>> Dean Lanham:
Good morning to all.  

It is a pleasure to see you hear at Booth Library to continue our series on Ancient Greece.  

We have traveled far to get to this point.  

There have been several scholars before our guests today, and we will have many more opportunities to study about different aspects of Ancient Greece during this series.  

And I hope you'll consult your program after the presentation is over today. 

We have several activities tomorrow, and there is a film on Friday, and then coming in next week, there are seven or eight other speakers, each one bringing a distinct point of view from a different discipline around the campus.  

I know probably you all have many different majors, and perhaps your major is represented by a speaker or two on this, in this series.  

So, there is also a student drama production where you will be in the coliseum in the evening.  

Consult your program, and that is coming right up tomorrow night in the Atrium of the Library. 

So we hope you will join us there, among various other events.  

This type of series brings students just like you a different view of things from some of your other classes.  

We hope to explore so many different varieties of life and study in Ancient Greece that you will feel a part of that society if you attend enough and ask enough questions, and do some reading.  

So its an exploration of some place that you might not have visited, but that you might visit in the future.  

So, I hope you'll explore all of these.  

Dr. Wafeek Wahby is the coordinator of this series, and I will ask him to introduce our speaker. 

>>  Dr. Wahby:
Thank you.  

Well, welcome to A Futuristic Look Through Ancient Lenses, and last year we looked through the ancient Egyptian lenses, this year we are looking through Greek Ancient Lenses.  

And the spirit of this series of lectures is to look to the future through the past, and see our footsteps so that we don't fall and I hope that we can make big strides doing this, looking to the back, the future, and today. 

How we do that? 

This is a genius [unclear dialogue] I guess.  

Our speaker today is a renaissance man, he is a multi-faceted multi-talented, and you talk to him, or with him about any topic; he will say, well, swallow, and give you something.  

And I was really impressed by the topic he will be talking about, I will not steal your thunder, but usually you think of culture emphasizing and influencing people but now you talk about the person influencing the culture.  

It's all yours.  

>> Dr. Andrew Robinson:
Thank you very much.  

I would like to thank Dr. Wahby and also Dr. Lanham for allowing me to come and to speak today. 

I count it an honor to be a part of this symposium, A Futuristic Look at Greece, and so, my topic, as you have probably seen in the handout, is the Apostle's Paul's influence on ancient Greece.  

A little bit of disclosure on my part, I am not only a communications studies faculty, but I am volunteer pastor for one of the campus ministries here on Campus, called Acts, and I have been involved in ministry for 28 years, and I have pastored three different churches through the years. 

I have been their senior pastor so this is something that is dear to my heart.  

It is not just something off the cuff, and you'll find that a lot of times these ancient symposiums that when I talk about, it is something from a biblical perspective and one of the most interesting characters in the Bible of course, is the Apostle Paul.  

I'd like to thank my wife that she has agreed to bring her Bible with her today, and when I need a scripture read, she is my volunteer reader. 

And those of you who do not know her, her name is Wanda Kay Robinson, her last name of course, I always tell everyone, she is the sweetest and nicest gal I've ever met after 28 years of marriage, that's something that a lot of men can't say.  

But I am glad to see several of my students here today as well, and so glad that you are here, each and everyone.  

But the Apostle Paul was a very interesting character because, oh I almost forgot. 

My wife, I always got to have her in the congregation too, I want to explain this is not part of my costume, today, for presentation.  

My sunglasses.  

I actually had cataract surgery yesterday, and direct sunlight, you know, bright room causes me a little difficulty, now. 

Hopefully in a few days it won't bother me so much, but that's one of the reasons I didn't bring a PowerPoint and show you a lot of pictures and things like that, but hopefully, you'll find this presentation interesting, in spite of not having the presentational aids here with me today.  

But the Apostle Paul, getting to him, he was one of the, he wasn't one of the original twelve apostles that Jesus had selected. But he referred to himself as one who was selected out of season. 

And there were eleven apostles that continued the gospel.  

The twelfth disciple Judas who had hung himself, committed suicide because of the remorse he felt for betraying Jesus, but the apostle Paul had a tremendous influence on the ancient Greece.  

