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It is because Paul and Joseph Smith saw a light that they are so endlessly, relentlessly and cruelly persecuted. If they had been scoundrels, if they had been tyrannical politicians, if they have been malicious, they would not have been so hated, but if you have seen a light and share that astonishing news, all the powers of hell will ring out against you in the form of earthly persecution. It is a guarantee. See a light and be prepared to be persecuted.

You can also find it on any of these platforms by searching for Meridian Magazine-Come Follow Me.

Maurine and Scot Proctor have spent extensive time in the Holy Land, researching the life of Christ. They have taught the New Testament in the Institute program for many years and have written books and numerous articles on the life of the Savior.

Join our study group and let’s delve into the scriptures in a way that is inspiring, expanding and joyful.

Scot

Why does Joseph Smith directly compare himself to Paul? What did he see in Paul’s experience that made him feel that the two held so much in common?

Maurine

Welcome to Meridian Magazine’s Come Follow Me podcast and for the next thirty minutes we will explore the lesson called “The Lord Had Called Us for to Preach the Gospel” which is Acts chapters 16-21. We hope you are daily reading Meridian Magazine, which is online at latterdaysaintmag.com. Sign up for free for it to come into your inbox every day. We have over 100 writers keep you up to date on the happenings and people of the Church. It’s fun and a great way to begin your day.  The transcripts for this podcast are there, too, at latterdaysaintmag.com/podcast.

Scot

Joseph Smith said that it was hard for him to understand why “an obscure, poor boy, of a little over fourteen years of age,” “should be thought a character of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most popular sects of the day”, and “in a manner to create in them a spirit of the most bitter persecution and reviling.”

But he added, “I have thought since, that I felt much like Paul, when he made his defense before King Agrippa, and related the account of the vision he had when he saw a light, and heard a voice; but still there were but few who believed him; some said he was dishonest, others said he was mad; and he was ridiculed and reviled. But all this did not destroy the reality of his vision. He had seen a vision, he knew he had, and all the persecution under heaven could not make it otherwise; and though they should persecute him unto death, yet he knew, and would know to his latest breath, that he had both seen a light and heard a voice speaking unto him, and all the world could not make him think or believe otherwise.

“So it was with me….I have actually seen a vision; and who am I that I can withstand God, or why does the world think to make me deny what I have actually seen. For I had seen a vision; I knew it, and I knew that God knew it, and I could not deny it, neither dared I do it; at least I knew that by so doing I would offend God, and come under condemnation” (Joseph Smith-History 23-25).

Maurine

It is because Paul and Joseph Smith saw a light that they are so endlessly, relentlessly and cruelly persecuted. If they had been scoundrels, if they had been tyrannical politicians, if they have been malicious, they would not have been so hated, but if you have seen a light and share that astonishing news, all the powers of hell will ring out against you in the form of earthly persecution. It is a guarantee. See a light and be prepared to be persecuted.

Why? Because if you have a true and deep witness of Jesus Christ, then you are compelled to share your knowledge and people may not like that. It might confront their biases, their desire to do whatever they want, their ignorance, their disillusionment. They may respond with persecution.

Scot

Paul said:

“Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.

“Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;

“In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

“In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

“Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.” (2 Cor. 11:24–28.)

A phrase that was used often in the restoration was “at all hazards”. They said often that they would bear witness to the world “at all hazards,” which means no matter what is threatened, no matter how you tremble. You may not have seen a light, but you have felt a light, so it is your great honor and responsibility to bear witness as Paul and Joseph Smith did.

Maurine

President Henry B. Eyring reminded us:

“At some moment in the world to come, everyone you will ever meet will know what you know now. They will know that the only way to live forever in association with our families and in the presence of our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, was to choose to enter into the gate by baptism at the hands of those with authority from God. They will know that the only way families can be together forever is to accept and keep sacred covenants offered in the temples of God on this earth. And they will know that you knew. And they will remember whether you offered them what someone had offered you.

