As Paul tells us in Acts;¹ “all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” The Greeks had thought while the Jews had the Word, until the two met one day in Athens.

Many of the ancient Greeks tried to think their way to God but never quite got to the truth. Aristotle had the “prime mover” or the “un-caused cause” which created everything. But his “prime mover” was distant and uninvolved with his creation. He also believed this god could only think perfect thoughts so his time was filled with self-contemplation. This would mean Aristotle’s thought-god was an accidental creator which seems to be a paradox. Aristotle also did not rule out the possibility of more than one “prime mover.”

Plato also had a creator God which he called the Demiurge, but this god created what he created out of pre-existent matter. He created order out of chaos. He also did not create everything there is because there is evil in the world and his god could not have created evil.

So you can see, the Greek philosophers were thinking about these things, but it was up to the Jews to take it to the next level for them because they had the Word. They had divine revelation, the Word of God.

When it comes to teleological arguments, thought is the first step, but it is internal, if you think deep and long and hard enough you will get to the point where the thought ends. The thought ends either because you can’t, or won’t, fathom the idea of a God who is active and who judges, or you might be afraid to discover it is true. But this is where the thought needs to begin, so do you stop thinking because you are comfortable where you are, or do you begin thinking even if it might get uncomfortable? In order to continue thinking there is a leap to be taken here, you must leap from the thought into the Word.

Jesus IS the leap.

While thought is internal the Word is external. In a way isn’t the Word thought but put into action? What I mean is, living in the way² of the Word should be reflected in our deeds and in our actions. When you think about it, isn’t Jesus as the Word God’s thoughts put into action? Dr Peter Kreeft, a philosophy professor at Boston College and a Catholic, calls Jesus God’s philosophy.³ I thought that was an interesting way to look at it.

God’s Word became flesh and walked the earth among men. Jesus the Son put God the Father’s Word into action. He taught, and showed, all of us how to live and He died for our sins. While he was on this earth he said He had sheep which were not of this fold, which must also be brought in.⁴

He was talking about bringing the Word to those who did not have it, and before He left this world and ascended into Heaven His last commandment to us was to spread God’s Word to all the nations.⁵

In obedience to God, Paul walked into Athens one day, where they loved to spend their time hearing and thinking about new ideas, and he noticed they had an altar erected to “the unknown god.”⁶ This was his opportunity and he did not back down, he met them Word for thought, and proceeded to tell them all about the one true God who made the heavens and the earth and everything in them. He told them about the resurrection and God’s coming judgement. He told them of Jesus’ work on the cross and how he died to save us all. He told them to believe in their hearts and they would be saved.

Thought met the Word that day and the Bible tells us that some men wanted to hear more, some men rejected the idea, and still others believed and became followers of Jesus Christ. Some men were interested in giving it more thought, others didn’t want to think anymore, and others took the leap.

This is still relevant today, we can spread the Word and some will accept it and some will reject it, some will think more and some will stop thinking, but it is our job to try to get them to take the leap of faith, but how can they “believe in him of whom they have never heard?”⁷ It is up to us to bring the Word to so-called “free-thinkers.”

It is up to us to help others take that leap.

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1. Acts 17:21 ↩︎
2. Acts 24:14 ↩︎
3. The Philosophy of Jesus–Dr Peter Kreeft ↩︎
4. Paraphrase John 10:16 ↩︎
5. Matthew 28:19 ↩︎
6. Acts 17:23 ↩︎
7. Romans 10:14 ↩︎