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Hellenistic Culture: The Greek-Shaped Cosmopolitan World After Alexander · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. Yes, welcome.
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We have a massive stack of notes ready for you today.
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We really do. And we are thrilled you were
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joining us in the room. We are doing a deep dive into
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the source material covering a specific, totally fascinating
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window of history. It is an incredible period to
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look at. We are looking at the
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Hellenistic era, right? That is the chunk of time
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spanning from 323 BC down to 31 BC.
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And our mission today is to look at this period by synthesizing a
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historical analysis of the Greek shaped cosmopolitan world with a
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very specific theological framework.
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Yes, we are viewing this era not as random chaotic history, but
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as the sovereign preparation for the coming of Christ.
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Precisely. If we pull back and look at the
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bigger picture, we are establishing a specific
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framework for you right out of the gate.
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We are observing this historical shift not as an accident of
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human ambition, but as the meticulous outworking of God's
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decree. And this aligns perfectly with
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the Westminster Confession of Faith.
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It does. Chapter 5 of the confession
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affirms that God's Providence extends over all His creatures
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and all their actions. Directing them to his own glory.
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Spot on. While secular historians look at
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Alexander the Great's sweeping conquests across the
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Mediterranean and the ancient Near East as a triumph of
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military genius, which it was, right, the Reformed, I perceives
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something else entirely. We see the shaggy goat described
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in Daniel chapter 8, verse 21. Executing a divine mandate.
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Yes, God used a massive Pagan empire to unify the world
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culturally and linguistically, setting the stage for the New
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Testament. You know, I have always found it
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wild that Alexander the Great thought he was just building his
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own legacy. Oh, absolutely.
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Just carving his name into the earth.
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But he was actually just paving the roads for the Apostle Paul's
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missionary trips centuries later.
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It completely flips how you read secular history.
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It really does. And that brings up a specific
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phrase from the Apostle Paul himself in Galatians chapter 4,
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verse 4. The fullness of time.
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The fullness of time. Paul says that when the fullness
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of time had come, God sent forth his Son.
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So you have to ask, how does a sovereign God prepare a
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fractured, scattered tribal world for the incarnation of his
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Son? He does it by establishing a
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common culture. Right, And we see Alexander
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acting as a massive catalyst here.
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When he marched out of Macedonia and crushed the Persian Empire,
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he completely shifted the Cultural Center of gravity.
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He planted nodes of Greek speaking life all across the
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Mediterranean in the Near East. And what is striking to me is
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the overlap between royal authority and urban life.
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Yes, that is a huge factor. Kings funded cities to
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legitimize their rule right? While cities adopted Greek forms
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to gain prestige. We are talking about the
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construction of agouras theatres and massive public councils in
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places that had never seen them before.
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I mean, the sheer scale of the change is staggering.
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Prior to Alexander's campaign, the classical Greek world was
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anchored by the Polis A. Small independent city state.
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Right. Think of Athens, Sparta, or
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Corinth. That polis was the absolute
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center of a person's identity. Their politics, their worship.
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Yes, you're entire universe was confined to the walls of your
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city and the immediate farmland around it.
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But following Alexander's conquests and his sudden death
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at age 32. The stage was set for a new kind
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of International Society. The older political map was
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completely erased, wiped clean and replaced with vast
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interconnected monarchies ruling multi ethnic populations.
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Alexander's generals, known as the Diadoki, fought over his
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empire and carved out major kingdoms.
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You had the Ptolemaic Kingdom down in Egypt?
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Yes, the Seleucid realms stretching across Syria and all
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the way into Mesopotamia. And the Antigonid base back in
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Macedon and Greece. Right.
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These successor regimes needed a workable way to govern
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incredibly diverse peoples. They needed to raise revenue and
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secure their borders. Greek language and Greek
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institutional patterns filled that administrative need
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perfectly. So put yourself in the sandals
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to the average person living through this transition.
