Studies in the Acts of the Apostles

[Resource Manager]

Thessalonica

 

Other ecclesias similarly came under the wiles of these unrelenting faceless adversaries. Hardly had Paul left the new ecclesia at Thessalonica (second jour­ney), when a forged letter was received purporting to be written by Paul himself. Is any other meaning possible to these words?: 'Now we beseech you, brethren ... that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand" (2 Thessalo­nians 2:1, 2).

 

For what conceivable reason could anyone wish to foist a pseudo-Pauline letter on this new ecclesia, if it be not with the express intention of creating as much confusion as possible? Paul's enemies were so up-to-the-minute in their spying on his work, that within a few months at most they were aware of the situation at Thessalonica and were quick to devise some means, harmless to themselves, by which to set both preacher and converts by the ears.

The words "neither by spirit" also call for special scrutiny. This means "neither by one claiming to be endowed with Holy Spirit authority" (1 John 4:1-3 and 1 Timothy 4:1 - two occurrences in one verse - are good examples of this usage). So evidently this was another danger at Thessalonica.

 

Paul did his best to set up safeguards: "The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand, which is the token in every epistle: so I write" (3:17). But this could do nothing to counteract the lies of men who came in person claiming to be vested with the authority of the Holy Spirit. (The "Man of Sin" prophecy -2 Th. 2 - heads to be studied from thin angle.)

 

Corinth

 

This is actually what happened in Corinth. A careful study of 2 Corinthians 10,11 revel as a series of references to a small group of Jewish visitors to that ecclesia, one of them obviously the leader and master-mind, for the express purpose of weaning the ecclesia away from loyalty to Paul, their first teacher.

 

They ran him down in nasty personal remarks: "his letters are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible (he talks Greek as a Yorkshireman talks English!!) ... he terrifies you with his letters ... he is rude in speech" (10:9, 10; 11:6).

 

By contrast, this "Satan" contrived to dress up impressively his own personal qualifications for assuming authority over them (11:22, 23).

 

It succeeded wonderfully. Reports from Corinth reached Paul at Ephesus of this amazing swing away from loyalty to himself and the wholesome ecclesial traditions he had instilled. Frantic with anxiety, he set Titus by ship, and also himself set out by the land route. "Our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears" (7:5).

 

At last Titus came to meet him with good news. The Corinthians knew they had behaved badly, and had the grace to be ashamed of themselves. A letter from Paul, and the appearance in their midst of an unquenchable Titus had soon restored the status quo. And how they sought to make amends (7:8-11)! So the "Satan", still unnamed, had to stand by and swallow his chagrin. Corinth had now no use for him, nor he for Corinth.

 

Even so, Paul felt constrained, in the later chapters of this epistle, to rise up in self-defence, penning a long purple pas­sage the like of which is not to be found anywhere else in his writings or speeches (11:13-12:12).

 

There is also Peter's remarkable vin­dication of the authority of Paul (2 Peter 3:15, 16), written probably after the mar­tyrdom of his great colleague.

 

All this would have been quite un­necessary had it not been for the sus­tained campaign of character assassina­tion against the Lord's most dedicated servant.

[Resource Manager]

Jerusalem

 

What could Paul do to muster active sympathy and support back in Jerusalem against the malicious work of these evil men? When he visited the Holy City for the last time, here were teeming thousands of Jewish brethren who had kept the Law of Moses all their lives and among whom were only a few who were likely to achieve sufficient spiritual maturity to grasp the essential fact that now the Law was of no use to them. Of course they would go on observing the Law. How else could they live in Jerusalem at all? Even James the Lord's brother did the same, and died a martyr to Jewish hatred, but with one of the greatest reputations for piety under the Law of any man in that century.

 

So there was nothing here to hurt or surprise Paul. But how he must have winced when his fellow apostles said to him: "Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which be­lieve; and they are all zealous of the law; and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses (literally, apostasy from Moses), saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs" (Acts 21:20, 21).

 

Here was a tissue of lies believed by every Christian disciple in Jerusalem, including perhaps the apostles them­selves. Paul was a fine fellow, no doubt, but why must he be so unconventional in some of his attitudes?

 

It was not true in a single particular. Yet only a slight twist had been given to the facts. He did teach his Jewish con­verts to abandon all dependence on Law observance. And the logic of his gospel was that henceforth no Jewish child was spiritually one whit better for being cir­cumcised.

 

Nevertheless these erroneous convic­tions about himself were firmly rooted in the minds of thousands of his brethren in Christ. "They are informed of thee" is really "it has been dinned into them by repetition concerning thee" (the Greek word describes the Rabbinic method of instruction, and has given birth to the English word "catechize"). The faceless men had been diligently at work over recent years making sure that his wonderful plausible, nearly accurate pic­ture of Paul was well established in all minds in Jerusalem before he shewed his face there. It could not have been his open enemies among Sadducees and Pharisees who told these specious lies, for their story would have been im­mediately discounted. They were known to be Paul's bitter foes. But when spoken by his brethren who told in the next breath of his almost superhuman achievements as a missionary, who could disbelieve this whispering cam­paign?

