It is important to realize here and to
understand that when the Gospel speaks derogatorily about {the Jews} it means
self-righteous and self-important religious people – at that time, that was, {the Jews}, as NO OTHER RELIGION was
recognized. Today, as then, there are some Jews … just
like there are muslims, pagans, atheists, catholics, protestants, anglicans, baptists,
episcopalians, methodists, pentecostals, agnostics, hindus, buddhists, ect.
(the list of religious and sanctimonious hypocrites is limitless) who are
opposed to Elohei, Elohim, Yeshua, The Gospel, and to Christians; and will do
whatever they can to bring it all to an end: silly people. ANYONE WHO DOES NOT
KNOW ELOHEI AND HAS NOT ACCEPTED YESHUA AS SAVIOR is pretty much akin to {the
Jews} in thought and action.
Elohim does not want a religious organization
in His Family – He wants people in His Family that LOVE HIM and HONOR YESHUA and
HIS CHURCH (which, by the way, is NOT a building or a specific congregation);
The Church is the Body of Believers in Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, saved, sealed, sanctified,
and SET APART FOR ELOHIM. At the time of this accounting, THAT WAS the Jews,
whom Elohim had set apart for Himself clear back in Genesis. Generations LATER,
He would graft The Church into that “set apart” Family.
For generations, Jews have been persecuted
and killed for “being the killers of Christ”. That is ludicrous! The FIRST
CHURCH WAS FUNDAMENTALLY BIRTHED BY THE JEWISH GOD AND COMPRISED 99% WITH JEWS!
I speak all this to drive home the point that
it was not specifically {the Jews} that persecuted Yeshua or The Church, though SOME Jews were certainly behind the harassment
and violence towards Yeshua, the Apostles, and The Believers, who ARE The
Church. It is important that people understand the context behind the text of
the Scripture they are reading … or misusing as a club. Today there are those who call themselves Christians who ARE NOW behaving
like sanctimonious religious idiots; PERSECUTING, HARRASSING, AND BRINGING
VIOLENCE ONTO The Church – as well as bad-mouthing Elohim’s chosen People, the
Jews.
DON’T BE LIKE THEM!
Or you WILL end like them …
Be wise.
**********
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO Acts ~ Chapter 12
At that time king Herod used his authority to
persecute the members of The Church. Thus he killed James, the brother of John,
with a sword. When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he took a next step and
set out to lay hold of Simon Peter, too. It happened during the festival of
Unleavened Bread. He had him arrested and put into prison. Then he appointed 4
detachments of soldiers, with 4 in each detachment, to stand guard over him,
with the idea of presenting him to the people after the Passover.
So Simon Peter was in prison and well-guarded.
And meanwhile The Church was at prayer, making fervent intersessions to Elohei
in his behalf. But the night. But the night before Herod planned to bring him
out, he lay sleeping between 2 soldiers, bound with 2 chains. Outside the
doors, sentries guarded the prison. Then suddenly an angel of Adonai appeared
near him and alight illuminated the building. The angel slapped Simon Peter in
his side to rouse him and said, “Hurry and get up!” Thereupon the chains
dropped from his hands. The angel spoke to him again, “Put on your belt and
shoes.” He did so. Once more he spoke to him, “Now put on your coat and follow
me.” He followed him out, but he did not realize that what was taking place with
the angel’s help was real and not just a vision. They passed one guard, then a
2nd guard and reached the iron gate that leads out of the city, and
that swung wide open to them of its own accord. They passed through this gate
and, as soon as they had gone up one street, the angle left him.
“Now I know”, said Simon Peter to himself, “the
Adonai Yeshua for a fact did send His angel to deliver me out of Herod’s hands,
and from all the things that the Jewish people expected to see. Then, after
thinking it over, he set out for the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark.
Many were assembled at her place, engaged in prayer.
After Simon Peter had knocked at the door of
the porch, a girl named Rhoda went to answer the knock. She recognized the
voice of Simon Peter but she did not at once open the door, for she was so glad
that she ran back in to report that Simon Peter was standing outside at the
porch. ‘You are crazy!’ they said to her. But she insisted that it was so. And
Simon Peter kept on knocking. So they opened up for him, and they were dumbfounded!
Then Simon Peter made a signal for them to remain silent, after which he told
them how Adonai Yeshua had delivered him from the prison. And he added, “Tell
it to James and the brethren.” He then took his departure for another place.
At daybreak there was a great stir among the
soldiers, as to what had become of Simon Peter. Herod set out to find him but
failed; so, after having questioned the keepers, he gave orders to have them
put to death. He then went down from Judea to Caesarea to stay for a time.
There was bitter hostility between Herod and
the people of Tyre and Sidon. But their country was dependent on his for its
supplies, so they made friends with Blastus, the king’s household steward, and
approached the king in a body, asking for peace. On the appointed day, Herod,
dressed in his royal robe, sat on his throne and began to make a speech to
them. The people started to applaud, shouting, ‘This is the voice of a god, not
of a man!’ Then the angel of Adonai Yeshua struck him down with a deadly
disease because he did not give Elohei the glory; and he died, eaten by worms.
The Word of Elohei kept growing stronger and
spreading out widely. When they had carried out their relief work, Barnabas and
Saul returned from Jerusalem, bringing with them John Mark.
