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Paul's Encounter with Philosophy
Rev. Todd W. Allen
Villa Rica
January 15, 2006
Acts 17:15-34
In God's providence Paul
visited Athens. Athens was the intellectual and religious center of the
ancient world. It was the place where all the prevailing schools of
philosophy were taught. It was also a place of every kind of false
religion. Paul was irritated to see all of the images and idols that men
were worshipping. So here in a city of university learning there
flourished the worst forms of idolatry.
Some of the men of Athens that met Paul
were philosophers. The scriptures mention Epicurean and Stoic
philosophers. These two schools of thought are still with us today. The
Epicureans were practical materialists and atheists. They taught that
the real aim of existence is pleasure; that pleasure is the only good,
and pain is the only evil; that virtue is to be sought only because it
yields the most enjoyment and that man should free himself from all
belief in the gods or in the immortality of the soul; that the universe
was not created but resulted from a chance "concourse of atoms" that
since there is no future life and no judgment, "Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die." With very few modifications this is the
philosophy of many today -- call it what you will.
The Stoics held to beliefs much like the
Hindus of India and todays so called New Agers. They were pantheists who
believed that God is everything and everything is God. God is the soul
of the universe and is not distinct from the world. There is no
distinction between good and evil, sin and virtue. Because God is all
and in all then all must be regarded as one and the same. The Stoics
taught that men should resign themselves to whatever fate decreed. They
considered apathy as the highest moral attainment. They had indifference
to pain and believed men should be free from all passion, be unmoved by
grief or joy.
You can well imagine that these men were
not the
best candidates for
Christianity. Verse 18 tells us their attitude about Paul,
18And
also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with
him. Some were saying, “What would this idle babbler wish to say?”
Others, “He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities,”—because he was
preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
Obviously, these men thought that Paul
was a nincompoop, but they were willing to give him a hearing if only to
find out what nonsense he was babbling about. No wonder that Paul told
the Corinthians that the gospel is foolishness to the Greeks. They don't
listen to the gospel with an open mind. They did not find it appealing
to their intellectual palates.
Sooner or later every thinking person
will encounter philosophy. Random House dictionary defines Philosophy
as the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being,
knowledge, or conduct. For me a simple definition is that
philosophy is man’s search for truth through human reason. Or to state
it another way, philosophy is man’s attempt to answer the ultimate
questions of life by scientific observation and the power of reason.
It might seem to the casual onlooker
that philosophy and religion ought to get along very well together since
both seek answers to ultimate questions. After all, doesn’t philosophy
seek truth and doesn’t religion seek truth? The answer is yes. But the
insurmountable problem that arises is this: Religion, certainly
Christianity, adds something to the equation that is unacceptable to
philosophy and that is faith. The Bible tells us that without faith it
is impossible to please God. But for philosophy the Bible and faith are
unacceptable approaches to knowledge. In philosophy only reason and
observation are considered the way to gain knowledge and arrive at
truth. But the Christian adds to reason faith in special revelation. The
Christian does not jettison reason but only adds faith as an additional
and even superior way of knowing. Faith adds a whole new dimension to
obtaining knowledge. It is not a denial of reason but is rather a
transcendence of reason unaided by faith. Instead of shackling reason
faith gives wings to the heart and mind enabling one to soar into realms
where human reason unaided by faith cannot go. And let me add one
caveat: Philosophy as a science never claims to attain absolute truth.
It is a work in progress. Should it attain to the level of final
absolute truth then it becomes a religion for those who adhere to its
theory or doctrine.
We can see this
happening with the theory of evolution. Those who insist that evolution
can be the only allowable teaching in science to the exclusion of
intelligent design or anything else have adopted evolution as the
ultimate explanation for all that exists and for such devotees it has
become a religion that cannot tolerate any other opinion or possibility.
Paul recognized that on
Mars Hill he was preaching to philosophers who did not accept the
scriptures. He knew he was speaking to men who had little or no
knowledge of the Bible and who were either atheistic or idolatrous. He
calls to their attention an altar he had noticed that was dedicated
to an unknown god. They had
many gods in Athens, but this inscription on the altar pointed up
ignorance of the knowledge of God. So he told them that he was going to
proclaim this unknown God to them. Paul then proceeded to tell them that
God is the Creator of all things, that out of nothing he made all that
exists, and that because he made all things he is the Lord of heaven and
earth. This God needs nothing. The One who made all things out of
nothing obviously can provide himself with whatever he needs. He also
made from one man all the nations of the world, and He determines their
appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation. Thus Paul
presents God as both Creator and Ruler and the Agent in Providence.
Whatever nations appear
on the scene of history do so only because God willed that they should
appear, and they can only dwell in the portion of the earth that God
decrees for them to dwell in. He told the Athenians that God is a Spirit
in whom we live and move and have our being. God is not in everyone or
everything, but He is the Spirit who stands transcendent and distinct
from all that He has made, yet He is everywhere present and fills all
space and time. He is the eternal, self-existent, independent, sovereign
God of all that is or ever will be.
A study of history
certainly bears out Paul's theology. For example God called Cyrus by
name even before he was born and spoke of him in this way:
1 Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His
anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand,
To subdue nations before him
And to loose the loins of
kings;
To open doors before him so
that gates will not be shut:
2 “I will go before you and make
the rough places smooth;
I will shatter the doors of
bronze and cut through their iron bars.
3 “I will give you the treasures
of darkness
And hidden wealth of secret
places,
So that you may know that it
is I,
The LORD, the God of Israel,
who calls you by your name.
