We continue the series of articles “Learn to evangelize with the Apostle Paul”. Was it adapted from the eBook? Upsetting the World? By John Crotts, available for free download. In this article, Crotts explains two other points of Paul’s gospel message to non-Jewish intellectuals.
All mankind has come to life all over the face of the earth, having set the previously established times and limits of his room; Look for God if you may groest him, find Him, even if he is not far from each of us; because in it we live, move, and exist (Acts 17:26-28a).
- All people.
- In the end.
- Find their source in the original person.
- Adam.
- The Athenians believed that their ancestors had literally emerged from Greek soil.
- Like the Jews.
- Who saw the world as composed of Jews and Gentiles.
- The Athenians separated the World into Greeks and barbarians.
- If.
- As Paul said.
- God himself made all nations one man.
- The Athenians would have to swallow a great mass of pride.
- It’s as if Paul is saying.
- “You and the barbarians are tied up.
- Are you better or different from them?.
Regardless of hair color, skin tone or any other physical characteristic, all mankind has come from one God, through a man and a woman. In your quest to faithfully proclaim the message of reconciling sinners with a holy God, never do so with a sense of superiority over anyone. All men were created by God, by Adam; all fell into sin through Adam; all need salvation through the last Adam, Jesus Christ.
Not only are all the peoples of the world born of God, but also the different epochs, periods, and limitations of each group of people throughout history, which seems to underscore that God has designed certain periods for specific nations to prosper. 44
God is even the one who determines all the borders of all nations on the planet. This fact was put to music, a long time ago, in the Song of Moses, in Deuteronomy 32:8: When the Most High divided inheritances to the nations, when he separated the children of men from each other, he established the limits of the peoples, according to many children of Israel?Certainly, it seems that some of these limits have evolved over the years, God knows and controls these movements. Every tyrant who ever tried to take power over nations was finally established by God Centuries before the constitution of the United Nations, God determined every frontier of each country and empire, which would one day draw the lines on a map. for ancient Greece, whether the Athenians recognize this fact or not!God’s sovereign dominion extends throughout history. 45
The Gospel is not only a tribal message of a small sect in the Middle East, but it is above all good global news of the cosmic God Is God’s plan to order times and places for the welfare of man?( Acts 17:27).
Every general revelation holds humanity accountable for the search for God; God proclaims the truth about himself, through the creation and conscience of people, takes care of their physical needs and even separates them into nations with borders, so the creature must seek its Creator This is the rhythm heard throughout the Bible.
Find the Lord as long as you can, summon Him while He is near (Isaiah 55:6).
The Lord looks from heaven at the children of men, to see if there are those who understand, if there are those who seek God (Psalm 14:2).
You will look for me and find me when you seek me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13).
Ask and it will be given to you; Look and you will find; call, and it will open to you (Matthew 7:7).
People feel that their path to God is like searching for an object hidden in a dark room, or as a blind man who stumbles clinically as he trys to find his glasses. Indirectly, Paul says the Athenians failed in their search for God. In the image of God, we know that God exists; However, as we fall, we come to desire our sin without knowing the truth about God. We distort God’s revealed truth, suppressing it as much as we can. . We worship the creatures instead of the Creator (Romans 1:20).
In his quest to commit to the unbelievers, God’s general revelation is an excellent starting point.
Paul continues his speech by encouraging the Athenians to say that the one true God “is not far from each of us. “It’s not God’s fault that people separate from him in the dark. He is not distant, unrecognizable or selfless, as far as God is concerned, ignorance is no excuse. Paul ends his speech with a powerful quote from Epimenides of Knossos, Crete: “Why do we live there, and move, and exist?(Acts 17:28a). In a pagan context, Paul uses it to make a spiritual argument. Paul quotes this same poem in Titus 1:12, where he says, “It was truly one of them, a prophet, who said, Cretenses, always liars, terrible beasts, lazy uterus. “There are many opportunities for us to borrow phrases from our culture to make a spiritual dispute with others. Paul built bridges to connect with his listeners. In 1 Corinthians 9:19, he said, “For, to be free of all, I became a slave to all, that I might win as much as possible. “
Jesus regularly placed familiar concepts along with unknown spiritual truths in his parables. He used stories of the time about planting fields, fishing, maintaining vineyards, buying real estate, searching for treasures and even making bread, to teach vital spiritual lessons.
A word of attention must be paid here. Paul’s methodology has sometimes been used to encourage people to dive deep into the dangerous waters of contemporary culture to learn how people outside the church think. , the world is a dangerous place. There is a reason for John’s warning: “He does not like the world or the things of the world. If someone loves the world, isn’t the Father’s love in him?(1 John 2:15). Judas describes frontline evangelism in terrible language: “Save them by taking them out of the fire; As for others, are you so compassionate in fear, even hate clothes contaminated with meat?(Jude 1:23). When engaging with people on the edge of hell, be careful not to be blackmailed!Not good.
Could it be that this old quotation, mentioned above, and the one that follows in the second half of verse 28 (?Because in it we live, move and exist?, and? In this, we are also a generation?) I understand that Paulo lived in an era before the Internet, but these quotes seem far from contemporary. Paul’s first quote dates back to the 6th century BC. The second quote was written by Arato, around 280 BC. Epimenides and Arato are hardly called Athenian rock stars!Paul takes these poetic words for about 600 and 300 years to his message. I don’t know if it would be great to quote the first president of the United States, George Washington, the Starbucks guy. How about someone from the Middle Ages? Of course, George Washington has said and done a lot of memorable things, but he’s not exactly the star of one of the films that broke into theaters last week.
Paul used the first quotation to say that life depends on God. Your bodily existence, the exercise of your mind, your will and your emotions, your mental and spiritual existence, it all depends on God. It’s all happening. You Athenians assumed you were so important, you think it’s Greek soil. You think the world is made up only of Athenians and barbarians, but the true God is much greater than you think!
As some of your poets have said: Thanks to him, we are also a generation.
Therefore, being a generation of God, we should not think that divinity is like gold, silver or stone, worked by the art and imagination of man (Acts 17:28b-29).
The second quotation, in verse 28, leads us to Paul’s fourth way of keeping his listeners away from idolatry on the path of truth.
As we’ve already seen, Aratus, the Stoic writer from the 3rd century BC, originally from Sicily, Paul’s hometown, was Paul’s source for his second pop quote. The Greeks thought that the divine nature was in man, but the Bible teaches that man is created by God, in the image of God. Aratus wrote about Zeus. So while he came across an authentic truth about the nature of “God,” it was incomplete and inadequate. 47
In general, it can be said that God is the father of all his creatures; in particular, he is the adoptive father of the only believers in Christ; However, this is the general way Paul uses to argue from the heathen. Since we are all of God’s generation, we cannot think that the divine being is a form of human invention.
We derive and depend on Dios. Es ridiculous to think of the living God as a statue of gold or silver, no matter how talented or talented the artist is, or even how valuable gold is. A simple monument made of human hands could never represent the God the Father of mankind!48