Beautiful Words of Acts 17

 

Acts 17:22  So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

28 for “‘In him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.

29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

31 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 by raising him from the dead.”

32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.”

33 So Paul went out from their midst. 34But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Allah And The Unknown God

This is a continuation that began with my last article – Is Allah the Great I AM?. As I was reading a booklet on how to share the gospel with Muslims I found the following statement:

When we witness to Muslims, we may safely use the name “Allah” for God. It is the name Arab Christians use, and to use any other name would only bring confusion and be a disadvantage in our witness. The Muslim’s concept of Allah is incomplete. (emphasis mine)

Since the author either believes that Jehovah and Allah are one in the same, or that God is the English or universal name for Allah, he also believes the Muslim’s concept of Allah is incomplete. In this he refers to the “Unknown God”  Paul spoke of in the 17th Chapter of the book of Acts.

However, the issue here is not the fact that the Muslim’s concept of Allah is incomplete. That is silly in itself. Allah is not God. The problem is that they do not know Jehovah God and their knowledge of Him and the gospel of Jesus Christ is nonexistent. There is a difference. And as my previous article proved Jehovah and Allah have nothing in common, they are not one in the same.  It is far from safe to refer to Jehovah as Allah. It is downright blasphemous! He also stated that to use any other name would only bring confusion and be a disadvantage to our witness. Don’t we come in the name of Jesus Christ? Isn’t He the one who died for our sins? But, let’s not use His name, he says. I can’t get around this. I cannot.

It is God who brings the increase – I Corinthians 2:7; the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him – I Corinthians 2:14; the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin – John 16:9.

Paul found that the city was filled with idols and was provoked in his spirit. He reasoned in the synagogue with both Jews and Gentiles and in the marketplace. He preached Jesus!  The men knew he was speaking strange things, and they wanted to know what he meant by them. That is when he noticed an altar built to an unknown god. So, Paul proclaimed Him, the one they did not know, the only true God, the creator, one to be worshiped without things made by human hands. He explained to them that God put them right where they were at so that they would seek Him, grope for Him and find Him. And he proclaimed, for in Him we live and move and have our being!

Some mocked Paul. Some became believers. But, there was only the truth, pure and simple. Paul did not encourage or even suggest that they call on God by using a name of an idol god. In all my reading lately of Paul, I can’t see anywhere he would suggest such a thing.

If we are to be effective in once again becoming powerful witnesses of Christ, we need to move from silly notions that appease man. Trickery cannot lead to salvation. It cannot.