To LEAD the battle against pagan philosophy and Jewish formalism, one was chosen who had himself witnessed the debasing power of heathen worship, and endured the spiritual bondage of pharisaic exaction. Diligently instructed in all the laws and traditions of the Fathers, Saul shared, to the fullest extent, the hopes and aspirations, the lofty pride and unyielding prejudice, of his nation. Cherishing the hope of a Messiah who should reign as a temporal prince, and unacquainted with Christ and His mission, he readily imbibed the scorn and hatred of the rabbis toward one who was so far from fulfilling their ambitious hopes; and after the death of Christ, he eagerly joined with priests and rulers in the persecution of His followers as a proscribed and hated sect. But the persecution availed them nothing. The day of Pentecost soon arrived, and with it the outpouring of the Holy Ghost and the conversion of thousands, from every nation, kindred, and tongue.
After the appointment of deacons, we find Stephen, one of the seven, “full of faith and power,” who “did great wonders and miracles among the people.” For this he was brought before the Sanhedrin for trial. Saul was present at the trial. We find Stephen, undaunted by all that appeared before him, making a masterly defense of the faith of Jesus, as recorded in the seventh of Acts. As he pleaded with the council, he read his fate in their faces, and while others stoned him, Saul cared for their garments at his feet. A deep impression was made, and it could not be effaced.
Because of Saul’s zeal and his promise of future greatness, he was made a member of the Sanhedrin; but God had decreed a different work for him. While under commission to arrest and destroy, and while breathing out hatred toward the followers of Christ, as he journeyed to Damascus, God miraculously converted him, and informed him that he was a chosen vessel to bear His name before kings and to the Gentiles. As a learner at the feet of Jesus, with quickened perceptions and an enlightened vision, instead of regarding Jesus as the destroyer of law, Saul recognized in Him the originator of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, of which Christ was the antitype.
Immediately after Saul’s baptism by Ananias, he began to preach Jesus to the people in the city of Jerusalem. Under the imperative command, “Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles,” he departed for untried fields. It was an important era to the Church when Paul was ordained by the laying on of hands, and commissioned to organize churches.
Though the middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles had been broken down by the death of Christ, letting the Gentiles into the full privilege of the gospel, still the veil had not yet been torn from the eyes of many of the believing Jews, and they could not clearly discern to the end of that which was abolished by the Son of God. The great sin of the Jews continued to be the supposition that the Gentiles should not enjoy religious privileges on an equality with themselves, and that the blessing of God was reserved exclusively for them.
As the apostle worked from place to place among the Gentiles, he also found Jews scattered abroad; and as at Antioch, so also at other places, the apostle found Jews ready to oppose him and the Jews who received the truth; and as far as lay in their power they influenced the Gentiles against the apostle and those associated with him. Not only so, but the opposing Jews of Antioch, through whose influence the apostles were driven from that district, united with certain Jews of Iconium, and followed upon the track of the apostles.
The churches were scarcely organized before certain Jews from Judea raised a general consternation among the believing Gentiles by agitating the question of circumcision. They asserted, with great assurance, that none could be saved without being circumcised and keeping the entire ceremonial law. This was an important question, and one which affected the Church in a very great degree. Paul and Barnabas met it with promptness, and opposed introducing the subject to the Gentiles. They were opposed in this by the believing Jews of Antioch who favored the position of those from Judea. The matter resulted in much discussion and want of harmony in the Church, until finally the church at Antioch, apprehending that a division among them would occur from any further discussion of the question, decided to send Paul and Barnabas, together with some responsible men of Antioch, to Jerusalem, to lay the matter before the apostles and elders. Their decision was then to be universally accepted by the churches throughout the country.
Upon arriving at Jerusalem, the delegates from Antioch related before the assembly of the churches the success that had attended their ministry, and the confusion that had resulted from the fact that certain converted Pharisees declared that the Gentile converts must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. The Jews feared that the many Gentile converts, unless put under subjection to the ceremonies that had served as a middle wall of partition, and that had kept the Jews distinct from all other people, would finally cause their divinely appointed services to disappear entirely. They concluded that as God once specified the Hebrew manner of worship, it was impossible that He should ever authorize a change in any of its specifications. They decided that Christianity must connect itself with the Jewish ceremonies. They were slow to discern the end of that which had been abolished by the death of Christ.
Paul still claimed to be one of the children of Abraham, and kept the Ten Commandments in letter and spirit as faithfully as he had ever done before his conversion to Christianity. But he knew that the ceremonies must soon altogether cease, since that which they had shadowed forth had come to pass, and the light of the gospel was shedding its glory upon the Jewish religion, giving a new significance to its ancient rites.
On account of the idolatrous practices of the Gentiles, such as eating things strangled, drinking blood, and their licentiousness, the Jews held it highly proper that circumcision and the observance of the ceremonial law should be brought to the Gentile converts as a test of their sincerity and devotion. With perplexity the council considered the questions before them, but the Holy Ghost had already settled the problem. God had by a marked experience prepared Peter to declare, “Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”
This yoke was not the law of Ten Commandments, as those who oppose the binding claims of the law assert; but Peter referred to the law of ceremonies, which was made null and void by the crucifixion of Christ. James bore a decided testimony showing that God designed the Gentiles to enjoy all the privileges of the Jews, declaring that the Holy Ghost saw good not to impose the ceremonial law on the Gentile converts. The Spirit of God united the council to declare the sentence, “Wherefore my sentence is, that we trouble not them, which from among the Gentiles are turned to God.” The discussion ended, the decision of the council was sent by letter to the churches, imposing none other554thing upon them than the Holy Spirit imposed; namely, to abstain from meats offered to idols, from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood, and to keep the commandments of God, leading holy lives.
The Gentiles were assured that the men who had urged circumcision upon them were not authorized to do so by the apostles. Even the disciples were not all prepared willingly to accept the decision of the council. Some were zealous for the ceremonial law, and regarded Paul with jealousy, because they thought his principles were lax in regard to the obligations of the Jewish law. Paul did not bind himself nor his converts to the ceremonies or the customs of the Jews, with their varied forms, types, and sacrifices; for he recognized that the perfect and final offering had been made in the death of the Son of God.
The feeling of hatred with many of the Jews was now intensified. The increased success of Paul in presenting Christ to the people, roused the unbelieving Jews to more determined opposition. The opposition which the apostle had to meet was not alone outside the Church, for he met with trial and conflicts in the Church as well as out of it. Factions arose through the influence of Judaizing teachers who urged that the converts to Christianity should observe the ceremonial law in the matter of circumcision. They sincerely thought that in taking this medium ground between Jew and Christian, they would succeed in removing the odium which attached to Christianity, and would gather in large numbers of the Jews.