A Life in Review

The Travels of Paul
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In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.—2 Corinthians 11:26

David Rice

Paul was a relatively young man when those who stoned Stephen laid their garments at his feet. Paul himself would seal his testimony to Christ in martyrdom three decades later. Intervening would be a lifetime of devoted service perhaps unparalleled in the records of Christianity thereafter.

We have a narrative in Acts of some of his beatings, stripes, shipwrecks, and imprisonments, but not of all. On one occasion the lashes of a whipping would have reopened flesh already scarred from the same treatment before. When these fresh wounds healed, they would later be reopened again, and again, and then yet again: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one” (2 Corinthians 11:24). In addition were three beatings with rods, four shipwrecks, a stoning, and three organized plots against his life. It helps us put in perspective the trials which come our way.

Three Missionary Journeys

In the book of Acts, chapters 13 through 21, is a record of three missionary journeys of Paul. In the first (Acts 13:1 to 14:27), Paul and Barnabas sailed for Cyprus, where they went from one end of the island to the other visiting synagogues, introducing to them the news that their Messiah, Jesus, was raised from the dead and offered forgiveness for sin. During their Cyprus journey a prominent Gentile, Sergius Paulus, believed in their gospel. Though Paul’s preaching to him was withstood for a time by an apostate Jew, Barjesus, the latter was blinded, not “seeing the sun for a season” (Acts 13:11), and the Gentile ruler, seeing what was done, became a believer.

Similarly, the gospel was preached first to the Jews, who made up the initial contingent of the early Church, but by the Smyrna phase, the second phase of the Church (Revelation 2:8-11), Gentile believers came to dominate. Meanwhile the Jews who did not believe were struck with a spiritual blindness and would not see the gospel sun for a season, until their blindness would be removed at the opening of the kingdom (Romans 11:25).

Paul and Barnabas proceeded to the mainland, to Turkey, perhaps emblematic that in the third phase of the Church, after the persecutions of Pagan Rome ceased, the gospel would spread widely into what would become the heartland of Christendom. The missionary duo came to Antioch of Pisidia (as distinguished from their home ecclesia, Antioch of Syria). There they were widely received. After a first sabbath day teaching, the following week “came almost the whole city together to hear the word of God” (Acts 13:44)—just as in the Pergamos stage of the Church (Revelation 2:12-17) Gentiles throughout the empire came under the influence of the Christian message.

But troubles were brewing. The very success which came their way provoked others to stir up opposition, as often occurs in response to truth. Influential women were noted specially as rousing such an opposition to Paul and Barnabas that they were forced to flee the area, just as in the Pergamos stage, the true saints of God were cast out, as expressed in the symbol of Antipas (Revelation 2:13).

But the darkest days of the Church were to follow, in the Thyatira period (Revelation 2:18-29). And the most intense persecution Paul and Barnabas were to face to that time came in Lystra. Paul was stoned and left for dead, though he revived by the Lord’s grace, for later service. In the Pergamos stage, many who stood for the truth had been cast out. But in the Thyatira stage, they were hunted and killed at the behest of “Jez­ebel”—Papacy (Revelation 2:20).

After preaching in the area, Paul and Barnabas retraced their steps, at last returning to Antioch. Their first missionary journey came to a close. And so the initial expansion of the gospel closed with the fourth church, Thyatira. Hereafter, the work of God would be more of a refining and purging work, commencing with the Reformation.

Dissension

As a consequence of the success of Paul and Barnabas among Gentile believers, the question of the Gentile’s obligation to the practices of Jewish Christians came to the fore. A council at Jerusalem followed. After much discussion there was a consensus—the Gentiles need not conform to Jewish practices, except regarding idolatry, morality, and abstinence from blood: “Write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:20). On the spiritual level, these were also appropriate concerns for Christians during the heart of the Gospel age period—abstain from idolatry (which Antichrist promulgated by various icons), and from spiritual fornication (as exhibited in the harlot of Revelation 17:5), and from persecuting others (suggested in the symbol of drinking blood, Revelation 17:6).

The conclusions of the council at Jerusalem were wise, and conducive to peace in the church. The leaders acted responsibly. They convened, heard thoughtfully the positions and concerns of one another, appealed to the providences of God and to Scripture, and through the leading of the holy spirit adopted some brief, to the point, and appropriate recommendations.

However, though all agreed on the conclusions—just as all the Reformers agreed on things those resolutions represented—problems were soon to rise between Paul and Barnabas over the conduct of the work. The contention was sharp, and the duo parted ways, but both continued earnest in the Lord’s work, and with the Lord’s evident blessing, as experience would demonstrate. Paul took Silas and went overland back to the heart of what we now call Turkey, while Barnabas took John Mark, who would demonstrate his worthiness in the new opportunity. So the Reformers, though agreeing on the broad principles, found it difficult to cooperate together in the work. Rather than a single unified effort, the Reformation took on various shades and hues under various leaders, all nevertheless working toward the same goal of confirming the saints, and spreading the gospel.

