This chapter is based on Acts 17:11-34, RSV.
(TT 123)
At Berea Paul found Jews who were willing to investigate the truth. “These Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.”
(TT 123.1)
The Bereans studied the Bible, not from curiosity, but to learn what had been written concerning the promised Messiah. As they daily compared scripture with scripture, heavenly angels enlightened their minds.
(TT 123.2)
If those to whom testing truths are proclaimed would follow the example of the Bereans, there would today be a large number loyal to God’s law. But when unpopular Bible truths are presented, many manifest reluctance to study the evidences offered. Some assume that even if these doctrines are true, it matters little whether they accept the new light. Thus they become separated from heaven. Those who are sincerely seeking for truth will make a careful investigation, in the light of God’s Word, of the doctrines presented to them.
(TT 123.3)
The unbelieving Jews of Thessalonica, filled with hatred, followed the apostles to Berea and aroused against them the excitable passions of the lower class. Fearing violence, the brethren sent Paul to Athens, accompanied by some Bereans who had newly accepted the faith. The enemies of Christ could not prevent the advancement of the gospel, but they made the work of the apostles exceedingly hard. Yet Paul pressed steadily forward.
(TT 123.4)
On arriving in Athens, he sent the Berean brethren back with a message to Silas and Timothy to join him immediately. Timothy had come to Berea prior to Paul’s departure, and with Silas had remained to instruct the new converts.
(TT 124.1)
Athens was the metropolis of heathendom. Here Paul met with a people famous for their intelligence and culture. Everywhere statues of gods and deified heroes met the eye, while magnificent architecture and paintings represented national glory and the worship of heathen deities. The senses of the people were entranced by the splendor of art. On every hand sanctuaries and temples involving untold expense reared their massive forms. Victories of arms and deeds of celebrated men were commemorated by sculpture and shrines.
(TT 124.2)
As Paul looked upon the beauty and saw the city wholly given to idolatry, his spirit was stirred, and his heart was drawn out in pity for the people who, notwithstanding their culture, were ignorant of the true God. His spiritual nature was so alive to the attraction of heavenly things that the glory of the riches which will never perish made valueless in his eyes the splendor with which he was surrounded. As he saw the magnificence of Athens, he was deeply impressed with the importance of the work before him.
(TT 124.3)
While waiting for Silas and Timothy, Paul was not idle. He disputed “in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the market place every day with those who chanced to be there.” But the apostle was soon to meet paganism in its most subtle, alluring form.
(TT 124.4)
A singular teacher was setting before the people doctrines new and strange. Some of the great men of Athens sought Paul out and entered into conversation with him. Soon a crowd gathered. Some ridiculed the apostle as one far beneath them socially and intellectually, and jeered, “‘What would this babbler say?’ Others said, ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities.’”
(TT 124.5)
The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers and others who came in contact with him soon saw that he had a store of knowledge greater than their own. His intellectual power commanded the respect of the learned, while his earnest, logical reasoning held the attention of all in the audience. He was able to meet all classes with convincing arguments. Thus the apostle stood undaunted, matching logic with logic, philosophy with philosophy.
(TT 125.1)
His heathen opponents called his attention to the fate of Socrates, a setter forth of strange gods, who had been condemned to death. They counseled Paul not to endanger his life in the same way. But, satisfying themselves that he was determined to accomplish his errand among them and at all hazards to tell his story, they decided to give him a fair hearing on Mars’ Hill.
(TT 125.2)
This was one of the most sacred spots in Athens, regarded with a superstitious reverence. In this place matters connected with religion were often carefully considered by men who acted as judges on moral as well as civil questions. Here, away from the noise and bustle of crowded thoroughfares, the apostle could be heard without interruption. Poets, artists, philosophers—the scholars and sages of Athens—addressed him: “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.”
