Christianity had begun. Would it be “peace on earth and good will toward men” for the glory of God (Luke 2:14) or “division” (Luke 12:51) with violence (Mat 10:34). Soon after the disciples were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26), Christians were already “thorns in the sides” of Jews. The opposition were the thorns pricking the innocent.
Jesus had said to Paul (Saul at that time), “It is hard for
thee to kick against the pricks” (Act 9:5). Jesus implied that Christians had
worked on the conscience of Saul, but he angrily fought the Spirit. Here they
were in Macedonia, and the Jews were still kicking against the pricks, and Paul
was that time the one goading them. The pricking of Christianity were the
thorns in the side.
KEY VERSES: 10 And the brethren immediately sent away (from Thessalonica) Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed; also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men, not a few. 13 But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also, and stirred up the people. (Act 17:10-13)
The Christians had been kicked against in Thessalonica, and the same would
occur in Berea. While the Christians were teaching the Jews in Thessalonica,
many Greeks were also convinced. They were persuaded to become
Christians, not almost persuaded like Agrippa, but fully persuaded.
Regeneration begins at rebirth, and that is the time anyone is persuaded
that Jesus is “Yahweh Protecting.” Once that is done, then the convert
submits to God, and then God protects with the baptism of the Holy Ghost of
Jesus (Act 11:16). The proof that Christians continue as such is joy in
commerce with the Holy Ghost.
Some Jews were moved, but some were not. There are always two possible
responses to conviction: persuasion or rejection. Persuasion leads to connectivity,
but rejection to dissension and rebellion. What did the unbelieving Jews do at
Thessalonica?
5 The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, “These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also…” (Act 17:5-6)
The unbelieving Jews gathered “certain lewd fellows of the
baser sort …and set all the city in an uproar.” Thessalonica was their “Portland”
in that the more peaceful Jews found baser people to terrorize the people.
Jason was a Christian, sitting peacefully at home, when the mob gathered as a
company at his house. Jason was the “Mark McCloskey”of Thessalonica. What was
he guilty of? Believing in freedom and Jesus! What was McCloskey guilty of? The
same charges.
The lewd fellows said, “These that have turned the world
upside down are come hither also.” That was true; Christianity had turned the
world upside down and would continue to do so. The Jews had drifted away
from Yahweh, and where had they gone? They drifted from the River of God
(the Jordan) into the “Dead Sea.”
The Religion of the Living God had become the religion of
dead people. The angels at the tomb said it well, “Why seek ye the living among
the dead?” Paul had found the dead in Thessalonica, but many of them chose life
instead. Rather than happiness at their conversion, the Jews became angry, and
sought revenge. They chose to remain the dead among the living. The Church
today has a few “living” among the dead congregation. Many Christians, out of
ignorance, have joined the movement against civility.
There is much dissension about free will. Calvinists propose
that free will is one-way; that due to original sin, mankind can only be persuaded
away from Jesus. On the other side, Arminians believe that mankind can
be persuaded to become Christians. At both Thessalonica and Berea, many
were persuaded to become Christians. Calvinists would consider that “work” on
the behalf of people and reject it, but it was not really Paul who persuaded
but God. Paul only mouthed the Words that God gave him, and many Jews and
Gentiles — the latter not chosen people — were finally convinced that Jesus IS
Yahweh.
The dissension was because of two different mindsets. The disbelieving
Jews treasured their narrative so well that they would wreak havoc in Thessalonica
and Berea. That was due to either one of two things or both: (1) That they
misunderstood their own beliefs and (2)
they understood but were too proud to admit it. People to the present time
react the same way when their false beliefs are confronted. They had become the
“gods” and what they believed was the “gospel truth.” They could not stand the
idea that the Man Jesus was their Yahweh; that meek carpenter “man” and the
God of the proudest people in the world!
The same goes for today. Left-leaning people are hard to convince
that Marx was a confused man, Utopia a mere fantasy, and that socialism is not the
salvation of the oppressed. They either misunderstand Marxist Doctrine or are
too proud to admit that they just might be wrong. What does Christianity teach?
Love and unity! What does socialism teach? Violent revolution and division. Socialism
is classism: the evil capitalists, the meek commoners, and the all-knowing bureaucracy
who are the lewd baser sort that will fight the revolution for the cowards. It was
Thessalonica all over again in Berea, and it is Thessalonica all over again in
America. The contingency of socialism is the baser lewd sort that the timid use
for their violent revolutions.
