Acts CaseEssay Preview: Acts CaseReport this essayIn the following reading every aspect of this paper is information that I knew nothing of before I read it for this class. If it seems that I am telling you things that you have read before I am truly sorry because it is all new to me. So there for I have learned all of whats in my paper as I will state.
I have learned that Acts starts to tell the story of what happened after Jesus went to heaven. Its about Jesus having his Twelve Apostles to spread the Gospel throughout the world. Peter serves as the leader of the apostles and the small congregation of the faithful in Jerusalem. Their first thing to do was to elect Matthias as the twelfth apostle, replacing the traitor Judas Iscariot. I went on to explore why Judas was a traitor so that was something I learned. I found it interesting that they cast lots to make such a decision. I thought that Jesus would just make it for them. During the year of Jesuss death and resurrection, the disciples are gathered for Pentecost, a religious holiday celebrating the grain harvest. I have always heard of Pentecost but never knew what it was to this was something that was really interesting to learn about.
I spent a while exploring the different aspects of the New Testament. I did some Bible study then read Acts and John’s first letter. It is not all well received at the present time, but it makes for a fascinating read.
What was your experience?
During my time there, I learned that the Old Testament is not as good as the New. It has a lot more twists and turns about it, but it does not change much as a whole. There are a variety of things which we could make as different branches of our interpretation of the Bible, such as what happened before his life. I would say that most people were more familiar with the historical background and the early Christian texts in general, especially when reading the pre-Christian. Some of that was written in the New Testament, but I learned a lot about the Old Testament that the New had not experienced.
Were you involved with the pre-Christian movement in the early 1990’s, when the church was in the wilderness and a lot of the church leaders were trying to get all the information out and make it public?
I was involved but was not completely independent. As a result, people still do not know the truth of what happened while they were in the wilderness. Sometimes after something like four years of ministry, people are able to see things not only in the New Testament but even in a really interesting way. I can remember one Christian who said to me, “I’d rather have a Christian preacher than another. I would rather see the light of Jesus getting out than not have a Christian preacher and a Catholic. I’d rather see the light of the Lord getting out than not having a Christian preacher because he is a good teacher and has a good ministry.” In the early 1990’s a lot of people were asking what was going on and I just told them the facts and said “Well, this is the Bible and not the book.” So I was the one telling them to get out of the wilderness. The Bible is the one we have and certainly not the book. That was not because I was telling the Bible or I wanted to hear something from church brass. It was because I wanted to know more and not just learn more.
Was it hard to stay away for much of the rest of your life?
My family didn’t have many Christian friends and was not going anywhere. I knew my mother was an atheist but my father was a Baptist. I wasn’t trying to be a “cool chick” and just doing what was right for the church was too much. Because I was able to stay out of trouble, I felt that my life wouldn’t be quite as horrible as it was I thought it’d be. I felt that I had lost a lot with the Church and needed to go on living more freely. Eventually I got married and just came out of the church and ended up in the United States where I found myself in the church. After I became a Christian I was able to say I was going to be a religious person. When my church started getting interested in me, I thought about going back and becoming a religious person and getting baptized. This changed dramatically because I wanted a place where I could see the world and not be the “big boy boy” that people see me now. I was able to really see people from within the
So I learned that when the Holy Spirit came they began to speak another language called tongues. Peter delivers a sermon explaining the miracle. He says that the gift of tongues is given to prophets. I didnt know that tongues was actually called a language, I just thought it was something some people did in a spiritual sense. I learned from Peter because he gives scriptural proof that Jesus is the Messiah, the savior whom God promises in the Old Testament to send to save Jews from their adversity. A man named Barnabas is particularly praised for his generosity, and a couple that defrauds the church is stricken dead, that I found interesting because that goes to show how God truly works and how karma works.
This is also something I found interesting, the Sadducee high priests of the temple, do not believe in the resurrection of the dead. They brought Peter and John before the Jewish high court, where Peter preaches the Gospel fearlessly. At this point I learned that shows how much of a fighter he is and how much he is truly serving God. The court, which is called the Sanhedrin, recognizes that public opinion is in favor of the apostles and releases them with only a warning. It showed how yet even in that time there where believers and non-believers. Brought again before the court, Peter leads the apostles in their defense, saying, “We must obey God rather than any human authority” (5:29). Gamaliel, warns them, “You will not be able to overthrow them–in that case you may even be found fighting against God,” the court declines to execute the apostles, who continue preaching throughout Jerusalem (5:39). I think they got scared of this higher power that they did not believe in. An Im surprised that Peter saying that he chose Gods word