“THE
BOOK OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES"
Part 1 of 5
There are seven books in the New Testament, and
in the main four, which can give Christians a lot of doctrine
trouble
– Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Hebrews, James.
Why? They all have, or seem to have, amongst other things, works to
maintain
your salvation.
Doctrine is the set of rules you are going to live by. It’s your creed, your beliefs, your principles, your
religion, it’s your everyday life.
Now all scripture is 100% correct history, it is
devotional,
and it is doctrinal for the appropriate dispensation.
And this is why the Book of Acts is a trap if
you’re not careful.
Now, the correct title is The Acts of the Apostles.
“Good” says the Christian “we are to follow the apostles.” However,
they don’t
realize that all apostles are not equal. As the saying goes
“Forget the
rest and use the best.” Paul was the best. All the apostles
that came
before Paul had insights, but Paul is not lying when he says “Look, the
others
had little pieces of the jig-saw puzzle, but I’ll give you the big
picture.
I’ll make sense out of it all for you.” Paul says
“Wherefore
I beseech you, be ye followers of me.”
(1Cor 4:16)
“Those
things … ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do…”
(Phil 4:9)
“And
ye became followers of us, and of the Lord …”
(1Thess 1:6)
“…
God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my
gospel.”
(Rom 2:16)
“…
a
dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.” (1Cor
9:17)
“…
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to
my
gospel:”
(2 Tim 2:8)
Paul states: But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
longsuffering, charity, patience, (2 Tim 3:10)
Holding
fast the faithful word as he
hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine
both to
exhort and to convince the gainsayers. (Titus 1:9)
There is a simple rule of thumb: “If it agrees with Paul, it’s
doctrine for the Christian. If not, it is still true, however it is
meant for
another time – either past or future.”
The first principle to study the
Bible is to know which of the three following groups, God is talking
to.
Give none
offence, neither to the Jews, nor
to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God: 1
Corinthians 10:32-33.
If you
can’t, or won’t, or don’t, work out the
difference, with these three groups, then interpreting the scriptures
will be
an impossible task for you!
BACKGROUND and THEME to the Book of Acts
“Peter is replaced by Paul”
Although the gospel of Christ had reached every nation
of the known world (Colossians 1:23; Romans 16:26), the book of Acts
limits
itself to the preaching of the gospel over Palestine, North to Antioch,
West
through Asia Minor and Greece, to Rome. Basically this area was
backbone of
the Roman Empire.
The Book of the Acts of the Apostles is mainly about the
acts of Peter and Paul, but mostly Paul.
“…
the gospel of the uncircumcision (these
are the Gentiles which are all other nations
other than the Jews) was committed unto me (Paul), as the
gospel of
the circumcision (the Jews) was unto Peter”
Galatians 2:7.
The
main theme of the Book of Acts, is the extension
of the gospel to the Gentiles.
But
here’s the problem for the present day Jew, Roman
Catholic, Christian particularly the Independent Baptist. He says
“Right, I’ll
follow Peter.” But there’s the thing, there is no choice anymore.
Paul
severely corrects Peter (Gal 2:11) and Peter admits being bamboozled by
Paul (2 Peter 3:16). Paul says “Thank you Peter, you sit in the back
seat now.
I’ll
take over driving the car.”
It’s
a book of two halves with Peter in
Acts 1-12 and Paul in Acts 13-28.
Harley Hitchcock
www.
AustralianBibleMinistries
.com
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“THE
BOOK OF THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES”
Part 2 of 5
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Australian Bible Ministries, PO Box 5058 Mt. Gravatt East, 4122 Qld, Australia