Ignorant Worship

I would like to begin this article by looking at Acts 17:30, "Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now com­mands all men everywhere to repent..."

Through Simon Peter in Acts 10 the door had opened for the Gentile nations. They were now without excuse. The requirement for repentance was for all the urnrld The apostles had preached to the Jews and proselytized Gentiles that had been worshipping the true and living God. The apostle's message was presented and preached simply as: "Jesus is the Christ" (Messiah). Now to these pagans, who worshipped false gods and were without the true God in the world, the apostle was to lead them by common works of providence to the knowledge of the Creator, and the worship of Him.

Beginning his assault on the city, Paul has to challenge the pre­vailing philosophies. He begins by starting with the philosophy with which he was the most familiar and then progressing from there to other mindsets. In verses 17 and 18, we learn of five par­ticular philosophies that he encountered.

1. Philosophy of the Jews.

The Jewish philosophy is designed around a set of legalistic laws and ceremonies. In other words they are religious. Religion has it's own philosophy. This is normally a `DO' & `DON'T' con­cept. Legalism is a system of laws imposed on man for strict ad­herence. Any breaking of these manmade laws results in much condemnation, guilt and rejection. The foremost sign of legalism in our life is: the CHILDREN REBEL. Usually in hard core things. (Pornography, sexual sins, alcohol, drugs, etc.)

The message of the legalist is "THE CHURCH COMES FIRST, NAMELY THIS CHURCH." There must be a signed-in­blood, give all your time, don't question, be here, allegiance to the church. Jesus is mentioned in association with the church.

2. Philosophy of God-Fearing Gentiles.

These are your wild - eyed, shouting, dancing, set-free fanat­ics. They believe in vibrant, hilarious, and reverent praise and worship. They lay hands on the sick, cast out devils, speak with tongues, prophesy, etc. Spontaneity is their format. "Whatever God wants to do is fine with me!" They have a: "I am FREE!!!!" mentality. Even though they are FREE, they have no concept of God's word, despise authority, not planted for a long period of time, tossed about by every wind of doctrine. [shall I go on] You get the idea.

3. Philosophy of the Market-Place.

This mindset is shaped at the morning coffee shop. You know the setting. The good-old-boys gathering at the local coffee shop around 7:30 AM and discussing everything from politics to farming. Million dollar deals have been exchanged over a cup of coffee.

For many years this philosophy has been absent in the church. Today the market place is becoming a place of power. Scripture reveals many moves of God that began in a market place set­ting. Many that Jesus called to follow Him came out of the market place and became the initial leaders of the early church.

4. Philosophy of Epicureans.

Holman's Dictionary describes the Epicurean philosophy as centered on the search for happiness. Pleasure is the beginning and fulfillment of a happy life. These followers of Epicurus' (a philosopher, who died in Athens in 270 B.C.) ideas are distorted. Many think he proposed a life of sensual pleasure and gluttony. This concept is far from his philosophy and his own life-style. To Epicurus happiness could only be achieved through tranquility and a life of contemplation. The goal of Epicureanism was to acquire a trouble-free state of mind, to avoid the pains of the body, and espe­cially mental anguish. Epicureans sought seclusion from worldly temptations. Epicurus taught that a man should not become in­volved in politics or affairs of the state. These activities simply served to distract one from the life of contemplation.

He believed in gods, but he thought that they were totally un­concerned with the lives or troubles of mortals. Still, according to Epicurus, it was appropriate to worship the gods because it leads to happiness.

Even though Epicurean thought focused on the search for hap­piness and advocated withdrawal from the world's affairs, it was by no means an egoistic philosophy. Friendship was a very impor­tant aspect of the philosophy. Indeed, friendship was seen as the best attribute of society. A true Epicurean was willing to give one's own life for a friend. The ideal society was a group of like minds living together. Epicureans believed in equality. Both slaves and women were received as equals at the school.

The Epicurean quest for happiness left little time for concern for afterlife. Epicureans believed in living happy and dying happy. Death did not concern them. They believed that death should be met with a serene mind. In death, the soul is asleep and can no longer be disturbed.

In today's 'seeker-sensitive', `cultural compatible' church we see many of the Epicurean philosophies in place. In an article from The Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 30, 2003 the following was given. "Gone are traditional religious dogmas, rituals, and symbols, replaced by uplifting songs and sermons. Congregants are taught that - through God-they are victors, not victims. The messages are encouraging and easy to swallow, and no one is called a sinner. It's, `Jesus meets the power of positive think­ing'... There's none of that old-time religion; none of that hell and damnation, fire and brimstone preaching... The idea is to be inclusive and inoffensive... [The pastor's] sermon was given like a mo­tivational speech... There's NO talk of controversial subjects, such as abortion or homosexuality..."

5. The Philosophy of the Stoics.

Holman's Dictionary states: The logos was the rational princi­ple that gave order to the world. The idea of God as Creator and the world as God's creation was foreign to the Greeks. The world was an extension of the logos that gave it order. Plato considered that a demiurge formed the world in a manner consistent with per­fect being. Even for Plato, however, neither was the demiurge fully God nor was the world a creation. It was an extension or emana­tion of the demiurge.

The Stoics were a sect of Greek philosophers at Athens, so called from the Greek word stoa i.e., a " p o r c h" o r "portico," where they have been called "the Pharisees of Greek paganism." The founder of the Stoics was Zeno, who flourished about 300 B.C.. He taught his disciples that a man's happiness consisted in bringing him­self into harmony with the course of the universe. They were trained to bear evils with indifference, and so to be independent of externals. Materialism, pantheism, fa­talism, and pride were the leading features of this philosophy.

These five philosophies stirred the Apostle Paul to action. To­day, we see many of these same philosophies in our churches, schools and communities. Yet many feel powerless against such a mindset. So we do nothing, hoping that things will change, but feeling nothing will. Paul gives us some powerful insight to what we can do. Next time we will examine some of Paul's steps to overcome some of these philosophies.