Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”--because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
“‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
as even some of your own poets have said,
“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
Ping.
I also how Paul might begin a speech here, if he came to America in today. He might just say, “I Perceive That You use brute force, as well as deceit and bribery, to spread Sodomy as far and wide as possible.” Paul would be immediately deplatformed. Then, he would meet the same fate he ultimately met with the Romans for pretty much the same reasons.
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I guess it depends upon how you define ‘religious’.
You seem to condemn those of us who reject organized religion - and especially ‘religiosity’; but have you personally questioned all of us?
There are lots of people who believe profoundly in One God, do not worship false idols, but just aren’t comfortable with dogma and denominations, or people who tell us that theirs is the only way that is ‘right’.
We don’t answer surveys, and don’t tend to wear our faith on our sleeves.
If you want everyone to be a Lutheran, just say so. But you are disrespecting millions of people who think differently. A lot of people honor and respect God alone, in their ‘closets’.