It’s easy to say, “The time isn’t right.” But there is danger in procrastination. Years ago I worked for a man in California. He hired me, he was kind to me, he seemed to regard me highly. I may have been the only Latter-day Saint he ever knew well. I don’t know all the reasons I found to wait for a better moment to talk with him about the gospel. I just remember my feeling of sorrow when I learned, after he had retired and I lived far away, that he and his wife had been killed in a late night drive to their home in Carmel, California. He loved his wife. He loved his children. He had loved his parents. He loved his grandchildren, and he will love their children and will want to be with them forever.

Now, I don’t know how the crowds will be handled in the world to come. But I suppose that I will meet him, that he will look into my eyes, and that I will see in them the question: “Hal, you knew. Why didn’t you tell me?” (President Henry B. Eyring, “A Voice of Warning,” Oct. 1998, General Conference. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1998/10/a-voice-of-warning?lang=eng


Scot

Paul is the consummate missionary. He traveled over 13,400 miles by foot or by ship in three major missionary journeys and his trip to Rome to tell a skeptical world that he had seen a light. The first missionary journey is described in Acts 13:4 to 14:28, the second missionary journey is described in Acts 15:39 to 18:22 and his third is reported in Acts 18:23 to 21:17. This lesson covers the events of those second two missionary journeys. He was an indomitable laborer for the cause of Christ, and we do not really see him taking a break from his labors.

He focused his work in the main metropolitan centers of his time, viewing them as the strategic points from which the work could spread. Most of these cities are in today what would be Turkey and Greece. As he starts this second missionary journey, he leaves behind his former companion, Barnabas, who wanted to bring John Mark along. Paul does not agree and leaves with a new companion, Silas. He will have other companions on this journey. Timothy is mentioned. Luke, the author of Acts is sometimes with him as he at times will say things like this: They “followed Paul and us” (Acts 16:17) or in Acts 16:10 he states, “And after he [Paul] had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia.” 

Maurine

When Paul and his companions came to a new city, they first usually went to the local synagogue to preach. As Thomas A. Wayment notes: “Almost every synagogue outside of Jerusalem attracted large numbers of sympathizers or interested observers, who felt some attraction toward Judaism or even believed in some of its tenets but were unwilling to take on all the responsibilities of becoming a member in full fellowship. When Christianity was first taught in these synagogues, these sympathizers flocked to the new religious movement, which did not obligate them to observe the same physical requirements that Judaism did. The conversion of these sympathizers…led to friction between the local Jewish communities who lost some of their members to the traveling Christian missionaries. Even though these sympathizers may not have been numbered among the members in full fellowship of the local Jewish synagogue, they were counted as friends, and the hope was that they would ultimately take the steps toward conversion.” (Thomas A. Wayment, From Persecutor to Apostle.)

Scot

As Paul preached we learn this good news “And so were the churches established in the faith, and increased in number daily”(Acts 16:5). A clue to this success in a world where the Gentiles worship the Roman gods and the Jews have petrified around the old law, is that Paul followed the Spirit. We learn, for example that he was “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia”, and later when they were going into Bithynia, “the Spirit suffered them not” (Acts 16:7). Yet “a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us” (Acts 16:9).

Paul’s First Imprisonment—Philippi

Paul went to Philippi, which was the major city of Macedonia, and there, in addition to his teaching, he cast out a spirit of divinition from a woman who had made her masters much money by soothsaying. This action hit her masters right in the pocketbook, and, seeing their false means of making a living evaporate, they took Paul and Silas before the magistrates saying, “These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive” (Acts 16:20, 21).

