The Handiwork-What Is Behind It? -Contest Over a Personal God

Nevertheless, we should not dismiss all information from ancient Greece as quaint history.  In the context of such beliefs, a noted teacher in the first century presented one of history's most significant speeches.  The physician and historian Luke recorded this speech, and we find  it in Chapter 17 of the book of Acts of Apostles.  It can help us to settle our view of the First Cause and to see where we fin into the picture.  How, though, can a speech given 1,900 years ago affect lives to day as sincere individuals  search for meaning in life? 

That famous teacher, Paul, was invited to a high court in Athens.  He there faced Epicureans and Stoics, who did not believe in a personal God. In his opening remarks, Paul mentioned seeing their city an altar-inscribed  "To an Unknown God" (Greek, a-gno'stoi The-oi).  Interestingly, some think that biologist Thomas H. Huxley  (1825-95) alluded to this when he coined the term "agnostic." Huxley applied the word to those who hold that "the ultimate cause (God) and the essential nature  of things are unknown or unknowable." But is the Creator  really "unknowable" as many have held?

That, frankly, is a misapplication of  Paul's phrase; it misses Paul's point. Rather than saying that the Creator was unknowable, Paul was simply saying that He was unknown to these Athenians. Paul did not have at hand as much scientific evidence for this existence of a Creator as we do today.  Still Paul had no doubt that there is a personal, intelligent Designer, whose qualities should draw us to him.  Note what Paul went on to say:  

Next time: The Handiwork-What Is Behind It? -Conclusion of Contest Over a Personal God

From the book Is There a Creator That Cares About You