Acts 27 – 28:6 Bible Teaching

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If you haven’t been with us we have deconstructed these gatherings down to the essentials:

We begin with prayer
Sing the Word of God set to music (as a means to get it into our heads) and then we sit for a moment in silence here at the Church/Studio.

When we come back we pick up where we left off last week in our verse by verse study.

Paul, Luke, Aristacus and crew have tossed their payload overboad on a ship that was anchored in a storm off an island.

It has been at least two weeks of them being at sea.

Let’s pick it up at verse 39:

Acts 27.39-end
Acts 28.1-6
October 15th 2017
Milk
39 And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.
40 And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore.
41 And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
42 And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
43 But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land:
44 And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.

Okay back to verse 39

39 And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain creek with a shore, into the which they were minded, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship.

Because they came upon the Island at night they were not aware of anything about it – they didn’t choose their spot to anchor as much as it chose them.

But they spotted a bay (the King James says a creek but the Greek word is kolpon which best means a bay) which could have said to them that there was a level shore that met it. So they decided that they would try to drive the ship into it.
(verse 40)

40 And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and loosed the rudder bands, and hoised up the mainsail to the wind, and made toward shore.

Where it says they loosed the rudder bands the rudder is the thing that steers the ship. It is that part of the helm which consists of a piece of timber, broad at the bottom, which enters the water, and is attached by hinges to the stern-post on which it turns.

Ships can have several rudders and the Greek here suggest this was the case on this particular vessel.

The bands mentioned here were probably the cords or fastenings, that held the rudders in place during the storm (since they were of no use) but now that the storm was passed they could be used again – so they loosed the rudder bands, making the rudders operative, and “hoisted up the main sail” (raised the main sail of the ship to catch the wind), and “made for shore.” (verse 41)

41 And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.

The Greek described in the King James as “two seas” is “diayalasson” which means a place that is hit by the sea on two sides so we are talking about and isthmus or spit of sand which would stick out into the sea and would be surrounded by water on its tip and sides.

And they ran the ship aground and Luke says, “and the forepart (the bow) stuck fast and remained immovable but the hinder part (the stern) was broken with the violence of the waves.

This tells me that their goal of the bay was not reached but that they inadvertently ran the ship aground on a sand bar (most likely submerged just below the water surface).
(verse 42)

42 And the soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.

We know by now that the Roman military was strict and to lose control of a prisoner was punishable by death.

Perhaps to kill them and to keep their bodies, the soldiers could escape condemnation.

Then again, maybe to let the prisoners go would have also jeopardized their own lives on the island and it would be easier to kill them while they were in chains then to have to battle surprise attacks by them on the Island.

So the advice was to “kill em all” and maybe just suggest that they all drown in the storm. (Verse 43)

43 But the centurion, (Julius) willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land:

Julius has been kind to Paul from the start and this situation was no different.

44 And the rest, (who could not swin) some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.

Which was what Paul said would happen – which we covered last week.

And we now come to the last chapter of the Book of Acts.

Let’s read beginning at verse 1:

1 And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.
2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.
3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

Back to verse 1

1 And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita.

Melita in Greek means honey and it is believed that at that time the island was known for producing great quantities of it. Melita later came to be called, Malta which is not a large Island – about twenty miles in length (east to west) and twelve miles in breadth (north to south) with a total of about sixty miles in circumference.

Malta is sixty miles from the coast of Sicily. The island is an immense white rock of soft free-stone covered with about a foot of soil.

2 And the barbarous people shewed us no little kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.

The Greek word translated barbarous people here does not mean uncultivated, savage, or cruel filthy people as the word Barbarian does often mean to us in English.

In Greek the term is barbarous, and is probably an onomonopaea derived from the sound ba-ba, as in babble babble.

What the Greeks meant by the term barbarous was ANYONE who spoke in a language that was not their own.

To them it all sounded like babbling, hence the word, barbaros, and our subsequent English barbarous and barbarian.

Fortunately, Luke informs us that these people showed them “no little kindness,” (so they showed them a lot of kindness)

“for they kindled a fire, and received us every one, because of the present rain, and because of the cold.”

What a kind hospitable people!