[Resource Manager]

Rome

 

The problem accompanied Paul to Rome. During his detention there "for two whole years" his presence proved to be a great inspiration to some of the brethren in their preaching. But not to all. "Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife; and some also of good­will: the one preach Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds: but the other of love" (Philippians 1:15-17). Not enough is known here about the circumstances for confident conclusions. But at least it is clear that certain persons were taking a malicious pleasure in preaching the gos­pel - with some special emphasis, pre­sumably - because their doing so would only be an added source of worry and vexation to Paul. A gospel with a Judais­tic emphasis would answer the case tolerably well, those hearing the Truth being taught also to seek justification by works.

 

This would be just the kind of situation in which prisoner Paul would shrug his shoulders, saying: "What then? notwith­standing every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and rejoice" (v. 18). Presumably his hope would be that even if these misguided converts received the Truth in Christ with distor­tions, there would be a reasonable hope that as time went on they would be able to grow nearer to the real Truth of the gospel.

 

The problem was probably in Rome even before Paul got there, for in his epistle to that ecclesia he found it needful to issue this warning: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark (keep your eye on) them which cause divisions and occa­sions of stumbling contrary to the doc­trine which ye learned; and avoid them. For they that be such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Romans 16:17, 18). The description is that of the serpent in Eden (as the next verse proceeds to demonstrate very clearly). It is the figure of speech used by Paul about the plausible "Satan" who had nearly brought the Corinthian ecclesia to ruin (2 Corinthians 11:3). Here again were "good words and fair speeches", and the aim - divisions, separating off brethren from brethren, exactly what had been attempted and achieved, though with only temporary success, in Antioch, Galatia, Thessalonica, Corinth. Truly, the price of their liberty in Christ was Paul's eternal vigilance.

[Resource Manager]

Ephesus and Colosse

 

There are phrases in Paul's letters to Ephesus and Colosse which seem to hint at fears that the believers there might be "got at". His exhortation that they use all possible God-provided helps to come to a higher degree of spiritual maturity has this warning also: "that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive …" (4:14).

 

The brief equivalent in Colossians is: "And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words" (2:4). Here the allusion to the serpent in Eden is readily discernible. It is there also in Ephesians, though not so easy to pick out in the Common Version.

 

Yet again this is the figure of speech used by Paul to describe the cunning un-named adversary at Corinth (2 Corin­thians 11:3). And certainly some of Paul's phrases seem to be rather highly-coloured, unless he had specific evil-intentioned men in mind. "Children tos­sed to and fro" - precisely this had happened to his new converts in Galatia, Thessalonica, Corinth. "By the sleight of men" - contemporaries used the words to describe deliberate trickery with dice. "Whereby they lie in wait to deceive" -the original here is ill-turned; the Greek phrase has a word which implies sys­tematic deception. So, although it cannot be said with any certainty that Paul was warning Ephesus and Colosse against his faceless enemies, quite a few details chime in with the idea.

 

Only a few years later, just before he died, he had to write the sickening words: "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me" (2 Timothy 1:15). The churches of Asia included Ephesus and Colosse. Now they had turned away, not from following Christ, but from accepting the authority of Paul, their apostle, teacher, founder and guide. What evil circumstances, what evil people, could have brought about such a sad state of affairs?

 

Those who accept the (well-proven) early date of the Book of Revelation (c. A.D.66) will now see special meaning in the Lord's reproach of Ephesus: "I have this against thee, that thou didst leave thy first love" (2:4) - loyalty to the apostle Paul.

[Resource Manager]

Warnings to Timothy and Titus

 

It is almost to be expected that Paul's letters to Timothy and Titus, whom he had thrust into positions of high responsi­bility in the ecclesias, would include warnings against the nefarious activities of this group of men who had worked against him systematically over the

years.

 

Titus was in Crete when Paul wrote to him. He was to warn these rather crude Cretan brethren "not to give heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn away from the truth" (1:14). But what danger was there that these relatively new converts might wish to do anything of the sort? It could only come about if Jews crossed the sea to Crete in order to sow such notions in the uncritical minds of the new brethren. Titus and the elders who served with him were each commanded to "hold 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. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they out of the circumcision" (1:9, 10). One can­not be certain that this is another allusion to Paul's longstanding enemies, but the conclusion does not seem unlikely.

 

There were similar warnings to Timothy: "Now the Spirit (in Paul?) speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits (i.e. men not only claiming to have the Holy Spirit but also using that claim to lead men astray), and doctrines of devils (teachings put out by those who are false accusers!); speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron" (1 Timothy 4:1, 2). The reference to Paul's adversaries is not difficult to pick up (whilst, on the other hand, it is decidedly difficult to see why Timothy should be warned against Catholic priests of many centuries later!).

