Living Stones – Thursday, February 8, 2018
Known unknown
Acts 17:22,23
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.” (ESV)
Sixteen years ago, in February 2002, Donald Rumsfeld, the then US Secretary of State for Defence, speaking at a briefing with the media at the Defence Department, made a statement that was considered, at the time, to be bizarre. Rumsfeld was made a laughing stock for quite a while before people started breaking down his comments. Rumsfeld said then, “There are known knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know.”
Upon careful examination, the statement from Secretary Rumsfeld began making more and more sense to those in the media who spend all of their days dissecting and parsing every statement made by politicians and other public figures, much like the men of Athens sometimes. Rumsfeld’s statement is true and most likely wasn’t original, though he made it famous at the time.
The concept is what academics call a truism. It was obviously true and said nothing new. Rumsfeld might have suffered the fate he did because of the context in which he said it. Much of the benefits of science and technology that we enjoy today is the result of scientific investigation of known unknowns. Often as scientists strive to know the things that they know that they don’t know they also discover things that they didn’t know that they didn’t know. I am afraid that I am sounding like Donald Rumsfeld but without the same platform to make me world famous.
Philosophers are the same. Sometimes philosophy is described as “thinking about thinking. Philosophers are trying to understand the world, to understand knowledge, existence, values, reason, mind, language, and often God.
And so it was when the Apostle Paul marched into Athens. Paul had some time on his hands and went around the city to see what things there were like. We call that sightseeing these days and we do it when we are travelling to new places, just like Paul did. Today we carry along our mobile phones and take selfies at the new place, often missing the opportunity to grasp the essential character of the place by just letting it sink in.
The men of Athens were always thinking about thinking and listening to the new ideas being babbled about by men like themselves. “Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” Acts 17:21. The philosophies of the time always influence religion and the practice of faith. It was no different in Athens. The philosophers recognised that there were known unknowns and one of them was God. So, they dutifully erected a temple to the Unknown God.
To them, God was a known unknown, in other words, they didn’t know Him. When Paul discovered this he also discovered an opportunity. For Paul, God was also a known known. God had made Himself known and so He could be known. Paul essentially declared to them that he would make known to them that which is unknown to them.
The Apostles of the Jewish tradition knew that God was not unknown. In their history, traditions, and practice of faith, God was always making Himself known. To them, the arrival of Jesus moved God’s self-revelation to another level. “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son,” Hebrews 1:1,2
Paul also had another view, one that wasn’t necessarily steeped in Jewish tradition but one that could be universally applied. Paul expressed this clearly in his letter to the Christians in Rome stating that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.” Romans 1:18,19
Paul argues that any examination of the nature of the world would testify to God’s existence and self-revelation. The Psalmist David before him had said it this way, “The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, And night unto night reveals knowledge.” Psalm 19:1,2
Paul pressed his argument to the Romans as if he was still talking to the philosophes in Athens, “Professing to be wise, they became fools,” Romans 1:22.
There is something else about the God who can be known, His self-revelation is with the purpose for men who are seekers. Genuine seekers who are looking to know Him, and not to just know what other men know about Him. “he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6.
Some just want to discuss these questions for the sake of discussions, some just like to argue about religion and philosophy and some will find genuine faith. Just like those Paul met in the Areopagus, some “mocked,” and some wanted more gyaff later, but two people, whose names most of us don’t remember, found faith with others, Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris.
We have to be ready at all times to make known, He who we know but Who is unknown to others who are blinded by some of today’s philosophies. IS/IVCF summarised Paul this way, “to know Christ and then to make Him known.”
Think on these things:
- What are the known unknowns that you ponder?
- How do you know God?
- How are the philosophies of our time shaping the desire to know God?
Prayer focus:
Let us pray today that we would know God and then strive to make Him known.
In His Grace
Pastor Alex