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It would be wild. Imagine going from a highly
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localized tribe based identity to suddenly functioning within a
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massive interconnected empire. The Greeks called this the
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Oikumini, the inhabited world. That would cause immense
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disorientation for you. You used to know everyone in
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your valley. And your local gods protected
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your specific river. Yeah, now you are told you are
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part of a global system stretching to the borders of
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India. But at the same time, it created
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an unprecedented level of interconnectedness.
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We see a constant massive movement of people.
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You have retiring Greek soldiers moving into new military
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colonies in Syria. Bureaucrats taking up
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administrative posts in Egypt. Craftsman and merchants chasing
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new opportunities across the sea.
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This constant movement made Greek culture incredibly
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contagious. It's spread everywhere.
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Let's make this concrete for the listener.
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Imagine a grain merchant named Demetrios.
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OK, let's look at Demetrios before.
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Alexander trading grain from Egypt to Syria would involve a
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nightmare of different languages.
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Different currencies. And totally different tribal
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laws. It was a massive headache.
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It was more than a headache, it was often an insurmountable
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barrier to large scale commerce. But let us follow your example
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of Demetrios the merchant. In this new Hellenistic world,
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the contagion of Greek culture was fueled by massive economic
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incentives. These large kingdoms stabilized
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long distance trade routes. Right, they stamped out a lot of
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the local piracy in banditry. Because the kings needed safe
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roads to move their own armies and tax revenues.
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Furthermore, they standardized the use of coinage.
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The adequate standard. Yes, using the silver drachma,
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it became the dollar of the ancient world.
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So Demetrios could load his grain in Alexandria, Egypt,
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right? Sail to Antioch in Syria, Yes,
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And sell it using the very same currency, signing a contract
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written in the very same legal language.
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Well, precisely. Ports and caravan cities became
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bustling, cosmopolitan meeting places.
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So if a local Syrian or Egyptian merchant wanted to succeed in
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business and compete with someone like Demetrios.
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They had to learn the shared public framework.
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Greek was already associated with the conquering elite, so it
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naturally became the standard for commerce.
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Local families who wanted influence in the new
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administration or who wanted a seat on the new city council's
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often adopted Greek names. They pursued Greek schooling for
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their sons. And participated in public civic
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life. It is brilliant from an
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administrative standpoint. A monarch could present himself
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as the protector of high civilization.
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Funding a massive new library or gymnasium.
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And cities would reflect that royal prestige through their
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architecture and institutions. But an interconnected world of
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that scale absolutely needs a common operating system to
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function smoothly. You cannot run a global empire
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if you cannot talk to the locals.
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Which shifts our discussion directly into the role of
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language, specifically the rise of coin.
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Greek coin just means common. This was not the highbrow,
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poetic language of Homer. No.
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Or the dense philosophical dialect of Plato.
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Right. This was St.
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Greek, marketplace Greek. It became the shared language of
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bureaucracy, military logistics and interregional trade.
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And here is the kicker for our theology.
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It is the precise language the human authors of the New
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Testament utilized to state the gospel clearly across ethnic
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boundaries centuries later. We can confidently describe the
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emergence of coin Greek as a linguistic miracle.
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It was sovereignly ordained by God to act as the precise vessel
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for the New Testament revelation.
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The transition from the localized, often archaic
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dialects of classical Greek to this universal common tongue was
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the direct outworking of divine Providence.
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God chose to deliver the finality of His Word in a
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language that combined the intellectual precision of the
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philosophers with the rugged accessibility of the
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marketplace. And when we examine the
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linguistic architecture of coin Greek, we see an inflected
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language. This is a crucial concept to
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grasp. In English, word order dictates
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meaning. Right, if I say the dog bit the
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man, the subject comes first. Yes, and if you flip it to the
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man bit the dog, the meaning completely changes.
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Word order is everything. But in an inflected language
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like coin Greek, the form of the word itself, specifically its
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ending, dictates its function in the sentence.
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Hold on, before we move past that, let's break that down even
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further for anyone who might be rusty on their grammar.
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Give me a real world example of how that changes how we read a
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sentence in the New Testament compared to English.
