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Those who believe and teach the truths of God's word in these last days,
meet with similar opposition from unprincipled persons who will not
accept the truth, and who do not hesitate to prevaricate, and even to
circulate the most glaring falsehoods in order to destroy the influence and
hedge up the way of those whom God has sent with a message of warning
to the world. While one class make the falsehoods and circulate them,
another class are so blinded by the delusions of Satan as to receive them as
the words of truth. They are in the toils of the arch-enemy, while they
flatter themselves that they are the children of God. "For this cause God
shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all
might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness."
The disappointment experienced by the idolaters in being refused the
privilege of offering sacrifices to the apostles, prepared them to turn
against these ministers of God with a zeal which approached that of the
enthusiasm with which they had hailed them as gods. The malicious Jews
did not hesitate to take full advantage of the superstition and credulity of
this heathen people, to carry out their cruel designs. They incited them to
attack the apostles by force; and they charged them not to allow Paul an
opportunity to speak, alleging that if they did so he would bewitch the
people.
The Lystrians rushed upon the apostles with
great rage and fury. They hurled stones violently; and Paul, bruised,
battered, and fainting, felt that his end had come. The martyrdom of
Stephen was brought vividly to his mind, and the cruel part he had acted
on that occasion. He fell to the ground apparently dead, and the infuriated
mob dragged his insensible body through the gates of the city, and threw it
beneath the walls. The apostle mentions this occurrence in the subsequent
enumeration of his sufferings for the truth's sake: "Thrice was I beaten with
rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I
have been in the deep; 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."
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The Jews, taking advantage of the credulity of a rude tribe, were able to
accomplish at Lystra the design they had meditated at Iconium.2 St. Paul
was stoned,—not hurried out of the city to execution like St. Stephen,3 the
memory of whose death must have come over St. Paul at this moment with
impressive force,—but stoned somewhere in the streets of Lystra, and then
dragged through the city-gate, and cast outside the walls, under the belief that
he was dead. This is that occasion to which the Apostle afterwards alluded
in the words, "once I was stoned,"4 in that long catalogue of sufferings,
to which we have already referred in this chapter.5 Thus was he "in
perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the Heathen,"—"in deaths
oft,"—"always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his body. . . .
Alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be
made manifest in his mortal flesh."6
2 Acts xiv. 5.
3 See the end of Ch. II. At Jerusalem the law required that these executions should
take place outside the city. It must be remembered that stoning was a Jewish punishment, and that
it was proposed by Jews at Iconium, and instigated and begun by Jews at Lystra.
4 See Paley's remark on the expression "once I was stoned," in reference to the
previous design of stoning St. Paul at Iconium. "Had the assault been completed,
had the history related that a stone was thrown, as it relates that preparations were
made both by Jews and Gentiles to stone Paul and his companions, or even had the
account of this transaction stopped, without going on to inform us that Paul and his
companions were 'aware of the danger and fled,' a contradiction between the history
and the epistles would have ensued. Truth is necessarily consistent; but it is scarcely
possible that independent accounts, not having truth to guide them, should thus advance
to the very brink of contradiction without falling into it." Horæ Paulinæ, p. 69.
5 See pp. 145, 146.
6 Compare 2 Cor. iv. 8-12 and xi. 23-27.
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And there came thither certain Jews from Antioch
and Iconium, who persuaded the people, and, having stoned Paul,
drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead. (Acts 14:19)
For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. (2 Cor. 11:5)
Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice
I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep. (2 Cor. 11:25)
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 Cor. 11:26)
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