Luke adds, “but they did not know the Lord so all of them burned in hell forever and ever despite their hearts to show us Godly love.”

The language of the Maltese was that of Africa and apparently their island was cold and raining during the landing of Paul’s ship – the month was now October.

At this point we are presented with a story about Paul and it presents us with a number of facets about fear, faith, and fanaticism that we need to be cognizant of as believers and seekers of truth.

I love the stories of the Bible – but I want to know what the proper rendering of them are and not just accept the most grandiose.

Let’s read verse three and you’ll understand what I mean:

3 And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.

It is believed that this viper was laying in the sticks in a torpid state – perhaps due to the cold and when the sticks were heating up by the fire the critter became alert and came out, attaching itself to Paul’s hand.

Where it says that the viper “fastened” onto Paul’s hand the term for fastened in the Greek is “kath-ap-to” which means to join or attach oneself to, which it could mean simply wrap around.

Now, according to the world’s best herpetologists, Malta has only one snake known – from the fossil record too – that can bite with poison. It is called
telescopus fallax – the cat snake.

While venomous, what makes this snake unique is it has a small mouth with fangs in the back of the top of its mouth and is therefore considered no threat to humans.

But it was a threat to geckos and lizards which it would stun with its venom delivered by its back fangs.

Because no other snakes are found in the fossil record on Malta I think we are safe to suppose that it was a Cat Snake.

Additionally, and as a side note, the King James translators added the word “venomous” to the mss. but all other translations simple call this animal a “creature or beast,” but not a “venomous creature or venomous beast.”

But let’s read the other verses and what Luke describes:

4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
5 And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.
6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

We have a number of questions to ask ourselves about this event.

Did a snake bite Paul or not?
Was it venomous?
Could it have not bitten him (but everyone watching just thought that it had) but only wrapped itself around His hand?
Why did the Natives believe that to be bitten by the snake meant death?
What was the overall purpose of this event and its miraculousness in the eyes of the people?

Did a snake bite Paul or not?

The way the verses read it seems like the serpent had OR at least everyone thought that it had.

Even if it was only a cat snake it is possible for them to strike humans and so this is not out of the question.

Was the snake venomous?

Since the cat snake is the only snake known to have ever been on the Island the answer is yes, but it does not have the apparent capacity to inflict its venom into human beings.

Nevertheless, there are always exceptions and perhaps this was a large cat snake with a large enough mouth to bite.

Could it have not bitten him (but everyone watching just thought that it had) but only wrapped itself around His hand?

This is a possibility in the story.

Why did the Natives believe that to be bitten by the snake meant death?

There are a couple of ways to answer this. First of all, if they had witnessed the snake killing lizards and geckos with its venom they could have believed it capable of killing human beings.

Secondly, it is possible that some Maltanese people had been killed by the venomous bite of the Cat Snake or that some of them had an allegic reaction to the snake venom and died of anaphelactic shoke.

An allergic reaction to the protein in the snakes venom could occur if a baby or child was bitten once by the snake and then later was bitten again.

I know this is extreme analysis but we try to see all viable sides.

Perhaps most importantly, however, what was the overall purpose of this event and its miraculousness in the eyes of the people – natives and crew alike?

Remember, these people were idolaters. But Paul was called to reach the idolatrous world.

This was yet another opportunity for him to do just that. And as it was with jesus and the other apostles, the way they reached people in that day and proved that they were from God was in and through the miraculous.

Healings especially.

They were the very ways people knew that these men were from God – in fact, it was prophesied that the Messiah would come with miracles, that He would give sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and cause the lame to rise up and walk.

Remember, the outward works of the spirit in that day through miracles made up for the lack of medicines, treatments and the written New Testament – which witnesses to people the truthful message by the Spirit.

Paul could have simply share Jesus with the natives but the miracles went a long way to open their ignorant hearts.

We might as, “Well isn’t that the same today? Don’t we deserve miracles to help open the hearts of our ignorant family and friends.

And in response I would ask: What is easier to do today, where is the greater miracle:

To heal someone with a fever with antibiotics or to have their lives and hearts change for good toward God and Man?

In light of our medical advances, what is truly more miraculous – fixing the hearing problem of someone or fixing their cold, sinful hearts?

