How Did Paul Know He Would Be Shipwrecked?

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts and we are going to pick up---actually we are going to begin Acts Chapter 27, and start with Verse 1: “And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius a centurion of Augustus’ band. And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. And the next day we touched at Sidon. And Julius courteously entreated Paul, and gave him liberty to go unto his friends to refresh himself."

Dave:

So, for those who are just listening for the first time or those who have forgotten what went before, Paul has appealed to Caesar. He’s not getting justice where he is, and he is going to be turned back to the Jews likely, and that would mean his death. So he appealed to Caesar, so to Caesar he will be sent. Well, when the government was very obliging in that, they had some good laws. For example, one of them was, you don’t find anyone guilty based upon testimony from someone that he has not been able to face. They said, we don’t do that, the accused must be able to face his accusers before witnesses in court, and so forth. So, he has appealed to Caesar, and they are going to take Paul to Rome. But apparently, not only has Paul appealed to Caesar, this is catching, I guess, there must have been a number of others. It says, “and certain other prisoners,” they’re going to Rome as well. Now, I don’t know exactly, maybe they are going to Rome to be executed, I would think they could do that right there. I don’t know and the Bible doesn’t tell us the details. So they are going by ship, and very interesting, Tom, as you know there are great proofs in the Bible that it is the Word of God, that it is history, and one of them is the routing that we will get in detail when they had to reroute because of a storm and so forth, where they spent the winter.Well, they didn’t spend the winter because they went on, they should have spent the winter there. So it begins to give you some of the details. “And the next day we touched at Sidon.” And Julius allowed Paul to visit some friends and refresh himself.

Tom:

“And when we had launched from thence, we sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. And there the centurian found a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy; and he put us therein.” Verse 7: “And when we had sailed slowly many days, and scarce were come over against Cnidus, the wind not suffering us, we sailed under Crete, over against Salmone. And, hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called the fair havens; nigh whereunto was the city of Lasea. Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them, And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.”

Dave:

Well, Tom, here again we have details about where they were going, you know, you couldn’t go that way so they went another way.

Tom:

Sounds like travel today, Dave.

Dave:

Yeah, but it’s even talking about the name of the towns. I doubt that Myra, a city of Lycia, even exists today. The point I’m trying to make is, the skeptics, the critics often say, Well, the New Testament, that wasn’t written until centuries later, this is not a true account of crucifixion or anything else that happened, you couldn’t put this together. Where is---let’s say we’ve got someone that’s pretending to be Paul, and he’s writing this, pretending to be Luke, and he’s putting himself here. There is so much you could not possibly document. How would you know where all of these things were?

Tom:

Sure. Blatant mistakes would defiantly come forth.

My goodness, let me just mention some very quickly. I want to just turn to Luke Chapter 3: “Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,” some people would say, what’s all this about, sounds like the begats and begottens in the Old Testament. Why are you giving us all these details? Because it proves it was written by eye witnesses who were there at the time. How would you know that in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, not just any old Caesar, Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea at that time, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee. That’s a pretty technical term, tetrarch, his brother Philip was tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias was the tetrarch of Abilene, Annas and Caiaphas were the high priests. Come on, you skeptics out there, you couldn’t say that was written hundreds of years later, somebody filled all those details in. They would have no way of knowing them. So I think some of the details of this journey are the same nature.

Tom:

Well, Dave, let’s compare it with other so-called sacred books. The Book of Mormon, you know, as I’ve gone through the Book of Mormon, you find the land of Moron, the king of Moron.

Dave:

Right.

Tom:

By comparison, you know, they are bad jokes.

Dave:

Tom, you know very well, the Mormons, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as they call it, they have spent tens of millions of dollars in archeological searches. North, Central, South, America, they haven’t found a pin, they haven’t found anything. The Bible has---I’ve been to quite a few museums around the world, you’ve got mountains of evidence. I’ve mentioned it before, the Hittites. When I grew up in the thirties, Oh, Hittites, they never existed, we’ve never been able to find any evidence. Well, go to Ankar, Turkey today, they have an entire Hittite museum filled with relics.

Tom:

And you can get a degree in Hittite history from universities.

Dave:

The Bible is verifiable, and this is part of the verification, it is historic. It is true, not only theologically, but historically.

Tom:

Which you would expect, this is God’s Word, thus saith the Lord.

Dave:

Amen, and these details are there, I believe, for that purpose for verification.