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Acts 14:1 "Now at Iconium [Paul and Barnabas] entered together into the Jewish synagogue, and so spoke that a great company believed, both of Jews and of Greeks."

 

When Paul spoke, it was not his understanding nor eloquence that caused people to come to believe, as Paul himself would admit (See 1 Corinthians 2:1-5), it was the Holy Spirit. In God's plan, it was time for this, and He was making it happen. Of course, Paul had skills that were essential to his mission, which is why God chose him, but all the oratory skills in the world would not have stirred one heart if God had not laid the groundwork for people to come to believe the "secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification." (1 Corinthians 2:7)

 

That idea of the groundwork makes me think of a tweet (or whatever we call them now (what do we call them, btw?)) a friend sent me recently. The writer was arguing against the idea that the Hebrew Bible is the foundation of the rational universe. He said the Greeks didn't just have a rational universe, but had come to see the universe as a rational system, with causes and laws discoverable by reason, and had done this well before the Hebrew Bible (according to his dating of it, at least). He argued Christianity actually inherited the rational universe from the Greeks, not the Jews.

 

When I read this, I thought the problem with worrying about this question is that it supposes that it is man who formulates apt descriptions of the workings of the universe, rather than God revealing them to us. The universe is, just as God is. God leads us to an understanding of it as He desires us to have, when He desires us to have it. Of course, He uses people to do this, and not always people who are following Him (yet), but any true understanding of the universe or anything in it comes from Him to us, not vice versa. (We are free to, and do all the time, develop all kinds of false ideas of the universe, and of God, and those are all us, but they do not stand the test of time, as they are not the "secret and hidden wisdom of God".)

 

The Greeks were living in God's world, even if they didn't know (but as I re-read the Odyssey, I think in many ways they did, He just hadn't revealed Himself to them the same way He did to the Jews). They observed the world with rational minds and developed a system to explain reality. Since God is reality, their rational system was in fact describing Him and the universe He created. If that is the system that Christianity inherited, it was God's plan for that to happen. They also, of course, got some things wrong, as we all do when left to our own devices (which is why Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to His Church, so she does not get things wrong), but rational, honest thought will always lead to some idea of God, and that's what the Greeks had. When, in the fullness of time, Paul spoke to the Greeks, both here and, more dramatically, at the Areopagus, revealing the truth of Jesus Christ, the Greeks were ready to listen because the groundwork had been laid (they, and the poster on X, may have thought by them, but who cares?).

 

When the truth dawns on our imperfect understanding it is life-altering. Our minds are awakened in an instant, something we had always seen or thought about through a fog becomes crystal clear. That's what happens when the Holy Spirit speaks to us, either directly or through God's chosen messengers. That is how the great company of Jews and Greeks in Iconium came to believe, and that is what made Paul's entire mission so successful. It is how God changes things, but we need the imperfect understanding before we can receive the perfect one.

 

I feel like this is about to happen again, like God is preparing the world for something big. The build-up is still largely below the surface, but it is there. Another fantastic revelation of truth is imminent (whatever that means in God's time), and I think the groundwork has largely been laid (we certainly are awash in imperfect understanding!). I hope I get to see some of it from this side. It is such an exciting time to be alive!