I have seen one or two individuals reject plain truth like this before, but never a crowd this large. What stands out most in this picture is the red haired young man near the center of the picture, wearing a tee shirt with “TIT” (truth is terrorism) on it. Today, that is one of the most violent rejections I can think of; callings someone a terrorist is akin to calling someone a monster, isn’t it? How could someone in their right mind proclaim such a message? After all, truth is a good thing, isn’t it? And what sort of person would even boo the truth, let alone stop up their ears in such an overt manner? If you are a Christian, this will probably make you think of a very long passage (almost a chapter and one half in fact) from the book of Acts. Luke, the beloved physician says…
Acts 6 ( World English Bible )
[8] Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. [9] But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines,” and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen. [10] They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke. [11] Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” [12] They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, and brought him in to the council, [13] and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. [14] For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” [15] All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.
Acts 7 ( WEB )
[1] The high priest said, “Are these things so?”
[2] He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, [3] and said to him, ‘Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’* Genesis 12:1 [4] Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living. [5] He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child. [6] God spoke in this way: that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. [7] ‘I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.’* Genesis 15:13-14 [8] He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
[9] ”The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him, [10] and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
[11] Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food. [12] But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time. [13] On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s race was revealed to Pharaoh. [14] Joseph sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls. [15] Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers, [16] and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.
[17] ”But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, [18] until there arose a different king, who didn’t know Joseph. [19] The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive. [20] At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father’s house. [21] When he was thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son. [22] Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works. [23] But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers* The word for “brothers” here and where the context allows may be also correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”, the children of Israel. [24] Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian. [25] He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand. [26] ”The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’ [27] But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? [28] Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’* Exodus 2:14 [29] Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
[30] ”When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. [31] When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him, [32] ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’* Exodus 3:6 Moses trembled, and dared not look. [33] The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. [34] I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.’* Exodus 3:5,7-8,10
[35] ”This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. [36] This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. [37] This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.* TR adds “You shall listen to him.”’* Deuteronomy 18:15 [38] This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us, [39] to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, [40] saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’* Exodus 32:1 [41] They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. [42] But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky,* This idiom could also be translated “host of heaven,” or “angelic beings,” or “heavenly bodies.” as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? [43] You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away* Amos 5:25-27 beyond Babylon.’
[44] ”Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen; [45] which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David, [46] who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. [47] But Solomon built him a house. [48] However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says, [49] ‘heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord; ‘or what is the place of my rest? [50] Didn’t my hand make all these things?’* Isaiah 66:1-2
[51] ”You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. [52] Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. [53] You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”
[54] Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. [55] But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, [56] and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” [57] But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord. [58] They threw him out of the city, and stoned him.
Why did they stone Stephen? He did nothing but tell them the history of the Israel nation and their response to God’s truth. He made the Jews realize that they were as guilty as the wandering Israelites. The Jews didn’t want to be faced with even hearing one more word from him, so they stopped up their ears and stoned Stephen to death.
Harsh isn’t it! But 2000 years later are some of us any better? Remember the last Democratic convention, they booed GOD! And to this very day, unborn babies are being murdered in America! This is on a scale of genocide and still continues. Why? Because our nation does not have the political will to stop it. Again, why? The answer is that people just refuse to hear that the lifestyle they live is in direct opposition to God’s will. I pray that this will change, for the evil that is in our nation is in fact a NATIONAL DISGRACE and someday God will judge us for it! Pray for America; pray for all those who have rejected God and sinned! If the Jews could kill Stephen for telling the truth, then those who are baby killers could do the same to anyone revealing them as monsters that they are. They may even call YOU a TERRORIST for revealing their sin. Be prepared in spirit and continue to pray. Let God’s will be done!
If there are around 11,000,000 species on the planet today,
(3) Moses used the “cubit” as the measurement standard for the dimensions of the Ark, which is often estimated to be roughly 18 inches—from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow.
For those who have experienced a total solar eclipse, the event is awe inspiring. Solar eclipses are incredible because they are a multi-sensory experience, from the amazing environmental changes of temperature and weather, to the sounds of nocturnal animal life, to the visual changes of the slowly dimming daylight and the brief darkness of totality. Lunar eclipses are similarly compelling as the Moon gradually changes from its usual bright white appearance to a more dim reddish hue. Yet, when we compare these physical events that have happened throughout history with the history changing event of Jesus’ crucifixion, can we understand the element of darkness on that day as an eclipse event?