He was a person first of all that was a devout Jew.  

He was so committed to Judaism that he persecuted the Christians initially. 

And I wanted Wanda Kay first of all to read, it give a description, Paul's description of himself and his qualifications as or his credentials for speaking to the church at Philippi, and it was in Philippians 3:4-6.

>> Wanda Kay:
4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:

5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless.

>> Dr. Robinson:
So the apostle Paul had all the right credentials of religion. 

He was a Pharisee, he referred to himself as the Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, and so all the credentials for persecuting the church and stamping out Christianity, he had that, and that was his number one goal, when he first heard about Christianity, because he took letters from the governor with him to have Christians martyred.  

You know, to kill them and but then, on his road to Damascus, on another journey, to stamp our Christianity, there was something unusual that happened to Paul.  

He had a spiritual experience that transformed his life. 

Up until that point, he thought that he was right.  

He felt that he was righteous, and he felt that he was doing exactly what God wanted him to do, from an intellectual capacity, from a religious capacity, but everything in Paul's life turned around, with that experience on the road to Damascus.  

And what happened was, there was a light that shone down upon him, and Jesus began to speak to him from out of Heaven.  

And he said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" 

And he said, "Lord, who are You that I persecute You?" and He said, "I am Jesus." 

And so, that conversation went on and He told Paul where to go from there, and Paul was smitten with blindness, for a while until he went and met a man named Annaias, who prayed for him, and he received his sight.  

So this was something that was completely, you know, unbelievable to most people at the time, that something like this could occur because they were so stooped in the formalities of religion, and not focused on the spiritual aspects of religion and so here Paul was doing his duty, and then all of a sudden, this spiritual transformation takes place in his life, and just simply turns his life completely upside and he realized that 'I am fighting against God'.  

And so as a result of that this spiritual transformation that takes place in his life, he even referred in one place, that in Him, talking about in Christ, we live and we move and we have our being.  

So from that point on, everything was for the cause of Christ.  

And he first tried to present his message to the Jews, but the Jews, most of them rejected Paul's message, and they didn't trust him, because he had persecuted the Christians before, and he would even try to meet with the apostles and apostles were afraid of him, because they knew his reputation of someone who was out to kill Christians.  

And have them arrested.  

And so they didn't trust him, so then Paul, when he was at one time he had so much rejection from the Jewish people about the message of Christianity, and how they, their mistrust for him, that finally, he made a statement, he said I am going to go to the Gentiles, and those being the non-Jews.  

And that is in Acts 18:6 Wanda Kay.

>> Wanda Kay:
6 And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

>> Dr. Robinson:
And so go unto the Gentiles was one of the primary places that he traveled in his missionary journeys was to Ancient Greece to take that message and when he got to Greece, one of the things he discovered was, it was a, much of Greece was stooped in idolatry.  

Polytheistic religions, multiple gods, they had you know, most of them had believed in one god per month.  

There was a god that they honored for each month in the calendar year.  

And you have probably have already heard that from some of the other presenters that have been here.  

But this, but Paul, here he comes, and he is preaching a monotheistic religion. 

One God, the believe in one God.  

It is interesting however, some of the famous people, philosophers of ancient Greece believe in one God, but yet the society believed in many gods.  

Like, for example, Plato, believed in only one God, and he referred to, Plato referred to this God as form of the Good. 

And then another one, Aristotle, who was Plato's student, referred to the supreme God as the Prime Mover.  

But they didn't know what his name was. 

They didn't, they knew, they felt that there was a supreme God, but didn't know what his name was.  

And so Paul comes, and he sees the inscription in Corinth, that says, To the Unknown God. 

And he said I see that you are very superstitious, he was telling the Greeks of that day.  

There's a lot of superstition that you have here too.  

The message to the unknown God. 

They didn't know who he was, and so Paul began to try to enlighten them to cause them to understand who the God was.  

But let me first say this, that there was several cities that he visited in Greece. 

One of them was Philippi, in Acts 16 and the other one was Thessalonica in Acts 17 records the story of that. 

And then he visited Athens the capital of Greece in Acts 17 and then in Corinth in Acts, chapter 18 talks about his trip to Corinth.  

But he did find that there was so much worship of many gods. 

And not only that, it was a strange style of worship. 

Because in one place there was a thousand prostitutes that were there at the temple, and this sexual intercourse, or orgy, was a part of their worship that they participated in.  

And so Paul comes to them, and he talks to them, but even more than the emphasis on this pagan style of religion, there was something that the Greeks probably put at the foremost of their worship, and that was intellectualism. 

They were considered a highly well-read intellectual people, some of the greatest philosophers of our time came from Greece.  

Socrates, Plato, Aristotle that we referred to numerous times, in being a communications studies professor, we talk about those things, about those people, those famous philosophers in history. 

And one of the things he mentioned to them, regarding their intellectual conceptualization of God, one of the statements the apostle Paul made, he said, "I became all things to all people, that I might by all means, save some."  

And so what he did, he adapted to the Greeks and let them know in his message to them, that he understood where they were coming from.  

That they were focused on intellectualism, that they were focused on learning something new.  

In one place, he said you are pretty superstitious, because and things you are always ready to try to learn new things.  

And in Athens, that was one of the things that he noticed, that to them, when he tried to speak to them about the resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ's resurrection, resurrecting from the dead, then in Athens, they laughed at him, many of them did, and they mocked him, because they thought he was crazy for believing such a thing.  

There was a couple of people that also thought in Corinth a couple of groups, or Athens, I mean, that he argued with.  

One of them was the Epicureans and the others were the Stoics.  

The epicureans they believed that religion is a form of ignorance.  

That gods are far away and not to be feared.  

And they probably today would be considered to be more atheistic, but they couldn't be atheists in Athens then, because Atheism was illegal.  
[00:16:19;21]
So they come up with this concept that religion was a form of ignorance, and the gods were so far away that they didn't have any real impact upon our lives and we could completely ignore them and we did not have to fear them.  

The Stoics believed that only the educated are free.  

People who are truly educated are free, and wisdom occurs when reason controls passion.  

You know we often, you've probably heard the phrase before that someone has a stoic look on their face.  

That means it is expressionless.  

And so the stoics did not, they thought people were ridiculous who allowed their emotions to control them in a capacity. 

And they also felt that wisdom occurs when reason controls passions, but also evil occurs when passions control us.  

Our passions we become passionate about anything, or emotional about anything, then that is when evil occurs as a result of it.  

And so Paul says I've seen that you're pretty superstitious and you have this inscription to the unknown god.  

And so Paul begins to call out to them that the god that they had, the name of God that they were missing, that they were searching for, he begin to explain to them was Jesus Christ.  

And how that he had come to rescue them and to save them, and so as a result of that, he had tremendous response in the Greek culture.  

Ancient Greece was full of polytheism, worshipping many gods, but it is interesting to note that after Paul’s influence, after he took the Christian message to Greece, today, how many know, who knows how many people, what the Christian population is in Greece today? 

Anybody got an idea?   

It was pretty much non-existent, of course, until Paul got there. 

Anybody want to take a quick guess?  

Ninety-eight percent.  

Ninety eight percent Christian today.  

So it shows his influence on the Greek culture that kind of transformed everything.  

But what Paul did, that just really made an impact was he remember Wanda Kay read the part in Philippians chapter 3 about all of his credentials, he learned at the feet of Gamaliel, who was one of the greatest scholars of his time, Paul was a highly intellectual person, but one of the things I noticed with all of these Greek cities that he visited, there was one main message that he had to them.  

And I want Wanda Kay to share in Acts, or let's go to 1 Thessalonians 1:5 first, Wanda Kay.

>> Wanda Kay:
First Thessalonians?  

>> Dr. Robinson:
Yes, 1:5

>> Wanda Kay:
5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. 

>> Dr. Robinson:
Ok, now Philippians 3, now notice she said the Gospel that I brought to you is with much power, of the holy ghost, the power of the spirit, the same experience that Paul explained to them that he had experienced.  

That transformation in his life, and then in Philippians 3:7-10

>> Wanda Kay:
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.

