Reflections on Acts 9:28-30

I have been reading Frank Stagg’s commentary on the Book of Acts. There are many fascinating insights into Luke’s purpose for writing. One thing that struck me this morning was Stagg’s comments on Acts 9:28-30.

“Saul’s sharpest conflict in Jerusalem was precisely where it could have been expected, with the Hellenists. As shown earlier, the influences under which the Hellenistic Jews had lived could make them more liberal in attitude toward Gentiles or could bring about a reactionary spirit in which they would become the most fanatical champions of separation.”

This observation reminded me of some of the Christians that I have known over the years. Particularly, I am reminded of the Christians who have become believers in their young adulthood after a wild youth. Usually, these Christians have spent their college years drinking, sleeping around and using drugs and generally living the life of careless abandon. When they do become believers they rightfully look back at their old life in shame and attempt not to have their children repeat their mistakes. This usually involves stricter parenting and results in a stricter childhood than most other kids would normally experience. No secular music, no television, no public schools. Basically, the parents become a self-righteous and zealous Ned Flanders.

It would seem that so much youthful recklessness causes these adult believers to swing to the opposite extreme. That is always a danger but, sadly, it is normal for humans. A person brought up in a strict, conservative home may swing toward liberalism. A person brought up in an undisciplined, liberal home may swing toward conservatism. And typically, the adult “swingers” become highly antagonistic toward their opposite views. I think this maybe a reason why there are so many legalistic conservatives these days; they are all reacting against the undisciplined liberalism of their youth. Hence, all that is liberal, or perceived as liberal, or non-Biblical is considered anathema and reviled.

Now, this is certainly not true in all cases. Some former rebels emerge as “moderates”, understanding where they have come from and the reasons why they went there in the first place. These people have a more understanding attitude toward “liberals” while still maintaining disapproval. These cases maintain discipline with their children while not isolating them from the world or causing them to rebel later in life in reaction to a legalistic upbringing.

I am reminded of a quote from the late Ray Stedman. He wrote:

“After pastoring for forty years I can state unequivocally that the most common cause of spiritual weakness in a Christian (or a church) is a failure to recognize the flesh in its disguise of religious zeal. Like Peter flashing a sword in Gethsemane the fleshly Christian thinks he is doing God's will and fighting God's battles for him.”

I think our problem as conservative Christians is that we are so concerned with 1) protecting ourselves from sin, and 2) battling a culture that does not hold our values, that we have isolated ourselves from having a real and authentic impact on an unbelieving culture. What do I mean?

We are so concerned about “catching” sin that we pull away from all secular culture and secular institutions. We have begun to equate being “of” the world with being “in” the world. Therefore, we pull our kids out of public schools. We do not do so to help them get a better education, we do so in order that they do not catch the sin of others. Not only do we deprive the lost of Christian influence but we deprive our kids of the chance of learning how to relate to the lost. Selfish. Also, we have become so concerned with secular culture that we have recoiled against contemporary secular music, TV and movies, but mainly music. Most fellow believers will inform me of the latest bloody action flick or the latest sex-related reality TV show but when I mention the newest Beck album they reply that they only listen to Christian music. I mean, what is the difference that causes so many Christians to avoid secular music? Here is the difference: conservatives have invested much of the last twenty years spelling out the evils of music. TV and movies only followed to a lesser degree. We have come to the point where we can almost never relate to non-Christians on a casual level, removing any chance that they can see the difference Christ has made in our lives. Or maybe he hasn’t made a difference (Matt. 9:10-12).

We conservatives have so removed ourselves from having any influence upon the culture that we are continually facing an ever-growing foreign body. Now, we appear to be not so much concerned about people not being reconciled to God as we are at the fact that the culture does reflect our values. We are upset that we don’t have more Christian music, Christian TV, and Christian films. We are not so upset that people are going to hell as much as we are that our culture is going to hell. So we have a culture war where we are trying to get the unbelieving community to behave like believers and show a believing culture. We are in the world, we are not of the world, but we would rather the world be of us, at least then we would have something entertaining and, more to the point, people would not make fun of us and the culture would reflect “us.” Selfish.

So when the unbelieving culture turns their back on us, we turn their back on them; and we lose another generation for Christ. My mentor, Dr. Jack Glaze, once said, “that every generation is one step from paganism.” What he meant was that each generation must decide whether or not they will follow the God of their fathers. If we look at the history of Israel we will see that some generations did not always follow God as their fathers had.

Which brings me back to the book of Acts. The Jews of Jesus’ time were highly nationalistic and legalistic. The nation of Israel and the book of the law was everything to them, so much so that God ended up being nothing. That God would not show partiality to a particular people, that the Jews were not more special than the Gentiles, that the Gentiles had as much right to access God as the Jews, that the Gentiles did not have to become Jews to come to God was a stumbling block that the Jewish people have never collectively overcome. One reason I dislike Dispensationalism is that it holds the Jewish people up to a place where they no longer are and never really were. Galatians 3:28 anyone? The book of Revelation is “the” book for dispensationalist but they have it all backwards: the book does not speak of Israel’s salvation but their divorce. The Jewish generation of Jesus’ time was one step from paganism and decided not to follow the God of their fathers and rejected Christ. They pulled away from God and the Gentiles, therefore, God pulled away from them toward the Gentiles.

Let us not suppose that we are better than the first century Jews. Let us not suppose we are better than the Roman Catholics. Let us not suppose that we are better than the Protestant liberals of Europe and America. We are only one generation away from paganism; we could be spiritually dead. If our reaction to the culture is such that we decide to play God and give the lost over to themselves, if we decide to fight the cultural battles on the world’s terms and try to win the culture before winning the people, if we decide to wave our swords in the garden of Gethsemane to usher in an earthly Kingdom of God, don’t think God won’t smite our institution with a curse. If we as Southern Baptists and conservative Christians pull back from our duty to be salt of the earth and witnesses of Christ then don’t think God won’t remove His Spirit from among us.