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Certainly, because the ending of the Greek noun tells you if it
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is the subject doing the action or the object receiving the
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action. The writer does not have to rely
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on word order. Oh, I see.
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This allowed the human authors of the New Testament to utilize
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syntax to focus on the central idea of the text with surgical
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precision. So if the Apostle Paul wants to
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place a massive spotlight on a specific theological concept.
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He can pull that word to the very front of the sentence,
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regardless of whether it is the subject or the object.
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He can rearrange the words for maximum impact without changing
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the literal meaning of the sentence.
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This gave the writers of the New Testament a highly flexible,
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incredibly precise tool to articulate complex spiritual
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truths. That flexibility is amazing, but
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what I find even more fascinating for you as a
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listener is the theological weight carried by the verb
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tenses in this language. Yes, the verb tenses are
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incredible. We have the ERS tense and we
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have the perfect tense. When I first started studying
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this, it felt like doing math with words.
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It can feel that way. But the payoff is incredible.
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How does this specific grammar connect to our theology today,
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specifically our reformed theology?
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It connects directly to the Reformed doctrine of
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justification by faith alone. OK, let's look at that.
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The verbal aspect of Coin Greek is uniquely suited to
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articulating the doctrines of grace.
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When the Holy Spirit inspired the writers to use the specific
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verb tenses, He was speaking in highly defined terms.
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So let us look at the aorist and perfect tenses.
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The aorist tense generally indicates a point in time
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action, a snapshot of an event that occurred right.
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The perfect tense, however, is even more specific.
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It indicates a completed action in the past that has continuing
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ongoing results in the present. Let me jump in here with an
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analogy that helped me grasp this.
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Go ahead. Think of the perfect tense like
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getting a tattoo. I like that.
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The action of getting the tattoo happened at a specific point in
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the past. You sat in the chair, the needle
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did its work, and it was finished, yes, but the result,
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the ink on your arm, is a present, ongoing reality that
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you carry with you every single day.
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That is a highly accurate way to visualize it.
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That is how coin Greek describes our justification.
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Christ did the work on the cross in the past, but the status of
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being declared righteous is permanently stamped on us right
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now. You do not have to keep getting
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re tattooed every time you mess up.
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No, you don't. The perfect tense provides an
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immovable foundation for justification because it depicts
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actions that are definitively accomplished.
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Rather than ongoing processes dependent on human effort, when
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Jesus cries out, it is finished on the cross.
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The Greek text uses the perfect tense.
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It's Alesta. Telesta.
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It has been accomplished and it remains accomplished forever.
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These specific verb forms guard against novel interpretations
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and legalism. They shut down any theological
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attempt to make justification A cooperative, ongoing effort
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between God and man. The Greek grammar simply does
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not allow for a theology where you can lose your salvation and
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have to earn it back. The linguistic rules themselves
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protect the purity of the Gospel.
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And another massive piece of this linguistic puzzle is the
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Septuagint. Often referred to by the Roman
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numerals LXX. Right.
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This is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
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It was formed in Alexandria, Egypt during the 3rd century BC.
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The. Story behind this is
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fascinating. You have the Ptolemaic kings in
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Egypt obsessed with building the greatest library in the world in
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Alexandria. They wanted a copy of every book
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ever written. And they realize they had a
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massive population of Jewish people living in their city who
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had this ancient, revered text, the Torah.
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So the king commissions 72 Jewish scholars to translate the
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Hebrew Bible into coin Greek. What is mind blowing to me is
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that this project forged A robust theological vocabulary
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centuries before the apostles even wrote the epistles.
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Yes, words like Hillisterian for propitiation.
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Chairs for Grace. And decaya scene for
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righteousness. These were heavily seasoned in
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the Greek translation of the Law and the Prophets long before
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they appeared in the New Testament.
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That vocabulary is a staggering demonstration of God bounding
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history to his will. This translation work was
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basically the ultimate bridge in redemptive history.
