Tag: Greece

Investing

What do you think of when you read or hear of “walking in the truth”? Is it more than worshipping according to the New Testament pattern and baptizing for the remission of sins? What does the epistle of 2 John teach us about this important character trait?


Gary Pollard

II John 3 talks about living in truth and love. John was happy that they were following the truth, but they apparently weren’t following the way of love. We’ve looked at how John defines this love in I John 3, but as a quick refresher: “This is how we know what real love is — Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for each other. Suppose a believer who is rich enough to have all the necessities of life sees a fellow believer who is poor and does not even have basic needs. What if the rich believer doesn’t help the poor one? Then it is clear that God’s love is not in that person’s heart” (16-17). He uses almost exactly the same formula in II John, which reads like I John if it were condensed to one chapter. 

In II John 6 he says, “Loving means living the way he commanded us to live. God’s command is this: that you live a life of love. You heard this command from the beginning.” We won’t have “grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and his Son” if we aren’t living in both truth and love (3). This lady and her family had the truth thing down, but their love needed some work. John seems to go back and forth between the truth and love theme in this letter. 

There’s a warning sandwiched between two “truth” statements. “Be careful! Don’t lose the reward we have worked for. Be careful so that you will receive all of that reward” (8). Be careful about what? “There are many false teachers in the world now,” and, “Everyone must continue to follow only the teaching about Christ. Whoever changes that teaching does not have God” (7 and 9). The teaching about Christ is that he came to Earth and became human (cf. 7). 

We may take this for granted and/or may not appreciate its significance. Many gods competed for the hearts of nations, and most of world had a pantheon. Paul said that these gods are actually just demons (I Cor 10.19-20; cf. Deut 32.17, I Enoch 19.1), and there is compelling evidence of certain of these taking different names throughout history. The Egyptian god Thoth was worshipped by the Greeks as Hermes and the Romans as Mercury. Amun (Egypt) was Zeus (Greece) and Jupiter (Rome). Isis (Egypt) was Aphrodite (Greece) and Venus (Rome). Ra (Egypt) was Zeus (Greece), Jupiter (Rome), and Indra (Hindu). Hathor (Egypt) was a fixation for some time over the last couple of centuries, and has also been associated with Aphrodite (Greece) and Venus (Rome).1 This list is far from exhaustive. They’re all just archetypes used by demons to manipulate and derail civilizations. 

No god took human form23 and lived a very public life doing good for others in the most selfless possible way. No god was perfectly innocent. But God made himself human, was morally perfect, and sacrificed his physical body before coming back to life. That last action was a promise — we’ll get that too! God becoming human for our sake is the most beautiful narrative ever conceived. God becoming human revealed the Great Mystery to all of humanity for the first time (Eph 3.4-6, Col 4.3): there is a greater power, he wants a relationship with humanity, and he’s coming back to save his family when earth is destroyed. 

With this truth in our hearts, God expects us to capitalize on any opportunities we have to show selfless love to our Christian family, and then to all people we encounter. 

Don’t save treasures for yourselves here on earth. Moths and rust will destroy them and thieves can break in and steal them. Instead, save your treasures in the heavens, where they cannot be destroyed by moths or rust and where thieves cannot break in and steal them. Your heart will be where your treasure is (Mt 6.19-21). 

1 Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2017, October 27). 11 Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/list/11-egyptian-gods-and-goddesses
2At the very least it’s curious that many polytheistic cultures believed in an incorporeal afterlife. A physical God and a physical resurrection repulsed the Gnostics, who were certainly influenced by Egyptian theology. The Egyptians believed in a non-physical afterlife, as did many or most other religions (sadly, many Christians do, too). While it may or may not be accurate, Enoch claims that demons are the spirits (consciousness) of human/watcher offspring who’ve been relieved of their bodies (15.8-9). If that’s true, it’s at least interesting that most of the cultures they influenced also despised the concept of a physical afterlife. Our God came back to life in a real, physical body and promised us the same. It’s real hope. Their gods are smoke and mirrors and offer no tangible, practical hope. 
3I’m not talking about humans whose actions ultimately led their deification, but primordial “gods” considered superior to humanity by the cultures who worship them. 

Bible Passages Tour (Mediterranean)(VI)

Neal Pollard

The Acropolis towers over the 4.5 million people who call Athens home. From nearly any point around this iconic spot that looms 450 feet above sea level, you can see it from the heights. In Acts 17, we see an example of the division of labor with Paul and his fellow-missionaries. Timothy and Silas have stayed behind doing follow up in Thessalonica while Paul goes on to Athens. Cosmopolitan man of education and experience that he is, Paul is still agitated and disturbed by the rampant idolatry of the place.

Visiting the city today, you see evidence of the mythology of Poseidon and Athena complete with temples dedicated to their honor and that of so many gods. Paul began as he always did in any new place, attempting to reach the Jews in the synagogue (Acts 17:17) while also making effort to evangelize in the marketplace. The Epicureans, rugged individualists and materialists, and Stoics, devoted to reason above all else, were intrigued and incensed by Paul’s “new teaching” (Acts 17:18). These philosophers brought him to the Aeropagus (hill of Ares in the Greek; “Mar’s Hill” in the Latin) so he could explain himself.

