Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest
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Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

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41. “And saying these things he dismissed the church.” Where E.V. reads “assembly,” the Greek has ecclesia, the word throughout the Bible translated “church.” Why do we have the word “church” used relative to this Ephesian mob? Because it is all right and used correctly, not the Church of God, but Diana’s church, i.e., the church of Satan. Good Lord, help us to wake up to the fact that the world is full of the devil’s churches, this day as in by-gone ages! Ecclesia is from ek, “out,” and kaleoo, “call,” “the called out.” All the people in the world who hear the call of the Holy Ghost come out from this wicked world and all of its sins, leaving the devil forever and identifying themselves with God, are members of the Church of the First-Born. Satan, the great counterfeiter, has done his biggest work on the church line, filling up all lands with his churches, deceiving millions and sweeping them into hell by wholesale. The members of Satan’s churches, deluded by him, worship him under a vast diversity of names, thinking that they are worshipping God. In the Paganistic and Mohammedan churches, the devil calls himself by the names of their various idolatrous divinities and false prophets; while in the fallen churches of Christendom, he actually gets them to worship himself under the name of God, passing himself on them for God (2 Thessalonians 2). The devil is so much more intelligent than any human being, that the wisest and the most learned are in constant liability of mistaking Satan, “the god of this world,” for Jehovah, the God of heaven. While all sinners are led by demons in Satan’s midnight, so long as Christians have depravity in them, these evil Spirits can bivouac amid the dark jungles, play off on them for the Holy Ghost and deceive them. When you are emptied of sin, filled with the Spirit, your eye on Jesus, you have cloudless light within and without, qualifying you readily to detect the most stealthy approach of an evil spirit. Good Lord, save us all from delusion and entanglement in the devil’s church.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES CHAPTER XX. PAUL GOES TO EUROPE THE SECOND TIME. 1. We learn (1 Corinthians 1:8) that Paul remained in Ephesus at this time, A.D. 57, till after Pentecost, which was early in June, fifty days after April 14, having written the first Corinthian letter and sent it on to them by Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus. After this memorable uproar, calling together the disciples, exhorting and bidding them a loving adieu, he sails away to Macedonia. 2, 3. Spending the summer in the churches of Northern Greece, meanwhile Timothy and Titus with their comrades at different times have gone down into Achaia and preached to the Corinthians; bringing him word in reference to the effect of his first epistle, he writes the second [methinks at Berea] and sends it on before him, prosecuting his peregrinations through the north, and arriving at Corinth late in the fall, spending the winter of A.D. 57-58 in that genial southern climate. Meanwhile he writes the epistle to the Romans, setting out in the spring for the great East again and returning through Macedonia. 4-6. Meanwhile his evangelistic comrades, Sopater of Asia, Aristarchus and Secundus, Gaius and Timothy, Tychicus and Trophinius, embarking, sail directly to Asia, landing at Troas, whither Paul and Luke, leaving Philippi after the Passover, April 14, arrive in five days, and there remain for a week, preaching. THE SABBATH CHANGED. 7. “On the first day of the week we assembling to break bread,” i.e., to celebrate the love-feast and the eucharist. Paul spoke to them, being about to depart the following day, and continued his discourse till midnight. Justin Martyr was a disciple of Polycarp, a disciple of the Apostle John. Hence he lived, wrote and suffered martyrdom within a generation of the apostles. I have now before my eye his testimony in his native Greek, certifying that all the saints kept Sunday, in his day, as a day of sacred rest, devoted to the worship of God in commemoration of our Lord’s resurrection, in consequence of which it was denominated “the Lord’s day,” a phrase never applied to the Jewish Sabbath. As a confirmation of this we find the Hebdomidal division of time prevailing throughout the whole Gentile world very early in the Christian era, there being no such a seventh day division of time among the heathens. As the first converts of Christianity were all Jews, of course they kept the seventh day during their generation, and while the Jewish element remained in the church, as we see from this verse and other Scriptures, and the corroborations of Justin Martyr and other Christian fathers, also observing the first day of the week, i.e., Sunday, as a day of sacred rest, devoted to the worship of God. The Seventh Day Adventists most glaringly and erroneously tell us that the pope of Rome made the change of the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday! What an awful mistake! when there never was a pope until the seventh century, while we see right here, in New Testament times, they kept Sunday as we do, and history shows that it was ever afterward continued, down to the present day. The Roman historians, Suetonius and Pliny, who lived and wrote in the first centuries of the Christian era, during the bloody martyr ages, are good witnesses in this problem. As they were

41. “And saying these things he dismissed the church.” Where E.V. reads “assembly,” the Greek<br />

has ecclesia, the word throughout the Bible translated “church.” Why do we have the word “church”<br />

used relative to this Ephesian mob? Because it is all right and used correctly, not the Church of God,<br />

but Diana’s church, i.e., the church of Satan. Good Lord, help us to wake up to the fact that the world<br />

is full of the devil’s churches, this day as in by-gone ages! Ecclesia is from ek, “out,” and kaleoo,<br />

“call,” “the called out.” All the people in the world who hear the call of the Holy Ghost come out<br />

from this wicked world and all of its sins, leaving the devil forever and identifying themselves with<br />

God, are members of the Church of the First-Born. Satan, the great counterfeiter, has done his<br />

biggest work on the church line, filling up all lands with his churches, deceiving millions and<br />

sweeping them into hell by wholesale. The members of Satan’s churches, deluded by him, worship<br />

him under a vast diversity of names, thinking that they are worshipping God. In the Paganistic and<br />

Mohammedan churches, the devil calls himself by the names of their various idolatrous divinities<br />

and false prophets; while in the fallen churches of Christendom, he actually gets them to worship<br />

himself under the name of God, passing himself on them for God (2 Thessalonians 2). The devil is<br />

so much more intelligent than any human being, that the wisest and the most learned are in constant<br />

liability of mistaking Satan, “the god of this world,” for Jehovah, the God of heaven. While all<br />

sinners are led by demons in Satan’s midnight, so long as Christians have depravity in them, these<br />

evil Spirits can bivouac amid the dark jungles, play off on them for the Holy Ghost and deceive<br />

them. When you are emptied of sin, filled with the Spirit, your eye on Jesus, you have cloudless light<br />

within and without, qualifying you readily to detect the most stealthy approach of an evil spirit. Good<br />

Lord, save us all from delusion and entanglement in the devil’s church.

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