I suggest miracles occur every day – all at the hand of God almighty. But I would also suggest that many of them occur in the realm of the human heart over the physical body.

Verse four introduces us to an almost humorous side native superstitious people.

4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, “No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.”

I described this as humorous because the propensity remains alive and well today for people to assign the cause of misfortune in the lives of people to something they have done wrong.

I personally come from very superstitious parents. Add in the LDS teachings that God works off the principles of harming people because they have done wrong and blessing people because they have done right, and I still have to wage war against the temptation to think every time I stub my toe its for some undisclosed sin.

I do believe that God will allow misfortune to help re-direct a person and that there are always lessons to learn in our misfortunes, but sometimes misfortune is reserved for those who are CLOSEST to God, not farther away from Him.

Look at the story of Job. Look at the story of Jesus and His life!

Here, the Natives suggested that Paul must have been a murderer when he was bit by the snake.

Prevalent among indigenous peoples are superstitions tied directly to what some call Karma in Eastern metaphysics.

Because they assumed Paul would die from the snake bite the natural and equal crime he must have committed was taking life or murder – in fact they would go so far as to assume he took life with the hand that was bit and if he had been bit on the leg they may have believed he kicked someone to death.

That is how far and fanciful the human imagination can go when trying to make sense of this world and we have to be quite disciplined to not jump to seek to derive and create a just universe where there isn’t one.

In one of the most influential books on my life that I have ever read is Thomas Gilovich’s book called, How we know what isn’t so) where he first points out (like the philosopher Baruch Spinoza said hundreds of years earlier) that “nature abhors a vacuum” and that human beings will go to immeasurable lengths to make “things make sense, to give them order, to fill in the gaps and “create cause and effect” out of the world around us.

This is what the natives were doing – and were accustomed to doing – in Paul’s situation. He was bit on the hand by a deadly snake therefore it was obvious he did something deadly with that hand that was bitten.

Gilovich shows that nature abhors a vacuum so much that in people with a certain type of brain injury that causes a blank spot to appear in their line of sight or vision will experience their brain borrowing from its contents and filling that blank space with an object that has no relation to what the person is actually seeing.

He cites cases where one guy had an image of mickey mouse stuck right in his every view of the world around him.

Our brains are not alone in this function. We tend to find order where there is none as a means to survive the barrage of interruptions life delivers and to give ourselves peace in the midst of them.

As an example Gilovich cites the habit people make of assigning order to their lives through the line:

“Every time I do this, this happens! I mean it! Every time!

The reality, he says, is we only select and recall the times we are interrupted while forgetting or ignoring the times we aren’t because they don’t fit with our need for certainty.

Well, all of these human propensities are on hyperdrive when we see evil in the world and have trouble coping with it.

Recalling the mindset of Londoner’s during World War II, Gilovich points out that the rampant accusation against the Nazi’s was that they were purposely targeting London’s schools and hospitals – and that patterns proved their bombing of these places was intentional.

Once the war was over and there was an examination of the plans and flights and attacks of the Third Reich it was proven that there was zero intentionality in the bombings but that they were very, very random in where and when.

One of the best antidotes, in my estimation, to magical thinking and seeing connections in things that are not connected, is to suggest that God is in charge, all things will work out for good to them who love Him, and to realize that there is not always a cause for every effect.

In any case, it was believed among the ancients that persons were often punished (by Divine vengeance) in or on that part of the body which had been the instrument of the sin.

I suppose in the case of some venereal diseases they had some proofs. Here with Paul, their reasoning was rapid and sure:

“No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.”

Luke then adds:

5 And he (Paul) shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm.

We note that while this beast was a living creature that Paul seemed to have no qualms about putting it to death.

Jesus did the same thing with the herd of swine in whom He cast the demons and they ran off the cliff to their deaths.

I am not into animal cruelty nor do I condone the mistreatment of any of God’s creations just because we can but there is an order in scripture of creatures in relation to human beings and when that order gets messed with we have historically seen the decline of whatever civilization that has elevated the animal to human status.

I’ll say nothing more.

