The Two Tests: The Supernatural Claims of Christianity Tried by Two of Its Own RulesLisle, Lionel
Religion
The Two Tests: The Supernatural Claims of Christianity Tried by Two of Its Own Rules
Lisle, Lionel
Apologetics
(h.) Acts ix. 1-9. As Paul was on the way to Damascus, with authority
from the high priests to the synagogues there, to arrest and to bring to
Jerusalem all who professed to believe on Jesus, a brilliant light shone
around him, whereupon he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying,
"Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" Paul replied, "Who art thou,
Lord?" The voice answered, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest: it
is hard for thee to kick against the pricks." "And he, trembling and
astonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said
unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what
thou must do." On getting up he found himself blind, and was led by
the hand to Damascus. The men who were with him stood speechless. _They
heard a voice_, but they saw no man.
Acts xxii. 6-21. This passage contains an address said to have been
delivered by Paul himself, in which the foregoing wondrous event is
related, but with one important contradiction,--"They that were with me
saw indeed the light, and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of
him that spake to me."
Acts xxvi. 15-18. Paul here asserted that the voice from heaven uttered
the following:--"I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But rise and stand
upon thy feet, for I have appeared to thee for this purpose, to make
thee a minister and a witness," &c. This is very different from Acts
ix., where he is directed to go into the city, and that there it
would be told him what he should do. Paul (Acts xxvi. 19-20) added,
"Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly
vision; but showed first unto them at Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and
throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles," &c.
These are Luke's statements, in the Acts, with reference to the
appearance of Jesus to Paul. The subsequent movements of the apostle, on
the same authority, were,--
(Luke, 1.) After being cured of his blindness by the laying on of the
hands of Ananias, he preached in Damascus that Jesus was Christ.
(Luke, 2.) The Jews being desirous of killing him, he fled to Jerusalem.
The disciples at first were chary of their quondam persecutor, but,
assured by Barnabas, who took-him and brought him to the apostles, they
received him into their fellowship.
(Luke, 3.) He disputed against the Grecians (Hellenised Jews?), who went
about to-slay him. On this he was taken by the brethren to Cæsarea, and
thence sent on to Tarsus.
(Luke, 4.) Persecution forced many Christian Jews to leave Judea and to
settle at Antioch. Barnabas was sent by the Church at Jerusalem to visit
them. He rejoiced at their liveliness in the faith, and then went to
Tarsus to find Paul, whom he brought back to Antioch. They were there
together a whole year. The disciples were called Christians first in
Antioch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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