| Highlights of Dawn | November 1974 |
Bible Lands in the News
THE island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, and the country of Greece, have been much in the news during the months past. This is due to the fact that the country of Turkey dispatched a heavily armored army into Cyprus to seize territory which it was claimed belonged to Turkey. The territory in question was controlled by Greece, and this brought Greece into the trouble. Appeal was made to the United Nations and a task force to keep the peace was dispatched there, but to little avail.
So far as we know, there is no special prophetic significance attached to this minor struggle in a world that is afflicted with so many festering spots of discontent and chaos. It is of interest to us, we think, that both Greece and Cyprus are what we might call Bible lands, because at the time of the Early Church they were within reach of zealous followers of the Master, many of whose activities in these countries are recorded in the Bible.
Cyprus was the home of Barnabas, who was one of the early disciples of Christ. In Acts 9:27 we find him introducing the new convert Saul, or Paul, to the church at Jerusalem in a way which seems to imply previous acquaintance between the two.
When news reached the church in Jerusalem that men of Cyprus and Cyrene had been preaching to Gentiles at Antioch, Barnabas was sent there. (Acts 11:19-26) However, Barnabas went first to Tarsus to seek Paul as one especially raised up to preach to the Gentiles. (Acts 26:17) Barnabas and Paul were later chosen by the church at Antioch for the missionary work. On their first missionary journey they visited Cyprus, where there were already many refugee Christians who had fled from the persecution which came upon the Early Church about the time of the martyrdom of Stephen.
The Apostle Paul first came into this geographical picture when he received the call from the Lord, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” In the Lord’s providence Paul’s obedience to this call from God resulted in gatherings of Christians being established in Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi, etc. Paul’s best-known experience in Greece is probably his visit to Athens, a great city of learning of that day and where the people worshiped a multiplicity of gods.
Paul received much persecution at Thessalonica and at Berea. Two of the brethren, seeking apparently to spare Paul further persecution, conducted him to Athens. There he gave instructions to these for Silas and Timotheus to come to him with all speed. The account reads:
“While Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoics, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean.”—Acts 17:16-20
The situation in Athens was rather an unusual one. We read that “all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing.” (vs. 21) Responding to the request of his critics, the Epicureans and the Stoics, “Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”—vss. 22,23
Paul took advantage of the unique situation, explaining that it was his intention to declare to them the facts concerning their unknown God. In other words, he desired to reveal some things to them concerning this God, one of the things being that he was a God who would restore the dead to life. No religion in the world, except that of the Bible, has ever set forth the hope of the resurrection. And very understandably so, because essentially all other religions insist that the dead are not dead, and if no one is really dead, there cannot be a resurrection of the dead.
Where Paul stood on Mars’ hill, the Parthenon, the great temple of the Athenians, was in full view, and he explained to them that their unknown God, the one whom he was presenting to them, the “God that made the world and all the things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands.”—vs. 24
In other words, Paul was explaining that their unknown God, which was the God that he worshiped, would not be interested in their magnificent temple; that he does not dwell in temples made with hands. This may not have been very diplomatic on his part, but surely it emphasized the difference between the God whom he worshiped and the multiplicity of gods that they worshiped which were represented to them by idols. To this thought Paul added that their unknown God is not “worshiped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.”
Here Paul is telling his listeners that the true God did not need the work of human hands in making idols to represent him; that he had full ability to give life and to reveal himself without the aid of these heathen articles by which the false gods were worshiped.
Continuing, Paul said concerning the true God, “And [he] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: for in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”
Then Paul followed up with a statement concerning the judgment day and the resurrection of the dead. (vss. 30,31) He refers again to the ignorance of the people in their worship of false gods, and explains that God “winked at” this; that is, overlooked it, because he had a future time for the enlightenment of mankind in general, and that this would be accomplished in a future day of judgment, or trial, “in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”
When his audience heard Paul speak about the resurrection of the dead “some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.” The people as a whole at that time were not ready to give ear to the glorious Gospel of Christ in which provision is made for the resurrection, nor has the viewpoint of the world in general changed since that time.
While Paul delivered this sermon in Greece, the people of other nations have been no different in their unbelief of the true Gospel of Christ. The witness of this Gospel has been given, but for the most part it has been rejected. Substitutes for the Gospel have been offered to the people, and generally accepted, forming the basis of the great denominational church systems of the world.
The battle between truth and error has gone on throughout the ages, even as the military struggles between nations. Error, as promoted by the great institutions of religion, has been continually on the throne, while truth has been on the scaffold. We know from the prophecies of God’s Word that the great religious institutions of earth, built upon error, superstition and idolatry, will eventually be destroyed, and with them also the governments which have suppressed the people and misrepresented the name of Jehovah, the true God. This will not be accomplished through human agencies, nor by the strength of those who serve as the Lord’s ambassadors on earth at the present time, but through the power of the risen and exalted Christ who will then have associated with him his true followers, who, like him, will also be exalted to heavenly glory.
This will be the final triumph of that great unknown God whom Paul described, and concerning him he said that he “dwelleth not in temples made with hands.” The nations will then learn the futility of trying to seize and lord it over a territory claimed by other nations. They will learn that their safety and well-being will result only from the acknowledgment of the power and authority of the kingdom of Christ.
All carnal wars, whether small or great, have resulted in much suffering on the part of the people. But when the long-promised kingdom of Christ is established, nothing will be permitted to hurt nor to destroy in all the vast regions of that universal kingdom. Peace will reach the people, and all will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel and the great and true eternal God.
The Christmas Theme
It will be then that the great theme of the Bible concerning the birth and kingdom of the great King of Peace will be fulfilled. These promises will no longer seem like mere words never having a fulfillment. How wonderful it will be then to realize the fulfillment of that wonderful promise, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”—Isa. 9:6,7
How wonderful is the assurance that “the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” Noble-minded men and women throughout the world, and during the centuries past, have endeavored to find and apply a successful formula for peace, but have failed. Some of these have proclaimed that they have discovered the way of peace for at least their generation. Others have hoped and longed and worked for universal and lasting peace, but all these efforts have been futile.
Selfishness has doomed them all to failure because the promoters of such efforts have failed to realize that peace cannot be established through the production of strong armaments of war. They have failed to realize that it will be essential for all nations to learn and to observe the Lord’s ways of “beating their swords unto plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks.” They will learn that it is not the will of God for each generation to set aside its youth to learn war and to be slaughtered in war. They will discover that the Lord’s way to establish peace is to learn war no more.—Micah 4:1-4
The peace to be established through Christ’s kingdom will not only be peace between nations, but peace also within nations. Now the spirit of selfishness strains and often disrupts the peace of communities, but this will not be so under the administration of Christ’s kingdom, for then the people will learn and observe the Lord’s ways which are the ways of love. There will then be peace between those who obey God’s laws and God himself. Without this peace with God no effort to solve the problems of men can succeed.
Peace with God will result through the acceptance of his provision of love, through Christ, for the sin-cursed and dying race—even Christ, the Redeemer. It will mean obedience to his laws of righteousness, which will rule throughout the whole earth. There will then be no occasion for the military invasion of one nation by another, for all will be equally and abundantly blessed.
There will be no need for the seeking of that which is possessed by others. The Turks will no longer need to seek territory by war which is controlled by the Greeks, for Jesus, the new King of earth, will exercise his powers of control everywhere and will deal justly and equitably with all. What a glorious prospect for those who await the fulfillment of the promises of God!