Olympics and Paul in Athens

Tonight is the opening ceremony of the 2004 summer olympic games in Athens Greece. As the news anchors report on the preparations, it reminds me of the three months I spent in Greece with Harding University in the fall of 2001. I arrived in Athens Sept. 4th 2001, just one week before the terrorist attacks on the trade centers and the pentagon. As the news reporters detail how the olympics originated in Greece, I'm also reminded of much of Christianitys beginnings were also in Greece. While the ancient sites and temples of Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite and Nike were interesting, what was more interesting to me was that just a hundred yards away from the Acropolis in Athens stands Mars Hill. This is where Paul in Acts 17 tells the athenians that while they have temples and monuments to their god's and even to an unkown god, Paul knew this unkown God and it's in him that we live and move and have our being. The enormous temple ruins and tales from Homer about the greek gods only remind us that the true God, Yahweh, has set eternity in our hearts (Ecc 3:11) and that his divine power and eternal nature are clearly seen in what he has made (Rom 1:19,20). Follow the link here to see the website created by my good friend Tim Yaeger of our semester in Greece. http://www.geocities.com/hug_adventures_2001. The link on the side bar is to the official olympic games website.

Olympics and Paul in Athens