An exposition of Acts 26-28 and its eschatological implications.
SOLUSI UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF THEOLOGY AND RELIGIOUS STUDIES
TOPIC: A TYPOLOGICAL EXPOSITION OF ACTS 26-27, WITH ESCHATOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS.
A RESEARCH PAPER PREPARED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE COURSE
RELB 371 ACTS AND EPISTLES 1.
WRITEN BY LAMULANI B NGWENYA ID# 2 0 1 2 1 2 0 1 0 2
INSTRUCTOR Ps F Mhlophe
August BLOCK 2016
Paul had wanted to travel to Jerusalem1.
He purposed in his heart to make his way to Judea. After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit, when he
had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying,
After I have been there, I must also see Rome. (Acts 19:21 [KJVPCE]).
This journey to Rome
has typological implications to the Seventh Day Adventist church
today. The history of the Millerite movement and the power that
attended their preaching made the gospel of the three angels
profound. They left all and the reality of heaven was ‘tangible’
to them. His journey had a signature of disaster. The Spirit of God
spoke against the journey2.
At Caesarea Paul stayed with the family of Philip and his four
daughters. They probably also admonished Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
God sent another individual called Agabus who was a prophet as well3.
Paul was very much
determined to travel to Jerusalem. He was willing to die, for the
Lord there. Thought the prophet had given statements to the effect
that he will be bound hands feet there.
And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his
own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the
Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall
deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. (Acts 21:11 [KJVPCE]).
The disciples were
very much afraid for Paul’s life. They wept sore. Paul was
determined to go. At the peril of his life, he did not even thin
about flinching at the sight of horror and danger. Brave and
undaunted he tenderly and affectionately, but firmly reproached4
his friends for trying to work against his goals. His face was set
fast to go to Jerusalem,
But bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast
that cometh in Jerusalem: but I will return again unto you, if God
will. And he sailed from Ephesus Acts 18:21 [KJVPCE]
He intended to go to
Rome because he had written to the Romans seeking an audience with
them. It may be also that his reason for going to Rome it was because
he wanted to use it as a launch pad for his evangelistic campaigns in
Spain.
Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I
trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way
thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with
your company...[KJVPCE] Romans 15:24…
His longing to go to
Rome, can be seen in the following verse, “...but now having no
more place in these parts, and having a great desire these many years
to come unto you...” (Romans 15:23 [KJVPCE].
On his arrival to
Jerusalem he was received gladly. Barnes states that he had been
absent from them for quite some time and they were very happy to see
the had arrived to them in one piece, “...they had been long
absent. They had been into distant regions, and had encountered many
dangers. It was a matter of joy that they had now returned in
safety”5.
And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the
church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things
that God had done with them [KJVPCE] Acts 15:4.
Knowing the effect
the Paul heard on the Jews, the elders admonished him to play a
conciliatory role. It was understood that there were rumors
circulating that Paul spoke against the law of Moses;
“And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews
which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought
not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs”.
(Acts 21:21 [KJVPCE].
So in order to show
his Jewishness Paul was forced to go into the temple and perform some
Jewish ritual. However it all back fired.
“And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of
Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and
laid hands on him, Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man,
that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law,
and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and
hath polluted this holy place. (For they had seen before with him in
the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had
brought into the temple.)” Paul is arrested and falsely accused of
defiling the temple. Confirming that he was a hater of Moses’ law.
And all the city was
moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him
out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut. (Acts 21:27-30
[KJVPCE]). Paul is lynched. He was penalty is declared “...The
chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade
that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know wherefore
they cried so against him”. (Acts 22:24 [KJVPCE]).
The council set and
Paul is accused and condemned. Agubus’ prophecy was not meant to
stop Paul from going to Jerusalem but it tended to show what was
going to happen when he went to Jerusalem. In verse eleven the Lord
appeared to Paul to affirm his missionary journey;
And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good
cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must
thou bear witness also at Rome. (Acts 23:11 [KJVPCE]. Barnes again
asserts that this was proof that God approved of Paul’s way.
“...The appearance of the Lord in this case was a proof that he
approved the course which Paul had taken before the Sanhedrin”6.
The people who were
testifying against Paul could not prove his guilt7.
It was at this point that Festus, after having succeeded Felix,
inquired weather Paul would wish to go and be tried in Jerusalem8.
