What Is Acts 17 Really About? | When Truth Meets Power

[@jfitz6517]

I love these videos, thank you Bishop Wright & everyone involved!

[@NTWrightOnline]

We're delighted to hear that you love the videos! Bishop Wright and our entire team appreciate your support and encouragement. Thank you for being a part of our community! --NTW Online Team

[@ringthembells143]

The only thing more amazing than the message presented here is the quality in caliber of the video and recording. Seriously I am in awe of what you guys are doing. I am praising God for the connection that he made with your production team and our most beloved theologian🔔❤️🔔

[@cuebj]

Glad you added 'legendary' about Orestes. Agamemnon & Trojan War was in an utterly different era. That was before Late Bronze Age Collapse between 1200 and 1150, many centuries before the classical period of Alexander, and Athens as an intellectual foundation for western Europe. Extremely helpful insight into Ac 17 as Paul on trial as I, like most people, have read it as a model for cross-cultural pre-evangelism

[@NTWrightOnline]

Thank you for your reflections. N.T. Wright does not personally monitor this channel, but we have started a discussion community for those enrolled in the course. We hope you consider joining! --NTW Online Team

[@tedclemens4093]

Well reasoned. In this video, Wright uses the approach of Paul, who spoke to his audience in their terms. So to the Jews in Thessalonica Paul reasoned from the Scriptures. The Messiah would "suffer and rise from the dead," he contended in contradiction to the prevailing thought of a conquering Messiah ruling in power. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah," he concludes. To the stoic-minded audience in Athens, Paul reasoned from the words of Aratus and Epimenides, again pointing to the resurrected Jesus. In response, some considered the words. “We want to hear you again on this subject,” they said. Others would just be agitated.

[@RocketKirchner]

This unkown God I will make known to you “. How did he do it ? Because Paul HIMSELF WAS a resurrection phenomenon !

[@joshuacantin514]

While most of this makes sense, I am a bit uncertain of reading the passage this way, as Acts 17:21 says (ESV) : "Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new." This really seems to put the context more in terms of interest rather than trial.

[@charlesmclamb6650]

Sure that Spirit of the age affected the council, but it was still an official discovery for Athenians, who were wary of foreign gods being proclaimed

[@williamcobbs3606]

Just listen to him you just might learn a new, please have a great day 😊

[@christianfrommuslim]

Thank you for the background and controversy of Acts 17. We find that verses 26-27 in the passage speaks to a situation we face in the West right now: God moves people so that they can learn about him! To meet this opportunity, we befriend and share the gospel with Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs. And so, in America, Britain and Europe, we see them coming to Christ. They then take the gospel to their homelands in places that we cannot go! We encourage other Christians to do this. Believers no longer need to learn foreign languages, spend 4 years raising support, go overseas and risk their lives. They don't even need to quit their jobs - just redirect their vision to "foreign missions" nearby. For more info click on our green icon for a 2-minute video intro.

[@flematicoreformandose5046]

Dr Wright, the fact is that the prediction of the new covenant announced by the prophet Jeremiah resonated like an inspired echo in the ears of the apostles and the Son of Man himself, to such a point that his death was approaching, the blessed death of the Testator that began the new covenant. And the reasons for this change were obvious religious and political corruption, whose center of inspiration were the doctrines of men for the benefit of greed. And what did the Creator want to generate with the new covenant? I would say that a more precise approach to God through the man Jesus Christ, without the burden of the Torah that not even the Jews could execute point by point. Would it be strange to think that Jesus the Anointed wanted to take us to paradise as in the beginning before Adam and Eve fell from their position? Well, it was not exactly like that, the process is first a new covenant that is not the final paradise, and second a final regeneration that will be the final paradise. Thank you very much Dr Wright for your contributions, and allow me some exposition or another.

[@lordjesusdiedforus337]

Sir after watching your bunch of vedios i understood salvation i.e if we die we will go to paradise for temporary time but at the end when LORD JESUS will make all things new the new jerusalem will come down from heaven and GOD will dwell with mortals as depicted in garden of Eden and in tabernacle and temple of Jerusalem is it ???

