Acts 17:16-34
In Athens
16While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. 17So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. 18A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, "What is this babbler trying to say?" Others remarked, "He seems to be advocating foreign gods." They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. 19Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean." 21(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)
22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'
29"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. 30In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
32When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, "We want to hear you again on this subject." 33At that, Paul left the Council. 34A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.
Ephesians 4:15
Paul Spoke the Truth
15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:50-58
Death Has Been Swallowed Up in Victory
51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55 "Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
John 14:6-7
Jesus is the Only Way to God
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know[b] my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
Paul walked around Athens and was greatly distressed that the city in Greece was full of idols...Greece had different religions portrayed in their city...The people of Athens and the foreigners who lived there spent a lot of their time talking about and listening to the latest ideas and philosophies...The people of Athens, especially those scholarly and religious, seem to be enamored with ideas and differing philosophies and different religions...As Paul walked around Athens, what he saw (for him) all pointed to One Thing, and that was to God...But the question is do all religions point toward God and more importantly lead us and get us to God...Paul's Pharisaical background had deep roots in Scripture...His meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus, convinced him that the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah had now come to fruition...Jesus was the Messiah, that the Prophets and wise men had talked about in the Old Testament Bible...Christ was the Truth, the Absolute Truth...Jesus was the Way to God, the Only Way to God...Jesus leads us to God...
So Jesus has told us that not only is He will lead us to God and to eternal life, but He is the Only Way to God...So as one examines different religions, one must ask themselves are they being led to God?...Are they being led to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?...
Paul stood up in the meeting at the Areopagus and told the men of Athens, that he could see that in every way they were religious...As he saw their different idols, their different altars, temples, and their different places of worship -he saw a variety of interests in differing religions...These different religions had a role in each one of their lives...Some of there religions, no doubt, looked more interesting than others...The Greeks and the foreigners, who lived there, had a choice of which idol they could worship...Paul, no doubt, learned as he walked the streets of Athens, that were trying to gain a better understanding about religion and religions, and maybe even why people believe as they do...Paul told them that he had even seen on altar with the inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD...He explained, to all listeners that day in his meeting in the Areopagus in Athens, that he knew their Unknown God...Their unknown God was the God of Israel and He has given proof to all men that the Messiah had come...God had appointed this Man to judge the world and had set the time for judgement day...The Man that God appointed was Jesus...And God had proved that Jesus was the Messiah, because He has raised Him from the dead...
The Roman Empire, as Paul traveled from mission to mission (and building new churches), was filled with people of differing beliefs on religion...Paul knew the Truth of Scripture...And the Truth was Jesus...Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians that Jesus affirms his teaching is based on objective Truth...Paul had seen Jesus after His death (Acts 9)...He, also, knew that five hundred people had seen Jesus after His death (1 Corinthians 15:6)...Paul had visited with Peter, one of the Twelve original Disciples, and with Jesus' brother James...He, also, went to the Jerusalem Council and met with the New Christian Leaders (Acts 15:1-41)...In all this, he learned that Jesus was raised from the dead and was God's appointed One to give us eternal life...Jesus now takes the sting out of death, and gives us victory over death...Death, because of Jesus, has been swallowed up in victory...
St. Paul understood as he walked the around Athens, that he was seeing many interesting and professionally carved and beautiful artisan works about religion...But interesting and beautiful things do not always lead us to the Truth...St. Paul was convinced that there is an Absolute Truth, and that He is near us and with us and is accessible to us, when we seek Him...Why does one believe in anything?...St. Paul believed in these things because they are true...God had given St. Paul and us proof, by raising Jesus from the dead...St. Paul would do his very best to spread the word, this truth of Jesus in his lifetime, and took this Absolute Truth that he believed in, in all his travels and in all his life...