>> Dr. Robinson:
And so here Paul says I have forsaken my previous, all the things that I have accomplished for myself, he was going up the religious hierarchy, he was a Pharisee, and all those things he had obtained in just his career pursuit, and he said I have suffered the loss of all these things that I might win Christ, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering and being made conformable unto his death.  

And so he said, this power of his resurrection, so here to the church at Philippi, he again mentions the power is what brings the transformation.  

Just like he did to the church at Thessalonica, and then now at Corinth, look at this one as well.  

Look at I Corinthians 2:1-5

Well, lets first read verses 18-25 of chapter 1. 

>> Wanda Kay:
18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.

20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom:

23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness;

24 But unto them, which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

>> Dr. Robinson: 
And then go to Chapter 2:1-5

>> Wanda Kay:
1 And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

>> Dr. Robinson:
Ok, so get, you see, in each of these cities where he established churches, in Greece, that he, especially here in Corinth, he addressed specifically where the Greeks had their major focus and that was on wisdom and intellectualism, and he said, if you have all of this, then you cannot obtain God, only with that.  

And so here he is saying that I have learned at the feet of Gamaliel, I am a scholar myself, I understand where you are coming from, I understand intellectualism, and he said all of that, he said I count it by dung, in other words I could not win Christ that way.  

I could not find God that way.  

But he said when I had this experience with God on the road to Damascus, the power of God that transformed my life, then that's what made the change.  

That's what turned his life completely around.  

And so at Corinth, he said I came not to you with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration and power of the Holy Ghost.  

And so Paul was saying, so here was Paul who was very capable of intellectually having a conversation, because in Athens he disputed with the Epicureans and the Stoics, these philosophers.  

He went back and forth, he practiced the Socratic dialogue with them, you dialectic it is called.  

He had that exchange with them in conversation.  

But he said, if you want to truly find God, then you, we have to have that genuine encounter with this spiritual transformation that takes place.  

And then in verse 14 of 1st Corinthians, chapter 2, he says the natural man cannot even understand the things of God, because they are spiritually discerned.  

And so he said if you really want to understand God, then you need first of all to have this spiritual experience with God.  

It begins with this spiritual experience.  

And so as a result, Paul had much greater success among the Greeks and the other gentiles cultures, with the gospel message that he brought, than he ever did among the Jewish culture, where he first made his attempt but there was people who readily received the message that Paul had, and we can see the results of what has happened.  

Ninety-eight percent of Greece is now Christian.  

You know, the Christian religion, or Orthodox, Greek Orthodox.  98% is Greek Orthodox.  

And so, he made a tremendous impact on Greece to move them from polytheism, to believing in Jesus Christ, the Christian message.  

Now one of the things I love about the apostle Paul, well, one other thing is that he was constantly faced with persecution, everything that would try to deter him from you know, sharing what he felt to be the truth of the gospel message. 

He shared it everywhere he went, and sometimes he was imprisoned in Philippi as a result of it. 

He was beaten with stripes at times by the Jews, and eventually, he was beheaded by Nero.  

Lost his life for what he believed in, and I love this passage and I am about ready to close here, in 1 Timothy 4:6-8 because it is Paul, Paul is about to realize that his life is going to end.  

He's allowed himself to be completely spent for spreading the gospel message.  

He took it all over Greece, he took it to Rome, you know, Antioch, and it was spreading everywhere, but now he's done everything that he can do, and most of the letters that he wrote, we see the Epistle of, Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians, Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, Paul's Epistle to Ephesus, all of those Epistles he wrote over half of the New Testament but most of those Epistles that he wrote, Epistles being letters, he wrote those letters to different churches from prison.  

And one of the statements that the Apostle Paul made was he said I am bound even unto chains, in other words he was imprisoned much of his life as a Christian, but he said the Word of God is not bound.  

And I think we really have evidence of that today.  

Because here he was, he was writing those letters, and he said the Word of God is not bound, and Wanda Kay's got evidence right there with us, there's his letter to the Philippians. 

His letter to the Ephesians, his letter to the Romans, his letter to the Corinthians, his letter to the Galatians, his letter to Titus, his letters to Timothy.  

