The Apostle Paul has sent Timothy and Erastus ahead to Macedonia while he remained in Ephesus.

Verses twenty-one through forty-one: Through his preaching Paul has convinced many of the Ephesians that the female deity called Diana that they and their ancestors had worshiped was in fact a false god. Paul’s success proved that many people of that day were open to the Truth of the Lord. The mass movement away from heathenism upset the silversmiths in the city, causing them to rise up against Paul due to their loss of income generated by making statues and shrines of Diana for the people. Financial problems loomed ahead for the craftsmen because people were no longer buying the objects used in the worship of her as before. Demetrius, a metalsmith of renown, stirred up the other craftsmen, saying, “Sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth.” He went on to point out that not only was Paul causing Diana to fall from popularity in Epehsus, but throughout all of Asia as well. Also, due to his preaching, the people were not visiting her temple as before.

Let us pause here to introduce Diana. In the annals of heathen history there is found a common thread that ties the majority of heathen societies together–the worship of a female goddess of fertility whose name was unique to each of the cultures involved in the worship of her. Throughout the pagan world she was known by such names as Isis, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, Aphrodite, etc. Modern day followers know her as Easter. See The Easter Deception. Just as the cross (the symbol of Tammuz–the messiah of the Institutional Church) has been used in religious observances as far back as recorded history can be found, sex goddesses have also been venerated. Archeologists have found evidence that both were in existence hundreds of years before the birth of Christ.

A close association can be seen between the silversmiths of Ephesus and church ministers of this age. Just as their spiritual ancestors were fearful of losing money and prestige as a result of Paul’s preaching, modern ministers are fearful of losing both their paychecks and their ordinations due to the preaching and teaching of God’s ministers who, like Paul, bring the light of the Scriptures into their world of religious darkness. Now, as then, religious ministers use the same strategy to combat the spread of God’s Truth and the loss of income–they keep their followers in a state of Biblical ignorance. Their strategy consists of two parts: 1) convince the people that they need to listen only to them (the ministers) and, 2) openly come against Truth preachers, painting them as religious heretics. Their (read Satan’s) strategy has been highly successful, just as Jesus said it would be.

Following a public uproar that lasted for several hours, a local leader managed to calm the Ephesian crowd down and convince them to go home. Paul lived to fight the good fight of faith another day. L.J.