To the Religious Men of Athens

So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: "Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: 'To an Unknown God.' This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I'm telling you about. He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples, and human hands can't serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. Acts 17:22-25 

Can a person be religious and not believe in God? Sure…even now we have many religions that don’t believe in God. In an Internet search of various sites I found that the top five religions in the world today are Christianity (33%), Islam (21%), Hindu (13%), Buddhist (6%), and Chinese religions (6%). Additional religions include Primal religions (6%), Sikhism (0.4%) and Judaism (0.2%) and then of course, there is a group people considered Non-religious (16%). Christianity and Judaism are the only ones in this list of top eight that worship God as the creator, sustainer, provider, and savior of mankind--the Messiah. Christianity is exclusive in worshipping a God who has been resurrected from the dead.

In Paul’s time the Greeks worshipped many gods and loved to debate and learn facts about them. Paul was able to teach some of the Greek leaders, as well as women and men of the community, about Jesus and His resurrection. Some laughed. A number of those listening to Paul became believers and others were eager to hear more about Jesus at a later time. This “unknown” god became a very real God to those who believed. Who is He to you? Could you have defended Jesus Christ as the “unknown” god as Paul did? What scripture would you use to persuade others to learn about Jesus?

Prayer ~ Jesus, open our eyes and hearts to opportunities to share the facts of Your death and resurrection. Help us to live our Christianity is such a way that others will be curious and want to know more about You.

Daily Bible Reading: Acts 18-19

© 2017 Text and Photos by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved.

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted.

Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm.