THE US AND THEM PROBLEM

Acts 15:8-9 ... "God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith."

      As the church leaped the boundaries of Jewish culture, and congregations that were essentially Gentile sprang up, a dichotomy developed among Christians which tested their spirituality to the utmost. For some time there was a real possibility that the church might divide into a Jewish branch based in Jerusalem and a Gentile branch based probably in Syrian Antioch. The tension did not seem to be so much a Gentile phenomenon as the effort of Jewish Christians to impose a form of Judaized Christianity upon Gentiles. The apostle Peter, himself a Jewish Christian, admitted this in v.10 (just after the above quotation) when he said, "Now why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?" Previously, some Jewish disciples had traveled all the way from Jerusalem to Antioch just to make a partisan demand of the Gentile brethren, "Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved," (v.1). Being themselves products of bigoted and myopic Jewish training, Paul and Barnabas realized the danger to the church in the unbridled course of these visitors. They therefore engaged these men publicly in "dissension and debate," (v.2). At last, the church in Antioch decided they should appeal directly to the source of the problem, the brethren in Jerusalem. Consequently, they "determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders concerning this issue," (v.2).

      When this delegation reached Jerusalem, they met with the apostles and elders to discuss the full scope of Gentile deference to Jewish Christianity. The conclusion reached by this "council" was, in reality, a  judgment by the Holy Spirit (v.28); Gentile Christians were relieved of any deference to Jewish brethren beyond four essentials: -1- abstaining from the pollutions of idols, -2- abstaining from fornication, -3- not eating animals having been strangled, and -4- not eating or drinking blood, (v.29).

      In his speech before this assembly Peter made the statement quoted above (vs. 8-9). It addresses a perennial problem in the church, which in turn reflects an ever present problem in the world at large. It is typical of people to look at others and think in terms of us and them, (note Peter's use of this phrase). At one time "us and them" is black and white, at another time male and female, or old and young, or rich and poor, or educated and uneducated, and so on. But "us and them" is not a Christian attitude, notwithstanding Peter's use of the phrase. (See Gal. 2:11-14 to find the trap into which it led Peter.) This attitude impedes Christian fellowship and stifles love, kindness, compassion and the other Christian graces. In Gal. 3:28 we are taught that in Christ "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." But because of the persistent "us and them" mentality we have been unable through the past to realize this ideal of "no difference between us and them ... for we are all one in Christ Jesus." Consequently,  the church has divided and subdivided time and again along the lines of whatever "us and them" happen to be. As a result, the appeal of Christianity to the people of the world has been greatly diminished, just as Jesus in Jno. 17:21 inferred it would be when His advocates are divided. As Christians we must learn not to draw lines between groups of people where God has not Himself drawn them.

THE WITNESS TO GOD'S EXISTENCE

Acts 14:17 ... "He (God as Creator) did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your heart with food and gladness."

      In I Jno. 4:12 the apostle stated that "no one has beheld God at any time." The God who created the universe, who created man, and who maintains our existence in favorable circumstances, is a God who is invisible to us. Seeking and adoring a God whom we cannot see in our life on earth demands great faith in us. Some people are unwilling to worship and serve a God whom they cannot see and therefore turn to appealing attractions they can see. One of Jesus' apostles, Philip, even dared request of Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us," (Jno. 14:8). A friend of mine attempted to open conversation with a young lady on a train in Germany. She had no faith in God's existence, and each time my friend made a statement, she would answer, "Doch kann ich Gott nicht sehen!" that is, "But I cannot see God!" We all can wish that God would reveal Himself to us visibly, so that the faith of believers would be confirmed and full confidence in His reality established in the heart of non-believers. God will not, however, grant this supreme experience to us while we live in earthly bodies. Though He wills that we draw near to Him, He also wills that our approach be through faith. We are told in Heb. 11:6 that "he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." Those who do put their faith in God and conform their lives to His will, shall receive the reward for it in heaven when it shall be granted to them to see God directly. Those who enter heaven are promised in Rev. 22:4 that "they shall see His face."

      Although God does not allow us to look upon His being with physical eyes, (an experience our earthly frames could not withstand!), He has nevertheless revealed overwhelming evidence of His existence to man whom He made in His image. Paul was speaking to idolatrous Lacaonians when he made the statement in the lead text above. He told these people who worshiped Jupiter, Mercury, and other imaginary deities that there is only one true God; and though He is invisible, He has given in the phenomenon of nature witness to His being. The regularity of rainfall, the progression of the seasons, and the fruitfulness of the earth all testify to God who established in the beginning the laws of nature that regulate and maintain the systems upon which our physical life depends. The eye is dim and the mind is dull which refuses to detect the hand of a caring God behind the capacity of nature to sustain life on earth, which is hardly more than a rocky sphere covered with a few inches of topsoil and encapsulated in a relatively thin packet of atmosphere.

      How fragile is our existence on this planet! Of the nine that constitute our solar system, ours is the only one that can sustain life. A little closer to the sun and our life systems would be extinguished in the greater radiation received. A little farther into space and the reduction of solar energy would be devastating to the maintenance of life. A little less gravity and our atmosphere would escape. A little more gravity and the delicate balance of nature would be radically, disastrously tilted.The atheistic materialist considers these intricate systems and attributes them to a quirk of fate ... "Such things just happen!" It is the conviction of this writer, however, that it takes as much faith to believe that random chance produced the wonderful material context in which we live as it does to believe God created it. Whether people will accept it or not, God has declared that He left His signature in the design of the universe and that He expects us to see it and accept the Person who wrote it. Those who will do that have a foundation upon which to stand and receive the rest, yea, the greater part of God's revelation --God as He is presented in the Bible, and also, God as He is seen in the Person of Jesus Christ. The more that a person accesses the knowledge of God in these revelations, the more he becomes like his Creator, (II Cor. 3:18).