The Unknown God

Acts 17:16-34 — The Unknown God

After running away from Berea because the unbelieving Jews from Thessalonica had chased him there, Paul went to Athens, the Greek city that 500 years earlier was the political and economic center (now in Corinth) but had remained the center of culture and intellect of Greek life. Its beautiful architecture though was mostly temples to pagan gods and goddesses. Paul, however, was only provoked by such beauty that only glorified idolatry and sin.

Paul had been going to the synagogue on the Sabbath as usual, but during the week he witnessed in the agora, the center of Athens' social and business life. Although the Greek philosophy of the big three, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, from several centuries earlier was still part of the Greek ethos, the Epicureans and Stoics were the leading schools of the day, and they were the first to take issue with the confusion caused by Paul’s preaching. The Epicureans were materialists believing that matter is all there is. They believed that even if gods existed, they did not bother with humanity, and thus they were de facto atheists. Consequently, they insisted that the chief end of man was pleasure and happiness (a degeneration from what Epicurus had taught). They believed that this pleasure is attained by avoiding excess, seeking tranquility, freeing oneself from pain, and loving mankind. The Stoics, on the other hand, were pantheists, insisting that divinity is in everything. They believed that the logos—a divine rationality, was directing history and bound the cosmos together whether gods, humans, or matter. One aligns himself with this divine providence when he lives by reason and advocated human brotherhood. Although noble, this also resulted in excessive pride and self-reliance.

This is not unlike what we find today. Although there is a cacophony of religions, philosophies, and beliefs, in effect, they ultimately coalesce into three worldviews (how someone sees reality), atheism, pantheism, and monotheism. A worldview answers the following questions, where did we come from? why are we here? what is the basis of human value? what is evil? what is the basis of rationality? and where do we go after death? Like the Epicureans and the Stoics, atheism and pantheism say that everything happens by chance (randomness) or by fate (determinism). However, monotheism, and the Christian response in particular, says that there is a Person that created everything and ordered the Universe. He created us in His image to represent Him and reflect His love, justice, and truth. The implications of these varying worldviews cannot be underestimated. Like the Epicureans, atheists do not believe in any existence after death. Like the Stoics, pantheists believe that only the soul—the divine spark per the Stoics—survived death. While atheism says man is a product of chance and pantheism says man is a manifestation of God like everything else, Christianity says man is uniquely created by God. While atheism says that there is no basis for human personality (determinism by genetics or conditioning by nature) and pantheism says that human personality is an illusion and that human uniqueness separates one from unity with Godhood, Christianity says that human personality is grounded in our Creator, a Person who think, wills, feels, and relates to others. Atheism grounds the conscience in social conditioning and Darwinism, and pantheism says it is an illusion. Christianity, however, says it is given by God and it is grounded in the imago dei.

This brief scene in Luke's narrative does not give too many details about the founding of the church in Athens; yet it is a centerpiece for the entire book of Acts because Paul's sermon on the Areopagus—like his similar sermon at Lystra (Acts 14:15–17)—is a prime example of how to witness to Gentiles whether in Athens of 50 A.D. or America of 2023. The Athenians had tried to cover all their basis by making an altar "TO THE UNKNOWN GOD" (Acts 17:23). But how can one worship what is unknown? If God is unknown to you, then you are ignorant of His true nature and His demands for worship. Paul uses this as an occasion to tell them about the only One and True God, and their true relationship to Him, their Creator. He emphasizes God as Creator because without it is not possible to preach Christ's resurrection. Only Christianity can give a coherent answer to the questions of where we came from, why are we here, and where are we going. Paul's sermon says that God’s purpose is that people would seek Him and find Him because only "in Him" can we "live and move and have our being." Paul did not use this in a pantheistic sense, that divinity resides in human nature. Rather, as he had already stated in verse 25: God is the giver of life; God is the giver of all that is. Through his Creator, man lives and moves and has existence.

Every non-believer you meet has an atheistic or pantheistic leaning. Yet, they are still searching for "THE UNKNOWN GOD." You can make Christ known to them by starting a conversation through a question like, "what do you think God is like?"