All his letters are right here with us. 

And certainly he gave us evidence that the word of God is not bound.  

And so, read that if you would.   

Here's just prior to his death, he makes this statement. 

>> Wanda Kay:
6 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:

8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.

>> Dr. Robinson:
And so Paul was completely spent, for Jesus Christ.  

And he has certainly discredited the Stoic's philosophy that emotion and passion is a source of evil, and the Epicureans that thought religion was just simply a sign of lack of intellect, because here was a man who was highly intellectual, but what Paul, the message that Paul got across was that it is ok to, that it is good to learn, it is good to educate, but to be truly free is to have that passion for something that you believe in greater than yourself, and feeling that you have the greater purpose in life than just what you can accomplish, what you can obtain in this natural life.  

But what we do, what Paul said we do here and now has a great affect on our eternity.  

And he says, "I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith," and he says, "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." 

And so he says the passion, I get so excited about Paul, because there was such a passion for what he believed in.  

Such an excitement and he did not even fear death as a result of his strong belief in his Christian faith.  

It didn't matter if he was facing chains and imprisonment, being beat with stripes, he was the only man that I ever read about in history who was stoned, and survived the stoning.  

But he certainly did fight a good fight.  

I am sure that he was concerned with some of the letters you read from him to the Greeks. 

He was concerned about their welfare, whether they would survive.  

Whether they would fall back into temptation.  

But yet most of what was accomplished he laid the groundwork for it.  

And then, the results began to grow from there and now 98% of Greece is Christian.  

Thank you for the opportunity to share with you today. 

>> Dr. Wahby:
Thank you very much Dr. Robinson.  

We appreciate your coming with your eyes, and we see you better this way.  

Any questions for Dr. Robinson?  

I have a couple of them if you are not ready. 

So, I'll start then I'll give you a chance. 

What is your definition for wisdom?  

You have read that Greeks seek after wisdom, what is wisdom?

>> Dr. Robinson:
The simple definition of wisdom is the answer to the problem, or answer to the question. 

 Knowledge is certainly knowing what the question is, or knowing what the problem is, being able to define the problem.  

Wisdom is the answer to the problem.  

And Paul's reference to wisdom, it was you know talking about the Greek culture, they were constantly trying to find, what is the answer to our being.  

Why do we exist?  

Isn't that the same question that many young people ask today?  

Why am I here? 

Why do I exist?  

And so, Paul tried to give them the answer to what he felt was the reason they exist.  

Particularly to the, he made a statement to the Philippians in Philippians 1:6 he said, “and being confident in this very thing that he that had begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ."

>> Dr. Wahby:
Thank you.  Now follow-up questions, if you don't have questions.  

Please prepare something; otherwise I'll continue asking.  

If I put in front of us on the table, five elements in a matrix, how would you relate them to each other? 

How would you organize them? 

Like, for example, data, information, facts, knowledge, and wisdom.  

How would you organize them, or would you eliminate any of the list? 

Or put them together?  

How would you make something out of this?

>> Dr. Robinson:
Well, I think what I'd do, is first of all, because I mentioned previously with Paul's preaching to the Greeks was, the first thing that he mentioned was the encounter, the spiritual element.  

I think that would be on of the five is that the spiritual.  

That is one of the things that even scientists, and doctors, and much of our research today demonstrates that there is a, something to this spiritual element of a person, that we are not just mind, soul, and mind and body, but we there's a spiritual element for us as well, and if that spiritual element doesn't find fulfillment, then it can cause some, quite a few complications.  

Like, even doctors have discovered, that prayer is something that is helpful in people's healing process, and minimizing pain.  

But the spiritual element will be key, because it is like if the spiritual element is not where it should be, then it is like everything else doesn't bring us satisfaction or fulfillment for individuals, so that would be number one.  

And then another thing would be, the next thing would be knowledge. 

And, but all of this ties together, if we look at it from where I was sharing the scriptural basis, the Bible tells us that the beginning, that the fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, and that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.  

And the fear of God is the beginning of understanding.  

