Athens Greece and the Apostle Paul

Athens, Greece...a city were people have lived for 7,000 years...crowded, old, quaint, and lots of hospitality.  Greek food is wonderful and people sit for hours in outdoor cafes drinking coffee, chatting and enjoying the day.   Today we spent several hours hiking up and down the Acropolis with its temple to Athena and the Parthenon. It's easy to see why the Acropolis became the center of life, especially between 600 BC and 100 AD.  It's on a hill that would have been easily defensible from all sides.  This was the place of philosophers and wisdom, boasting such greats as Socrates and Euripides.  From a Christian perspective, it features big in Paul's story..."Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.So he argued in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who chanced to be there." (Acts 17:16-17 RSV)Athens was the capital of Attica, a region of Greece in ancient times. It was here that the apostle Paul found himself on one of his missionary journeys.Paul discovered that the city was quite idolatrous, but with a great altar to the "unknown God." He then set about to make known to the philosophical "thinkers" of the city the True God - with opposition, and some success."Some also of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers met him. And some said, "What would this babbler say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities" - because he preached Jesus and the resurrection." (Acts 17:18 RSV)  They apparently caught Paul on one of his better days. Paul had a rather intense personality, and would usually have risen to being called a "babbler" with a response that the name-caller would not have soon forgotten. This day however, he remained (no doubt with the help of God's Holy Spirit) calm and collected. "And they took hold of him and brought him to the Areopagus [also known as Mars Hill ,  saying,

"May we know what this new teaching is which you present? For you bring some strange things to our ears; we wish to know therefore what these things mean." Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new." (Acts 17:19-21 RSV)  With quiet respect, Paul managed to get them to listen:  "So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And He made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after Him and find him. Yet He is not far from each one of us, for 'In Him we live and move and have our being'" (Acts 17:22-28 RSV)  Paul then referred to some of their own writers who managed to realize that the Creator exists:  "as even some of your poets have said, 'For we are indeed his offspring.' Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed, and of this He has given assurance to all men by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:28-31 RSV)  His strategy of calm logic to present the truth of God began to sow the seeds of success:"Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, "We will hear you again about this." So Paul went out from among them. But some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them." (Acts 17:32-34 RSV)

The market place and Mars hill are right at the bad of the Acropolis...and we were literally able to walk through the ruins of a complex city dating from this time.  There is an ancient church dedicated to the apostles near where Paul preached and Dionysius features big in the story of the Christians of Athens. We walked up St. Paul street to get to the Acropolis. Old town Athens, with its many narrow streets, surrounding the Acropolis, are filled with lots of quaint restaurants and gathering places. In this place, people live in apartments that literally blend the ancient with the newer...though nothing is as new as we have in Las Vegas and Henderson. We are continually reminded, as New song celebrates its 10th anniversary, that we need to be patient and see the ministry from the perspective of God's long haul.