seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Acts 21:37 As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”
“Do you speak Greek?” he replied. 38 “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”
39 Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”
40 After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic:
Acts 22:1 “Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”
2 When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.
Then Paul said: 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. 4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5 as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
6 “About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
8 “‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied. 9 My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me.
10 “‘What shall I do, Lord?’ I asked.
“ ‘Get up,’ the Lord said, ‘and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.’ 11 My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me.
12 “A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. 13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
17 “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance 18 and saw the Lord speaking to me. ‘Quick!’ he said. ‘Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.’
19 “‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. 20 And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’
21 “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”
Well, it sounds like a good story. "I saw the light". How many fake preachers have I heard say the same thing???? Probably a dozen. Then they beat their wives and children, or slept with a parishioner [or her children] or took money off the top of the offering plate. All the while claiming, "The Lord will provide.".
He claims to have taken the high road. Ok then. Are we sure he's not making a mockery of it all?
You know.... When people are being sarcastic, they state a fake fact, and then they state it plainly as a truth.... and people just suck it up as the truth.... because people really want to believe. People believed Hitler, and Charles Manson. They "saw the light".
Did Theodore McCarrick see the light? Did Ted Haggard see the light before or after he laid with a male prostitute?
The only verses in this whole posting that give any of this any credence are verses 12 & 13. Ananias could testify to the truthfulness of this statement. Without his testimony.... it's just the guy who held the coats of the men who beat Stephen to death, claiming to be part of the "Way" to keep from being hung on a cross of his own.
In this case... We do have Ananias. Ananias was not a willing participant in this. God told Ananias that Paul was coming to him. God told Ananias to heal Paul... that it would be ok. Paul wouldn't drag him into the streets and beat him to death as he did Stephen. Paul was the one who held the coats... He wasn't the beater. Paul was the one who yanked defenseless people out of their homes, backed by a Roman Guard. Paul wasn't the beater. Ananias could testify. But where is Ananias?
How many guilty men have said "Wait, let me explain! Wait! Wait!" while being drug off to prison.
"Wait, let me explain!"
