Laying the Foundation Stones of Christian Worldview
Acts 17:22-34
By Jay Wegter
When the apostle Paul stood before the Athenian Gentiles to preach the gospel, he faced an educated audience but one that was also ignorant of the Scriptures. As in our own culture, the faithful evangelist will normally encounter individuals who do not hold to the authority of Scripture and therefore do not embrace its rule over their lives (Greg L. Bahnsen, Always Ready, (Atlanta: American Vision, 1996), 236.
The doctrine of God and doctrine of man surely must precede the doctrine of salvation. How can men be called to repentance toward God if they relish their ignorance of God? Paul’s address on Mar’s Hill offers believers a reliable pattern of evangelism toward the pagan as this author will endeavor to demonstrate.
A common thread among those varied schools of thought was an exaltation of reason. Though reason had produced folly instead of wisdom, it was clung to as the certain source and determiner of true knowledge. Greek ideologies embraced a pantheon of gods who were a part of the phenomenon of the universe itself. Pantheism sowed to man’s pride by inferring that humans and gods shared a degree of interdependence.
Paul, a Hebrew, entered this world of pagan thought armed with the knowledge of the One true God. How does one build a bridge of communication with such darkened intellectuals?
Acts 17:22-34
gives the exemplary answer.
The apostle controlled himself after seething with righteous indignation over the plethora of idols in the city of Athens. The same idols which injured God’s honor, shamed and enslaved their worshippers. This aggravated Paul, but in verse 22-23 the apostle does not begin his message with a caustic harangue against idolatry. Instead, he opens his address with an observation. The religious practices of the Athenians belies their ignorance, superstition and confusion about spiritual things. The religious impulses of his listeners was stressed by Paul in order to demonstrate to them their utter failure to arrive at true worship and the knowledge of God.
Paul then gives an illustration in verse 23 of their religiousness. He draws this example from his own travels through their city (A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1930) 3:285. The men of Athens mixed superstition and guesswork to produce a most defective form of worship. Bahnsen notes that Paul exposes their spiritual “schizophrenia.” For in the address, both the Athenians’ awareness of God (v. 22) and ignorance of God (v. 23) are highlighted (Bahnsen, p. 256).
Verse 23 ends with a clause in which Paul uses the word “proclaim.” The Greek word means to declare or set forth. Having begun the discourse with the acknowledgment that his hearers believed in divine personal essence, he proceeds to proclaim the one true God from Scripture. What the Athenians conceived of pantheistically, he would set forth accurately as the living God revealed as Creator and Judge (F.F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans Press, 1951) 381.
It is of great significance that Paul emphasizes the antithesis between the Athenians’ ignorance and the authority God has given in revelation (Bahnsen, p. 257). The apostle does not insult them neither does he grant a single word of deference toward their pagan presuppositions. By pressing the antithesis, the truth is brought to bear upon the conscience. Conviction of sin takes place when men see that God’s truth opposes their stubborn grasp upon ignorance.
(As soon as a single truth is brought into the conversation with the unbeliever, there is discomfort on his part. The reason is that Christian worldview lays a foundational scheme for all thought. The foundation is a fixed point of reference; it is immoveable, external, authoritative, and consists of absolute truth. Therefore our foundation immediately sets up an antithesis with the world’s approach to knowledge.)
In verses 24-26, Paul asserts the binding nature of revelational authority. He launches into the body of his message with a commanding explanation of God’s character. Bahnsen aptly observes that such an authoritative declaration by Paul might first appear to be appropriate only for a Jewish audience which already accepted the Scriptures (p. 257). But this is not the case, the apostle sets forth God’s revelation as the authoritative starting point for all knowledge.
The Athenians’ pagan philosophies had suppressed the knowledge of God’s nature. Paul presses the antithesis again in such a way that the condensed lesson in theology exposes the depth of their religious error. Calvin commends Paul’s approach, noting that “. . . There is no way better designed to destroy all corrupt cults than to begin with what the nature of God is like.” (John Calvin, “Acts,” Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries, Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1966) 7:112.
The FIRST foundation stone of Christian worldview is: 1. God is Almighty Creator; He is the origin of all things.
Man has self-awareness; he has personhood. As such, he asks ultimate questions which reflect this self awareness. The Greeks asked the same questions as modern man concerning origins, the nature of knowledge, and the nature of reality. Paul declares that God is not an impersonal force or abstract virtue; He is an omnipotent, divine Person. The ultimate foundation of the universe is personal, not impersonal (Frank Peretti, What We Believe, Focus on the Family, 1998).
