The Message on Mars' Hill
Read again Acts 17:18-34. Look through Paul's discourse. Where do you find these basic doctrines: creation, redemption, and judgment? In what ways does it sound like our message, as Adventists?
Paul not only knew pagan literature; he quoted parts of it from memory. First, he quotes a Cretan poet who wrote, " 'In Him we live and move and have our being' " (vs. 28, NIV). And second, the pagan Cleanthes, whose love poem to the god Zeus contained the line " 'We are his offspring' " (vs. 28, NIV). In each case, Paul takes something from their culture and connects it to the truth he wants to teach them.
"With hand outstretched toward the temple crowded with idols, Paul poured out the burden of his soul, and exposed the fallacies of the religion of the Athenians," writes Ellen G. White. "The wisest of his hearers were astonished as they listened to his reasoning. He showed himself familiar with their works of art, their literature, and their religion."—The Acts of the Apostles, p. 237.
Ellen White adds: "Paul's words contain a treasure of knowledge for the church. . . . Had his oration been a direct attack upon their gods and the great men of the city, he would have been in danger of meeting the fate of Socrates. But with a tact born of divine love, he carefully drew their minds away from heathen deities, by revealing to them the true God, who was to them unknown."—The Acts of the Apostles, p. 241.
Paul understood that before we can lead people to where we want them to be we must first meet them where they are. That means focusing on their needs, their interests-and shaping our message in a way that connects with them. This does not mean watering down the message. It is just an issue of communication-talking to people in terms and in language they can understand. What was the one aspect of Paul's teaching that caused the most dissent in this environment? Why? What should this tell us about the limits of trying to explain rationally all that we believe?
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