[@NTWrightOnline]

Thank you for your reflective question! N.T. Wright does not personally monitor this channel, but he has made a wonderful series called, "Thinking Through Salvation." You can start by watching the first one here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hKW5aYawlseEiNE We'd love to know what you think. --NTW Online Team

[@lordjesusdiedforus337]

Ok i saw the salvation series and i am just asking for a little 3-4 line conclusion nothing else thanks for your reply

[@reja1309]

The history lessons are interesting but I always have concerns that getting too far into that side of things can destroy the mystical and we need the mystical to understand Jesus.

[@NTWrightOnline]

Your point is valid, and we appreciate your perspective. We want to provide a balance that honors both the historical context and the spiritual significance of Jesus's teachings. We invite you to explore more of our content, including this video, which agrees that knowledge isn't enough. Thank you for engaging with us! --NTW Online Team kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKqtiqugndKbgZY

[@mindonthingsabove]

LOL Hemlock WOW good clarification

[@timhaley3459]

The apostle Paul (at perhaps at age 25), his Latin name, also known as Saul, his Hebrew name, firmly believed, originally as a Pharisee, an extremist Pharisee, that he was doing God's will, by viciously attacking the newly formed Christians perhaps about a year after Jesus death on Nisan 14, 33 C.E., even holding the garments of the men of the Jewish Sanhedrin when Stephen was being stoned to death.(Acts 7:58; see Gal 1:13, 14; Phil 3:4-6) Now we move forward several months, to perhaps another year, when "Saul, still breathing threat and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that he might bring bound to Jerusalem any whom he found who belonged to The Way (or true Christianity), both men and women." "Now as he was traveling and getting near Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him, and he fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me ?” He asked: “Who are you, Lord ?” " "He said: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting (through his Christian disciples, though the name of "Christian" would not come into use until about 44 C.E., Acts 11:26, and became well known by 58 C.E., Acts 26:28). But get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” Paul now changes sides, from the persecutor to the persecuted, for "he stayed for some days with the disciples in Damascus, and immediately in the synagogues he began to preach about Jesus, that this one is the Son of God (and NOT God)." "But all those hearing him were astonished and were saying: “Is this not the man who ravaged those in Jerusalem who call on this name (of Jesus Christ) ? Did he not come here for the purpose of arresting them and taking them to the chief priests ?” "But Saul kept on acquiring more and more power and was confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus, as he proved logically that this is the Christ. Now when many days had passed, the (wicked) Jews (who have been abandoned for their apostasy and murderous attitude and replaced with the new body of "Christians" as God's people, see Matt 21:42-44) plotted together to do away with him."(Acts 9:19-24) Now move forward to the years 49-52, of Paul's second missionary journey, when he came to Thessalonica, but which the Jews stirred up trouble, so that he was sent "by night" to Beroea, where he found these Jews "more noble-minded" than those in Thessalonica, eager to hear Paul, "carefully examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so (but which those in Christendom does NOT do)" (Acts 17:11), but which the wicked Jews in Thessalonica, hearing of Paul preaching "the word of God......came there to incite and agitate the crowds".(Acts 17:1, 10, 13) As a result, "then the brothers immediately sent Paul away to the sea", so that he went on down to Athens, Greece, waiting on Silas and Timothy to arrive.(Acts 17:14) While there, "his spirit (or dominate mental disposition) within him became irritated on seeing the city was full of idols. So he began to reason in the synagogue with the Jews and the other people who worshipped God and every day in the marketplace with those who happened to be on hand."(Acts 17:16, 17) Epicurean (who believed living for the greatest amount of pleasure, but doing so moderately) and Stoic (who did not believe in God as a person) phiosophers questioned what Paul was teaching, taking him to the Areopagus (a hill NW of the Athenian Acropolis), to "get know what this new teaching is that you are speaking about."(Acts 17:19) Now at the Areopagus, Paul now says: "Men of Athens, I see that in all things you seem to be more given to the fear of the deities than others are. For instance, while passing along and carefully observing your objects of veneration, I found even an altar on which had been inscribed ‘To an Unknown God.’ " "Therefore, what you are unknowingly worshipping, this I am declaring to you. The God (whose name is Jehovah, see Isa 12:2; 26:4, KJV) who made the world and all the things in it, being, as he is, Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in handmade temples......." "Therefore, since we are the children of God, we should not think that the Divine Being (not "Godhead", for the Greek word here is theios, meaning "godlike, divinity, deity") is like gold or silver or stone, like something sculptured by the art and design of humans. True, God has overlooked the times of such ignorance; but now he is declaring to all people everywhere that they should repent." "Because he has set a day on which he purposes to judge the inhabited earth in righteousness by a man (Jesus Christ, who is NOT God, but "anointed" and appointed by God as "a high priest in the manner of Melchizedek", Heb 5:10, sent by God to the earth to provide the ransom for obedient mankind, Matt 20:28; John 17:3, 4) whom he has appointed (as a "mediator between God and men", 1 Tim 2:5), and he has provided a guarantee to all men by resurrecting him (God's "only-begotten Son", John 3:16, with "begotten" meaning "to be a father of a child" or to have a father) from the dead.”(Acts 17:22-31) Of the Greeks, "when they heard of a resurrection (and NOT "rapture") of the dead, some began to scoff, while others said: "We will hear you again about this", more open to listening to "the truth".(Acts 17:32) So, how many today are "open to the truth" ? For example, that God is Jehovah (Ex 6:3; Ps 83:18, KJV), "the only true God" (John 17:3), whose name is found some 7,000 times in the Bible, and is "the Divine Being" Paul was speaking of to the Athenians, and that Jesus Christ is NOT God, but God's Son, "the beginning of the creation by God", who said at Psalms 16:8: "I keep Jehovah before me constantly. Because he is at my right hand, I will never be shaken."