Paul knowing the dangers that awaited him there, he requested to
stand before Augustus Caesar. It was a right for a Roman citizen to
request that he be heard by the emperor, if he believes that he was
justly tried. Clark makes these comments,
A freeman of Rome, who had been tried for a crime, and sentence
passed on him, had a right to appeal to the emperor, if he conceived
the sentence to be unjust; but, even before the sentence was
pronounced, he had the privilege of an appeal, in criminal cases, if
he conceived that the judge was doing any thing contrary to the
laws9.
It is clear that
Paul was brought in by the Jews on account of jealousy. Festus
confirms these verses;
Against whom when
the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as
I supposed: But had certain questions against him of their own
superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to
be alive. (Acts 25:18-19 [KJVPCE]).
It is Paul’s
theology on the resurrection of Jesus that he was condemned for.
Paul’s journey to Italy represents a typology that is fascinating
for those of the Adventist faith. The background and the events of
that journey have a prophetic connotation. It was determined that
they should sail to Italy. From a Typological point of view, prophecy
has shown that the final conflict is going to be between the
Christian fundamentalist and Christian liberals.
Fundamentalism is
defined as an “...ecclesiastical Term in Christianity (esp among
certain Protestant sects); the belief that every word of the Bible is
divinely inspired and therefore true...”10.
Munson states that fundamentalism is “...used exclusively to refer
to American Protestants who insisted on the inerrancy of the
Bible...” According to an article that was endorsed by the bishop
of San Diego bishop Brom on the website catholic.com, a statement is
noted about Adventism in relation to its belifes, which states that
their beliefs;
“…including the Trinity, Christ’s divinity, the virgin birth,
the atonement, a physical resurrection of the dead, and Christ’s
Second Coming. They use a valid form of baptism. They believe in
original sin11
and reject the Evangelical teaching that one can never lose one’s
salvation no matter what one does (i.e., they correctly reject
"once saved, always saved")12.
Munson states that “...the central theme of The Fundamentals
was that the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Associated with this
idea was the view that the Bible should be read literally whenever
possible and that believers should lead their lives according to the
moral precepts it contains, especially the Ten Commandments”.
These fundamentals
were “inerrancy of Scripture, the divinity of Jesus, the Virgin
birth, Jesus’ death on
the cross as a
substitute for our sins, and his physical resurrection and impending
return13.
Saussy in his book
Rulers Of Evil he states that the Jesuit leader Ignitious Loyola on
his way to Cyprus from Rome, he was given “...the litanies, lists,
secret codes, formulae, cabalah ,and other portable assets comprising
the Knights Templar resources to Iñigo. If this indeed happened, the
western world’s secret infrastructure was now Loyola’s top
opulate and manipulate in the cause of learning against learning...”
This meant that the struggle for truth in the time of luther was
given a impetus in favour of the Papacy.
In the book of
Acts 27:1 Paul is headed to Italy to face charges for believing that
Jesus was raised from the dead. This being the type, the adventist
church today it represnts the ideology that Luther advocated for,
that is sola scriptura, sola fide, sola gracia and sola. Munson
states that “...Adventists also subscribe to the two Protestant
shibboleths, sola scriptura (the Bible is the sole rule
of faith) and sola fide (justification is by faith alone).”14
This battle cannot
be ignored and down played. Paul later on, when he arrived in Rome he
lived for two years and later on he was executed by Nero. White calls
those that believe the fundamental teachings of the prophetic
literature of the bible to expose the man of sin;
“...in the very time in which we live the Lord has called His
people and has given them a message to bear. He has called them to
expose the wickedness of the man of sin who has made the Sunday law a
distinctive power, who has thought to change times and laws, and to
oppress the people of God who stand firmly to honor Him by keeping
the only true Sabbath, the Sabbath of creation, as holy unto the
Lord...”
In the twenty
seventh chapter of the book of Acts the ship that Paul and the others
were in was tossed to and fro by a strong wind. In the bible the wind
represents war and political turmoil; “Thus saith the LORD; Behold,
I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the
midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind”;
(Jeremiah 51:1 [KJVPCE].
