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responsibility of receiving "whomsoever" the Lord saw fit to send.
This solemn
utterance was only separated from Acts 1: by a few weeks.
2. The second reason is found in Luke 24: 44:--
"These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things
must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and IN
THE PSALMS concerning Me."
A.--These are, certainly, weighty arguments in favour of your interpretation.
B.--I have not finished yet.
After making
this statement
concerning Himself,
Luke 24: 45-48 continues:--
"Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures. And
said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from
the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
His name among all nations, beginning with Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things."
You will see that not only did these men have an opened Bible during that wonderful
forty days (Acts 1: 3), but they had an opened understanding also. When Peter said,
"This Scripture must needs have been fulfilled", he was echoing the words of Luke 24:
26 and 46, where "must needs" is translated "ought", and "behoved".
A.--I begin to realize what a great responsibility rests upon those men, who, so many
centuries after the event, with so much tradition between themselves and the beginning,
have so lightly presumed to be the critics of Peter, James and John.
B.--So you may. Yet there is more. These same correctors of the apostles tell us that
Peter limited God to the two men Joseph and Matthias. Now let us see whether this is so.
Peter's words are:--
"Wherefore of these men which have companied with us ALL the time that the Lord
Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John, unto that same day
that he was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His
resurrection" (Acts 1: 21, 22).
A.--What was Peter's authority for making this stipulation?
B.--The Lord's own words in John 15: 26, 27:--
"But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father . . . . .
He shall bear witness of Me, and ye also shall bear witness of Me, because YE HAVE
BEEN WITH ME FROM THE BEGINNING."
This is confirmed by Luke's statement in Luke 1: 2.
A.--This stipulation would rule out the apostle Paul then!