DeConick A.D

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PAUL AND GNOSTIC DOGMA
can interfere or remove the initiate from God’s love as it is manifested in
Jesus the Messiah—not death, not life, not angels, not archons, not things
present, not things to come, not powers, not the height, not the depth,
not anything in creation (Romans 8:38–39).
Paul does not view YHWH as a tribal God but as the universal One
God who was unsought and unknown until the advent of Jesus the Messiah.
Paul’s God lives in a distant heaven. He is the Father of Jesus, who in
turn came to earth in his Father’s stead, as his Father’s manifestation (Philippians
2:6–11; Colossians 4:15–16). Paul’s God is elevated above creation
and all the powers and forces that have come to dominate the cosmos
and enslave the human spirit. He is the God that makes no distinction
between Jew and non-Jew.
Paul writes, “The same Lord is Lord of all and bestows his riches upon
all who call upon him.” Paul believed that everybody who called upon the
name of Jesus the Messiah would be liberated from bondage to the forces
of wickedness (Romans 10:12–14). He is the God who said in the opening
of Genesis, “Let light shine out darkness.” He shines in human hearts in
order to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus the Messiah (2 Corinthians 4:6). God’s will is that the dividing
wall between Jews and non-Jews break down, the law end, and a single,
unified humanity emerge as a dwelling place for God (Ephesians 2:14–22).
Yet ignorance remains the big problem, in Paul’s mind. How can unbelievers
call on the God they do not know? How can they believe in the
God they have never heard? How are they supposed to hear about God
when there has been no one to proclaim him (Romans 10:12–14)?
Paul thinks that knowledge of God comes through revelations and
epiphanies like those that he had. His job is to be an apostle of the unknown
God, to go public to the non-Jews with “the depth of the riches
and wisdom and knowledge of God” in order to fill converts with goodness
and gnosis (Romans 11:33, 15:14; Ephesians 3:3).
The New Testament preserves a story about Paul addressing an Athenian
audience (Acts 17:22–31). Paul’s speech is usually dismissed by church
historians as a figment of Luke’s imagination. But I question whether we
should be so quick to throw away Paul’s speech as a mere invention of
the author of Acts. It does in fact encapsulate Paul’s entire message about
the universal One God.
He begins the speech by commending the Athenians on their religiosity.
He notes that they have temples and shrines to every god imaginable,