L I B R A R Y
EXCERPT FROM ROMAN HISTORIAN PLINY
BIBLICAL REFERENCES
Act 17:16-30
Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was stirred in him, when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry. Therefore disputed he in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, and in the market daily with them that met with him. Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the Stoicks, encountered him. some said, What will this babbler say? ...And they took him, and brought him unto Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? For thou bringest certain strange things to our ears: we would know therefore what these things mean. Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWABLE GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. ..God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said,..Forasmuch then...we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
CHRIST
Rom_5:11 And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.
EXCERPT FROM PLINY, EPISTLES X.96
I had placed a ban on private associations.<> But I think it can be checked and put right. At any rate
THE TEMPLES, WHICH HAD BEEN WELLNIGH ABANDONED, are beginning to be frequented again; and THE
CUSTOMARY SERVICES, which had been NEGLECTED FOR A LONG TIME, are beginning to be resumed;
FODDER FOR THE SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS, too, is beginning to FIND SALE AGAIN, for hitherto it was
DIFFICULT TO FIND ANYONE TO BUY IT. From all this it is easy to judge what a multitude of people can
be reclaimed, if an opportunity is granted them to renounce Christ.
- Pliny, Epistles x.96.,