With a single blow, Paul cuts pantheism to the ground. God’s omnipotence, transcendence and kingship are stated in connection with the folly of believing in a local deity who needs a house made by human hands. The contrast or antithesis reveals the guilt of the Athenians for having embraced a pagan form of religion.
The SECOND foundation stone of Christian worldview is: God is Lord of all things; all authority is subject to His authority.
Man naturally resists an authority higher than himself. God as “Lord” establishes the set moral standard for right and wrong in our universe. As Lord, God is moral governor and Judge. The natural man is a “fugitive” under God’s moral government. Unregenerate men do not have an absolute source and standard for good and evil in their worldview (Frank Peretti).
God’s sovereign lordship is the fundamental foundation of all reality. This foundation guides the way we think; it affects all of our choices. It establishes the validity or illegitimacy of all lesser authorities. Moral value systems that tear loose from God’s ultimate moral authority always lead to anarchy, irrationality, and chaos (Peretti).
The THIRD foundation stone of Christian worldview is: God does not dwell in temples made with hands; He is self-existent, self-defining, and upholder of all things.
Humans do not define God. Idolatrous speculation about God shows a preference for spiritual darkness. Only if God is self-existent and self-defining can He be an immutable fixed point of reference for all reality. God defines Himself and He defines man. There is no room for speculation.
By declaring the God of Scripture, Paul was harrowing the darkened minds of his listeners. Their cherished errors of deism, autonomy, jingoism and fate, were all being exposed to the brilliant light of truth.
The Athenians must have sensed the increasing weight of these truths as Paul unfolded them. Those not awakened by the discourse would have at least felt a wounding of their pride. For the Apostle sets forth God’s claim upon His creatures. He refutes all notions of independence by stating the fact that all creation depends upon God for life, breath, and being (Rom 11:33-36).
The FOURTH foundation stone of Christian worldview is: God has created mankind for intimate fellowship with Himself.
God sovereignly determines the birthplace of men. He determines their destiny, and their purpose. God desires day by day communion with His creatures. He loves us, He cares for us, He knows us. He desires that we know Him as He is authoritatively revealed in His Word.
He commands that men seek Him (Is 45:22; 55:6-11; Amos 5:4-6). Everything humanity possesses finds its source in God. He is the source of human dignity and worth. Not only being and existence issue from God, but also man’s movements and boundaries.
The exact places where people groups should live and even travel have been determined by God. These are all arguments for actively seeking the God of Scripture (Richard N. Longenecker, “Acts,” Zondervan NIV Bible Commentary, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994) 2:477.
In verse 27, Paul adds to what he has already said about man’s dependence upon God. He affirms that God is near to all men. His presence is there. No one escapes His knowledge. God is man’s environment. He intends that men seek Him. His beneficence ought to induce men to seek Him. Instead, like the Athenians, all men turn away from God, pervert the truth of God and are without excuse (Bahnsen, 260).
God is not distant and unknowable, He is near to all. Estrangement from Him is the preference and disposition of the unbeliever. The Athenians were guilty of suppressing this knowledge of God as well as the knowledge of their creaturehood (Jn 3:18-21).
It is the knowledge of God as God that should move man to seek Him. Paul’s hearers had gone the way of the nations in abandoning the genuine knowledge of God. Now their religious efforts are compared to the groping of a blind man. For the darkened heathen mind readily takes hold of error because of vain and futile thinking (A.T. Robertson, p. 288). (See Eph 4:17-18.)
In verse 28 Paul reiterates the fact of God’s nearness and the creature’s dependence. In so doing he refutes the concept of stoic pantheism. By quoting the poet Aratus in this verse, Paul is not subscribing to the categories of the Greek world view. Instead he is pointing out that the authors and poets revered by the Greeks have distorted the truth of God.
By quoting pagan authors, Paul is not making an appeal to other supposed sources of spiritual authority, instead he is bringing out the truth that all men are witness to God’s general revelation. By citing the poets, Paul manifests his listeners’ guilt. For no man can escape the knowledge of God as their Creator and Sustainer (Bahnsen, pp. 259-260).
Paul’s frame of reference is totally different than theirs. Paul employed pagan expressions to demonstrate that unbelieving thinkers have not expunged all idea of God, but have suppressed and distorted the knowledge of God (Bahnsen, pp. 260:261).
