The Idea of God in the Church
The account about Paul at
Athens makes me think about the worshippers in the Christian context where
there is always a strong possibility of being
in a church and congregation that worships different versions of Jesus
Christ. I once asked my brothers and sisters in the church: “are we worshipping
the same Jesus when we sing, pray, and hear the Word during Sunday services? Do
we have the same Christ in mind?” And the realizations were surprising. The
worshippers of the God if the Bible really need to grow in the knowledge of God
or else, many will end up worshipping a different “god”, leading to idolatry,
which God Himself condemns. Some of them unknowingly see Jesus as a genie who
grants wishes. Some see Jesus as a Santa Claus who rewards nice boys and girls.
Some see Jesus as their ATM who would release cash whenever they need and want
it. All these can be really dangerous as
these reflect superficial knowledge of God that leads to worship of material
things and not God at all.
God is the Creator of all
good things, the High Priest who sacrificed Himself as the Lamb to cover all
sings once and for all, He is the Messiah and Judge who will come again to judge
the living and the dead, He is the God who commissioned us to do a task until
His Parousia.
Being a Christian is much more than asking presents and rewards daily from the Lord.
Paul’s Encounter with the
Critical Thinkers
Paul’s encounter with the
Epicureans and Stoics in Athens makes me think also about the circumstance
where we meet unbelievers or even God-seekers or God-fearers. Paul’s strategy
was reckoning with homophily conditions as the entry point. The critical
thinkers have their own “gods” in mind and Paul saw that there was an “unknown
god” and made it as his entry point to introduce the true Gospel of Christ.
People worship the
unknown god even though they do not know him and thought it was fine. But God
wants us to know Him and so Paul used it to teach about the one true God. Paul
tried to reconcile the mystery and he did it with authority and boldness
because he knows for sure that what he is preaching is the truth of God.
In our ministry context,
we also need to look for the homophilous patterns to relate to the
non-Christians and then later redirect them to the one true God. There is
always an entry point as the “unknown god” used by Paul. We need the leading
and guidance of the Holy Spirit as what Paul experienced all throughout his missionary
journeys.
Week 7
Digest, Oct. 5-Oct 12, 2022
Lanilane Ocbina
WCTS, ThM program
