Here’s a graph that breaks down the religious demographics of America, by generation.

With every successive generation, the percentages of Protestants and Christians have been dropping. While 50% of the Silent Generation are Protestant, and 22% of them are Catholic, only 22% of Gen Z are Protestant, and only 14% of them are Catholic. In contrast, 48% of Gen Z now identify as atheist, agnostic, or nothing in particular.

Fifty to seventy-five years ago, when society was more or less Christianized, most people were either Christians or “almost Christians.” An “almost Christian” is someone who mostly believes Christian things already, but it’s all a bit jumbled up, and they don’t have the conviction to follow through. They already believe in a God. They already believe in sin. They already believe in heaven or hell. They may even call themselves a Christian already—they think they’re followers of Jesus when they’re actually not.

Evangelism with “almost Christians” involved giving them a wake-up call. You take them to a Christian rally of some sort, they hear a great speaker, they get invited to an altar call, and they cross the threshold and become a Christian.

It’s like starting a fire. The wood is already there. It’s been sitting there for years. All you need to do is light it.

But many Americans today are not “almost Christians.” They’re as far away from Christianity as possible. They might not believe in a God. They definitely don’t believe in sin. They probably don’t believe in heaven or hell. And so on.

If you say, “God created the world,” they’ll go, “No, that was the Big Bang.” If you say, “Jesus died to save you from your sins,” they’ll go, “That’s pretty offensive that you think I’m a sinner.” And anytime you quote the Bible, they’ll go, “Why are you quoting this ancient book as authoritative? By the way, if you haven’t heard, religion was just a thing that powerful people used to control the masses before people understood science. We don’t need that stuff anymore.”

You can’t just light the fire because there’s nothing to light. There’s no wood. So how do you light a fire?

Evangelism today must then involve two components. Firstly, you need to help people to gather some wood. And then after that is done, then you light the wood with fire.

What I mean is that you can’t just share the gospel, because the gospel assumes a bunch of things that they don’t even believe. First you need to show, over time, why your view of the world is feasible and probable. Only then does the gospel make sense.

That’s exactly what the apostle Paul did in his speech in Athens in Acts 17:16-34.

In the first half of Acts, the early church was primarily preaching to Jewish people. And many of these Jews were “almost Christians.” They already believed in God. They already rejected idols. They already understood concepts of sin and atonement. They were already looking for a Messiah. So when the early apostles shared the gospel, it wasn’t a big intellectual leap for some folks to become Christians.

But as the church expanded to the Gentiles, it became apparent that people couldn’t preach the same way. There was no fire to light. That is why the Athenians said to Paul, “You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears” (Acts 17:20). What a line. That’s exactly how some people today feel about Christianity.

What do you say to somebody who views the Christian faith as strange? Let’s check out what Paul did.

22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.

This is brilliant. Here’s what Paul does. He points out a positive quality in their culture—that they are very religious. He comments on their desire to grow in that positive quality—they have an altar dedicated to an unknown God. And then he gives them the answers they are looking for—that his God is that unknown God.

Paul’s not calling them out on their polytheism. He is not saying that they are wrong, and that his worldview is better. He is adopting their worldview and operating within it, and then he just brings their worldview to a natural completion with the gospel.

And then, he takes it another level.

24 “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

Here’s what Paul is doing. He is correcting their worldview, and in multiple ways. He is saying, “You have a bunch of temples built for the gods. But if God made everything, then he doesn’t need a temple. And you’re doing all of these rituals for the gods to please them. But if God made everything, then he doesn’t need anything from you. A truly powerful God doesn’t need to take stuff from us, but rather he gives stuff to us. You believe that the gods are unconcerned about human affairs, and sometimes even annoyed at us. But actually God longs for a relationship with us, and he wants us to seek him out and find him.”

And then here’s the kicker. He quotes two Greek poets. “For in him we live and move and have our being.” “We are his offspring.”

Notice what Paul is not doing. He’s not saying, “You’re wrong here and here and here, because my Bible tells me so.” He’s saying, “You’re wrong here and here and here, because your own religious leaders tell you so.” He is correcting their worldview on the basis of their own worldview. 

One of these quotes is from Epimenides, and the other is from Aratus. His audience would’ve been familiar with these writings—it would be as if you were to quote the Declaration of Independence to an American today. But interestingly, if you look these Greek quotes up in their original context, they’re not talking about the God of Israel, but they’re talking specifically about Zeus, the king of the Greek gods. The poems say that in Zeus we live and move and have our being, and that we are Zeus’ offspring.

