"In fact, it was the Christ-exalting love that the Christians showed in spite of risk that STUNNED the pagan world. The Roman Emperor Julian (A.D. 332-363) wanted to breathe new life into the ancient pagan religion BUT he saw more and more people drawn to Christianity (through their ministry to the poor). He wrote with frustration against these "aetheists" who did not believe in the Roman gods, but in Christ...
Atheism (i.e., Christian faith) has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to STRANGERs, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a SCANDAL that there is not a SINGLE Jew who is a beggar, and that the "godless" Galileans care not only for their OWN poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them."
-John Piper
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