White in relating
the great conflict that will meet the saints in God’s holy church,
she relates a vision she had which shows the extent to which the
battle between fundamental Christianity and Papal theology will come
to a clash. She uses the metaphor of a ship on the sea tossed to and
fro by the winds and waves;
Shortly before I sent out the testimonies regarding the efforts of
the enemy to undermine the foundation of our faith through the
dissemination of seductive theories, I had read an incident about a
ship in a fog meeting an iceberg. For several nights I slept but
little. I seemed to be bowed down as a cart beneath sheaves. One
night a scene was clearly presented before me. A vessel was upon the
waters, in a heavy fog. Suddenly the lookout cried, "Iceberg
just ahead!" There, towering high above the ship, was a gigantic
iceberg. An authoritative voice cried out, "Meet it!" There
was not a moment's hesitation. It was a time for instant action. The
engineer put on full steam, and the man at the wheel steered the ship
straight into the iceberg. With a crash she struck the ice. There was
a fearful shock, and the iceberg broke into many pieces, falling with
a noise like thunder to the deck. The passengers were violently
shaken by the force of the collisions, but no lives were lost. The
vessel was injured, but not beyond repair. She rebounded from the
contact, trembling from stem to stern, like a living creature. Then
she moved forward on her way15.
And said unto them,
Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage,
not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. (Acts 27:10
[KJVPCE])
Fundamentalism is
Adventism and the Pope in 2016 declared that Fundamentalists are to
be condemned. He state that “Fundamentalism is a sickness that is
in all religions,”...“We Catholics have some — and not some,
many — who believe they possess the absolute truth and go ahead
dirtying the other with calumny, with disinformation, and doing evil.
They do evil. I say this because it is my Church.” when one
considered what Bishop From stated in catholic answers16
then by saying “...my church...” he includes Adventism.
This means that,
inevitably, there is going to be a clash between these two
ideologies, just as Paul, while traveling to Rome, they crashed the
ship into the Island of Malta, which Saussy showed that it is a
prophetic or typological metaphor of the Roman Catholic army or the
Jesuits. By the time they had gotten to Malta the ship had fallen
apart and the inmates where floating on boards and other parts. White
comforts us that “...the Captain of our salvation stands at the
helm to guide the gospel ship into the harbor...”
Though we may have
to meet the iceberg the ship will not suffer loss beyond repair. Some
will fail to see the captain at the Helm and they will think it safe
to abandon the Seventh Day Adventist, because of the strong wind17
that will be tossing the church to and from. Just like the type we
are not to leave the church in times of crisis rather we are to stay
and stand under the banner of prince Emmanuel
Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in
the ship, ye cannot be saved. (Acts 27:31 [KJVPCE].
Paul left Ephesus
for Jerusalem. He was determined in his heart to go to Rome. In
Jerusalem he was arrested and wrongly accused of defiling the temple
and for bringing Gentiles into the temple. He was lynched and tried.
He appealed to Augustus Caesar. His journey to Rome is typological.
The journey was Rome ward. The definition of fundamentalism is a
description of Adventism. It is the one that is condemned by the
Papacy. The narrative of Acts 27 serves as a typology of what will be
the issues of concern in the earth’s final hours. The church will
be mightily shaken and the conflict is likened to a ship headed for
an iceberg. The narrative of Acts 27 ended with the ship torn, but it
was much safer in the ship than outside. The ship crushed into an
Island, which they later discovered to be Malta. This is a
typological reference to the military arm of Rome which are known as
the Jesuits. Only those that will stay and not abandon the church
will be saved.
2
And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to
Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to
Jerusalem.
(Acts 21:4 [KJVPCE])
3
And there stood up one of them named Agubus, and signified by the
spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all
the
world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar….Acts
11:28
7And
when he was come, the Jews which came down from Jerusalem stood
round about, and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul,
which they could not prove. (Acts 25:7 [KJVPCE]
8But
Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said,
Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things
before me? (Acts 25:9 [KJVPCE]
13Justo
L. González, The Story of Christianity, volume 2, The
Reformation to the Present Day (New York:
HarperCollins, 1985), 255.
14Robert
H. Brom, Seventh-day-adventism, catholic answers,
August 10, 2004 retrieved from www.catholic.com
15White
G E, Selected Messages Volume 1, Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press
Publishing Association, pp 205
16Seventh-day
Adventists are both ontologically and theologically Christians. But
Christians, once separated from the Church our Lord founded, are
susceptible to being "tossed to and fro and carried about with
every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14).
17But
not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called
Euroclydon. (Acts 27:14 [KJVPCE])