Living in Athens

A couple of times a month, as God enables us, the church which I
serve attempts to proclaim the gospel in the centre of our town,
preaching in the open air, handing out tract-invitations, and engaging
in conversation with those who have a few moments to spare. Today was
one of those occasions, and it gave a fairly representative glimpse into
the spiritual battleground on which we are fighting.

On our
arrival, we found the Jehovah’s Witnesses established just along from
our usual patch. They have been unusually active in our area recently,
and have begun to employ some new techniques and hardware –
well-designed portable leaflet stands which are put up in prominent or
busy places (just outside bus, train and tube stations seem to be
favourites, though obviously not limited to them) with a couple of
well-spoken Witnesses manning their stations.

As we began to set
up and hand out our invitations some distance away, a passing gentleman
pointed out to me that we had a little competition. Trying to seize the
opportunity, I plunged into what became a conversation with a French
philosopher of sorts (literally French, philosophical by inclination), a
thoroughgoing humanist for whom all was relative and death alone was
absolute. We ranged hither and yon, with the usual shoal of red herrings
as I tried to address his objections and bring him back always to the
scriptural realities of sin and salvation. He parted with my contact
details, and expressed a willingness to consider getting in touch so
that I could speak with him further. I hope, too, that he will accept
the invitation to come to our church services and to see what kind of
people are true Christians, and so learn the character of the God we
serve.

His claim that we had competition (to which I will return)
was further and sadly enhanced by the arrival of another local group,
wild-eyed Arminians with a thoroughly worldly programme and a range of
heresies to proclaim and a great deal of health and wealth to promise.
They saw us, sounded us out, got their gear out about twenty yards away and planted
themselves all around us. Their basic approach is to set up something
like a street party, invite people to another party, and then try to
sweep people further into their clutches on a wave of emotions. There is
a lot of Bible speak, but not a great deal of biblical truth. The noise
of their contribution bordered on the overwhelming.

Interestingly,
they were drowned out by about forty devotees of Hare Krishna who were
making their way into and around the centre of the town with drums,
bells and cymbals. We heard them coming a way off. Given that our
Arminian friends had bordered on the aggressive in their locating of
themselves, a troupe of orangey chanters trampling pretty much through
and over them might have caused a snigger in less high-minded chaps than
ourselves. One quick-witted of our number managed to get in amongst
them and hand out a few tracts, but the poor fellow was almost drowned
in the tangerine tide.

It did not appear, on the surface of
things, to be our most successful endeavour. It certainly underlined to
us the nature of the battle. As we prayed, we asked the Lord to save
those who are trapped in these godless and heretical environments, and
to bring all these systems of error to nothing. As one of our number pointed out, there
was something Athenian in the situation: our spirits were provoked as we
saw our town given over to idols (Acts 17:16) and so we tried to reason
with them, preaching to them Jesus and the resurrection by means of
tracts and conversations (less so by open proclamation on this occasion,
given the nature of the environment). It is interesting that all the
artwork I have found of Paul in Athens gives the impression of a rapt
audience seemingly enamoured of a potent speaker who has his hearers in
the palm of his hand. I wonder how near or far those images are from the
reality? We are not Paul, we know that, but maybe it was not quite as
neat and pleasant there as some of our imaginations make out.

So,
are we in competition? Are we, as my Gallic interlocutor suggested, just
one of a range of equally valid voices all clamouring for attention? As
I pointed out to him, we are not.

First of all, we do not compete
in terms of method. We are not going to attempt to out-suave,
out-dance, out-shout, and out-beat those who come with their empty
messages and vain offers. We are not playing that game and we do not
need to. Just because the world suggests that we are one among many in
the marketplace of ideas does not mean we have to prostitute our message
with the same froth and filth as everyone else. We are not competing in
terms of our method.

Second, as I made clear, we are not merely
offering another alternative to a range of spiritual or intellectual
placebos. In that sense, we are not competing in terms of our message.
Every other offer he was hearing – indeed, his own notions and his own
system in which he so ardently believed – called out to mankind to look
to themselves, to work harder, do better and climb higher. Ultimately,
and in many cases sooner rather than later, every other one of those
systems and claims will crash and burn. Ours is the one distinctive
message: a call to look out and up, to look to Christ who has
accomplished all, finished the work, having climbed down to save his
wretched and rebellious creatures by suffering and dying in their place,
exhausting God’s curse against sin and providing his own righteousness
in order that we might stand before him with peace and joy. We call men
away from everything else to the one true and living God, and to his
Son, who loved us and gave his life for us, and rose from the dead in
triumph on our behalf. We see and feel and loathe and mourn the clamour
of falsehood and idolatry that swirls around us, but it is not a
competition between parallel vanities. It is a battle between the truth
of God and the range of damnable errors and heresies and emptinesses
that masquerade as hopes for the hopeless and helps for the helpless.

May
God grant that within and without the walls of our church buildings, he
would give us grace to give earnest, winsome and unflinching
testimonies to the truth as it is in Jesus, demonstrating in our lives
the truths that we confess with our lips! May God’s message and God’s
method prevail, and may the light overcome the darkness!