The Apostle Paul’s Example: Boldness plus Savvy

My experience with WGN’s decision not to air the recent Tomorrow’s World telecast has me appreciating all the more the example of the apostle Paul.

Paul was bold.  He preached “the Kingdom of God and the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 28:31) powerfully, though it brought him imprisonments, stripes, beatings, stonings — you name it.

But Paul was also savvy.  I think one of the perfect pictures of this is in Acts 17, in which Paul is preaching in Athens.  One element that is often not considered in this passage is that preaching foreign gods that were not sanctioned by the Roman Senate was considered illegal in the Empire – a fact relayed to us by a number of ancient writers (e.g., Tertullian, Eusebius, Cicero).  So when Paul was brought before the Areopagus, there was certainly an air of curiosity on the part of the aristocratic pagan philosophers who queried him (as is certainly clear from v.21), but there may have been the additional possibility of criminal prosecution, as might be suggested by the possibly accusatory comment of v.18: “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.”

In light of all of this, Paul’s lecture is a master work of spreading the gospel with both boldness and savvy.  Note that when brought before the Areopagus he does not start out by saying, “Look at all these sinful idols, you bunch of heathen idolaters!  God condemns all this rubbish!”  Rather, he famously starts off as follows…

“Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

“Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you…”

Acts 17:22-23

In one brilliant stroke, Paul cunningly fortifies the legal standing of his public proclamation AND begins his presentation in a way that was surely more effective and enticing than calling his listeners heathen idolaters.  YET, while making the message more palatable he does not dilute it, and after making the argument that worshipping God with gold, silver, or stone is an act of futility, he concludes:

“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Acts 17:30-31

At this point, many of the listeners “changed the channel,” as it were, while others were not so quick.  While on one hand, the Bible tells no tale of a great Church of God congregation ever being established in Athens — perverted humanistic philosophy is, after all, very addictive.  Still, others were won, and among their number was, very notably, an Areopagite named Dionysius (Acts 17:34).  How far into Paul’s speech would Dionysius have listened had the apostle started in “heathen idolaters” mode?

Yes, God could have called Dionysius some other way.  He could have used fiery letters in the sky to spell out, “Hey, call Paul: 1-800-555-RPNT.”  But He doesn’t tend to do that.  (If you have seen such letters, please call your minister…)  He entrusts His message to people, and the example of the apostle Paul is to do the best job possible to reach as many people as possible in the most effective ways possible.  He tells us, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).  Paul wasn’t just dedicated to doing the job.  He was dedicated to doing it right.

Today, the atmosphere and the need for savvy is no different.  A time will come when there is a famine of the Word (Amos 8:11-12).  The time is coming when imprisonments and worse will need to be endured to preach the truth (and, for that matter, to live the truth).  But that time is not here.  And when it does come I do not think it will be enforced by the power of the nominally godless and secular, as so many might think, but rather by suppression from a global religious power that will “cast truth down to the ground” (Daniel 8:12).  (We have a nice article on this, by the way, on the Tomorrow’s World website.)  For now, we are still amazingly free to proclaim the full truth almost anywhere we want.  And with the reach of satellite systems, we are even broadcasting into some of the most repressive areas in the world, including the Middle East.

The comments I made in my telecast about abortion and partial birth abortion that ran afoul of WGN’s censorship may have been truthful, but they lacked a media savvy that, I hope, will grow with experience.  I want to see Paul in the resurrection and be able to say that I learned from his example during the brief opportunity I had to do so.  I definitely do not see the solution to avoiding censorship as “holding off” on that part of our commission which says we must ”cry aloud and spare not,” just as Paul did not “hold off” in his criticism of the sin of idolatry before the Areopagus.  Rather, I see it as an opportunity to handle the gospel with savvy and wisdom.  There are so many “touchy” subjects, including abortion, that Messrs. Meredith and Ames — as well as Mr. Ogwyn — have been able to speak on so clearly and powerfully while avoiding the danger of overexciting certain sensibilities, and I am very thankful for the opportunity to learn from their example.

The next telecast I filmed (which was taped right after the one that just aired) is tentatively scheduled to air February 18 and is about one of the most hopeful messages that I believe we have to offer to a confused world: the general resurrection and God’s plan for all who have ever lived and died without their chance to know the truth.  I am told that this topic, even artfully presented, tends to earn us much flak as there are a great number of people out there who are upset at the thought that those who died in ignorance are not roasting in supernatural flame for all eternity.  And the script I am writing now for my third telecast (should there be one!) concerns my favorite topic of all time: God’s purpose for man.  As I work on it (and some others that are on the backburner), I will certainly endeavor to keep in mind the lessons that this first round has taught me.

Thanks, once again, to all of you for all the feedback I have received!  God has given all of us in His Church a fantastic privilege by allowing us to participate in the most important Work on earth.  Let each of us do our part with passion and skill, whatever that part may be!