"After he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, 'You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law; and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.'"
— Acts 21:19-21 (NASB)

The very first thing Satan tried to do to the Church is to Judaize it. If he can get believers to come to the false notion that they must live under both Covenants, he can marginalize, nominalize, and even vaporize them. Paul's earliest epistle to the Galatians primarily deals with this problem in the Early Church. Traditionally we would most likely associate this with Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-day Adventists, but it is a problem that has roared back in this present church age which often calls itself "Messianic" or the "Hebrew Roots Movement". I am not saying everyone who adopts these terms is automatically false, but it appears that very large percentages of claimants are attempting to get people to adopt a dual-covenant theology demanding that it is required to first convert to Judaism before being able to embrace Christianity.

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"'Therefore, I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.'"
— Acts 20:26-27 (NASB)

Paul here summarizes his life where the preaching of the Gospel is concerned. Regardless of whether some responded positively to it, ignored it completely, or became so engraged that they persecuted him just for preaching it, Paul is "innocent of the blood of all men" because he never failed to preach the Gospel to everyone who came across his path. Paul took it so personally that he saw it as being personally responsible for someone who could have heard the Gospel through Paul but because he did not, died spiritually as a result.

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"The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men."
— Acts 17:10-12 (NASB)

It is a healthy and oft-stated admonition to "be a Berean", a phrase which most often encourages us to search the Scriptures to validate what is and is not God's Truth. After all we know that, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ". (Rom. 10:17) All things must be measured against the standard of God's Word. But I wonder if we truly appreciate how the literal Bereans went about confirming the authenticity of the New Testament Gospel by the Old Testament Scriptures?

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"But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. When the jailer awoke and saw the prison doors opened, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul cried out with a loud voice, saying, 'Do not harm yourself, for we are all here!'"
— Acts 16:25-28 (NASB)

I am always completely astounded by this event. I am quite sure that if I found myself in prison for my faith and an act of God shook the prison doors open and the chains off my hands and feet, that I would be sprinting to freedom, not still sitting around when the jailer came by. And yet there sat Paul and Silas. Apparently Spirit-led Christians recognize that no matter where they are physically, they have already been liberated spiritually and see a greater need to reach the true spiritual prisoners than to secure their own safety.

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"Barnabas wanted to take John, called Mark, along with them also. But Paul kept insisting that they should not take him along who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there occurred such a sharp disagreement that they separated from one another, and Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus."
— Acts 15:37-39 (NASB)

If I were to pursue a scholarly paper purely for the sake of research, one of them might be how various Bible commentators interpret what came from this incident. There are those who assert that this is the source of Paul's very difficult second missionary journey, implying that he suffered ill consequences for his actions. Others point to the fact that future references to Barnabas and Mark by Paul would indicate that some kind of reconciliation took place and all that such might imply. And of course there are a myriad of variations in between. What fascinates me is the way people interpret "a sharp disagreement", particularly how so many take it to at least mean something very negative if not downright rooted in sin.

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"After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, 'Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.'"
— Acts 14:21-22 (NASB)

When looking at the book of Acts as some kind of guide for the church it is a healthy exercise to make note of the specific activities which took place. The Apostles were faithful to the Great Commission in that we can take notice that everywhere they went they never merely made converts, but took the necessary time to make disciples. And it was not always taking place under ideal conditions. Previously they had to flee this region, made disciples in the course of their new encounters, but were faithful to come back and finish the process of discipleship even in a place where it was made the most difficult. They were not just preaching the theoreticaly but providing a living example that "Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God".

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"But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him, and said, 'You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?'"
— Acts 13:8-10 (NASB)

It is important to note that in verse 6, this self-proclaimed "magician" is first identified as "a Jewish false prophet". It seems that most if not all false prophets come in the character of Jannes and Jambres, Pharaoh's court magicians who, to a point, imitated Moses and Aaron the true prophets of God. Here we are provided with the ultimate goal of false prophets, to turn others "away from the faith". Just like a magician who uses misdirection to redirect the audience's attention from what they are really doing, false prophets are intent on getting believers to look away from the true faith toward a counterfeit one.

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