Very interesting. Why would Paul quote these poems about Zeus? Is he saying that his God is Zeus? I don’t think so. In another story (found in Acts 14:14-15), Paul seems to refer to the worship of Zeus as “worthless things.”

I think he’s doing the same thing he was doing when he was talking about the altar to an unknown God. He is working within their worldview, and then saying that there are components of truth in those worldviews, and he is explaining that those components of truth actually are clues pointing to the real God.

There’s an interesting quote from Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis on this.

“There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so. There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it.”

Lewis is saying that there are people out there who don’t call themselves Christians, but they are led by God’s secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and because of that, they are closer to Christ than they realize.

I think that’s what Paul is getting at. He is immersing himself in the worldview of his audiences, highlighting the aspects that point to the Christian faith, and showing them that they are trying to seek out God without even realizing it.

This has tremendous implications for us in how we do evangelism. When we do evangelism, we often have this black-and-white approach. We think, “I am right, and you are wrong, and my goal is to convince you of that.” But that’s not what Paul does. He says, “You are right. It is good that you are very religious. It is good that you have this altar. Now let me show you what you are missing.”

Paul’s not throwing their worldview out the window. He is stepping into it, operating inside of it, and explaining how the gospel completes their worldview. And I think we need to do the same today.

When we are talking to people who are radically different from us, don’t throw their worldview out the window. Show them that their worldview actually is fulfilled in the Christian gospel.

Let’s say you’re talking to somebody who is concerned about social justice. It doesn’t matter what the issue is—income inequality, immigration, police brutality, etc. Here’s what you can do. First you affirm that their values are good. You say, “It is so amazing that you have this desire for justice. I am so glad that you want the world to be a better place.” And then you tell them what their solution is. “But can I tell you something? I think you’re missing something. The ultimate solution for true justice is not better politicians, better schools, better police training, better environmental policies, etc. All of those things will certainly help, but we’ll always have corruption, we’ll always have exploitation, and we’ll always have abuse. I think what you’re actually looking for is the kingdom of God. I think what you’re looking for is the Prince of Peace.” 

Let’s say you’re talking to somebody who doesn’t like their body. Maybe they think they’re too fat or ugly. Or maybe they are trans—their sex doesn’t match their gender. But whatever the case, they are doing something to their body to make their body better. Here’s what you can do. First you affirm that their values are good. You say, “I understand you don’t like the way you are. You feel out of place in your own body. You feel that your true identity doesn’t line up with your biology. And you want to be who you feel called to be.” And then you tell them what their solution is. “Can I tell you something? I don’t know what you’re going through, but I do relate a bit. Because sometimes I don’t like my body either. Who I am is not who I want to be. And I think the reason we feel this way is because we’ve been cursed by sin. So what we truly need is not some minor biological changes. We need to have new hearts. We need to be new creations. I think that’s what we’re looking for.”

Of course, it might not make sense to do this all in one conversation. And maybe you won’t be as direct. I’m just laying out the flow of the argument.

We’re not telling people they’re wrong, and then telling them to believe things that don’t seem relevant to them. We’re telling them that they’re actually on the right track, and that the gospel is the thing they are looking for in their own belief system.

I’m reminded of an excerpt from Blaise Pascal. This was written over 300 years ago, but I think it’s really relevant today.

“All men seek happiness. There are no exceptions. However different the means they may employ, they all strive towards this goal. The reason why some go to war and some do not is the same desire in both, but interpreted in two different ways. The will never takes the least step except to that end. This is the motive of every act of every man, including those who go and hang themselves.

Yet for very many years no one without faith has ever reached the goal at which everyone is continually aiming. All men complain: princes, subjects, nobles, commoners, old, young, strong, weak, learned, ignorant, healthy, sick, in every country, at every time, of all ages, and all conditions…

What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.”

Everybody has this infinite abyss in our hearts, and they’re all looking to fill it with different things, but what they’re looking for is God himself. The ancient Greeks in Athens were looking for God. And people today are also looking for God.

Step inside their worldviews, and show them that this craving, this helplessness, is actually a yearning for a strange idea—the Christian gospel—that Jesus died, rose again, and has welcomed us into the kingdom of God.