Acts 17: TBA

The next leg of Paul and Silas' missionary journey (this is considered Paul's second trip, by the way) takes them to three Greek cities: Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens.  In each location, the apostles contend for the faith and present the claims of Christ in previously unreached areas.

In Thessalonica, Paul continues his custom of preaching first in the synagogue.  After making inroads among the Jewish community as well as some sympathetic Gentiles, he becomes enough of a threat that he is targeted by the religious establishment.  The hard-liners succeed in driving Paul and Silas out of town - but not before they had planted a church which we will later hear more of when it comes to I and II Thessalonians!

Paul and Silas find a more receptive audience in Berea, who the Bible points out were more "noble" than then Thessalonians.  In fact, things are going great in Berea until troublemakers from Thessalonica hear about Paul and Silas' ministry and arrive to cause problems.  Paul, as always the lightning rod, is quickly dispatched further away to Athens.

While Athens had been unreached for Christ, it was definitely filled with pagan deities.  As Paul explores the city, he sees many idols that would naturally be upsetting to a passionate Jewish Christian.  But rather than take an angry, confrontational approach about all of this, Paul enters into a dialogue with the philosophers of that city, cogently arguing his points about Jesus, even incorporating some of the facets of their religion.  For instance, Paul points out:

• The altar to "an unknown God" that Paul explains he will reveal to them;
• The many temples, though God does not dwell in any building physically;
• Quoting such phrases as "in him we live and move and have our being" and "we too are his offspring."

Paul proves that he is skilled at using a specific cultural context to introduce the larger themes of the Christian faith.  The Athenians listen patiently until Paul gets to his point about resurrection.  For many of these philosophers, the idea of a bodily resurrection is laughable.  But others are curious and desire to find out more.  Still others, such as Dionysius and Damaris, become believers.  Just like today, there is always a wide range of responses to the Christian message, from rejection to uncertainty to acceptance.