When Paul was in Athens, he encountered Athenians and foreigners who lived there that spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas. Paul told them, "I see in every way that you are very religious." He even made note of an altar with the inscription: "To An Unknown God." He used that as a stepping stone to describe the unknown, unseen God that created the universe.
"God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are His offspring.'"
Paul not only looked around the city to understand them better, but he read or listened to their poets. So it is that we, if we are to impact the culture around us for Christ and eternity, should study and learn about the very culture we are trying to reach. If you are going into an urban center that's big on hip-hop, it would be good to know some rhymes from the current big hip-hop favs -- especially the local ones. The same goes for whatever culture or place we're in. Musicians do this, at the very minimum, by knowing what city they are in and shouting that out sometime during the show: "Are you still with us, St. Louis?"
Paul concluded:
"Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone -- an image made by man's design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent. For He has set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead."
Some of the people sneered when he mentioned the resurrection of the dead, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." It's cool that they had an open mind to this "new idea."
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at December 2, 2005 09:02 AM