Acts 17:19 Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

   

Paul was in Athens and had been preaching the Gospel. The men there “spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas,” (v.21) and so a bunch of them half caught what Paul was saying and recognized that this was something new, this was something different from anything they had heard before.

 

These Greeks of Athens were philosophers, those who liked debating ideas, and there is a sense whereby the Gospel might be considered a philosophy, except it doesn't originate in the minds of men but in the mind of God..

 

The other big difference between the Gospel and philosophy, is that you can just talk about lots of different ideas about life and the universe, and remain unchanged. People who like playing with ideas often like it because it means just this, that they don't have to worry about changing, but the Gospel isn't like that! That's why lots of people don't like it, because it challenges them, it calls them to make a decision, and very often people prefer to sit on the fence. However this ‘new' teaching doesn't let you do that. It requires you to come down on one side or the other. You either accept Jesus Christ for who the Bible says he is, the living Son of God who has come to save us from our sins, or you will reject him and reject God and reject the idea that you need saving!