Biblical Preaching in a Pluralistic Culture

Faithful Gospel Preaching in a Pluralistic Age Centers on God’s Grace

The heart of Paul’s message is grace as Paul tells the Athenians this God whom He preaches has overlooked their previous sins.[34] In his commentary on Acts, John Calvin warns about speculative theology at this point.[35] It means what it says, and we must live in the tension of the mystery of why God allowed darkness to reign in their world until that moment (or why God, in his goodness, chose that time to reveal Jesus Christ to them).

This surely cannot mean the forefathers of the Athenians were not responsible for their sins, but rather than visiting the Athenians with wrath at this point in history, a good God had sent His apostle to them to announce the good news of Jesus Christ. While Luke does not give Jesus’ name in the sermon proper (is this the complete sermon or Luke’s redacted account? We do not know, but it is the message the Holy Spirit wants us to know), Luke tells us Paul was, in fact, preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.[36]

Faithful Gospel Preaching in a Pluralistic Age Calls for Repentance and Faith in Jesus Christ

The Apostle Paul announces God’s grace and calls for the postmodern to repent of his pluralistic philosophy and transfer his trust from the idols of his generation to the Christ of the Ages: “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30, esv).

And what happened? Some scoffed, some wanted to hear more, and some believed — among them a man and his wife.[37] A family in Athens was now Christian. Presumably, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had now engrafted former Athenian pagans, from among the plurality of religions, out of the resistance of pluralism, to become members of the “Israel of God.”[38]