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When the Jewish people were dispersed and began speaking
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Greek as their primary language, they needed the scriptures in
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their new tongue. The Septuagint ensured that when
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the apostles later preached Christ crucified to a Greek
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speaking world, they were using words that already carried the
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weight of centuries of covenantal context.
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We can contrast this with extra biblical Greco Roman usage.
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Take the Greek word you angelion, which translates to
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Gospel. In the secular Hellenistic
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world, this word was used to announce a massive military
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victory. Or the birth of a royal heir to
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the Caesar. It was an imperial announcement.
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By sovereign design, God hijacked this specific term.
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He appropriated it so the world would understand Christ's
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victory over sin and death, not as a private religious feeling.
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But as the ultimate public good news of a conquering king.
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OK, so let's play out a hypothetical scenario here.
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What if the New Testament had been written in a highly
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localized archaic dialect? What if it was written in a
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language only spoken by a few thousand people in the hills of
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Judea? The rapid transnational spread
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of early Christianity would have faced massive translation
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hurdles. Every time a missionary crossed
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a border, they would have to spend years learning a new
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language just to explain the basics.
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God's Providence ensured the vessel, this universal language
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of coin Greek, was completely ready and functioning across the
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entire Mediterranean before the message was even delivered.
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A shared tongue was indispensable for communication
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across ethnic boundary it. Was.
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But here is the contrast right. While the Greeks had a
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brilliant, highly precise language, their spiritual and
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philosophical lives were totally bankrupt.
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We see this outward brilliance masking in inner emptiness.
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When you look at the Hellenistic world, on the surface it looks
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brilliant. Beautiful marble columns,
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massive libraries, incredible art.
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But underneath total spiritual exhaustion, the old gods just
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were not cutting it anymore. Let's pivot and look into the
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educational facade and the massive philosophical void of
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the era. The Hellenistic world was
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gripped by a severe spiritual darkness.
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The traditional Olympian gods Zeus, Hera, Apollo had failed to
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satisfy the human soul. They were viewed more as civic
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mascots than beings worthy of genuine reverence.
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What replaced true worship was the Greek ideal of Pedea.
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This concept refers to elite formation through rigorous
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education. Education in the Hellenistic
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world was not just about acquiring facts.
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No, it was the making of a certain kind of person.
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They wanted to produce someone who could read Homer.
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Well, speak persuasively in the public assembly.
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And steer through complex civic expectations.
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The gymnasium embodied this ideal in concrete form.
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I think we need to clarify what the gymnasium actually was,
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because today when we say gym, we think of a room with some
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treadmills and free weights. Right where you put your
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headphones on and ignore everyone.
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Yes, the ancient Greek gymnasium was entirely different.
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It was essentially the ancient equivalent of an Ivy League
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fraternity mixed with an exclusive Country Club.
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If you weren't in, you were nobody.
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It was a primary social networking hub where young elite
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men were trained physically yes, but also were business networks
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were formed. Civic identity was reinforced.
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And philosophical lectures were given.
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You exercise naked, you rub yourself down with olive oil,
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and you debated the finer points of poetry.
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It was a total cultural immersion.
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Yet despite all this outward intellectual brilliance and
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physical perfection, there was an intense philosophical void.
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This perfectly illustrates the concept of total depravity
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referenced by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 1.
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Paul writes that people possessed a highly developed
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intellect and they could observe the invisible attributes of God
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in creation. But they actively suppress the
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truth in unrighteousness. Because The Olympian gods were
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morally bankrupt and philosophically empty.
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We see the rapid rise of new philosophical schools trying
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desperately to fill the gap. These schools tried to answer
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the fundamental human question, how do we achieve peace in a
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chaotic world? Let us look at Epicureanism
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first. People today hear the word
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epicurean and they think of a foodie, someone who likes really
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expensive cheese and fine wine. But the ancient philosophy was
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much darker and more comprehensive than that right?
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Epicureanism was fundamentally materialist.
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They believed the universe was nothing but atoms colliding in
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the void. They taught that the gods, if
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they existed at all, lived in a state of distant bliss and were
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entirely indifferent to human affairs.
