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Wednesday, January 27 2010
What some call the "birthday of the Church" happened on Pentecost (see Calendar of Christ's Holy Days; listen also to the Sermon Pentecost, A Day Of Reckoning). The Holy Spirit of God is what makes a Christian.
"2:1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues [see The Origin Of Speaking In Tongues], as the Spirit gave them utterance." (Acts 2:1-4 KJV)
"Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven"
Notice carefully who those first Christians were: "Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven." The people of Judah had been widely scattered over the entire known world, the Roman Empire (see also Paul's World). They were so firmly rooted in those other lands that they called the foreign languages of all of those places their own native language i.e. "heard them speak in his own language" ... "wherein we were born." That "birthday of the Church" Pentecost involved mostly believing Jews, not gentiles.
"2:5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven.2:6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
2:7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? 2:8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
2:12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?" (Acts 2:5-12 KJV)
Peter was the apostle to the people of Judah, the "Jews." When he addressed the people at that "birthday of the Church," he recognized them as, and spoke to them as, Jews i.e. "Ye men of Judaea"
"2:14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: 2:15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: 2:18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 2:19 And I will show wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 2:21 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." (Acts 2:14-21 KJV)
Despite the work of Peter having been successful (see also Peter's Prophecy), his was a limited success. Why? The answer is provided by the apostle Paul, also a Jew, who later led the "birthday of the Church" for the gentiles.
"11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles" 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 11:26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: 11:27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." (Romans 11:13-27 KJV)
Fact Finder: Were Peter and Paul very independent, of each other, while at the same time totally unified in their service to Christ?
See Peter and Paul
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This Day In History, January 27
1186: German emperor Heinrich ("Henry") VI, king of Germany, Burgundy and Italy, married Constance of Sicily.
1343: Pope Clement VI's bull Unigenitus (see Papal Bull) proclaimed the doctrine of Indulgences. The sale of Indulgences was a major part of Martin Luther's "protest."
1731: Bartolomeo Cristofori died. The Italian harpsichord maker is credited with the invention of the piano.
1736: Stanislas II, Poland's last king, abdicated. Poland was dismembered by Germany and Russia.
1822: Greece proclaimed independence from Turkey's Ottoman Empire.
1825: The U.S. Congress established the "Indian Territory" (present-day Oklahoma) for forced resettlement of the "Indians" (a term that originated from early European explorers who erroneously thought that they had landed in India) along the "Trail of Tears."
1851: Naturalist John Audubon died at age 66. He published his collection of paintings of all known species of birds in North America.
1858: Ottawa was chosen as the capital of Canada by Queen Victoria.
1880: Thomas Edison patented his electric lamp invention.
1888: The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC.
1945: The Russian army liberated the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. 1,500,000 people, of whom 1,000,000 were Jews, were murdered by the Nazis at the "industrial death camp."
1967: Astronauts Virgil "Gus" Grissom, 41; Edward White, 37; and Roger Chaffee, 32, were killed in a fire aboard Apollo 1 during a practice launch at Cape Canaveral.
1973: A cease-fire accord was signed by the U.S., South Vietnam, North Vietnam and the Vietcong to end the Vietnam War. North Vietnam then over-ran the South and declared victory.
1978: The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that U.S. Nazis could fly the Swastika flag in a march in Skokie, Illinois.
1980: The Israel-Egypt border was opened for the first time since the 1948 war that resulted in the creation of the modern state of "Israel" (it's actually the modern state of Judah; see The Southern Kingdom and The Gathering of Israel and Judah)