Maurine

The magistrates beat them, laid many stripes upon them and cast them into the inner prison. Our modern idea of prison gives us no idea what those ancient dungeons were like. The ancient writer Lucian gives us one account of what those prisons were like: “Consequently, he sickened at length and was ill, as might be expected in view of the fact that he slept on the ground and at night could not even stretch out his legs, which were confined in the stocks. By day, to be sure, the collar was sufficient, together with manacles upon one hand; but for the night he had to be fully secured by his bonds. Moreover, the stench of the room and its stifling air (since many were confined in the same place, cramped for room, and scarcely able to draw breath), the clash of iron, the scanty sleep—all these conditions were difficult and intolerable for such a man, unwonted to them and unschooled to a life so rigorous” (Lucian, Toxaris, 29).

Thomas Wayment wrote, “Living conditions were intolerable because those in prison were not expected to live very long. The terrible conditions of Roman prisons led to the death of many prior to their formal executions.”

Scot

Yet here, almost unbelievably, we get one of the most indelible scenes in all of scripture. Their feet fast in the stocks so they cannot move, “at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.”

What is this? They are singing praises to God while they are in such a totally miserable condition? How can this be? Who would sing and thank the Lord while in a dungeon?

Maurine

Wouldn’t you be tempted to say, “Dear Lord, You sent me here. You told me to come, and yes, we’ve been able to teach many, but look where I am now? I am in a dungeon and I am miserable. Get me out of here fast.” That’s the temptation, but this very singing in the stocks by Paul and Silas is another confirmation of their witness of the Lord. They knew Him. They understood His goodness. They knew that their missions came with sacrifice and the Lord wouldn’t straighten every broken path, as long as one person has agency to incarcerate another. But they had faith that the Lord knew how to do His own work. They had a sure witness of Him and should life be tough, even excruciatingly tough, they knew who they served and whose they were. They were giving gratitude in all things. It is nearly breathtaking to contemplate this scene.

I think of this scene every time life seems particularly hard to me and I remember that if Paul can sing in the stocks, maybe I can praise the Lord even in the toughest times. Our admonition is to give gratitude in all things.

Scot

Suddenly there was a great earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s bands were loosed. You would think it would be natural for prisoners to run in this situation. The prison guard was ready to fall on his sword, indicating that his punishment for a prisoner’s escape must have been horrific, but Paul called out, “Do thyself no harm:  for we are all here (Acts 16: 28).”

29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31 And they said, aBelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

34 And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.

Paul’s Roman citizenship would play out well in this instance because the magistrates brought them out of the city and desired that they should go. You can imagine that wounded and beaten, travel would have been difficult.

Maurine

I see some similarities between Wilford Woodruff and Paul the Apostle. Both turned to the Holy Ghost to direct their labors, and both converted those who jailed them or came to arrest them.

In March of 1840, Wilford was on a mission in the Staffordshire potteries in England. The work was taking hold and he was preaching to crowded congregations and experienced frequent opposition from the ministers. He wrote this on the evening of his thirty-third birthday. “I…met with a large assembly of the Saints and strangers, and while singing the first hymn the spirit of the Lord rested upon me and the voice of God said to me, ‘This is the last meeting that you will hold with this people for many days.’ I was astonished at this, as I had many appointments out in that district…In the morning I went in secret before the Lord, and asked Him what was His will concerning me. The answer I received was that I should go to the south; for the Lord had a great work for me to perform there, as many souls were waiting for His word.’”

South for him was the lush, rolling farm lands of Herefordshire where John Benbow had a farm. He was a member of the United Brethren, a group who had broken from the Wesleyan Methodists in an eager and prayerful search for light and truth. They had 600 members, including fifty preachers, who met in homes and one or two chapels scattered over twenty to thirty miles.

Scot

Wilford’s preaching of the gospel caught on like wildfire. He reported “On Saturday, the 7th, I spent the day in preparing a pool for baptizing, for I saw there was much to be done. Sunday, the 8th, I preached at Bro. Benbows before a large congregation, and baptized seven, four were preachers. On the 9th I preached at Standly Hill and baptized seven, two were preachers. On the 10th, I preached again at Br. Benbows and baptized twelve, three were preachers.”

