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(About this series)

CHAPTER IV: OBSERVATIONS ON THE CONVERSION AND APOSTLESHIP OF ST. PAUL BY LORD LYTTELTON

ANALYZED AND CONDENSED BY REV. J. L. CAMPBELL, D. D., CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

The object of this paper is to present in an abbreviated form the famous argument of Lord Lyttelton in defense of Christianity based on the conversion of the Apostle Paul. A few words about the man himself and about the interesting circumstances in which this treatise was written will properly introduce the subject.

George Lyttelton was born at Hagley, Worcestershire, England, January 17, 1709, and died on Tuesday morning, August 22, 1773, aged sixty-four years. He belonged to a distinguished “family of long descent and gentle blood, dwelling for centuries on the same spot.” Educated at Eton and Oxford, he soon afterwards entered Parliament, “and for many years the name of George Lyttelton was seen in every account of every debate in the House of Commons.” From this, he advanced successively to the position of lord commissioner of the treasury, and of chancellor of the exchequer, after which he was raised to the peerage. He was also a man of letters and his closing years were devoted almost wholly to literary pursuits. He was a writer of verse as well as prose and Dr. Samuel Johnson has furnished us with his biography in his “Lives of the Poets.” Outside of his books, which comprise nine octavo volumes, his Memoirs and Correspondence make two additional volumes that were compiled and edited by Robert Phillimore in 1845.

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Reprinted with permission from As I See It, which is available free by writing to the editor at dkutilek@juno.com.

All the events in the NT occurred against the historic background of the Roman Empire. Throughout the NT, we find and feel the presence, sometimes center stage, sometimes more peripheral, of Rome, its agents and its influence. At least four Roman Emperors are mentioned in the Gospels and Acts, three by name (Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius). One issues a decree that is unwittingly crucial in fulfilling a Hebrew prophecy made seven centuries earlier (Micah 5:2; see Luke 2:1). One orders Jews out of Rome (Claudius) and one is the Caesar to whom Paul appealed his criminal case (Nero), and about whom history records that he began the systematic persecution of Christians and who, tradition has it, executed both Paul and Peter.

Roman governors rule in Judea (Quirinius, Pilate, Felix, Festus), and elsewhere. Jesus, who had instructed His listeners to “render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s” was condemned by to death by a Roman governor, beaten, then crucified by Roman soldiers, who also guarded His tomb in hopes of preventing His departure from the grave. Roman soldiers are found in Judea, and in Galilee, some being converts of John the Baptist, and others respectful and appreciative acquaintances of Jesus. A Roman centurion was among the early converts in Acts; Roman soldiers rescued Paul from the Jerusalem mob, and escorted him safely to Caesarea. Another spared his life after the shipwreck on Malta. Some of Caesar’s own palace guards became converts in Rome. Paul’s (and Silas’) Roman citizen plays an important part in the narrative in Acts. Something over 20 Latin words are borrowed into the Greek NT, nearly all being words associated with government and rule. Everywhere in the NT, there is Roman government, Roman law, Roman commerce, Roman coins, Roman culture and custom.

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Preaching?: Simple Teaching on Simply Preaching by Alec Motyer

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“The Word of God is the constitutive reality at the heart of the Church” (p. 18).

There are as many ideas about how to grow a church as there are books on the subject. There are books that focus on meeting felt needs, worship strategies, small groups and a myriad of other ministries that can be maximized to grow your church. However, what many of these books fail to recognize or address is that the bedrock of growing a church is the ministry of the Word through preaching.

With a biblical focus on the Word of God at the heart of a church Alec Motyer has written Preaching?: Simple Teaching on Simply Preaching. As the Old Testament editor for The Bible Speaks Today series, Motyer has turned his pen to writing on preaching and has written a book that addresses both the biblical-theological aspects as well as some practical issues.

The first five chapters address the nature of preaching. These chapters are exegetically grounded in various passages of Scripture. Motyer defines good preaching as that which has a “sense of being plain and unmistakable” (p. 11). Preaching that is good is to be expositional, that is, “the restatement of a Scripture” (p. 30). Motyer wants to impress upon his readers that preaching is the ground upon which the whole church grows and functions. All ministry grows out of the Word and the preaching of the Word. His exegetical work deals with many NT passages that provide us with the nature and task of faithful biblical preachers. His observation, especially of the book of Acts, is that it is the ministry of the preaching of the Word that drove the growth of the early church. Surely there were other attending contributions, like the work of the Spirit through the Word, but it was always the Word that led the way and was responded to.

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In What the Old Testament Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of Jesus’ Bible, Jason DeRouchie brings together 16 other evangelical OT scholars to produce a truly one-of-a-kind resource. Rather than being a work by scholars for scholars, this is a work for the Church. The Old Testament is expounded and analyzed from the perspective of the cross of Christ, and the result is an unpacking of the Gospel in the Old Testament. Today’s believers are provided a practical approach to reading and studying the Old Testament. And as the authors remind us, the Old Testament was the Bible of Jesus and the early Church.

The book surveys each of the 24 books of the Old Testament—24 books according to the Hebrew numbering, that is. And the Hebrew order of the books of the Old Testament is the order the contributors to this volume follow. Each chapter gives a brief introduction as to the setting and author of that Hebrew book and then focuses on a discussion of the book’s major themes with particular regard to how it fits into the overall canonical structure. Jason DeRouchie provides introductions to each of the major sections of the Hebrew Bible: the Torah (or Law), the Prophets, and the Writings, as well as an overview of the entire Old Testament. Throughout the volume, there are beautiful, full-color photos of scenes from the Holy Land. Additionally, there are countless charts and tables on helpful subjects relating to the material covered. Memory verses and suggestions for additional reading round out each chapter. The KINGDOM Bible reading plan is also included as an appendix and will help readers in continuing to read through and appreciate the Hebrew Bible in the canonical order this book stresses.