The Mars Hill Mystery

• there’s one God. If there’s one God, there’s one truth. Pagan worldview, there are many gods. And so, there are many truths. Which is to say, in the same way, there’s no truth. This spirit that has come into our culture that wasn’t here before, as it is now, with things like schools in this nation where if a child says he’s a cat, then he’s treated as a cat because that is his authentic truth. Of course, it’s crazy.
• [Music] Tonight we journey to a pagan meeting place on top of a hill named after a pagan god. And on that in that city is a pagan object that has a key and a secret that you can apply for your life and to everything. The man who goes up there is named Shaul or Saul known as the Apostle Paul.
• And because of persecution, he ended up he didn’t even necessarily plan it. He ends up in the city of Athens, Greece. Athen is the it’s the pinnacle of Greek culture. It is the city of Socrates and Plato and Aristotle and all the art and architecture. Athens is a on top of Athens is a meeting place on a hill named after the god of war.
• In Greek, his name is Aries. And so it’s called the Aeropagus or his Roman name is Mars. And so he’s called it’s called also Mars Hill. And it is there that the council of Athens gathers together and they decide to give this Jewish messenger Paul a hearing. They want to know what he’s saying.
• Verse 18, some of the Epicurian and Stoic philosophers as well were conversing with him. Some were saying, “What could this scavenger tidbits want to say?” Or babbler. It’s a kind of it’s a put down. Others, he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities because he was preaching Yeshua, Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him and they brought him to Mars Hill saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are proclaiming?” So, they want to find out exactly what he’s saying.
• The message is the gospel but it’s totally strange to them. Remember this is the pagan world and they see things through pagan eyes, pagan thoughts. This is the first such confrontation really because it’s the height of the pagan world with the living God, the God of Israel, his word and his gospel. And what we take for granted in Western civilization is to them a strange thing.
• And the reason we take it for granted is because the gospel prevailed and the word of God became the foundation of this civilization that we have most of us have grown up in. So it’s important to note this because as I put in the return of the gods, we are now witnessing a transformation of America and the west and the world from a biblical worldview back to a pagan worldview.
• And you may not realize how it’s affecting everything. For example, in a biblical worldview and reality, there’s one God. If there’s one God, there’s one truth. One truth. If so, therefore, there’s truth. And there it’s objective. That’s the only way you can have truth. You have one truth. 2 plus two equals four. If you can say it equals five, you don’t have truth anymore. Only one truth.
• But in a pagan worldview, there are many gods. And so, there are many truths. And so truth becomes from object becomes subjective. Which is to say in the same way there’s no truth or each one has their own truth. And that’s why we’ve been seeing in our culture a movement this spirit that has come into our culture that wasn’t here before as it is now with things like well that’s your truth or that’s my truth.