Many believe that, just as Socrates had done over 450 years earlier, Paul was called before their supreme court and tried for his “strange” beliefs. There are parallels between Socrates defense and Paul’s. Second, Dionysius, who will believe Paul’s preaching, is an Aeropagite or judge on this court. Third, it fits with Luke’s theme of Paul testifying before magistrates–the Philippian magistrates, the Corinthian proconsul, the Roman governors at Caesarea, the Jewish Sanhedrin, King Agrippa, and, ultimately, the Caesar. If it was a trial, it was also a masterful sermon. Paul uses their own philosophy, their own philosophers, and their own presuppositions to preach God and the resurrection of His Son and the judgment to come.

Standing on Mar’s Hill this afternoon, with the Parthenon jutting out on the Acropolis across the way, I thought about how Paul was given such a huge forum and he rose to the occasion. He gave us a masterful example of how to reach the unbelieving, biblically illiterate of any age. Ultimately, his message centered on the resurrection and the responsibility we have to stand before God, that we must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6).

Right before we went to the top of Mar’s Hill, the preacher for the church at Athens, Dino Roussos, spoke to us about this event and even quoted (in Greek, of course) a portion of Paul’s sermon. How great to see the Lord’s church alive in a city where it seems Paul had, at best, only nominal success! How thankful we continue to be that Paul was willing to boldly go where no Christians had gone before to plant the first gospel seeds that are still producing today!

Spiritual Olympics

Neal Pollard

Well, as the Olympics pervade our attention and national and individual stories of overcoming odds and working hard to achieve greatness make the news over the coming weeks, I want to remind you that Scripture, in many places, encourages us as we are writing our stories which will someday be known by all. Paul, especially, draws on imagery that would have described the Greek Games that were popular in his time. They had been played for hundreds of years by the time of the first century.

  • We run a race that’s winnable, competitive, won by discipline, meaningful, purposeful, but also losable (1 Cor. 9:24-27).
  • We vie for that which requires forgetting the past, pressing in the present, and reaching for the prospective prize (Phil. 3:12-14).
  • We flex our discipline for godliness by exercising our godliness to help us here and hereafter (1 Tim. 4:7-8).
  • We must compete according to the rules (2 Tim. 2:5).
  • We can fight a good fight, finish the course, and keep the faith, and if we do we will be honored by the greatest giver of all (2 Tim. 4:7-8).

Your race may not be run in a huge stadium, be billed as an international event, be recorded in the history books of this life, or be seen all over TV and the internet, but the All-Seeing-Eye is watching. More people than you know are watching you run, both Christians and non-Christians. The stakes exceed that of these or any other earthly games and the reward is immeasurable! Best of all, whatever your physical shape, you can win this race! God is rooting for you!

gr-olympia-palaestra
The Palaestra 

From Disinherited To Inheritors

Neal Pollard
When Greek politician Andreas Papandreou died in 1996, he left his entire hefty estate to his third wife, Dimitria Liani. His three sons and a daughter, who had married a politician who was Papandreou’s political enemy, were disinherited when she and her siblings’ refused to ostracize this enemy. It was contested in Greek court for years, but so far that will has apparently not been overturned. Certainly, money can bring out the best and worst in people. The children’s point of view is almost certainly that they, as blood relatives, have as much or more right to their father’s inheritance than a woman he married in the last decade of his life (information via Ray Moseley, Chicago Tribune, 9/29/96).


In the New Testament, sin is legitimate grounds for the Heavenly Father to disinherit us. Paul tells the Corinthians this in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. But his message is one of good news. With God, it is possible to go from disinherited to inheritors. He tells them, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” This passage reveals several important truths.
First, there is a pertinent fact. “The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God.” He repeats the thought in verse 10. That phrase indicates missing heaven and all the reward of it (cf. Mat. 25:34).
Second, there is a potential fraud. “Do not be deceived.” How vital that message is for our current culture! There is so much deception about the consequences of sin that it is impossible to keep up with, document, or catalog it.
Third, there are the particulars framed. Notice the sinful individuals enumerated—”fornicators…idolators…adulterers…homosexuals…sodomites…thieves..covetous…drunkards…revilers…extortioners.” Each of those lifestyles and behaviors merit greater study, but these are the ones who are disinherited by the Father. It is His estate and, as such, His call to make.
Then, there is a past forgotten. Human beings can carry vendettas and grudges to their graves, but the living God is not prone to such weakness. He does require repentance, implicit in the phrase “such were some of you.” Because they changed, God put the guilt of their sins in the rear-view mirror.
Finally, there is a purification forged. Paul concludes, “But you were washed…sanctified…justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” God does not just leave us to wallow in our sins. He provides a way of escape. If we take it, He will make those past sins as if they never existed!
In other words, we can go from disinherited to inheritors!