History repeats itself. That’s why Acts 17 (an almost 2,000 year-old text) sounds so familiar. Generally, people (at least in the western world or worlds where industry and technology have grown in the past few generations) have never not known what it’s like to not have the privilege or luxury of skipping all the arguments for 1) God’s existence, and 2) why Jesus is God. Folks could just Google it, finding a slew of conclusions online, or select from a menu of mosques, synagogues, temples, or churches. Surely this is a mark of progress—not having to be forced to accept a country’s religion. It is a privilege to have the stance of tolerance.

But, because history repeats itself, we find ourselves in a time where the foundational apologetic arguments of 1) God’s existence, and 2) why Jesus is God are again relevant because people are so far removed from 1) why people became Christian in the first place, and 2) why Christianity (including cultural Christianity) is so (seemingly) prevalent today. Perhaps this is a result of the Enlightenment or the many Industrial Revolutions or something like the modern “pressure to be productive”. It seems like many folks these days are just simply uninterested to even contemplate an ancient fascination of whether a god exists in the first place.

I must consider, also, that when I say “we find ourselves in a time” and “[these arguments] are again” that I am mistaken—that this has always been the case, and all this only appears this way to me. Maybe folks have always seemed uninterested to know whether a god exists. Maybe the discussions for 1) God’s existence, and 2) why Jesus is God have always been relevant. Yet suspicion remains concerning the effects of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolutions and the “pressure to be productive”. And I can attest to the joys associated with engaging in the ancient pursuit of God.