our culture, we often feel contrasting impulses either to run away or to condemn false religion. Alistair Begg considers another way: when the apostle Paul witnessed idolatry in Athens, he chose to reason with others in the public marketplace of ideas. Like the Athenians, our neighbors may still be confused by our bizarre beliefs. Yet if we are transformed by Scripture to declare the Gospel with rationality, we can engage our cultures for Christ’s sake.
16Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was gprovoked within him as he saw that the city was hfull of idols. 17So ihe reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, j“What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because khe was preaching lJesus and the resurrection. 19And they took him and brought him to mthe Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this nnew teaching is that you are presenting? 20For you bring some ostrange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
Copyright © 2024, Alistair Begg. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