“Word of Wilford’s astonishing work flew through the countryside and stirred the minister of Frooms Hill to action. He sent the constable out to arrest Wilford on the only count he could think of—preaching without a license—but according to Wilford, he “sent the wrong man.”

Maurine

Here is Wilford’s account of it.: “When I arose to speak at Brother Benbow’s house, a man entered the door and informed me that he was a constable, and had been sent by the rector of the parish with a warrant to arrest me. I asked him, ‘For what crime?’ He said, ‘For preaching to the people, and that if he would take a chair I would wait upon him after meeting. He took my chair and sat beside me. For an hour and a quarter I preached the first principles of the everlasting gospel. The power of God rested upon me, the spirit filled the house, and the people were convinced. At the close of the meeting I opened the door for baptism, and seven offered themselves. Among the number were four preachers and the constable.

“The latter arose and said, ‘Mr. Woodruff, I would like to be baptized.’ I told him I would like to baptize him. I went down into the pool and baptized the seven. We then came together. I confirmed thirteen, administered the Sacrament, and we all rejoiced together.

“The constable went to the rector and told him that if he wanted Mr. Woodruff taken for preaching the gospel, he must go himself and serve the writ; for he had heard him preach the only true gospel sermon he had ever listened to in his life. The rector did not know what to make of it, so he sent two clerks of the Church of England as spies, to attend our meeting, and find out what we did preach. They both were pricked in their hearts, received the word of the Lord gladly, and were baptized and confirmed members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The rector became alarmed, and did not venture to send anybody else” (Mattiias Cowley, Wilford Woodruff)

Scot

After Philippi, Paul headed east toward Thessalonica, which was a major urban center that had a healthy and thriving Jewish community. Again, Paul was not to have a peaceful moment. “The Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort…and set all the city on an uproar” (Acts 17:5). Then the brethren helped Paul escape to a city called Berea, and the scriptures tell us that they were noble than the people in Thessalonica were “and searched the scriptures daily” and “many of them believed,” but Paul was still not to be let alone to preach in peace.  The people in Thessalonica learned that Paul was in Berea and came and stirred the people up there. Again Paul had to leave. And some of us today think we have hard missions!

But notice how Paul did not let any of this stop him from bearing witness—and because he did churches sprang up wherever he went. Wayment said, “For Paul and Silas the synagogue represented the crossroads of Judaism and Christianity, a place where the old and new met. For the local Jews, the synagogue was the place where two heretical Diaspora missionaries came to lead a part of their congregation astray, teaching that they did not need to live the whole law to be saved. The local leaders appear to have been afraid Christianity would lower the requirements for salvation, which would cause many members to flock to these new teachings. Their fear inspired deep-seated prejudices, which in turn took command of their otherwise docile temperaments, ultimately leading them to expunge what was new and true.”

Maurine

Next it was to Athens, where he went alone. Athens, at this time, was no longer an important political seat. It had long past its zenith. Under the Roman Caesars, Corinth was the commercial and political center of Greece. But Athens was the heir of the great philosophers of the world of Socrates, Plato, Sophocles, and Aristotle from whom so much of western culture would flow.

What Paul saw there was a city full of idols. One of the ancient writers tells us that there were as many as 30,000 different gods represented there.  So he disputed with the Jews and devout people in the synagogue, visited the marketplace. When the Epicureans and the Stoics confronted them they asked, “What will this babbler say?…He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods: because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection” (Acts 17:18).

They were interested in hearing the doctrine, not for its sake, but because “they spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21).

Scot

Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill doing a very different kind of preaching than he usually did, and quoting their own Greek poets. He said, “As I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”

He then gives them a list of God’s attributes:

Maurine and Scot alternate

God made the world and all things therein.

He dwelleth not in temples made with hands.

He giveth life and breath to all things.

He hath made one blood of all nations.