This approach has great merit in apologetic method. For concepts of guilt, atonement, good works, judgment, righteousness and divine favor all have their distorted counterparts in false religion. The able evangelist may interject antithesis at just these junctures. (Consider asking the unbeliever his views on guilt, sin, and divine forgiveness. It provides a ready opening for the truth of the Gospel to expose and correct false thinking.)
In verse 29, the apostle says in effect that as God’s creatures men ought to know better than to construct idols. No form constructed by man is able to depict God. Graven images cannot represent the Divine Nature. They do not portray the truth about God. His nature is infinite, almighty, sovereign, holy.
The very physical elements created by God when formed into a graven image say nothing about Divine Nature. Graven images push men further into creature worship because they deny and distort the Divine Nature. They are a visible manifestation of the twisted and suppressed knowledge of God into which men descend. (Modern man fashions “idols” in his heart when he speculates about God’s existence and character.)
Man can make an idol but he cannot make an image of God. God has made an image of Himself in the creation of Adam and Eve. Idolatry distorts both the knowledge of God and knowledge of man’s creaturehood. Idolatry is a commitment to such distortion. By uncovering this commitment, Paul lays bare their crime against heaven.
In verse 30, the apostle continues to press the contrast between the biblical position and that of the Athenian philosophers. By proclaiming God’s truth from Scripture, he devastates the underpinings of their beliefs and exposes their ignorance (Bahnsen, p. 267).
The FIFTH foundation stone of Christian worldview is: Jesus came to earth to put away sin in order that men might have fellowship with God.
This is why it is so important to realize which foundation one rests upon for thought and knowledge. The first four foundation stones of Acts 17 are the prerequisite to the fifth foundation stone. As long as a man rejects God’s authority as Creator and moral Governor of the universe, he will continue to turn his back upon God as Lawgiver, Judge, and Redeemer.
In verse 30 it says, that God “overlooked times of ignorance.” This does not mean that He excused sin. Paul is indicating that prior to the advent of Christ, God “allowed all nations to walk in their own ways” (Acts 14:16). Such leniency in forestalling judgment was an expression of God’s forbearance (Bahnsen, p. 276).
During those times of ignorance prior to Christ’s ministry, God permitted pagan worship to develop itself without interposing to swiftly punish it. Now that new light has flooded the world, the message of God’s grace in Christ renders men even less excusable than before (Jameson, Fausett and Brown, Commentary on the Whole Bible, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1961), 1116.
In the Person and work Christ, God has given a glorious revelation of Himself. Such brilliant light now points out in a most emphatic way the heinousness and wickedness of idolatry (Longenecker, p. 478).
The command now issued by God to repent is fraught with urgency. Men must listen to God as soon as He speaks. “Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Ps. 95:7). There is no excuse for those who through obstinacy let opportunity pass. Paul is preaching, but God is the ultimate speaker. He in kindness is gathering men to Himself from the errors of their former life (Calvin, p. 125).
The response Paul calls for is a willing submission to God’s requirement to repent. Guilt must move Paul’s hearers to change their minds. The message on Mar’s Hill was not intended to supply the hearers with reliable information, it was intended to bring them to a wholesale abandonment of their presuppositions. Repentance is nothing less than a radical change of mind joined to a submission to God’s revelation (Bahnsen, pp. 267-268).
In verse 31, the ground of Paul’s entreaty to repent rests upon the authority of Christ. This point is crucial in a Biblical apologetic. The call to turn from sin to God ought not be made to rest upon argumentation. Autonomous reason examining the weights upon the scales is not to be the deciding factor (Bahnsen, p. 268). Men are not independent judges of truth. God is governor of His moral universe and He is Lawgiver who will call every rational creature into account.
As in Paul’s address, the effective apologist turns the tables upon his listener. In that capacity the apologist becomes a messenger of judgment. He proclaims the judgment to come and declares its inescapable nature. The good news of the gospel only makes sense in this context (Richard L. Pratt Jr., Every Thought Captive
, Phillipsberg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1979), 83. Repentance involves a turning from sin and turning to God. Turning to God is only possible
through Christ the Mediator. The penitent submits to Christ as revealer of God and foundation for knowing God (2 Cor. 4:3,4). He also submits to Christ as Savior (Heb. 9:11-15). He also submits to Christ as Mediatorial King and Judge (2 Cor. 5:10). Christ’s authority to occupy His office of King and Judge is heartily embraced by the penitent. The Lord announced His own fitness and authority for this task of final judgment in John 5:27.
F.F. Bruce notes that Jesus is presented in an eschatological setting. Those in Athens needed to learn that it was through Christ that God would judge the world (pp. 386-387).