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Therefore, they argued, humans should not fear divine
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judgement. Their highest aim in life was
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ataraxia. Which translates to freedom from
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mental distress and physical pain.
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They sought this through a refined pursuit of pleasure and
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the active avoidance of public life and social responsibility.
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When we analyzed this through a modern lens, Epicureanism is the
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direct ancestor of modern secular humanism and the
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prosperity gospel. It treats the divine merrily
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well, just as a concept to be ignored.
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Or as a means to a comfortable, pain free life, completely
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ignoring the reality of human rebellion against a holy God and
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the desperate need for a mediator.
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Then, on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, you have
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Stoicism. If the Epicureans wanted to hide
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from the world's pain, the Stoics wanted to grit their
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teeth and endure it. This was a philosophy of
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pantheistic fatalism. The Stoics believed that a
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divine spark, a logos or universal reason permeated all
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things. They believed everything that
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happened was strictly fated, so getting upset about a tragedy
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was entirely irrational. They sought peace through
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intense self-discipline, suppressing their passions and
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maintaining absolute emotional detachment.
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Stoicism was a philosophy of extreme moralism and
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self-reliance. It is strikingly similar to
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modern spiritual, but not religious trends.
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And the intense bootstrap theology often found in highly
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legalistic circles today. The Stoic believed he could
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achieve virtue solely through his own willpower.
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Both Epicureanism and Stoicism completely failed to offer true
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hope because they lacked a true mediator.
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They had no real answer for the objective guilt of sin or the
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terrifying reality of death. As we contrast these
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philosophies with the Westminster Confession of Faith,
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particularly chapters 3 and five regarding God's decree in
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Providence, we highlight a massive distinction.
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Christian comfort does not rely on human self mastery or the
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avoidance of pain. True comfort relies on the
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sovereign, loving care of a Heavenly Father who orchestrates
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all things for the good of those who love Him.
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The Stoic submits to a cold, unfeeling fate.
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The Christian submits to a personal, loving God.
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That is a brilliant distinction. Now, during this same era of
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political instability, we also see the massive allure of
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mystery cults. Because the public philosophies
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were so cold and intellectual, the common people turn to the
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underground. Groups like the Cult of ISIS or
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the Leucinian Mysteries offered secret initiations, strange
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rituals and intense mystical experiences.
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They promised some hidden emotional union with the divine.
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It is so easy to relate this to modern trends where people seek
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highly subjective mystical experiences or base their
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reality on their internal feelings rather than resting on
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objective historical truth. Picture the Apostle Paul on Mars
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Hill in Acts chapter 17. He's walking into Athens, a
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society absolutely obsessed with finding some new thing.
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Debating these exact philosophies.
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Yes, the Epicureans in the Stoics are specifically
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mentioned in in the text. Yet despite all their learning,
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they had an altar dedicated to the unknown God.
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They were entirely lacking a true mediator for their sin.
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Paul's confrontation on Mars Hill brilliantly exposes the
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idols of the Hellenistic mind. The culture claimed that truth
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was a subjective pursuit, a secret mystical feeling, or a
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cold philosophical construct. But Paul stood in the shadow of
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the Parthenon and announced that truth is a person, Jesus Christ,
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who acted in real space and time and proved his authority by
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rising from the dead. To counter the subjective
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mysticism of the Hellenistic era and the similar mystical trends
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of our own day, the Reformed tradition highlights the
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objective means of grace. The word, sacraments and prayer
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are the objective, tangible ways God communicates His life to His
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people. We do not look inward for a
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hidden spark of the divine. We look outward to the Christ
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revealed in the Scriptures. OK, so we have this massive
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philosophical exhaustion setting the perfect stage for a savior.
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The Greeks have the roads, they have the language, but their
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souls are empty. But this brings up a massive
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question for you to ponder. We know God had a chosen people,
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the Jews. How did they survive this
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overwhelming cultural pressure? The Hellenistic sea was
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swallowing up local identities everywhere.
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Egyptians were acting like Greeks.
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Syrians were acting like Greeks. Let's look at the Crucible of
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Judea and how they were preserved in a Pagan sea.
