Early church; Paul was so cool.

Paul was a bitter and energetic destroyer of the early church. Peter and the 10 remaining disciples of Jesus, after the ascension of our Lord, as ordered by Him, remained in Jerusalem for 40 days and gathered in the upper room in the day of Pentecost, where they received the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues.

The disciples had to find a replacement for the dead Judas Iscariot, and did that by lot casting and Mathias was chosen. The Holy Spirit inspired great works of Jesus Christ through the hands and words of the disciples in a way that shook the ancient world. For this reason, they were like the ‘enemies of the state’ of the Roman Empire colonised Jews.

One Saul, heard about the new doctrine and was vehemently opposed to its existance. He carried the clothes and lunchboxes for the murderers of the first matyr, Stephen and went on to ask the High Priest for special permission to cause havoc, arrest and imprison the preachers of Jesus Christ in the early Church. He said in Acts  22v4 ‘And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.’ and Acts 26v11: ‘And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.’

Through the miraculous work of God, Saul was converted becoming Paul. Gal 1v13: ‘For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it’ also mentioning in Acts 9v3: ‘And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.’ and was the biggest character of the New Testament, beside the King, Lord Jesus Christ. But then, who was Paul?

Paul (formerly Saul) came Tarsus (no mean city), a town known for its high class education, probably the best private schools in the history of the Ancient times. He was an Israelite, a Jew, a born free Roman, a Pharisee, an orator and probably a lawyer who was multi lingual, speaking and able to write Greek, Hebrew, Latin and probably other languages. He could ride a horse.

Paul spoke well and was very bold, though not very big physically. His boldness can be seen when he stood up against Simon Peter for saying something he did not agree with, despite Peter having seen and been with Jesus Christ. Despite not having met Jesus Christ in flesh, the Holy Spirit drove him more than any other person known.

For the Lord Jesus that he ‘prosecuted’, Paul suffered physical brutality of the highest degree for a learned man and a man of his reasoning capacity and stature. He suffered humiliation and pains of indescent proportions and never gave up. What a man!

You do not have to be Paul. Just believe.

Teachings of Paul in The Acts and Epistles

These days, new churches and TV programs teach chiefly about prosperity, and I think the message of the early church has been made to lose sting. I like these churches and their message and I am a member of one. I have managed to steer my thinking in a way of giving and I surely receive. If that could be then, end of things, then many are doomed.

Like the Epistles written by John and Peter, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is the key. Rom:3:27: ‘Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. v28: Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.’ Jews wanted the law thing to be paramount, primarily circumcision. If you cut a fore skin you would be saved. Sad.

Faith is to believe in the ability of God to give you anything you want without doubting. That is Biblical. The early church preaching, days, weeks or months after the Lord Jesus Christ defeated death and ascended, was that as in 1 Cor :2:5: ‘That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.’ Paul went on to say in 1 Cor :13:13: ‘And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.’

A line after that, he explains that faith should be based on the resurrection of the Lord, because if Christ never rose, then everybody is wasting time. Historically and otherwise, the overwhelming evidence of the resurrection and ascension is every where. Many people would fancy it being easier to believe in those days.

After going through scriptures earnestly several times, I found two options to deal with matters of time. Either I took and placed myself in the shoes of people of ancient times and then ask myself what would make me different from them. Most of these guys went about their sinful lives as if there was no tomorrow. Somebody pops up and tell you someone was born and then died and then rose.

Or I would take the times and bring them forward to the time I started to be a man, say of 18, and I knew all the details of what Simon Peter and Paul of Tarsus were preaching. With all archaeological and historical evidence we see on the History, National Geographical and BBC Channels and the like, it would be folly to ignore them.

Now with all we have, we have to believe these things happened and that, as says in Gal:3:25: ‘But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. v26: For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.’ The faith in Jesus is something one has to confess by their own mouth and truly believing that whatever they confess is honestly true, that Jesus is Christ and Lord. This, Paul and others mention at all times.

You can do that right here, right now. God loves you.