(TT 125.3)
The apostle was calm and self-possessed, and his words convinced his hearers that he was no idle babbler. “Men of Athens,” he said, “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.” With all their general knowledge, they were ignorant of the God who created the universe. Yet some were longing for greater light.
(TT 125.4)
With hand outstretched toward the temple crowded with idols, Paul exposed the fallacies of the religion of the Athenians. His hearers were astonished. He showed himself familiar with their art, their literature, and their religion. Pointing to their statuary and idols, he declared that God could not be likened to these graven images. These images had no life, moving only when the hands of men moved them; and those who worshiped them were in every way superior to that which they worshiped.
(TT 126.1)
Paul drew the minds of his hearers to the Deity whom they had styled the “Unknown God.” This Being needed nothing from human hands to add to His power and glory.
(TT 126.2)
The people were carried away with admiration for Paul’s logical presentation of the attributes of the true God. With eloquence the apostle declared: “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.”
(TT 126.3)
In that age when human rights were often unrecognized, Paul declared that God “made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth.” All are on an equality, and to the Creator every human being owes supreme allegiance. Then the apostle showed how, through all God’s dealings with man, His purpose of grace and mercy runs like a thread of gold. He “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.”
(TT 126.4)
With words borrowed from a poet of their own he pictured God as a Father, whose children they were. “‘In Him we live and move and have our being,’” he declared; “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.”
(TT 127.1)
In the ages of darkness that had preceded the advent of Christ, the divine Ruler had passed lightly over the idolatry of the heathen, but now He expected repentance, not only from the poor and humble, but from the proud philosopher and princes. “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.” As Paul spoke of the resurrection from the dead, “some mocked; but others said, ‘We will hear you again about this.’”
(TT 127.2)
Thus the Athenians, clinging to their idolatry, turned from the light. Boasting of learning and refinement, they were becoming more corrupt and more content with the vague mysteries of idolatry.
(TT 127.3)
Some who listened to Paul were convicted, but they would not humble themselves to accept the plan of salvation. No eloquence, no argument, can convert the sinner. The power of God alone can apply the truth to the heart. The Greeks sought after wisdom, yet the message of the cross was to them foolishness.
(TT 127.4)
In their pride of intellect may be found the reason why the gospel met with little success among the Athenians. Worldly-wise men who come to Christ as lost sinners will become wise unto salvation, but those who extol their own wisdom will fail of receiving the light and knowledge that He alone can give.
(TT 127.5)
Thus Paul met the paganism of his day. His labors in Athens were not wholly in vain. Dionysius, one of the most prominent citizens, and some others accepted the gospel.
(TT 128.1)
The Athenians, with all their knowledge, refinement, and art, were yet sunken in vice. God, through His servant, rebuked the sins of a proud, self-sufficient people. The words of the apostle, as traced by the pen of inspiration, bear witness of his courage in loneliness and adversity, and the victory he gained for Christianity in the very heart of paganism.
(TT 128.2)
Had Paul’s oration been a direct attack on the 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.
(TT 128.3)
Today the truths of Scripture are to be brought before the great men of the world, that they may choose between obedience to God’s law and allegiance to the prince of evil. God does not force them to accept truth, but if they turn from it, He leaves them to be filled with the fruit of their own doings.
(TT 128.4)
“The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.”“God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” 1 Corinthians 1:18, 27. Many great scholars and statesmen, the world’s most eminent men, will in these last days turn from the light. Yet God’s servants are to communicate the truth to these men. Some will take their place as humble learners at the feet of Jesus, the Master Teacher.
(TT 128.5)
In the darkest hour there is light above. The strength of those who love and serve God will be renewed day by day. The understanding of the Infinite is placed at their service, that they may not err. The light of God’s truth is to shine amid the darkness that enshrouds our world.
(TT 128.6)
There is to be no despondency in God’s service. God is able and willing to bestow on His servants the strength they need, and He will more than fulfill the highest expectations of those who put their trust in Him.
(TT 129.1)