Where Are We?

Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. Acts 15:14, NIV

The famous violinist Fritz Kreisler was once playing with a pianist when he became confused as to where in the composition they were. He whispered to the piano player, "Where are we?" The piano man whispered back, "In Carnagie Hall."

It is possible for some very earnest Christians, who know all the ten commandments and the parables of Jesus, to become lost also. Are we "completed Jews?" Does the Bible show us who and where we are?

Yes. It is as simple and as easy as reading the minutes of the first church council in Acts 15. Luke is considered a very good historian, both of secular and church history. Yet there are denomonations that would rather take a loss on the stock market than to read or teach of this simple meeting.

Once I quoted from Acts 15 in such a church. A young man listened, protesting with his head wagging back and forth like a windshield wiper. How dare anyone declare that the church is not a latter day form of "spiritual Israel". This young man was a victim of Replacement Theology, which totally dominated this church.

Acts 15 makes it all so clear. Gentiles are being brought into the church. The Old Covenant is fading away.

Fighting words in the Presbyterian Church. Only these guys don't fight too well. Rather than fight, using the Word of God they argue with what my Logic 101, course called the fallacy of Argument from Authority. "It's not true because I say so, and I'm the one with the degrees!"

I saw such a one turn beet red as I read from my King James Scofield Bible. I was ignoring years of scholarship! His wife turned to him, as if to calm him down.

Such anger comes directly from the flesh. Christians have debated for millennia without getting mad. It is the unsecure who get mad. Yet, despite the anger, neither the windshield wiper nor the beet tried to refute Acts chapter 15.

I really mean it. If you have a busy schedule and a heavy work load, see if you can spare the time to read this wonderful record of who we are, and where we are in the plan of God. It settled the dispute way back then, and it will now.