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desecrating the temple by taking a Gentile into it (Acts 21:28);
but the fact that they found him in the temple, and that he had
gone there to refute the charge made against him that he taught
the Jews who were among the Gentiles to forsake Moses (Acts
21:21), would be evidence that his teaching was in harmony
with Old Testament Scriptures.
`Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day,
witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those
which the prophets and Moses did say should come' (Acts 26:22).
It has been suggested that we must not press these words too
far, and that all that Paul intended to convey was that he was not
an irresponsible iconoclast*. When a man of ordinary honesty is
making a statement before a judge we expect his statement to be
true, and without double meaning. If such can be said of the
ordinary man, how much more should we expect the apostle of
truth to speak with great plainness of speech. If we were to find,
in face of this statement, that his early epistles contained
teaching that neither the prophets nor Moses had said should
come, then it would be difficult to offer any defence. We intend
to examine the apostle's early ministry, as found in the epistles
written before Acts 28, in order to discover whether or not his
statement before Agrippa was literally true.
His own extension of the statement is given in Acts 26:23 :
`That Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise
from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles'.
This refers particularly to the gospel which Paul had preached.
A little earlier we read:
*
Breaker of images or idols.