Berea, according to the key passage, consisted of Jews, “more
noble than those in Thessalonica.” The brethren went there by night, ostensibly
to prevent more violence from the mob of base fellows at Thessalonica. They
would move to a more peaceful city, but where Christians go, the mob will
follow. Proud people cannot tolerate that others believe differently; they must
intimidate others to believe the same.
Islam, for instance, is not a “peaceful religion.” It is
made up of mostly compliant people who use the baser sort for the propagation
of their false beliefs. Surely in their hearts, Muslims do not believe that love
is more powerful than the sword but use the ‘sword” of the “unholy spirit” for
conversion.
They want a worldwide religion, not to save their people
from the wrath of God, but to own the world. Why would they do that? Because
they cannot tolerate the idea that people believe “Yahweh saves” rather
than Allah. They defend their false narrative, and many even know it is
wrong, but defend it out of pride.
Why do Muslims flock to socialism and the Democrat Party? Because
the “enemy of my enemy is my friend.” (The Arthashastra, ca 4th
century BC). United together, Islam and Communism believe that they can defeat
Jesus, and after all, Sharia Law is communism!
The people of Berea were more “free-thinking;” their
attribute was “all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily.” Bereans
were the more open-minded than the rigid-thinking Jews and free-thinking
Greeks. Their minds were ready to find the truth and disregard their old strongholds
of rigid thought. They wanted to find the truth, not continue in their version
of the truth (perversion) that they had been taught.
Who offered the truth? The apostles. Where did they claim
the truth could be found? In the very Words of Yahweh! They had no New Testament.
They found the truth on what is now called the “Old Testament.” How could that
be? There are not two testaments; it was the Covenant of Grace all along when God
made the Abrahamic Covenant. The Jews had the same promise as the Christians,
and that, by the way, is the “Mystery of Christ” of which Paul wrote.
What is truth? as the Greeks would ask. The truth is
that Jesus is indeed “Yahweh saves.” Why did Jews accept the lie of socialism
in the 19th and 20th centuries? Because the enemy of
their enemy is their friend; because Marx denied religion, and they seemed
willing to give up their Yahweh to rid themselves of Jesus. They did
that at Thessalonica and Berea as well. They defied the Law and hated their brothers,
but that was enough reason to diminish Christ.
The Bereans sought the true “truth” by looking for it in
their own Bible (The Torah). Why would they do that? To find out, “whether
those things were so.” When they found out that Judaism is Christianity, that became
a problem. When people find out that Utopia is not Heaven, that too can be a
problem for socialists!
When people began to accept the truth, what did the
unbelievers do? They “stirred up the people.” They created chaos in Berea just as
they had in Thessalonica. The mob always works that way! They did that during
the French socialist revolutions time and time again, and in Russia’s socialist
revolution. Those who cannot tolerate the truth always turn to the streets.
What is happening at the present? Democrats deny the truth. What is the truth? The
lewd and base Democrats are doing what the timid loud-mouthed rigidly socialist
Party leaders are too cowards to do themselves.
When Democrat Mayor Ted Weaver joined the violent protests in
Portland, what did he do? He quickly retreated as the mob turned on him. The
coward ran because the base people were too base for him. Coward socialists
need the lewd and base people to do their revolution for them, and ironically,
people like Wheeler who are in high positions will be the few who profit from
their revolution of ignorance. Elite free-thinking socialists support the mob,
thinking that in the end the mob would never turn on them. Nearly every time socialism
seems to have won the hearts of people, the mob destroys the socialist elitists
and then the mob rules. That is the M.O. of rebellious human beings.
Every time there is a socialist in power, the tactics to
retain power are lewd and base. Socialism is merely the theory that destroys
countries, but communism is the mob of base lewd fellows that does the actual
destruction!
Keep that in mind when you vote. Will the rigid socialists
do anything different than they have before or will the Antifa and Black Lives
Matter mob rule? The gang of four depends on the mob but Biden remains too proud
to acknowledge that he is merely the humble leader the mob uses for their violence,
and if he becomes president, he will be quickly deposed by the mob the same as
Wheeler in Portland and Lightfoot in Chicago. Think out of the box. Think rightly when you elect who leads you. Have you the mentality of the mob, or is it
peace that you want?
(picture credit: The Boston Globe):
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