He has determined the times and bounds of their habitation.

That we should seek the Lord, though he be not far from everyone of us.

For in him we live, and move and have our being.

We are his offspring.

That we will be resurrected.

This was such a lot of information. We can say these attributes. They are wondrous things. Do we, however, really understand them? Sometimes I think, without knowing it that we worship an unknown God. What I mean is we project on to the mighty God attributes that are not His, but are only human and flawed. 

Scot

People say things like this:

I don’t believe in God anymore because my fervent prayer wasn’t answered. This assumes many things. That you know better than He does what will be good for you. That He is stingy or hard to reach. That He doesn’t regard your needs. That His love is imperfect. That His purpose is to be a cosmic bellboy instead of lead you back to Him.

People get mad at a God they’ve made up, assigning him flaws, emotions and short-sightedness.. They think He must be like their parents or other people that they may have known. They limit and bind Him by their own limitations in understanding.

Maurine

Sometimes when people turn from the Lord, they are really turning from their own imaginings of what and who God is. I remember as a little child, not knowing very much about who God was, so when I prayed I imagined my neighbor next door. He had given me a doll and I thought he was very kind. You can see that the God I was praying to was a very limited God.

Paul said in Romans 10:14: “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?”

Scot

We learn in the Third Lecture on Faith

2 Let us here observe, that three things are necessary, in order that any rational and intelligent being may exercise faith in God unto life and salvation.

3 First, The idea that he actually exists. We are not praying to a statue or a rock. God actually exists He is a reality.

4 Secondly, A correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes.

Without a correct idea of his character, perfections and attributes, we really can’t know whom we worship. We might as well be worshipping an unknown God.

Once in awhile we hear someone say that their testimony took a hit because they didn’t have a particular prayer answered.

5 Thirdly, An actual knowledge that the course of life which he is pursuing, is according to his will.—For without an acquaintance with these three important facts, the faith of every rational being must be imperfect and unproductive; but with this understanding, it can become perfect and fruitful, abounding in righteousness unto the praise and glory of God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Maurine

If we really know that He exists, if He has revealed to us line upon line pieces of His nature, so we can begin to comprehend Him, if we seek to live the life he has prescribed, then He is no longer an Unknown God to us. The greatest privilege of all eternity will be to see Him face to face.

Corinth

From Athens, Paul went to Corinth, which was 60 miles west of Athens and offered an ideal location to preach the gospel to the whole world.  Rome ruled Greek subjects who tolerated the Jews who lived and worked among them.

Scot

9 Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a avision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

10 For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much apeople in this city.

11 And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them (Acts 18). Though here again, he was brought before the judgment seat of a Roman magistrate named Gallio, the case was dismissed. However, the name Gallio gives us a fixed date for Paul’s stay in Corinth which was 52-53 AD.

After 18 months, Paul departed peacefully, as opposed to those many places where he was driven out.

Maurine

As for Paul’s third mission which begins in Acts 18:23, we will only point out a few significant moments, beginning with a riot in the seaside city of Ephesus. This was the location of one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world—the Temple of Diana or Artemis as she is also called.  What happens here is a glimpse into the world that Paul preaches in.

One Demetrius, a maker of silver shrines for Diana, was suffering a loss in trade because of Paul’s preaching and stirred up a riot. His speech gives us a glimpse of how profound Paul’s missions have been. “Ye see and hear, that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands: so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at nought; but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised, and her magnificence should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worshippeth” (Acts 19: 26,27).

Scot

Here we see one of the showdowns of the ancient world. Christianity will upset the stranglehold of the Roman gods.

28 And when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.

For his own personal gain, Demetrius knows how to stir up a people. Paul’s companions Gaius and Aristarchus are dragged into the theater. Alexander, a local Jewish spokesman, is drowned out by the chanting, and eventually a Roman official quiets the mob and insists that any charges must be made through the magistrate’s court.