One more note on what is happening with Paul here –

Prior to ascending into heaven Jesus said to His apostles in Mark 16 beginning at verse 15

15 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
17 And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

And here we are presented with an awesome case for proper biblical exegesis.

See, these two events – Jesus words and Paul’s being apparently bitten – have been interpreted by some to mean that Christians ought to show that they can take up serpents too – afterall, it is in the Bible, right?

I would suggest that if this was a viable biblical practice that it wouldn’t have any fails and groups like the Pentecostal Coots family, who have been snake handling for Jesus for decades, would never be harmed.

How about a quick history:

In July 1955, Florida – George Went Hensley, founder of the Church of Jesus With Signs Following, possibly the first snake handling church, was bitten on the wrist by a snake draped around his neck. He died several days later.
In August 1960, Georgia – Lloyd B. Hill is killed by a rattlesnake in an illegal snake handling ceremony. Clergy involved are arrested.
November 1973, Kentucky – 72 year old Shirley Wagers is killed by snakebite at the Pentecostal Holiness Church. [1]
August 1985, Tennessee – Charles Herman Prince of the Apostolic Church of God gets attacked by a rattlesnake after drinking strychnine. He refuses medical attention and dies 36 hours later.[2]
Oct, 1999 and 1995 Alabama and Kentucky – John Wayne “Punkin'” Brown was bitten on the hand by a yellow timber rattler during a worship service. Having suffered previous snake bites he preached for fifteen minutes then suddenly fell over dead. His wife, Melinda Brown, met a similar fate several years prior. His five children were subsequently turned over the the custody of their grandparents, who also run a similar snake church in Tennessee. [3]
April 2004, Virginia – Reverend Dwayne Long of the Arthurs Chapel Church of Rose Hill was killed by a rattlesnake during Easter services.[4]
May 2012, West Virginia – Pastor Mark Wolford sat near a recently handled Timber Rattler and received a fatal bite to the leg. His father was also a pastor and died from snake bites 39 years earlier. [5]
And most recently in
February 2014, Kentucky – Jamie Coots, well known Middlesboro preacher, died after being bitten by a snake during a church service Saturday evening.
His son, who took over in his place said that though they get criticized people forget that:
“it’s in the word of God.”
(beat)
I personally think that his dad recently bit someone to death and therefore he got what was . . .

Listen – I understand the heart of religious folk but my goodness we have got to get to a better place in this faith where the Bible and its contents will brings some rational freedoms to the mind of men.

Anyway . . . they though Paul was a toasted murderer because of the bite.

Then . . .

6 Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.

Superstition and claiming to know what isn’t so in the world works in the reverse too, folks.

We are just as susceptible in finding beneficial order to the world to confirm our prejudices and desires.

This principle is so wonderfully laid out for us here in the story of Paul and the snake bite because to the natives he was first guilty and worthy of death, and when that didn’t work he became the deserved object of their veneration.

Imagine the heart ache God had with the COI and their idol worshipping of the Old Testament – and with their faithlessness toward Him when they suffered the slightest gap in getting a response to their needs?

The pendulum swings wide in superstitious minds and those who see evil having cause will also readily worship a false god, assigning an object or person power and authority where there is none.

The bottom line basis for either human proclivity is a failure to reasonably look to God as the forgiving fixer to all ills and evil and the benevolent giver of all blessings.

Look to Him when you or others are snake bit and look to Him when you are healed. And put ALL of the rest of it away.

Not finding a murderer worthy of death, the natives were now able to find someone they called a god.

This was the exact same result Paul and Barnabas had when the Greeks tried to worship them as Jupiter and Mercurius.

They would blame the lame for being lame and tried to glorify the men as gods who healed them on God’s behalf.

Cut everyone out of every situation and just look to God – it will save you a lot of time, frustration and embarrassment.

Let’s stop there for today.

Q and A

Listen – I think it’s important that I let you all in on what we are going to be doing on our Tuesday Night airings here at CAMPUS because it is going to be extremely provocative and cause some backlash when it gets out.

IOW I can guarantee you that there will be a number of elements to what we are going to do that will be easily be misinterpreted but I want to tell you all what we are going to be doing before we do them so you, as attendees of CAMPUS, have a heads up and be armed with perspective.

