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

apostles submitted to the Holy Ghost in everything great and small, he felt perfectly free to give his
endorsement to the Gentile innovation in the name of the Apostolic church.
25. Not only did Barnabas heartily endorse the procedure, but of his own accord he went away
to Tarsus, the capital of Cilicia, hunted up his old friend and schoolmate, Saul, and brought him to
Antioch to help push the evangelistic work among the Gentiles. You see plainly from this transaction
the decisive contrast between the Apostolic church and modern ecclesiasticisms, ruled by men
pursuant to laws of their own manufacture, not only independently but even defiantly of the Holy
Ghost, whose work is as manifest this day as ever; but blind men do not see anything. Preachers who
fail to see the work of the Holy Ghost in the present holiness movement are no kin to Barnabas. If
they were only like him, “full of the Holy Ghost and faith,” they would all see the work of God, give
it their endorsement and lend a helping hand to push the battle for souls wherever they saw the work
of the Holy Ghost among the people, even though it capsize some of their man-made rules and
regulations. God has provided that valuable gift, “discernment of spirits” (1 Corinthians 12:10) for
all of His Spirit-filled people, which in every case enables them to recognize the work of the Holy
Spirit in contradistinction to that of other spirits, human and diabolical. Good Lord, revive again the
Apostolic church in its New Testament simplicity, ruled by the Holy Ghost alone; of course, not
without human instrumentality, cognizant of the Spirit and His work, and gladly acquiescent in the
same.
DISCIPLES AND CHRISTIANS.
26. “And it came to pass unto them indeed that they were assembled a whole year in the church
and taught a great crowd, and that they first called the disciples Christians in Antioch.” The
followers of our Savior were denominated by Himself and others “disciples,” i.e., pupils, learners.
After the incarnation of the Holy Ghost in the Pentecostal experience we find the cognomen
“Christian” applied to them, thus eventually superseding the former and familiar epithet “disciple.”
The Holy Ghost is the Author of every word in the original Scriptures. Each one of His words is
inspired, i.e., “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). The verbal inspiration is only in the original
language, the transactions only retaining the substantial inspiration. Hence we learn a valuable
fundamental lesson in these contrastive words “disciple,” a convert, and “Christian,” a noun
derived from Christus, which means “the anointed,” and applied to Jesus after His anointing by the
Holy Ghost descending on Him like a dove at the Jordan, having always hitherto been called Jesus,
his birth-name, which means “Savior.” The disciple is saved in conversion, but not anointed by the
Holy Ghost till he is sanctified in a second work of grace, thus progressing out of mere discipleship
into Christianity properly so called. The word “Christian,” which literally means a person anointed
with the Holy Ghost, is applicable to none but the sanctified, this being its New Testament meaning.
Oh, how woefully has Satan perverted the use of that word! In Palestine, where the natives are
Mohammedans and not allowed to get drunk, and the Jews are also abstinent, and all foreigners are
denominated Christians, the most indubitable evidence that a man is a Christian and not a Jew or a
Mohammedan is to find him so drunk he can not stand on his feet. Good Lord, save us from the
popular and blasphemous application of the word “Christian.” It means a person anointed with the
Holy Ghost, i.e., sanctified, in contradistinction to a mere disciple in his rudimentary experience.
How horrifically and blasphemously inconsistent for people who reject and even preach against
sanctification and all the work of the Holy Ghost, not only to claim to be Christians, but even