In the first article of this series we quoted Zechariah 9:9-13, where we read about a battle between the Sons of Zion and the Sons of Greece. With reference to other scriptures (particularly those which focus on the nature of wisdom), we saw that this is first a battle of the mind, which is where our adversary seeks to gain ground in the lives of mankind.
Our minds are open to forming patterns or associations of ideas and principles through which we filter all else we consider. Whatever our view of the world, even if based on faulty assumptions, we are under its influence.
As we remarked last week, the Greeks developed many of the patterns of thought that have influenced the education systems of the Western world, becoming an enemy of the life of faith.
Glorifying Man
If we consider Greek art and architecture, we see something beguilingly beautiful to the eye which glorifies the achievements of man. Men are represented in larger-than-life statues so that the abiding focus is on them, rather than on God. Indeed, the Roman emperors considered themselves as gods.
We are reminded of the First Commandment. Where Greek imagery subtly places a concept of man being like a god in the back of our minds, it becomes a battle against our walk with Almighty God.
The Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC.The influence of Greek-inspired art on Western ‘high culture’ has been profound and is still visible today. For example, many of the public buildings of our cities are designed along the lines of Greek architecture and are bedecked with statues of famous people. In Washington, the Lincoln Memorial is a statue of the farmer who became President: Abraham Lincoln, now seated in a Greek-inspired building, high up and larger than life, like a Greek god.
The same is true of the four presidents carved into Mount Rushmore and of statues of famous people in London. Despite the good works they may have done, their images reinforce a mindset which focuses on the achievements of man and takes our focus away from God. This is just the same as when Gideon’s ephod became an object of worship after God himself had brought about a great victory against the Midianites through the weakness of men, not their strength (Judges 8:22-28).
In Greek art and architecture, we see something beguilingly beautiful to the eye but which glorifies the achievements of man, not God.
Alternative Views of the Supernatural
These buildings and statues are a visible reminder of the tendency for us all to be influenced by the glory of man and not the glory of God. Art, architecture and sculpture have the power to attract and affect our ways of thinking. The Greeks were also pioneers in sport, music, literature, drama, philosophy, politics, science and mathematics. In all these areas impact has been made on Western culture.
The combined power of Greek art and literature has resulted in the myths of the Greco-Roman gods and goddesses that are well-known even today, where they continue to influence imaginary ideas of other worlds and life-forms. Perhaps there is always some scope for creative imagination and fictional fun - that is debatable - but pushed to extremes, we find alternative views of the supernatural that compete with biblical truth.
The ancient inspires the modern: The Panathenaic Stadium, Greece, and Berlin's Olympic Stadium.In sport the Greeks laid the foundations for men and women to hone their bodily skills and stature. Competition rather than co-operation has become the norm and the big sporting arena is central to much of Western culture today, where desire for physical perfection and achievement can preoccupy a person’s attention rather than God – just as in ancient Greece, where the Olympics began.
Reason vs Revelation
Simultaneously, another legacy of Greek thinking is the belief that the mind can be exercised scientifically or philosophically to influence man’s own destiny and manage this world in his own strength. Greek thinking has not just influenced physical pursuits but intellectual pursuits including mathematics, science, philosophy and politics.
In all these disciplines there have to be agreed starting points: foundational assumptions on which the whole edifice is built. In geometry, for example, we have Euclid’s axioms, where such things as the definition of a point, a line or an angle are pre-set and all else is determined in relation to them, in a closed system, entirely within the bounds of the universe in which we live. Philosophy does not depend on foundations in the same way but also turns over ideas within the framework of human experience.
Pushed to the extreme, these foundational assumptions can become barriers to belief and faith. There is little or no place for revelation if our attention is on what man, of himself, can reason or know. Science, once an honest means of measuring, hypothesising, experimenting, testing and predicting, recognising its own limits, has become today a pursuit where its foundational accepted axioms, though unable to be proven, are believed unequivocally and without room for critique. This then becomes the foundation of a counterfeit faith, where human knowledge is god and there is nothing outside of it. The theory of evolution is one such example.
In the days of the ancient Greeks, pursuit of knowledge led to the establishment of secret societies - including in mathematics. The famous Pythagoras is said to have executed a heretical student for making a (valid) claim about a type of number in number theory. Maths as a secret activity to test and satisfy the mind was still practised by mathematicians who were also philosophers until quite recently, such as in the days of Fermat and Descartes.
Another legacy of Greek thinking is the belief that the mind can be exercised scientifically or philosophically to influence man’s own destiny and manage this world in his own strength.
Humanistic Worldview
Plato taught his students in a field called the Academy. Though we use the word 'academic today' in a more general sense, we might nevertheless ask how our worldviews have been formed more than we thought by accepting ideas from the ancient Greeks. For example, those capable of what is called academic study are often valued more highly than those with practical skills within our modern education systems.
In this way, Greek philosophers, scientists, politicians and artists have framed a beguiling worldview which still influences most of Western culture today. Indeed, when man sees himself as a god, or as co-equal with God, in a way that is imbibed rather than consciously accepted, our world becomes re-organised: it may seem superficially beautiful, ordered and controlled, but it is diametrically opposed, in many ways, to how Almighty God would lead us.
Ultimately, the Greek worldview is locked into this world, beginning with humanistic assumptions rather than truth, which take us into circular arguments. It could be likened to a goldfish in a bowl, content to go round and round its limited world as if that were all. Contrast this with the biblical worldview, where the wisdom of God begins where the wisdom of man ends!
Next week: Humanism: the fruit of a Greco-Roman worldview
This article is part of a series. Click here to read previous instalments.