More than eleven years ago, and I make no bones about how I say this, God put a call on my life to come to Utah, what we called the Mecca of Mormonism, to bring seeking people out of Mormonism and into a living loving free relationship with him by and through His only human Son, Jesus Christ.

We launched this ministry through a book I titled, Born Again Mormon – much to the behest and consternation of the LDS but especially the Evangelicals who HATED the (again) provocative title.

For seven straight years we gave this approach everything we had – and the work we put into this effort remains online and accessed throughout the world as we speak.

Again, the call on my life was to come to Utah and liberate LDS people from the bondage of religion.

Near the end of the seven years Mary and I ventured out to the ten largest churches to see exactly what “our people” were turning to once they left the LDS church.

Our stance to searching people was for them to just find a “bible teaching church” they enjoyed and start attending.

So we took a month to go and see what the largest, most attractive Bible teaching churches in the state were giving, feeding, offering “our people.”

My reaction might be described as similar to the reaction Jesus had when he cleared the temple of the money changers.

I was angered, driven, and decided to say something about it. Which I did on our return to the television airwaves on January 1st.

And most of you know that led to my removal from the air five days later with the pastors of the valley leading the way to my removal.

This was a blessing in disguise because it allowed me to really dig in and examine what there was for ex-LDS people in the world – actually what there was for any person who did NOT want bondage, or half-truths, or demands – but truly just longed for the freedom that comes through a genuine relationship with Christ.

What I discovered, after nearly five full years of deep seeking and study, was

A sound contextual understanding of the purpose and place of the Bible today. Which lead to a truly biblical understanding of
God and His love
The sacrifice of His Son
The fulfillment of scripture Jesus provides
A soundly supported view of afterlife loss or punishment
And the insipid nature of playing church in the world today.

And from all of this, which I honestly believe God has allowed me to see and discover (of which I have created none of it – it has all existed for nearly two thousand years – but God has allowed me to see it) I realized some very important things.

And these things are what our future Tuesday shows are going to focus on:

That I have explained why people should not trust Mormonism but have not truly liberated them.
And that while this sacred faith IS entirely subjective today, led of the spirit and open to whatever interpretations a person wants to embrace, most organized religions are choosing to keep people in bondage in the following ways:

They are demanding a material application of the Bible of them.
They are keeping them fearful of a second coming
They are suggesting that they have some sort of authority over them,
They are preaching and teaching tithes and building drives, etc., and
They continue to perpetuate a false vision of afterlife hell, and
Many of them have also tied the faith to political parties and issues.

In the face of all of this, I can only charge the guilty parties with fraud – because that is what it is and in the midst of these charges proclaim (and this is the frightening sounding, provocative statement:

“We offer the BEST approach to the Gospel on the face of the earth.”

STOP

Ithat when examined through the contents of this book which I love they are found guilty and even fraudulent, we are going to begin to do the following, in the NAME of my continued effort to free our people and anyone else who wants truth.

These things will cause many to recoil and then attack back – but if they do they are missing something about our intent.

The first thing we are going to do to help free our people from any and all religious bondage is to

Openly and publicly expose any church – by name – that serves to hold our people – any people really, hostage through their doctrines or practice.

And where we ardently maintain that all people have the right to choose whatever religious institution they want to support, and that this will not necessarily affect their standing before God, we are going to hold specific local institutions feet to the fire for contributing to imprisoning unsuspecting souls.

Again, let me reiterate, these things we are charging them with are NOT a matter of opinion. They are a matter of quantitative and qualitative biblical fact which the institutions in question choose to ignore as a means, in my opinion, to benefit themselves.

While castigating them openly for their doctrine and practice we are also going to say something so provocative I’ve had to practice letting the words come out of my mouth.

Before I tell you what our brash by-line will be, let me explain the thinking behind using it.

If there was a person suffering from a specific form of cancer and there were a half dozen proposed cures to this lethal disease with only one of them being true and 99.9% effective, wouldn’t it be incumbent on the possessors of this cure to boldly say that it was the best?

I think so. They have a duty to those with the cancer.

STOP reword, reeaxample this.

We are going to say:

Unabashedly and boldly claim that we offer the best approach to the Gospel on the face of the earth