By showing connection between the resurrection and the judgment to come, Paul drives home the sublime wisdom of God in the gospel. By Christ’s substitutionary work for sinners, by His resurrection and by His role as final Judge, God’s holiness shall be vindicated in both the salvation and damnation of sinners. The cross is foolishness to Gentiles. The fact that God should judge the world by a man is viewed as absurd by the natural mind (Calvin, p. 126).
Because of their sinful presuppositions, many of the Athenians sneered. But God has furnished proof by the resurrection that Christ is both Savior and Judge. For the Athenians to reject God’s salvation plan with its historic resurrection proof was to love the darkness within themselves.
God’s vicarious intervention on behalf of mankind is the only provision to escape the wrath of God to come. God has authenticated all of this by raising Jesus Christ from the dead (Longenecker, p. 478).
Bahnsen’s note here is relevant for the faithful apologist who would emulate Paul. The apostle did not digress into the empirical argument for the resurrection, instead he argued theologically. He made the fact of the resurrection the argument for Christ’s future work in final judgment. Christ’s authority is ultimate. When a man repents, he submits to that authority. Christ becomes his source of knowing. That a man should submit to Christ who occupies this epistemic role is most fitting in view of the fact that the judgment to come will be carried out by the same Man (Bahnsen, p. 269).
In verses 32-34 the outcome of Paul’s apologetic is recorded by Luke. Those who scoffed at the very idea of the resurrection from the dead demonstrated that their cherished assumptions shut out the truth before it could even be considered. Their system of “wisdom” kept them closed up in a cocoon of ignorance and foolishness. Others expressed their hostility to the gospel message in a more diplomatic manner. They “appeared” more open-mined, acknowledging they would hear Paul again. But these individuals still trusted themselves, not God’s revelation in Christ (Bahnsen, p. 270).
Verse 34 states that some did believe and joined Paul. The testimony of the Scripture is that it is the Holy Spirit, who regenerates the sinner. This gracious act of the Spirit brings repentance. Those who believed among the Athenians were granted repentance from sin.
The message of Christ was received and the dark cell of their presuppositions was abandoned. Such an all-inclusive rejection of their former world view can only be produced by the grace of God (2 Tim. 2:25). It is repentance from foolishness that makes way for the truth of God which then immediately dominates in an exceptional way (Bahnsen, p. 271).
Paul’s address is an excellent model of how one casts down thoughts raised up against the knowledge of God. The unbeliever must be shown that he is an opposer of the truth of God. By contrasting the Athenian’s ignorance with the authority of God’s revelation, he shows them that their reference point of self only furthers their inability to understand the truth.
The apostle’s emphasis upon creation sends the first shock-wave through his listeners’ facade. The Athenians had forgotten their creaturehood. They needed to see that they were under the jurisdiction and sustaining power of almighty God.
By laying emphasis upon this, he especially isolates their sinful commitment to independence. Any claim to independence is arrogance on behalf of the creature whose existence is so governed by his Creator. It was at these very points that Paul made contact with his listeners. The Athenians had tossed the subject of their existence into the realm of speculation. While under that deception, assumptions about their autonomy went unchallenged.
Paul’s message collides head on with the Athenians’ presuppositions. But, the apostle’s message is not delivered into a spiritual void. His listeners were actively engaged in suppressing their God-given sense of deity. They may have pretended that Paul spoke the bizarre, but their consciences said otherwise. According to Romans 2:1-15, conscience continually sets up “court.” Each internal accusation is a harbinger of the great assize to come. The Athenians’ culpable ignorance allowed them to sin blithely. But Paul rapidly educates their consciences by declaring to them the truth of God.
True worship only takes place when the mind is surrendered to the Word of God. Christ is the living Word of God. He is not a large and magnificent category of knowledge. He is the very foundation and source of knowledge. The natural man in his suppression of truth seeks to keep Christ locked out of His epistemic role. In Paul’s address he appeals to Christ as the One who is the revealer of God’s plan, the object of God’s plan, and the consummation of God’s plan. To reject Christ is to reject God, knowledge, reality and life.
When the apostle calls for a response, it is not an invitation to think things over. It is a command to be obeyed. Neutral ground is eliminated at every point. The listener must understand that refusal to obey leaves him in the hopeless state of separation from God.
The Mar’s Hill address is aimed at producing an overall change of mind and of life through repentance. Paul’s evangelistic example in this discourse involves a two-pronged approach. He exposes the folly of the unbeliever’s position and he then declares the need for God’s truth (Bahnsen, p. 274).