DCLM Daily Manna 2025: DCLM Daily Manna 29 June 2025: Worshipping the Unknown God?
Text: Acts 17:17-34 (KJV)
Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?”
Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection.
19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.
22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”
32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
KEY VERSE: (Acts 17:23) For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
An American astronomer, Percival Lowell, dedicated much of his career in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to studying Mars. He meticulously mapped and documented what he believed to be a network of canals on the Martian surface, theorising that they were built by an intelligent civilisation to transport water. Lowell’s detailed work was based on a misinterpretation of the Martian surface. The canals he observed were optical illusions caused by the limitations of telescopic technology at the time. Later, with the advent of more advanced telescopes and space missions, it was confirmed that these canals did not exist. Lowell’s years of diligent study and theorising were ultimately based on an illusion, huge resources wasted in the pursuit of a shadow.
In his numerous evangelistic endeavours, Paul the apostle arrived Athens, where he encountered “certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks”. Sighting an inscription, “To the unknown God”, Paul marvelled at the devotion demonstrated by that community but felt pity for their astounding spiritual ignorance. Although the Athenians were known for their great philosophical thinking, they missed God in their search for knowledge.
Similarly, multitudes of people in our world today have continued to labour in pursuit of wealth, fame, power, popularity, and many other vanities that enslave souls and becloud their reasoning. Thus, huge financial, human, and time resources continue to go into the pursuit of shadows, taking the place of God in the hearts of women and men. This is idolatry inspired by the devil, and designed to damn souls in the lake of fire.
Like Paul in his day, many anointed preachers of the gospel call sinners to repentance, using all available media. Unfortunately, most people continue in their devotion to the “unknown god”, labouring with their hearts, yet oblivious of their eternal end. They engage in various means of worship without real salvation. It is time for you to awake from spiritual slumber, shun vanities, and embrace eternal life made available through Christ. You will need to now dedicate the rest of your life to seeking and worshiping the true God.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Worshipping without experiential knowledge of God is a futile exercise.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:1 Kings 19-20
Daily Manna 29 June 2025
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