Branson: Jerusalem and Athens

Jerusalem and Athens: The Battle for Christian Culture was presented by Doug Phillips of Vision Forum.

In history, the battle between the culture of Jerusalem and Athens was a battle between Biblical thinking and pagan thinking. This is parallel to our culturl battle today, we can learn from the past. The antithesis of Hebrew and Greek culture today is the same antithesis of Humansim and Christianity. Today there is a revival of paganism, the icons of our culture are music, tatoos and body modification.

All men worship the Creator or the Creature. There are no other choices, we all worship. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. It doesn't say we need all the facts before we do that, nor does it say you need to take the Bible out in your discussions.

Everything falls into one of two categories: theology or history. Our view of history is a reflection of our views of God. Nothing is insignificant. If that is not so, why are humanists spending so much time and effort trying to re-write history.

Faith and Reason are not in conflict. The substance of faith is evidence, a good testimony. All knowledge is found in Christ, Colossians 2:2-4

The history of Greek culture falls into two periods, the first 1300-331 BC which was the Classical Greek period. The second from 323-31 BC, was the Helenistic Greek period. The later was when the Hebrews began synchretism with paganism, which in history was always followed by judgement of the Hebrews. In the end it comes down to whether man (the creature) or God (the Creator) is the measure of all things. Over 2000 years of tension, the strength and progress of church can be traced by the influence of Hellenic thinking/Hebrew synchretism. This is a negative/reverse corelation.

The religious worldview of Greek paganism is:

1. Statism: The state/government can solve your problems, compared to the government is there to protect and is limited.
2. Civil Virtue: The idolization of the Greek hero (i.e. superman)
3. Humanism

Greek Paganism is practiced through:

• Worship of the body (original olympics were held in the nude)
• Worship of youth (elderly are de-valued, i.e. the youth are our future)
• Worship of the individual
• Worship of the State (Plato's Republic: the state took all the children 10 yrs+ to tain them.) As a homeschool family, I can more clearly see this happening quickly in our culture today.
• The Superhero idolized
• Deification of athletes

and, moral perversion naturally followed.