Paul’s Second Missionary Journey (Acts 15:40 to 18:22) continued to spread the truth through the heartland previously visited, as the Reformation confirmed the faithful in the heartland of Christianity. Coming back to Derbe and Lystra, where he had been stoned before, Paul added Timothy to the troop. They proceeded from class to class exhorting according to the agreements of the council at Jerusalem. So in the Reformation period of the Church, Sardis (Revelation 3:1-6), the reformers exhorted believers in the essential principles of faith and Christian conduct.

Then Paul searched for new fields to expand the work, but he met resistance. He tried to go into “Asia”—southwest Turkey—then northward into Bithynia, “but the spirit suffered them not” (Acts 16:7). God had something else in mind. They ventured to Troas, on the northwestern coast of Turkey. That night, in a dream, Paul heard the Macedonian cry, so the small company passed over the waters to a new field of service in the west—just as in the Philadelphia period of the Church (Revelation 3:7-13) God di­rected the expansion of the Gospel into virgin territory westward, across the waters, into the new world, where it would flourish over time. There, in later times, the harvest would spring forth.

The expansion of the gospel was prolific. Ecclesias were established at Phillipi, Berea, Thessalonica, Athens, and Corinth, where God told Paul, “I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city” (Acts 18:10). So the number of disciples expanded in the New World of America, relatively free of the persecutions the church had recently come through in the heartland of Christianity.

Paul subsequently returned home, and later launched a Third Missionary Journey (Acts 18:23 to 21:4). On this trip Paul labored in “Asia,” southwestern Turkey, chiefly at Ephesus, the center of the empire in that region. His labors were prodigious, his success enormous. We suggest this foreshadows the harvest work. Some disciples of John the Baptist were brought to the greater light through Paul’s ministry, just as many Adventists were brought to greater light through the work of Brother Russell.

Paul’s work “continued by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10). During the harvest, all Christendom (represented in Revelation as the churches of Asia) heard of the truth, the work of the spirit. God wrought “special miracles by the hands of Paul” then, and under the service of Brother Russell a remarkable, “miraculous” spreading of the truth proceeded.

At the beginning of the Ephesus work Paul preached in the synagogue for three months, but subsequently withdrew for the remainder of his work. Perhaps this foreshadows the harvest call “come out of her, my people” (Revelation 18:4).

Paul revisited the churches of Greece established earlier, passed nearby Ephesus enroute to Israel, gave some last counsel to the elders who assembled to greet him, and proceeded to Jerusalem with a monetary gift for the Jewish brethren from the churches in Greece. At Jerusalem Paul took every step requested of him to show deference to the feelings of the brethren there. He was taken in a riot in the temple spurred by baseless accusations, and spent two years in prison at Caesarea.

The Journey to Rome

Paul’s journey toward Rome is narrated in chapter 27. As the article on Acts 27 suggests, this may illustrate the progress of events in the world toward the kingdom during the harvest, with Paul (the church) still subject to the powers that be, travelling on the ship of state that will ultimately go to ruin.

The first stop enroute led to a sweet period of fellowship at Sidon, just as the first experience in the harvest was a period of sweet fellowship in the truth (1874-1916). Next came opposing winds in Paul’s journey, picturing the winds of war commencing in 1914. After two world wars, the old world was no longer the same, pictured by a change of ship at Myra (Acts 27:4-6). Thereafter they sailed “many days,” and approached “fair havens” where Paul ad­vised they stay for the winter. So we have gone “many days” and approach the winter of the closing troubles of the harvest. But Paul’s advice was not heeded. They launched out in pursuit of a better place. Then disaster struck. A stormy tumult assailed the ship which at last was lost on the coasts of Melita (now called Malta), though with no loss of life. Likewise the governments of this world will be dashed to pieces, but humanity will not perish with them.

Chapter 28 narrates what follows the shipwreck at Melita, an event representing the wreck of the ship of state of this world. This brings us in picture into the kingdom. The wonderful reception of the truth among the in­habitants of that isle, and the many miracles of Paul there, we think represent the beginning of the kingdom, which will be at Israel.

But Rome, the then center of the seat of world government, was still in view. Stop by stop they approached the goal, just as step by step the kingdom newly formed at Israel will come to be the seat of world government in the kingdom. When Paul reached Rome he had liberty to receive all who came to him. After three days he called a meeting of religious leaders, as perhaps the Ancient Worthies (Hebrews 11:39) will do at the outset of the kingdom. Some heard, others would not. The record closes with Paul receiving all who came to him, for two years—suggesting the work of the spirit in the kingdom, just as the work of the spirit in the harvest was shown by Paul’s two years at Ephesus (Acts 19:10).

There the account closes, there the picture ceases.

According to early Christian reports, Paul was subsequently freed, fulfilled his desire to minister in Spain, was later apprehended in the time of Nero, and sealed his testimony with his life. What an ardent soldier of Christ. What a fervently devoted saint. What an example for us all.