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There was a reality of intense cultural bargaining taking place
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across the map. The spread of Hellenistic
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culture always involved negotiation.
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Local populations frequently adopted Greek for public
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functions. They used it in the marketplace,
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right and the courts. Yes, and the local
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administration while keeping their native languages and
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customs active at home behind closed doors.
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A Syrian man could bear a Greek name in public documents, wear
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Greek clothing to the civic festivals and still observe his
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ancestral rights privately. For the Jews scattered
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throughout the Hellenistic world, this dynamic was
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incredibly intense. However, we must view the Jewish
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diaspora, the scattering of the Jewish people outside side of
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Palestine, not as a tragedy of displacement, but as a
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providential dispersion. God meticulously preserved the
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ethnic and national identity of His people during the silent
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intertestamental period, the roughly 400 years between
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Malachi and Matthew. He maintained the covenantal
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context despite the total absence of a prophetic voice.
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But those Greeks civic norms we talked about, like the
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gymnasium, they were not culturally neutral, were they?
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No, not at all. Participating in the civic
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assembly carried heavy pressures to conform to Pagan honor codes
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and worship. It wasn't just about learning a
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new vocabulary to trade wheat. It was an entire lifestyle
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package. If a young Jewish man wanted to
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advance in society, he had to join the gymnasium.
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And that meant dedicating his athletic pursuits to a Pagan
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God. That is a critical point.
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The Greek civic institutions represented a full social world
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permeated with polytheism. Participation brought wealth and
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prestige, but it also heavily pressured families to compromise
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their covenant with Yahweh to conform to Greek ideals of
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status. For many Pagan communities,
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these were manageable accommodations.
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They simply added a few Greek gods to their existing pantheon.
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But for Judea, covenant identity, sharpen the
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boundaries. Yahweh is a jealous God.
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Greek cultural adaptation was tolerated when it was simply a
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public tool, like speaking the language for commerce.
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But it became a severe flashpoint when it demanded the
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alteration of covenant identity. You could not abandoned
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circumcision. You could not violate Sabbath
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observance. And you could not compromise
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temple centered worship without cutting yourself off from the
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people of God. Which leads us directly to one
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of the most dramatic events in ancient history, the Mccabean
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Revolt, taking place between 167 and 160 BC.
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This was a massive, violent reaction to this lucid ruler,
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Antiochus the 5th Epiphanes. This king was an absolute
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megalomaniac. Epiphanies literally means God
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manifest. He tried to force Greek civic
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and religious expectations directly onto Torah practices.
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He didn't just ask the Jews to assimilate, he tried to
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violently eradicate their religion.
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The Maccabean revolt perfectly illustrates the fault line of
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Hellenization. Antiochus the 5th Epiphanes
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attempted to impose what the Scriptures call the abomination
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of desolation. He marched into Jerusalem,
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entered the Holy of Holies, and commanded that a pig be
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sacrificed on the altar to Zeus. He outlawed circumcision under
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penalty of death and burned copies of the Torah.
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Yet in this intense, fiery Crucible, God cultivated A
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remnant who refused to bow to the idols of Hellenism.
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A priest named Attathias and his sons, notably Judas Maccabeus,
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launched a fierce guerrilla war against the Seleucid Empire.
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They fought from the hills, reclaiming the temple and
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purifying it, an event still celebrated today as Hanukkah.
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They maintain the purity of the law and the promise.
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This history highlights the Israel Church distinction within
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Reformed theology, showing God's sovereign preservation of the
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physical messianic line. He ensured the preservation of
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his people amidst the crushing pressure of total cultural
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assimilation. If Antiochus had succeeded, the
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Jewish identity would have been erased and the prophecies
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concerning the Messiah's lineage would have failed.
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And out of this dispersion, we see the strategic genius of the
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synagogue system. Because the Jews were scattered
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across the empire but remain fiercely tethered to the law,
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synagogues spring up everywhere. A synagogue basically just
25:55
required 10 Jewish men to form a quorum.