Maurine

On this third mission, another extraordinary event occurs. Paul is preaching on the Sabbath, and is giving a long talk that extends until midnight.  A young man named Eutychus was a deep sleep in the third loft by a window, and fell to his death.

10 And Paul went down, and fell on him, and aembracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.

11 When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.

12 And they brought the young man aalive, and were not a little comforted. (Acts 20:10-12).

Scot

By the time Paul’s mission had ended and he was back on his way to Jerusalem, he carried with him a heavy knowledge. He gathered many of the elders of the church from Ephesus together to Miletus to say his goodbyes.

Acts 20

18 And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons,

19 aServing the Lord with all bhumility of mind, and with manyctears, and dtemptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews:

20 And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house,

21 Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, aand faith toward our Lord bJesus Christ.

22 And now, behold, I go bound in the aspirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:

23 Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and aafflictions babide me.

24 But none of these things amove me, neither count I my blifedear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the cgospel of the dgrace of God.

Maurine

He also warned them of the apostasy to come.

29 For I know this, that after my departing shall agrievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking aperverse things, to bdraw away disciples after them.

31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to awarn every one night and day with tears.

What is noteworthy here is that not only would there be grievous wolves outside of the flock, but the apostasy would come from “your own selves” speaking “perverse things.”

Scot

How often it is members of the flock who turn against the Church and become its worse enemy.

As an example of this, it wasn’t long into the second century, when people would debate whether Jesus Christ was actually resurrected and had a body. This was in part the Greek influence upon Christianity. The Greeks viewed material things and particularly the body as part of a corrupt world, and they just could not associate deity with this. The very nature of God would be changed, and the main teaching of the early day apostles that they had been witnesses of a resurrected Lord would be debated and then dismissed over time.

Maurine

When Paul left Miletus:

37 And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul’s neck, and kissed him,

38 aSorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship.

That’s quite a scene. As Paul continues his journey the sense of foreboding about what will happen to him continues:

Scot

Acts 21 speaks of a certain prophet named Agabus.

11 And when he was come unto us, he took Paul’s girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, Thus saith the aHoly Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.

12 And when we heard these things, both we, and they of that place, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem.

13 Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to adie at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.

Maurine

That is a bold and faithful proclamation.

Things turn out as Paul had been warned by the Spirit when he returned to Jerusalem. The brethren received him gladly and “James and all the elders were present.” He goes to the temple for seven days to complete a vow he has made. However while he was there, the Jews, which were of Asia stirred up the people, saying that because he taught that it was not necessary as Christians to be circumcised, he was preaching against the law of Moses. They cried out that he had polluted the temple by his very presence there.

30 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.

31 And as they went about to akill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an buproar.

Scot

Because soldiers and centurions came running, the mob left off beating Paul. Then they chained him and took him to what is called in scriptures the “castle”, but it is actually the Antonia Fortress where the Roman soldiers stayed, a structure which was built right against the wall of the temple.

As the soldiers tried to ascertain who he was and why he had caused the uproar “Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of aTarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.”

Maurine

So we are left with two questions from these chapters. Do I trust that the Spirit will guide me where and how to share the gospel? The requirement is that I ask with boldness to receive that revelation, that I too can be an instrument in the hands of God. And second, do I have the courage to declare the gospel in all circumstances as Paul did, despite the consequences?

Scot

We’re Scot and Maurine Proctor of Meridian Magazine and we’ve loved being with you today. Thanks to Paul Cardall for the music that begins and ends this podcast. Now can we ask you one favor. When you click off this podcast, will you go to Facebook and share the link latterdaysaintmag.com/podcast with two friends? Just do it now when we’ve finished talking. It’s one of the ways we can do missionary work today—by sharing the message far and wide.

Maurine

Next week’s study is “A Minister and a Witness” which is Acts chapters 22-28. Thanks for being with us. Go right to Facebook when you click this off and share it! Thanks.

Scot

See you next week.