I
have seen one or two individuals reject plain truth like this before,
but never a crowd this large. What stands out most in this picture is
the red haired young man near the center of the picture, wearing a
tee shirt with “TIT” (truth is terrorism) on it. Today, that is
one of the most violent rejections I can think of; callings someone a
terrorist is akin to calling someone a monster, isn’t it? How could
someone in their right mind proclaim such a message? After all, truth
is a good thing, isn’t it? And what sort of person would even boo
the truth, let alone stop up their ears in such an overt manner? If
you are a Christian, this will probably make you think of a very long
passage (almost a chapter and one half in fact) from the book of
Acts. Luke, the beloved physician says…
Acts
6 ( World English
Bible )
[8] Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and
signs among the people. [9] But some of those who were of the
synagogue called “The Libertines,” and of the Cyrenians, of the
Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with
Stephen. [10] They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the
Spirit by which he spoke. [11] Then they secretly induced men to say,
“We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”
[12] They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and
came against him and seized him, and brought him in to the council,
[13] and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops
speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. [14]
For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy
this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”
[15] All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his
face like it was the face of an angel.
Acts
7 ( WEB )
[1] The high priest said, “Are these things so?”
[2] He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory
appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he
lived in Haran, [3] and said to him, ‘Get out of your land, and
from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’*
Genesis 12:1 [4] Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and
lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him
into this land, where you are now living. [5] He gave him no
inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised
that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after
him, when he still had no child. [6] God spoke in this way: that his
seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be
enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. [7] ‘I will judge
the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and
after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.’*
Genesis 15:13-14 [8] He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So
Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth
day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of
the twelve patriarchs.
[9] ”The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him
into Egypt. God was with him, [10] and delivered him out of all his
afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of
Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
[11] Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and
great affliction. Our fathers found no food. [12] But when Jacob
heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the
first time. [13] On the second time Joseph was made known to his
brothers, and Joseph’s race was revealed to Pharaoh. [14] Joseph
sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives,
seventy-five souls. [15] Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died,
himself and our fathers, [16] and they were brought back to Shechem,
and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from
the children of Hamor of Shechem.
[17] ”But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn
to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, [18] until there
arose a different king, who didn’t know Joseph. [19] The same took
advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to
throw out their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive. [20] At
that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was
nourished three months in his father’s house. [21] When he was
thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and reared him as her
own son. [22] Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works. [23] But when he was
forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers* The
word for “brothers” here and where the context allows may be also
correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”,
the children of Israel. [24] Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he
defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the
Egyptian. [25] He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by
his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand.
[26] ”The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and
urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers.
Why do you wrong one another?’ [27] But he who did his neighbor
wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge
over us? [28] Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian
yesterday?’* Exodus 2:14 [29] Moses fled at this saying, and became
a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two
sons.
[30] ”When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord
appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire
in a bush. [31] When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he
came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him, [32] ‘I am the
God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the
God of Jacob.’* Exodus 3:6 Moses trembled, and dared not look. [33]
The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off of your feet, for the
place where you stand is holy ground. [34] I have surely seen the
affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their
groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you
into Egypt.’* Exodus 3:5,7-8,10
[35] ”This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a
ruler and a judge?’—God has sent him as both a ruler and a
deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
[36] This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt,
in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. [37] This is
that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God
will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.*
TR adds “You shall listen to him.”’* Deuteronomy 18:15 [38]
This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel
that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received
living oracles to give to us, [39] to whom our fathers wouldn’t be
obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,
[40] saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as
for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know
what has become of him.’* Exodus 32:1 [41] They made a calf in
those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the
works of their hands. [42] But God turned, and gave them up to serve
the army of the sky,* This idiom could also be translated “host of
heaven,” or “angelic beings,” or “heavenly bodies.” as it
is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain
animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of
Israel? [43] You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your
god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you
away* Amos 5:25-27 beyond Babylon.’
[44] ”Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the
wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it
according to the pattern that he had seen; [45] which also our
fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into
the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of
our fathers, to the days of David, [46] who found favor in the sight
of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. [47] But
Solomon built him a house. [48] However, the Most High doesn’t
dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says, [49] ‘heaven
is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of
house will you build me?’ says the Lord; ‘or what is the place of
my rest? [50] Didn’t my hand make all these things?’* Isaiah
66:1-2
[51] ”You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you
always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. [52]
Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed
those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have
now become betrayers and murderers. [53] You received the law as it
was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”
[54] Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart,
and they gnashed at him with their teeth. [55] But he, being full of
the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory
of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, [56] and said,
“Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at
the right hand of God!” [57] But they cried out with a loud
voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.
[58] They threw him out of the city, and stoned him.
Why
did they stone Stephen? He did nothing but tell them the history of
the Israel nation and their response to God’s truth. He made the
Jews realize that they were as guilty as the wandering Israelites.
The Jews didn’t want to be faced with even hearing one more word
from him, so they stopped up their ears and stoned Stephen to death.
Harsh
isn’t it! But 2000 years later are some of us any better? Remember
the last Democratic convention, they booed GOD! And to this
very day, unborn babies are being murdered in America! This is on a
scale of genocide and still continues. Why? Because our nation does
not have the political will to stop it. Again, why? The answer is
that people just refuse to hear that the lifestyle they live is in
direct opposition to God’s will. I pray that this will change, for
the evil that is in our nation is in fact a NATIONAL DISGRACE and
someday God will judge us for it! Pray for America; pray for all
those who have rejected God and sinned! If the Jews could kill
Stephen for telling the truth, then those who are baby killers could
do the same to anyone revealing them as monsters that they are. They
may even call YOU a TERRORIST for revealing their sin. Be prepared in
spirit and continue to pray. Let God’s will be done!