And so all of those would be, if we had that spiritual element, that spiritual connection, first of all, then it gives us a deeper understanding to anything else within in knowledge, or wisdom, or understanding, or any of the other five things that you mentioned, the data. 

Now one other thing that Aristotle disagreed with polytheism, because he said there's not enough empirical research to support that, and so that was his basis for the belief in the supreme God.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Enlightenment is has a definition in the dictionary but it has some understanding of the term, and connotations and different faiths, or beliefs or belief systems.  

Is there any relation between enlightenment either by definition by dictionary, or by faith, different faiths, and wisdom?

>> Dr. Robinson:
Well, I think, well enlightenment would be coming to a new understanding, of course, that one could not arrive at with his own efforts.  

It comes to an individual, and what's the second part of your question again? 

>> Dr. Wahby:
Are they related to each other? 

I mean are they related or don't they relate?

>> DR. Robinson:
Well, I think you could find some relation there with enlightenment and this, but of course, everyone has their belief systems, and it is not hard to find what mine is, with the things that to me the enlightenment and just from a personal perspective. 

I talk about enlightenment, and what brings about that clear understanding where everything else is bearable in life, and no matter what happens in the world, no matter whether it is adverse circumstances, whether it is death of a family member, whether it is a career problem that you are having to deal with, if you have that enlightenment, or that what I call that relationship with God, and that's one of the things that the Apostle Paul was emphasizing to the Greeks, that it is not about religion, it's not about following religious principles, but it's about a relationship, and so what he was promoting was you can have an actual genuine relationship with God, and so that's where Paul emphasizes, well, that he said in Him, talking about God, we live and we move, and we have our being.  

And so, outside of that, he said, 'the natural man cannot understand the things of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned'.  

And so he said, outside of God, if we try to obtain utopia, without God, or outside of God, it is impossible, but with God, he emphasized that all things are possible.  

And one statement that he made to the Philippians in Philippians 4:13, he said ,"I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me."

>> Dr. Wahby:
Well, I tell my students; if you don't speak [unclear dialogue] it will be a monologue.  I'll continue talking, so please, anybody?

I have a question about foolishness.  

We can't talk about wisdom without talking about foolishness.  

Now, it has been said about Solomon, King Solomon that he was a wisest man who ever lived.  

Not before him, not after him, was wise, as wisdom, but he did some foolish things.  

Very foolish things.  

How come and his wisdom stayed with him, so how would you talk about that? 

>> Dr. Robinson:
Well, to me I can find a lot of answers in the wisdom book that you know there's a passage that says it gives some callings of God, or without repentance, so we have these gifts in our lives that are a part of who we are, they are basically God-given and they'll operate in our lives whether we choose to use them, to advance the kingdom of God or not, they are there because they are a part of who we are, and a part of our orientation.  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Ok, last question about Athens.  

It is said here that Athenians are either natives, or visitors.  

They have nothing to do other than talk about something new.  

They want to know something new.  

They have all these gods and so forth, and Paul talked to them and he made his presentations very well, but will you find it interesting that these people are so intellectual or at least searching for wisdom or searching for knowledge they laughed at him and very few listened, very few number believed in what he said?

>> Dr. Robinson:
A few wanted to hear more of what he had to say. 

>> Dr. Wahby:
Yes, very few, and he was killed eventually, and now you tell us it is 98%?

>> Dr. Robinson:
Yes!  Yeah, sometimes you just have to be patient and wait and see the results.  

One of the things that we are not familiar with in our American society, our individualistic culture, is that, is the practice of delayed gratification. 

And 

>> Dr. Wahby:
We want it now!

>> Dr. Robinson:
Yeah, we want it immediately! 

Instant tea, instant coffee, fast food, McDonalds, if they don't have that cow ready in about 30 seconds, then they say what's wrong with them?  

But with, when it comes to these spiritual aspects, and the transformation there, patience is key.  

And because there is a scripture that says "because in your patience possess ye your soul".  

>> Dr. Wahby:
Well, it is lunchtime I think and would you please give a round of applause to Dr. Robinson?  

>> Dr. Robinson:
Thank you.