 

"Of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins" (2 Timothy 3:6). Here, then, was another of the "techniques" by which Paul's authority was to be under-minded. But also, "as Jannes and Jam­bres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth; men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall drive forward no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was" (3:8, 9).

 

Jannes and Jambres were not Egyp­tian magicians, for the names are Jew­ish. They were Israelites who leaned more strongly towards Egypt than they did towards Moses the Redeemer. It gave them pleasure to see the signs of Moses matched by those of the magi­cians. But the time came when even the magicians confessed: "This is the finger of God."

 

Similarly, Paul argued, these Jewish Christians who are glad to see the Lord's faithful servants slandered, will yet be stopped dead in their tracks by an event which all will recognize as "the finger of God." This happened in A.D. 70, when Jerusalem and the temple were des­troyed. In this way "their folly (in giving loyalty to a Mosaic system doomed to be swept away) shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was."

 

The Letters to the Churches pick up the theme by including warning about "the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie" (2:9; 3:9).

 

So also the Epistle to the Hebrews. Whether by Paul or not, its fine intellec­tual arguments and moving appeals to faithfulness all had one intention - to stem a strong drift back to the synago­gue. Paul's adversaries had done their work efficiently among the Jewish be­lievers.

 

It is time to sum up. On the basis of the fore-going synthesis of relevant pas­sages (about sixteen of them) it is sub­mitted that an important strand in first-century church history is the systematic antagonism to the work of Paul by men who hypocritically claimed to be brethren in Christ, and that in spite of all Paul's vigilance and care their campaign was ultimately successful. The outcome was accelerated apostacy due to the weaken­ing of loyalty to the great apostle. Here is explained also why there is so much concern it expressed regarding the im­pact of Jewish ideas and enthusiasms (e.g. 1 Timothy 1:4-10; Titus 3:9,10; 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16). Here also is the explanation of Paul's ceaseless repeti­tion of his qualifications as an apostle (in at least 23 places). Perhaps the most surprising one of all is 1 Timothy 2:7.

[Resource Manager]

The Lord's prophecies

 

There remains to mention here, but only briefly, the copious evidence in other parts of the New Testament of the seriousness of this Jewish counter-re­formation.

 

Jesus foresaw its inevitability, and warned against it. His parable of the tares (Mt. 13:24ff) tells of an enemy who furtively and deliberately sows tares among the wheat, the intention clearly being to ruin the good crop. To equate these details with the slow imperceptible drift of the early church into apostasy is to distort the evident intention of the para­ble. What it describes is purposeful wickedness.

 

Again, in the parable of the Good Shepherd there is strong language which seems never to have been given its full value: "A stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of strangers ... He that is an hireling seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep" (Jn. 10:5, 12). Paul referred to this parable in his warning to the elders at Ephesus (Acts 20:28-31).

 

For completeness sake attention needs also to be steered to the participa­tion of the other apostles in the very needful effort to roll back the Judaist tide.

 

Peter and Jude

 

Peter warned against "false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies" (2 Peter 2:1). He pointed to "scoffers" who would cynically ask: "Where is the promise of his com­ing?" And he urged the brethren to "beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness" (3:3, 4, 17).

 

Jude, a great watchdog, followed up Peter's warning with an even more vigor­ous tirade. "These are they ...!" He trounced mercilessly their corruption of the Faith from within. (For full details, see "The Epistle of Jude", H.A.W.).

 

John

 

In less direct fashion the apostle John also joined in the campaign of warning against the corroding influence of these false teachers. When he wrote Gnostic­ism had not been heard of. It was Judaism which he combated in a few passages of plain admonition and con­cern (1 Ep. 2:18, 19; 4:1-6; 2 Ep. 7-11). And in not a few other places the trend of his thought is in the same direction.

 

There is here, in the foregoing in­adequate summary, one of the most portentous themes of the New Testa­ment. It has gone too much ignored, and exposition of truth has suffered accordingly.

[Resource Manager]

Appendix 4

 

Parallels between Paul's Farewell and his Epistle to the Ephesians

Acts 20		Ephesians
19.	Humility of mind	4:2	29.	Sheep	4:11
21.	Gentiles fellow-heirs	3:6	30.	Draw away Disciples	4:14
22, 23.	Binding, bonds	3:1	31.	Watch	6:18
23.	Afflictions	3:13	32.	Build you up	2:19-22
24.	The ministry which I received	3:7		An inheritance among the sanctified	1:18
	The grace of God	3:2,7	35.	These hands so labouring	4:28
	To the Greeks	3:8
25.	The kingdom of God	5:5		My necessities and those with me	4:28
27.	The counsel of God	1:11
28.	Made overseers by the Holy Spirit	1:13		Remember	2:11
	Purchased	1:14
	The blood of His own	2:13

 

INDEX

 

Included in .pdf File - Page 1