Tom:
This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts chapter 17.Dave, I think we got a little past verse 22,but I would like to go back just to set a little better context to what we’re going to be talking about.So this is Acts chapter 17:22: “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.”
Dave:
Well, Tom, why would he say they are too superstitious?I mean, they’ve got a bunch of gods, unknown god is just one more.Paul is pointing out it’s a little bit ridiculous, how many gods are there?There are basically—well there are a number of concepts of God.Pantheism, you can forget about it, God is everything, therefore everything is God, therefore there is no God.I mean, there is no distinction between God and a bush, so God really isn’t God.
Tom:
And if there is anything out there with a problem, and it’s God, God’s got a problem.
Dave:
Right, exactly, and God is also a sinner, sinners are God too.But then we have Islam, which says Allah is a single entity.Now we have people who call themselves Christians, Jesus only people who deny the Trinity.They agree with Islam when they deny the Trinity, because Islam, the Qur’an, says if you believe in the Trinity you go straight to hell.And interestingly, that’s one place where the Jews and Muslims agree.They say Yahweh, Jehovah is a single entity as well.Okay, so both the Muslims and the Jews and the UnitedPentecostalChurch and so forth, God is a single entity.Now you have a basic problem; you have unity but you have no diversity.That means that before God created any other beings He couldn’t experience love, fellowship, communion, He was all alone.Before He could love anyone He had to create somebody else.But the Bible says, The Father loves the Son, and has committed all things into His hands.The Bible says God is love!But anyway, on the other end of the scale you have the situation Paul was facing here in Athens, polytheism, many gods.Well, you have diversity but you have no unity.
Tom:
Right, and for anyone who remembers their Greek mythology or Roman mythology, these gods couldn’t get along, I mean, they were always after each other.
Dave:
That’s right, stealing one another’s wives, fighting wars, and so forth.So, you have diversity, but you have no unity, there must be unity and diversity.Now, a philosopher would join in saying that.Philosophically it’s sound.Well, the Bible says there is unity and diversity, unity in diversity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God.And you know, we’ve been over it, I think, Deuteronomy:6:4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
See All..., where it says:Hear, O Israel:Yahweh or Eloheim is one Yahweh, and the Jews are called the Shamah.This is what every Jew learns.See there, God is one, He is a single individual.No, the word for “one” there is Ihod, it means a unity, and you would get that, I think the first time we get it in the Bible is in Genesis:2:24Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
See All..., where God created Eve out of Adam’s rib, He brought them together and it says the two became one, one flesh, Ihod.Or you have it in a number of other places.Here’s a bunch of soldiers joined together and became Ihod, one troop.Okay, so Ihod is a unity.So what God is saying is, Hear O Israel, Yahweh—that’s “I am that I am” are Eloheim, that’s a plural form of Hebrew that means at least three.Yahweh or Eloheim is one, Ihod, it’s a unity, one Yahweh.So, these people are too superstitious, because they don’t even have the right God, they’ve got gods that fight one another, and now they think, Well, who knows, there might be another one.Well, let’s worship him, let’s have an altar to him too.Hey guys, you are overdoing it!Let me declare the God you don’t know to you.
Tom:
And he does, Acts:17:24God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
See All...: “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 anything, seeing He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.”
Dave:
Tom, that’s too much for us to talk about briefly, but you’ve got an awful lot there.“Neither is He worshipped with men’s hands”.He doesn’t need anything from us.He doesn’t need anything, Paul says, but what is the basis of religion?Tom, everywhere—you were raised a Catholic—
Tom:
Dave, these verses just jump right out at me.We had God in the tabernacle, and God in a piece of bread, and then God to be worshipped within a monstrance.
Dave:
But how did you worship Him?Good deeds?I mean, how many commandments are there, and you bring your gifts and so forth.And of course, if you were into Hinduism, they bring food for the gods to eat, and these people did the same.
Tom:
Right, but you see this host in which, supposedly, the priest transubstantiated, the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ.That’s bread made with hands!So obviously, a direct contradiction to the Scriptures.
Dave:
Well, but they say it’s a miracle, you see.
Tom:
But it’s still made with hands.
Dave:
But Tom, we have a problem, because how many millions of these pieces of bread would there be on display at the same time in Catholic churches around the world?Each one of them is Jesus Christ, whole and entire, soul and spirit, divinity, and so forth.Now that is—
Tom:
It’s a mystigogy, Dave, it’s mystery that we were taught.
Dave:
Right.Anyway, Paul is just laying it out, it’s very simple.If God made the heavens and the earth, and they are not even sure about that, which god made the heavens and the earth.But this is the only way it can be.You can’t look at the universe around you and see the morals of the universe, it didn’t create itself.A child can look up at the sky and say, Hey, the sun couldn’t have been there forever because it’s just a giant fire.I don’t care how big a fire it is, it will burn out someday, and the same is true of all the stars.So they couldn’t have been there forever, forever is a long time.No matter how big the fire is, before forever comes it will have burned out.So you know that the universe hasn’t always been here.It didn’t just happen out of thin air, it didn’t just create itself.So, Paul is just saying, Everybody knows the God who made the heavens and the earth.Okay, that’s who God is.Well, He doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, He’s not worshipped with men’s hands, He doesn’t need anything from us. But you think that you’re going to gain points with God, and in case that’s not the real God, then you’ve got another god, and let’s give him a little service, and so forth.You’re trying to appease these gods with your works.The Bible—well, Tom, we’ve been over it a number of times but it pays to go over it again.Remember, in Romans 3, Paul argues it very clearly.He says:By the deeds of the law no flesh can be justified.If you’ve broken the law, you can’t say to the judge, If you let me off this time, I promise you, scouts honor, I’ll never break the law again.The judge says:If you never break the law again you are only doing what the law requires, you don’t get extra credit for that.Now what do we do about the fact that you have already broken the law?So Paul says, You can’t justify yourself by keeping the law, by doing good deeds, and this God, He doesn’t need anything from you.What are you going to give the Creator of the universe?What could you possibly give Him that He needs, so that in return He will give you forgiveness, or whatever?So you cannot fault the logic of Paul here, and he’s reasoning with them.And then he goes on, and he’s going to talk about—this is an amazing verse, Tom.Acts:17:26And 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;
See All..., He has made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth.Now, people didn’t know that.We’ve got different colors, red and yellow, black and white, we used to sing the song in Sunday school:All are precious in His sight, and there are dark people, there are light-skinned people, there are people of different shade, you know, and so forth.Well, they must have different blood, that’s what they used to think, but it’s not true.What do you know?You can get a blood transfusion from a Japanese or an Eskimo, or an African, or whatever, and furthermore, when you reduce it down to plasma, which is what they use in the battlefield generally, that is the same everywhere.Okay.So, how did Paul know:He made of one blood all men to dwell on the face of the earth, and He has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.That’s interesting.When did that happen?
Tom:
What does that mean, Dave, does that mean we are here in Bend, Oregon, this is the bounds of our habitation, is this where God, in this day and time, this is what He wanted you or me?
Dave:
Tom, this is one of the verses in the Bible that you could come up with a number of interpretations for.
Tom:
Well, I hope you have some, Dave, because we are out of time.
Dave:
We’ll have to come back to that, but you have a verse in the Old Testament, for example that says:He set the nations by Israel and they are in certain places, that’s where He wanted them to be.And it’s not good for the nations to try to mix with one another, because they’re going to have problems, or it could mean, you’re not going to let us live on the moon or on Mars.Anyway, we will have to come back and talk about that.