PENTECOST 1. The Kairites (so named from the Greek word which means time and occurs in the phrase “times and seasons”) are scholarly critics who make times and seasons a specialty of investigation. These tell us the day of Pentecost was Sunday. Our Savior was crucified on Friday, April 14th. This wo... [ Continue Reading ]
TONGUES OF FIRE 3. The tongue symbolizes the gospel whose dispensation is here and now inaugurated. God has never given but one definition of His minister, “a flame of fire” (Hebrews 1:7). Satan is the great counterfeiter. He counterfeits everything that God does, in that way fooling the people till... [ Continue Reading ]
WITH THE HOLY GHOST 4. In the old dispensation the Holy Ghost operated extrinsically in the people. It is the crowning glory of the gospel dispensation to be filled with the Holy Ghost, in which case He operates on us intrinsically. The law must be satisfied before the glorious Retribution, back to... [ Continue Reading ]
DOUBLE MIRACLE 5-9. On this occasion an unprecedented double miracle was wrought by the Holy Ghost on not only the speakers but all the hearers. This double miracle moved like a span of cyclones through the multitude, bringing the gospel with lightning velocity and unerring intelligibility to all.... [ Continue Reading ]
_E. g_., while Peter was preaching in Greek the Parthian heard him in his native Chaldaic tongue, the Median, the Elamite and the Mesopotamian each heard in his own native dialect. And regardless of the language spoken by any One, every auditor heard in his own language. To human apprehension this w... [ Continue Reading ]
Who are the Elamites? They are Jews from Elam, a country in Persia. Who are the Medians? They are Jews from Media, a great country bordering on Persia and the Caspian Sea. These are the very countries into which they were carried in their Babylonian captivity. Now you see, instead of being lost, the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LOST TRIBES OF ISRAEL NOT LOST 9-12. Volumes have been written, and weary eyes amid nocturnal lucubrations have toiled through the intervening ages hunting the lost tribes of Israel. It is rather a joke on the hypercriticism characteristic of modern times. The Bible is the book of all books. Whe... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL DRUNKEN 13. The E. V. says, _“of new wine.”_ A mistake. _Oinos_, “new wine,” the simple grape juice, an innocent, reviving, nutritious drink, does not here occur: but _glencos_, “fermented wine,” which was a slow intoxicant. Satan had not yet invented alcoholic wine, the intoxicant of the prese... [ Continue Reading ]
LAST DAYS 15-18. Peter proves by Joel the fulfillment of the latter-day prophecies on that notable occasion. The Edenic dispensation has come and gone, winding up with the terrible calamity of the Fall. The Antediluvian dispensation ran its race and went into the dark eclipse of Noah's flood. The Pa... [ Continue Reading ]
MIRACLES OF THE END 19, 20. These two verses describe the miracles of the end of the present age. You see how Peter couples them right on to the miracles of Pentecost; because he expected the Lord to return to the earth and set up His kingdom in his day. Matthew 16:28: “There are some of those sta... [ Continue Reading ]
TIME OF WAITING 21. _“And it shall come to pass that whosoever may call on the name of the Lord, shall be saved.”_ If the Pentecostians had proved true to the wonderful enduement of the Holy Ghost, they might have peregrinated the whole known world and preached the gospel to every nation, in which c... [ Continue Reading ]
CHRIST, DAVID'S SUCCESSOR 22-35. We find in these Scriptures that Christ was predestinated to suffer and die to redeem the world. While this is true, it was perfectly optionary with Judas, the Jews and the Romans to betray and crucify Him pursuant to their own diabolical malice and turpitude. We mus... [ Continue Reading ]
_“I foresaw the Lord always before me, because he is my right hand that I may not be shaken.”_ These words are applied to Christ; like much of David's testimony this is only applicable to David's greatest Son. We must bear in mind that the humanity of Christ is our only exemplar. The great importanc... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Because thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption.”_ We have two words used by the Holy Ghost and translated _“Hell”_ in E. V., _i. e_., “Hades,” which in R. V. is not translated, but transferred very correctly to our language, while the other wor... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAVENLY CORONATION 29-35. When I was in Jerusalem and visiting this spot, on which they were praying when the Holy Ghost fell on them, my guide pointed me out David's tomb right there in full view. Silly heretics have construed the statement (Acts 2:34), _“For David has not yet ascended into the he... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Therefore being a prophet and knowing that God swore to him with an oath that one from the fruit of his loins should sit upon his throne.”_ Peter uses this testimony of David to prove the kingship of Christ. He was born King of the Jews. Paul says (Romans 2:28-29): “He is not a Jew as one outward... [ Continue Reading ]
_“Therefore, exalted at the right hand of God, having received the promise of the Holy Ghost with the Father, he has poured out this which you see and hear.”_ You see Peter's logic. The discussion of the Holy Ghost filling the disciples is demonstrative proof that Christ has satisfied the Father wit... [ Continue Reading ]
Peter with the boldness of an archangel certifies and proves by David and Jacob that God has received, crowned and sceptered that same Jesus whom they had crucified both Lord and Christ. Thus he charges the mighty men of church and state with the blackest crime that ever cursed humanity. Nothing but... [ Continue Reading ]
Peter is shouted down by a swelling tide of mournful wails: _“What must we do?”_... [ Continue Reading ]
PLAN OF SALVATION 38. Peter interjects uproariously amid the heterogeneous clamor like ten thousand ocean billows breaking against the rock-bound shore. _“Repent ye, and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL AGES AND NATIONS 39. _“For the promise is to you and to your children, and to you who are afar off, so many as the Lord our God may call.”_ This verse is positive, unequivocal and unmistakable, confirmatory of the great New Testament truth that the promise of the personal incarnated Holy Gho... [ Continue Reading ]
THREE THOUSAND CONVERTED 42. To what were they converted? They were all converted to the Christhood of Jesus. Doubtless very many of them knew the God of Abraham in a happy personal experience of His saving power. They are called _“devout men”_ (Acts 2:5). The word translated devout is never applie... [ Continue Reading ]
MANY MIRACLES 43. The occasion is rife with the miraculous manifestations of the Divine presence. The supernatural audience of every man in his own language and equally supernatural utterance of the one hundred and twenty in all the diversified languages spoken by the nations of the globe as the Je... [ Continue Reading ]
COMMUNITY OF GOODS 44, 45. A number of concurrent events superinduced this community of goods: (A) The suddenness of the Pentecostal revival catching thousands of those delegates from Jewish synagogues in _“every nation under heaven,”_ who had only brought supplies for their expeditious peregrina... [ Continue Reading ]
HOUSEHOLD PREACHING 46. _“And they were daily persevering with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house; they received their food with gladness and purity of heart, praising God and having grace toward all the people.”_ Here we find that the hundred and twenty, augmented by th... [ Continue Reading ]
CHURCH-JOINING 47. _“And the Lord was adding daily unto them those being saved.”_ You all see the R. V., in harmony with the Greek, leaves church out of this passage. Doubtless the word was added by some of the ecclesiastical conservators of the Dark Ages. A considerable amount of the interpolations... [ Continue Reading ]