What Opened Saul's Eyes?

Search the Scriptures Daily Program #4605d Transcript follows: Please stay with us and at the end of the program we’ll let you know where to send your questions for Dave and Tom to respond to in a future Contending for the Faith.  You are listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.  Now our final segment:             UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES We resume our exploration of the Book of Acts.  Here again are, Dave and Tom:  This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, Dave and I have a privilege of going through the Word of God, and we certainly want to encourage everyone, we are blessed to be able to do this, but we want you to be Bereans, to search the scriptures daily.  I can’t think of a more important discipline in a Christian’s life than reading the Word.  Discipline—you know, we have to discipline ourselves on the one hand, on the other hand it should be a labor of love, an act of reading love letters really, from our Lord and Savior Christ.  It’s really what it’s about.             Dave: Well, Tom, let me read Deuteronomy 6, again, we’ve done this many times but it bears repeating.  God says in Verse 5 and 6,  “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.”  Difference between what God requires and what Muhammad and Allah required.  You don’t even have to believe it to be a Muslim, you just make the confession.  But remember, Romans 10:9, says, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”  It was Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch who said, “Here is water, what would hinder me from being baptized.”  Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart you may.”  So, it says, “These words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou riseth up” and so forth.  Psalm One, speaks of God’s blessing upon the  man who meditates in the law of the Lord day and night.  It would be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.  And Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy 8, I can just over and read that, I can quote it but let’s read it:  Deuteronomy 8:1, “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.  And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.”  God is testing us and proving us, and we are to keep His commandments, we are to obey the Word of God.  Now, if we don’t even know what it says, how can we possibly obey it?  We are to meditate in it day and night.             Tom: And Dave, there is an important aspect about this, especially in the last days.  I believe we are in the last days, we’ve talked about that over many of our programs and we can document it from the scriptures, just look around and see what’s going on.  And this process that seems to be taking place, of Christians, those who profess to be evangelical Christians, Bible-believing Christians, are actually being weaned off the Word of God, almost systematically, it seems.  And so, consequently, even though you are a true believer, if your Christianity, if your understanding of the Word is so shallow, then you can’t discern anymore, Dave, right?  Somebody can come along, be persuasive, have some great ideas, some things that seem to be where God is blessing, but many Christians, in a state of superficiality, of shallowness with regard to the Word, call it Biblical illiteracy, they can’t challenge those individuals, and they are just going to follow wherever the person, or individual, or church wants to lead them.             Dave: Because they don’t know the Word of God.  If you know the Word of God, it will protect you from any false doctrine that might come along, but that’s the tragedy today.  Well, Tom, we are in Acts 9.             Tom: Acts Chapter Nine, and we got to verse 18.  This has to do with Ananias, Paul on the road to Damascus, our Lord Jesus Christ appears to him, he’s blinded and the Lord speaks to Ananias to go to Saul and to, really be the instrument of God to heal Saul.  So, Saul is blinded, and verse 18, says, “And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales:  and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.  And when he had received meat, he was strengthened.  Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus.  And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that  He is the Son of God.”  He didn’t waste any time, did he?             Dave: Saul has had a powerful confrontation from Christ, who said:  “Why are you persecuting me?  And, of course, Saul has had a troubled conscience for a long time.             Tom: Because he knew the Word, he understood the Word, but he was rejecting the very Messiah that the Word of God, the Old Testament, had taught about.             Dave: As Jesus said to the rabbis, “You search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but these are they that testify of Me, but you won’t come to Me that you might have life.”  Christ came to Saul.  I guess somebody could say, Well, why doesn’t He do that for everybody?  Saul was a special chosen vessel that Christ was going to use in an amazing way and He said He would show him what great things he would have to suffer.  So, you want Jesus to appear to you so you can suffer and be martyred?  But we all have the Word of God, and Saul did not have the scriptures that we have today, he had the Old Testament scriptures.  Jesus Christ was going to personally instruct Saul, he would spend some time in Arabia, and let me just read it from Galatians 1:11 and 12, so we understand what is going to happen.  He says:  “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.  For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” That’s a very important passage, because we know that the Bible, all scripture is given by inspiration.  Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.  But Paul isn’t claiming, I got this by revelation from the Holy Spirit.  He says, No, I got this by a revelation directly from Christ Himself.  So, Paul is going to go off into Arabia, and let me read what he says:  You’ve heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how I persecuted the church and I was more zealous of the traditions of my fathers than anybody else in Israel.  And he says:  But when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood—this is going to happen right after this experience on the road to Damascus—neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me, but I went into Arabia and returned again unto Damascus.  Then, after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days.  But other of the apostles saw him none, save James, the Lord’s brother, and so forth.  So, Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle is one of the great proofs of the resurrection of Christ. Because he didn’t just have some emotional experience, you know, where because of his guilt complex he thought that he saw Jesus and now he is going to change to come over on their side, which it will mean his martyrdom.  