Acts / Liebovitz / Nihilism

Acts 5-7
As in Joshua the budding enterprise involves land, and is threatened by deceitful greed, which God intervenes to stop (ch 5). Another threat is discrimination by Jews against Hellenists (this was probably a cultural difference between Jews raised in Judea and those raised in Greek lands). The apostles ask the church to choose deacons to sort it out – they choose all Greeks, a hint that they strongly rejected the prejudice that was happening (ch 6). One of the deacons was Stephen, who debates successfully with Jews, resulting in them (half) falsely accusing him before the Sanhedrin. He defends God’s ways of saving His people apart from a temple or the Promised Land, and says again that they killed Jesus and all His prophets. They stone him, and Saul is there approving (ch 7).

Liel Liebovitz in First Things – on why Israel’s fertility rate is so high.

Tel Aviv is like most other modern cities, except for one thing: its streets are brimming with children.  Why? There aren’t huge subsidies for having children. Israelis are highly educated, which tends to correlate with fewer children. The answer is faith and tradition. They stick to their rituals faithfully among families and neighbors, and take seriously God’s mandate to be fruitful and multiply. A modern society like Israel can both do this, and have a thriving modern economy with highly educated women.

4 out of 5 stars

Acts 8-11
The church is scattered because of Saul’s persecution. Phillip evangelizes Samaria, the apostles come to see, the Spirit comes on the new believers, and Simon the Magician tries to buy access to the Spirit.  Phillip then evangelizes the Ethiopian Eunuch from Isaiah 53 (chapter 8). 

Saul heads to Damascus to persecute the church, but Jesus confronts and converts him directly. Ananias baptizes him after 3 days.  Saul preaches Jesus as Messiah, and the Jews try to kill him. He escapes to Jerusalem, but the church there has a hard time accepting him. When they do, he debates with the same Hellenists Stephen did, which led to no good. The church sends him to his native home town of Tarsus, and there is peace, again. Peter goes to Lydda and Joppa, healing Aeneas and Dorcas (ch 9). 

God gets Cornelius to send for Peter, while giving Peter a vision telling him to not consider unclean animals (and Gentile people) unclean anymore. Peter goes to his house, preaches the Gospel, and the Spirit falls as they believe (ch 10). 

Many Jewish Christians object to this; Peter says God led him to do it, and all the witnesses with him saw what the Spirit did to Cornelius’ household. Meanwhile, most of the scattered church preaches only to Jews, wherever they go. In Antioch they preach to Greeks, too, and many believe. Jerusalem sends Barnabas to help, and he first goes to Tarsus to get Saul to help (ch 11).

Algis Valiunas in First Things – on the Nihilism of Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi (1798-1837)

Leopardi had severe scoliosis from too much poring over books early in life, and so was spurned romantically. He never forgave God for this, rejecting not only religion but also the humanist belief in progress ascendant in his time. He was a Romantic, who saw not truth or beauty in the world, but his own self-pity and despair. Nihilism is a dead end.

3 out of 5 stars