4 “For the sake of Jacob My
servant,
And Israel My chosen one,
I have also called you by your
name;
I have given you a title of
honor
Though you have not known Me.
5 “I am the LORD, and there is no
other;
Besides Me there is no God.
I will gird you, though you
have not known Me;
6 That men may know from the
rising to the setting of the sun
That there is no one besides
Me.
I am the LORD, and there is no
other,
7 The One forming light and
creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am
the LORD who does all these.
Isa. 45:1 through Isa. 45:7 (NASB)
These words were spoken through Isaiah
before Israel went into captivity in Babylon, before Cyrus became
conqueror of Sardis and Babylon, when he diverted the Euphrates from the
walls of the city. One of the first acts of this monarch when he
overthrew Babylon was to issue a proclamation permitting the captive
Jews to return to their own land.
Cyrus may have been a nobler sort of
heathen but he knew nothing of the true God. Yet he was formed by God
for a purpose announced beforehand and when he appeared on the scene of
history he was an agent in the hands of God; and over a century before
he appeared on the stage of history he was called by name, and the part
that he was to play in the destiny of God's people was predicted. He was
to be God's shepherd in bringing the people back from captivity.
This is but one of many examples of God
working in history to accomplish his wise and beneficent purpose.
The Psalmist wrote,
Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. Psa.
127:1
Paul then points out that because God is
a Spirit unlike any other created thing that we ought not to think of
him as some gold or silver or stone object. There is no image that can
be fashioned that would in the least resemble Him.
And now Paul zeroes in on the Athenians.
In verse 30 he tells them that God has overlooked the times of
ignorance, but that he is now declaring to men everywhere that they
should repent of their sins and turn to him. Why? Because he has fixed a
day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom
he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from
the dead.
The bottom line with Paul in his sermon
was that a day of judgment is coming. God lets us know that he is going
to call every man to account for his sins, and that their Judge will be
the Man whom He raised from the dead, Jesus Christ.
Philosophy and Christianity are at odds
on the issue of a sovereign God and the Day of Judgment. Philosophy has
no place for a need for repentance or for a God of ultimate judgment who
will judge men for their sinful conduct and then punish them beyond the
grave. This is the fatal flaw in philosophy. It omits God and faith from
the pursuit of knowledge and leaves men in their sins to face their
Creator on the Day of Judgment naked, ashamed and without hope.
There is no forgiveness or salvation in
Philosophy. Men can know that there is a God by observing the natural
world but without the additional revealed knowledge supplied by the Word
of God they are left in the dark about their ultimate accountability to
a sovereign God and the only remedy he has provided for their sins to be
forgiven through the Savior Jesus Christ. Philosophy has no plan of
salvation nor does it even acknowledge that there will be a Day of
Judgment.
Paul warned the Christians at Colosse to
be on guard lest they be taken captive by philosophy;
See to it that no
one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according
to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the
world, rather than according to Christ. Col. 2:8.
It is related that some years ago in
a mountainous region on the continent of Europe, an avalanche of snow
--an enormous mass of snow -- came down from one of the overhanging
rocks in such a vast amount as to entirely dam up a river into which it
fell. The effect it produced was that the river could no longer flow, it
went on forming itself into an extensive lake -- threatening whenever it
should burst through the snowy barrier, to carry desolation and ruin
upon men and villages in the country beneath. The larger the quantity of
water suspended, the greater would be its violence when it obtained its
liberty and so it proved to be. The devastation caused was said to be
terrible in the extreme.
It is thus with every unconverted
sinner. The longer he lives, the greater the amount of wrath he is
accumulating or treasuring up against the day of destruction.
Only a few men turned to the Lord that
day in Athens, but there were a few. A man named Dionysius and a woman
named Damaris, plus some others. So Paul had some results, but not a
lot. At this city of philosophy and gross idolatry he had slim pickings,
but God had his people even there.
What about you today? Are you a
Christian today?
Do you know him and
love him? Have you taken refuge in the Savoir from the wrath to come?
Out of pre-communist Russia comes this
story. It seems there was a son who was breaking his father's heart by
his sinful life of gambling and partying. At last the father conceived
the idea that what his son needed was better surroundings, and so he set
out to secure them. What a mistake this can be, and how many believe
that just a better environment and a new life will change the heart. But
this father secured for his son an appointment in the army, but in the
army he went from bad to worse. His gambling debts were enormous and he
was completely discouraged. He added up his debts and wrote at the
bottom of the column these words, "Who is to pay all this?"
The Emperor of Russia, going through the
barracks to inspect the soldiers, passed this young man, who, with his
head in his arms, had fallen asleep. The emperor glanced at the figures
written on the paper, read the question, and them, bending over, wrote
one word, "Nicholas." And the story goes that the man was by that
signature made debt free.
I don't know whether the story is true,
but I do know that if you enumerate all of your sins from the earliest
recollection to the present moment, and beneath the sum of them all
write this question, "Who is to pay all this?" there will be one name
written in answer to it,
"Sweetest name on
mortal tongue,
Sweetest note in
seraph song,
Sweetest carol ever
sung,
Jesus blessed
Jesus."
Turn your
eyes upon him today. Let us turn to Hymn #481; “Turn Your Eyes Upon
Jesus”
Let him be your Savior and your Lord
from this day forward.
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The paper and sermon manuscripts from
Pastor
Todd W. Allen
are made freely available for review and
distribution. We only request that proper
web page attribution be provided if
distributed for any reason. Please be
gracious to forgive typos and errors of
expression. These notes are faithful
approximations of what has been preached.
May God be glorified in the preaching of
His Word. |