[@timhaley3459]

@@braybilly Of Jesus saying to the Jews at John 10:30: "I and the Father are one", of Jesus saying to Philip at John 14:9, that "even after I have been with you men for such a long time, Philip, have you not come to know me ? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father also" does NOT show Jesus as God, "being one and equal". However, it does show that these ones have NOT "done their homework", remaining in spiritual "darkness" (see Isa 60:2a), for at John 17:11, Jesus made CLEAR what he meant by "I and the Father are one", saying in prayer to the Father, Jehovah God, just hours before his execution on a stake.(see Ex 6:3, KJV): "I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, watch over them on account of your own name, which you have given me, so that THEY (Jesus genuine disciples) may be ONE (or "one" in unity) just as WE ARE ONE (or "one" in unity or purpose)."(2013 New World Translation) At John 17:20-23, Jesus further explains what "one" means: "I make request, not concerning these only, but also concerning those putting faith in me through their word, so that THEY (or Jesus genuine disciples, which EXCLUDES Christendom, the "antichrists", meaning "against (or instead of ) Christ", at 1 John 2:18-23, who are divided into some 41,000 different denominations and sects) may all be ONE, just as you, Father, are in UNION with me and I am in UNION with you, that they also may be in UNION with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me." "I have given them the glory that you have given me, in order that THEY may be ONE (in unity and purpose) just as WE ARE ONE (in unity and purpose). I in union with them and you in union with me, in order that they may be perfected into ONE (working harmoniously together for Jehovah's purpose, see Ex 6:3, KJV), so that the world may know that you SENT ("sent", Greek apostello, meaning "to send out on a mission", whereby the sender is GREATER than the one sent) me and that you loved them just as you loved me."' At Genesis 2:24, upon Adam and Eve becoming husband and wife, it says: "That is why a man will leave his father and his mother and he will stick to his wife, and they will become ONE FLESH (or one in unity and purpose, having a common goal)". And at John 5:30, 36, 37, Jesus told the Jews: "I cannot do a SINGLE thing of my OWN initiative. Just as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I seek, NOT my own will, but the will of him (Jehovah God) who sent me (working as "one" in unity and purpose, to complete Jehovah's everlasting purpose of a paradise earth for "meek" ones, see Gen 1:26-31; Ps 37:11, 29)......." "the very works that my Father assigned me to accomplish, these works that I am doing, bear witness that the Father sent me. And the Father (Jehovah God) who sent me has himself borne witness about me. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form." So, those who keep pushing the Nicene Creed, saying that Jesus is God, are the ones who have NOT done any serious research into the Bible, but are biased towards "the Holy Trinity" as being "truth", when, in fact, it is false.

[@paulyosef7550]

get on with it

[@Rosiedelaroux]

It’s not about the transgender issues.

[@JoelEbert-te8xq]

The only thing worse than this hot air are the people who will uncritically breathe it in.

[@MrWig100]

There's a difference between understanding what St Paul is saying and believing in it. Perhaps that idea is a bit difficult for you. You may need to improve your own critical skills.

[@BillBurnette]

There is another thing that’s worse… people like you who make asinine comments like yours.