They Will Not Receive Thy Testimony: Acts 22: 17-21

Posted : 9 Aug, 2012 04:15 AM

They Will Not Receive Thy Testimony: Acts 22: 17-21



Acts 22: 17-21 says: "And it came to pass, that, when I was come again to

Jerusalem, even

while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance;



18 And saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of

Jerusalem: for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.



19 And I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every

synagogue them that believed on thee:



20 And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was

standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of

them that slew him.



21 And he said unto me, Depart: for I will send thee far hence unto

the Gentiles."



"Him" is Jesus Christ in verse 18 who spoke to Paul who says he was in a

trance. Trance is Strong's number 1611, ekstasis, "a displacement of

the mind, i.e., bewilderment, ecstasy, ...astonishment, trance."



Paul was not hallucinating. This text describes a rational

conversation that Christ had with Paul, in which Paul was told by

Christ "they will not receive thy testimony concerning me."



Jesus Christ told Paul that the Jews would not hear Paul's testimony

about Christ and the Gospel of Christ.



Now, after the falling away of II Thessalonians 2; 3-4 and the

leavening of the churches of Luke 13: 21 which began in the 19th

century with several Christian cults - the Jehovah's Witnesses, the

Mormons, 7th Day Adventists, Christian Science, British Israelite or

Christian Identity theology and dispensationalism - many who claim to

be Christians will not hear the truth of the Gospel of Christ. They

will only hear that part of the New Testament which agrees with their

cultic theology.



They do not like it when Paul in Romans 2: 28-29 is quoted saying that

the real Jews are not those of the flesh, but those who are Jews

inwardly are the real Jews, and that Revelation 2: 9 says of Christ

that "I know the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and are

not, but are of the synagogue of Satan" agrees with Romans 2: 28-29.

They do not accept Romans 9: 6-8, that they are not all Israel,which

are of Israel, and that the children of the flesh, these are not the

children of God.



They will not accept Galatians 4: 25-26, that the literal, physical

Jerusalem which is, is in bondage with her children, and that the

Jerusalem which is above is free and is the mother of us all.

Jerusalem stands for Israel.



Above all they will not hear the truth that in Romans 11: 26 when Paul

says "And so all Israel shall be saved" he is not talking about all

physical Israel, the children of the flesh, the outward Jew, those in

bondage to the law , but is saying that after the Cross and after the

Day of Pentecost there is only one saved or elect Israel, the Israel

transformed in Christ and reborn in him.



And - now we are seeing a rise of the Hebrew Roots movement, Sacred

Name Theology and Messianic Judaism, which, along with some of the

cults mentioned above, believe that the Old Covenant teaching that the

physical descendants of Abraham remain the chosen people of God.

These people will not hear any message from the New Testament which is

different from their theology that they are the chosen people, or

that those who claim descent from a tribe of Israel are the chosen

based on genetics.



Paul and Barnabas, in Acts 15: 2, contended for the truth of Christ's Gospel against the leaven of the

Pharisees. It says there was "no small dissension and disputation

with them," that is, with the Pharisees, some of whom now claimed to

be Christians, but were promoting the leaven of the Pharisees (Luke

12: 1, Mark 8: 15).



There are many ways of trying to return to parts of the

Old Covenant, to the shadows (Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2: 17) which pointed to the

substance which was Christ. The Pharisees in Acts 15 who claimed to be Christians, without authority from James, Peter and John in Jerusalem, taught that the Gentile Christians had to become circumcised to be saved, and keep other ceremonial laws of Moses. But teaching that circumcision, something entirely in the flesh, is necessary for spiritual salvation certainly does not exhaust the leaven of the Pharisees, which is a major source of apostasy in the end times. When those who say they are

Christians become surrogates or proxies for All Physical Israel, the majority of whom rejected Christ and continue to do so, this also is part of the leaven of the Pharisees.



Matthew 10: 14 "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your

words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of

your feet."

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