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They became these decentralized outposts across the known world.
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They gathered on the Sabbath, read from the scrolls and
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prayed. They became the absolute perfect
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launch pads for the early church.
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The synagogue was an institution of sheer providential
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brilliance. When the Apostle Paul rolled
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into a new city, whether it was an Asian minor or Greece, he did
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not have to rent a lecture hall and start from scratch.
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You went straight to the local synagogue.
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This became the place where the Septuagint, that Greek
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translation of the Old Testament we discussed earlier, was read
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publicly. This provided a Greek speaking
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audience which often included God fearing Gentiles hanging
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around the periphery with a deep seated knowledge of the Old
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Testament. This prepared the ground for the
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Apostolic declaration that all the ancient prophets bear
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witness to Jesus of Nazareth. We also see the vital role of
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Hellenistic Jews, individuals like Stephen and Philip
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mentioned in the Book of Acts. They're bilingual.
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Bicultural reality position them perfectly to bridge the gap
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between their Hebrew roots and the broader Gentile world.
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Without this specific class of people, crossing that massive
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cultural divide from a Judean sect to a global faith would
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have been incredibly slow. God engineered the exact
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sociological conditions necessary for the rapid spread
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of the message of union with Christ.
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We have gathered all these amazing historical threads
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today. The absolute precision of the
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Greek language. The spiritual exhaustion of the
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Pagan philosophy. The massive interconnected
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infrastructure of roads and trade.
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And the miraculous preservation of Israel through figures like
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the Maccabees. But we have to ask you, the
27:34
listener, the ultimate So what? How does this ancient history
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apply to a modern Christian's daily life?
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We cannot leave this in the realm of historical or academic
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trivia. The practical application for
27:45
the believer is found in what reformed theology calls the
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third use of the law. This focuses on grateful
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obedience grounded entirely in the finished work of the gospel.
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We spend time contrasting the moralism of the Stoic, who
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sought a cold, detached virtue through intense self-reliance.
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The Christian life is entirely different.
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Our obedience flows entirely from our vital union with
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Christ. The law is no longer a heavy
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burden we carry to earn God's favor.
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It is a bright flashlight showing the saved believer how
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to walk in gratitude. Our strength for obedience does
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not come from Hellenistic self mastery, but from the indwelling
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spirit of the risen Christ. Furthermore, this history
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instructs us to actively reject modern pragmatism and liberal
28:26
theology. There's constant, subtle
28:28
temptation today to Hellenize the gospel.
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By that I mean there is a push to remove its supernatural
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offense, the reality of sin, the necessity, the blood atonement,
28:38
the physical resurrection. To appease modern cultural
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elites, just as some ancient Jews compromised with the
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gymnasium. We must stand firmly on the
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objective, inherent Word of God, recognizing that human
28:50
philosophy, no matter how eloquent, is sinking sand.
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To summarize all of this for you, human history is never an
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accident. It is never just a sequence of
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random battles and political treaties.
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The massive, complex Hellenistic world was the precise anvil upon
29:04
which God forged the necessary tools to broadcast the life,
29:08
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the nations.
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He used the blind ambition of Pagan empires to build the
29:14
roads, stabilize the trade, and forge the language that would
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carry the greatest news in history.
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Which leaves us with a final provocative thought for you to
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consider as we wrap up the Hellenistic era.
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Use Roman roads and coin Greek as its massive transmission
29:29
system to spread ideas rapidly across borders.
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Today we live in a massive hyper connected digital landscape.
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Code and the Internet act as our modern common language and our
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modern trade routes. A kid with a smartphone in Tokyo
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can instantly communicate with someone in rural Brazil.
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If God used the secular Pagan empires of the ancient world to
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forge the fullness of time for the early church, how might he
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be using the sprawling, chaotic digital infrastructure of our
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current era to prepare the stage for the next massive movement of
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the Gospel? Something for you to chew on
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this week. Thank you for joining us in the
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room today on Reformed Thinking. It has been a true pleasure to
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look into these massive historical truth with you today.