Having celebrated Passover in Philippi, the Apostle Paul and his companions met later in Troas in order to share a meal. Following an extended message by Paul, they split up, agreeing to meet a few days later in Assos.

Verses thirteen through thirty-eight: Paul was in a hurry for he wanted to celebrate Pentecost in Jerusalem. Pentecost comes 50 days (pente=50) after Passover. Note that many years after the founding of the Church of God His people were still celebrating the Holy Days. The Catholic Church outlawed the keeping of God’s Holy Days in the 4th century. During the centuries since, only His tiny “remnant” has continued to obey Him. See Simon of Samaria: the Legacy.

Having returned to Ephesus, Paul called for the elders of the Ephesian church and reminded them that he had stood with them in all seasons, “teaching from house to house,” fervently presenting “the gospel of the Kingdom of God.” It was in Ephesus that Paul first stated plainly that his days on earth would soon be over, telling the people that they would “see my face no more.” He went on to state that he was guilty of no man’s blood in that he had declared to anyone who would listen “all the counsel (Word) of God,” the only message church leaders were to “feed the Church of God”–the only name by which His church is known Scripturally. The one exception to the wording is when she is called the “churches of Christ,” which means that Christ is the head of all of Churches of God.

Then Paul, knowing that this would be the last time he would be with the Ephesian church, warned the church in general that upon his death “savage wolves”–Satan’s false prophets–would attack true believers from both outside and inside the local church bodies. He stressed that that they would come bearing a false gospel. See Galatians 1:6-9. Their purpose would be “to draw away (from God) disciples unto themselves.” The “drawing away” process is how Catholicism and the denominations of Protestantism came into being. Paul pointed out that for the past three years he had warned the church about the coming apostasy. To show that some 25 years after the founding of the church she was already weakening relative to God’s Word, we find in verse 38 that, though he had warned the saints of Ephesus that false prophets and false doctrines were coming, they “sorrowed most of all for the words which he spake, saying that they would see his face no more.” They were more concerned about losing a personality than about losing the Truth. Nothing has changed.

This must have worried the apostle greatly. Those of us who speak and write God’s Truth know the feeling. Church people are not interested in the Scriptures, with the exception of John 3:16, which they hear in one version or another three times each week. The apostles would “turn over in their graves” if they could hear what is being preached as “gospel truth” today throughout the church world. I recently met a woman to whom the Lord has sent me with His Truth. Being a typical “Christian” from the same denomination in which I grew up, she asked me if I would visit her church. I replied that I had spent 30 plus years listening to the church’s sermon–John 3:16–which its ministers invariably get wrong. Though deeply steeped in churchiology, I believe she has a chance at salvation. As I have often pointed out, being Catholic or Protestant is not the unpardonable sin. L.J.