But he literally was taught by Christ.  How do we know that?  Because he didn’t go up to the apostles before him and say, Hey, guys, I think I have become a Christian, I’d kind of like to be an apostle, but I didn’t study under Jesus with you felllows, could you give me a quick course in Christianity so that when I start to preach the gospel I don’t make any mistakes?  No, he says, I didn’t go to any of them.  I was personally taught by Christ back in Arabia.  And, he became the chief apostle, he rebukes Peter to his face, Peter you are wrong, this is not the way it should be, but God uses him to write, 1Corinthians 11, to tell us what happened at the Last Supper, Paul wasn’t even there.  So, we have absolute proof that Paul met Christ, was taught by Him, and the other apostles had to say, Paul, you know everything we know, and more!  He became, really, the chief apostle.  Tom: Verse 21, “But all that heard him were amazed, and said:  Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?” Dave: So we would have quite a transformation here.  Saul of Tarsus, who came determined to arrest Christians, who had been involved in the stoning of apparently more than Stephen, we get that impression, he has been transformed completely.  Christ has met him.  He knows he’s going to be one of those who will be persecuted and killed, and yet this experience of Christ arresting him, you might say, on the road to Damascus is so powerful Paul has forgotten everything, all of his ambitions, he gives up everything, and  he is going to follow Christ.  He begins preaching who Jesus really is.  He goes into the synagogue, I mean, that’s rather bold of Paul, but he is will teach us the gospel is to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile, and in every city he went to, Paul went first into the synagogue.  And then when the Jews threw him out, then he went to the Gentiles, and eventually, Jew and Gentile would join together to kill him.  Dave and Tom will resume their discussion on the topic of salvation next week, we hope you can join us.  This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Does God love only some of us?  Has He already determined those elect who will live forever with Him in heaven?  Are you one of the elect?  And if not, is there anything you can do about it?  The doctrine of Calvinism, it’s five-points and their implications for the body of Christ are discussed and debated in two powerful books from Dave Hunt and The Berean Call, Debating Calvinism, Five Points, Two Views, features a written debate between Dave Hunt and James White, published by Multnomah.  In an easy to read format Hunt and White exchange energetic letters addressing this long-argued topic.  Co-author of The Seduction of Christianity, and co-host of Search the Scriptures Daily Radio, Dave Hunt:  The influence of Calvinism is growing greatly in the church today.  It’s very important that we understand, and we did debate in Calvinism so that you could have a debate in writing.  You can go back and forth and read exactly what each side said, think it over carefully, rather than an emotional debate. And in what some are calling the definitive work on this topic, don’t miss Dave Hunt’s, What Love Is This? Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God, in this recently expanded and up-dated edition, Dave exhaustively  documents the unscriptural nature of this doctrine that comes perilously close to blasphemy.  Once again, Dave Hunt:  We did a new revised up-dated edition of What Love Is This? because so many Calvinists were criticizing what I  had said.  I went through all of their criticisms and answered them in this new and expanded version.  Debating Calvinism: Five Points, Two Views, and What Love Is This? Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God, in e-book or hard cover, are both available from The Berean Call.  Information on how to order in just a moment.  And now, to tell you more about our ministry, here is TBC Executive Director, Tom McMahon:  The name, The Berean Call, is taken from the Book of Acts, chapter 17, verses 10 and 11, where we find the apostle Paul entering the synagogue in the Greek city of Berean after  he had just come from Thessalonica.  To these Bereans he preached that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah sent from God.  They were commended for being noble, or fair minded, not only for their willingness to hear what Paul had to say about the matter, but more specifically, because they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether or not what the apostle was saying was found in God’s Word.  That’s what we hope to encourage through this ministry.  Our mission is to alert believers in Christ to unbiblical teachings and practices impacting the church.  We want to exhort believers to give greater heed to Biblical discernment and truth regarding what they are accepting as spiritual.  We hope to supply those who profess to be biblical Christians with information and materials that will encourage the love of God’s truth.  Hopefully, we can help mobilize believers in Christ to action in obedience to the scriptural command to “earnestly contend for the faith” found in Jude 3.  And finally, our prayer is that we can be used of God to stimulate Christians to look to the Bible alone, as their rule of faith, authority and practice in living lives pleasing to our Lord and Savior.  Gary: If you are a serious student of God’s Word, we offer a wide variety of items that you will find helpful, from books and tracts to audio and video tapes, CD-ROM, our internet website and much more.  For a complete list of materials, or to get a copy of today’s broadcast, write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708, call us at our toll free order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org.  If you would like a copy of this broadcast, ask for Program #4605, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station.  Get a pen or pencil ready, we’ll repeat our contact information in just a moment.              Next week, we will continue our series of programs based on Dave Hunt’s latest book, Judgment Day, and, Is Saudi Arabia the model of true Islam?  In Religion in the News, Nine-Step Pagans, we’ll take a look at that story, and address the question:  What makes the Word of God quick and powerful?  We hope you can tune in.  If you have questions or comments about this program, we urge you to contact our offices.  Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry is made possible by God’s grace, your prayers and your financial support.  I’, Gary Carmichael, and for Dave, Tom and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for joining us and invite you to tune in again next week.  In the meantime, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily.  For more information about The Berean Call, write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708, call us toll free at our order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org.