As we see in Acts 17:32 Paul was unable to continue reasoning with the philosophers who did not know God. At the mention of the resurrection, some of them begin to mock or sneer; just as some did on the day of Pentecost when the Gospel was first proclaimed (Acts 2:13). Some antitheists of today do the same. An antitheist is one who hates God and seeks to “kill God” in the minds of others.

Others were undecided, but Acts 17:34 tells us that some men and women “joined him (Paul) and believed.” Does this mean a church was established in Athens? Tradition has it that it was (H. Leo Boles). Again, we have the word “believed” which is often used in a figurative sense, a figure of speech that is called a synecdoche. This figure uses a part of a thing as the whole. In other words, the term “believe” in God’s plan of salvation is used to indicate all of the plan, which includes repenting of sin and being immersed for the forgiveness of sins. Every case of conversion that gives all of the details of the plan of salvation shows that all of these “parts” are required.

Sometimes repentance is used in the same way, as is the word baptism also. When those verses are read it is readily recognized that those “parts” alone are not all that God requires; that one is not saved by repentance alone or by baptism alone. By the same token, neither are we saved by faith or believing alone.

As the cross was a stumbling block to the Jews because they did not understand, and as the resurrection was a stumbling block to the Gentiles because they did not understand, so the truth that we are not saved by belief or faith alone is a stumbling block to many today. We must remember that we must take all that God’s word has to say on any point, in its context, to arrive at a conclusion that does not contradict God’s word.

Human philosophy unaided by God’s revelation cannot give us the truth concerning salvation. Human philosophy and religious scholarship, which contradict God’s revelation, cannot give us the truth concerning salvation. Don’t let Satan deceive you. Only God’s revelation of truth in the Scriptures can give us this truth, even among the greatest of philosophers.