Friday, July 14, 2017

PAUL'S SERMON AT MARS HILL, ATHENS, GREECE

   "Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him.  And some said, What will this babbler say?  other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods  because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.
     Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.
     For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.  Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
    God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
    Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
    And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
    That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:
    For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.
    Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device.
    And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent:
    Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.
    And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked:  and others said, We will hear again of this matter.
    So Paul departed from among them.
    Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed:  among the which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them."  (Acts 17: 18; 22-34)

Dionysius the Areopagite was a judge in the court Areopagus, the highest governmental council and later judicial court in Athens, and he became the pastor of the first Christian church in Athens.
   
    

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