In Acts 16:9-15 we find that Paul has received a vision in which a man from Macedonia asked him to come over into his country and help his people. Paul assumed that God had given him the vision as a call for him to go into Macedonia and “preach the (one true) gospel to them.” Having arrived in Philippi, the main city in that part of Macedonia, he went on the (7th day) Sabbath to a river where worshipers of God reportedly gathered to pray. Upon arrival at the river Paul found a woman named Lydia who “worshiped God.” Upon hearing Paul preach (the way of God more perfectly), Lydia, “whose heart the Lord opened … attended (heard and believed) the things which were spoken by Paul” and was baptized, along with her household. Lydia, as had Apollos, needed to be shown the more perfect way–the Way of God’s Truth. Believing what they had been taught, both were religious. Unlike the vast majority of those to whom God reveals His Truth, they believed, changed and began to walk with Him–they became spiritual.

Notice that Lydia worshiped God, prayed to Him and gathered with others to pay homage to Him on His Sabbath. Note also that Paul did not correct her relative to which day was God’s Sabbath. Satan would not affect a change in the Sabbath for several hundred years when the priest of Rome (later called the pope) did what God prophesied he would do–“think to change times” (Dan. 7:25). One of the “times” he changed was the Sabbath day, a change he did not have the authority to make. Since that time the religious world has rebelled against God by rejecting His Sabbath and embracing the sabbath dedicated to the worship of Tammuz. See The Mark of the Beast.

In today’s church system, pre-converted Lydia and Apollos would be leaders. However, following their conversions, both of them would be cast out, labeled heretics and rejected. See Persecution. Though religious to the extreme (who goes to a river to pray?), Lydia and those with whom she worshiped were lacking relative to God’s Truth. As verse 13 tells us, Paul had presented God’s Truth to the WOMEN (plural) who had gathered at the river to pray. But notice that of those who had gathered there, only Lydia responded positively to his message. The others rejected his message. I have found this ratio of accepters to rejecters of God’s Word (one to many) to hold up over time. I have been presenting God’s Truth for many years, yet I can count on my fingers the number who have come forward and expressed faith in His Word. This proves the truth of Matthew 7:13,14–only a “few” will “find” the strait gate and walk the narrow way leading to salvation.

Lydia was in all likelihood a widow, for she seemed to be the family leader. We do not know if Paul spoke to her other family members or if she herself bore witness to them. What we do know is that they all believed and were baptized, making them candidates for eternal life. Like a true seeker of God, she, as had Apollos, readily believed God’s Word and responded to it with faith. Where can I find a Lydia today? Where is Apollos? I find such God-seekers to be extremely scarce and becoming more scarce as Satan tightens his grip on Catholicism/Protestantism.

In Acts 17:10-12 we find Paul and Silas have arrived in the city of Berea where they have found a group of people in the synagogue worshiping the Lord and studying His Word. Upon hearing Paul preach, many of them believed, including some honorable women who were “Greeks”–Jews who had adopted the Greek culture instituted by Alexander the Great following his conquest of the region. The Greek culture was based on intellectualism which compelled people to thoroughly study a subject in order to gain knowledge about it before coming to a conclusion. This was a perfect fit for those seeking God’s Truth then (and now) as He tells us in Isaiah 29:9,10,13: “Whom shall He teach knowledge (about Himself)? and whom shall He make to understand (His) doctrine?–they who are weaned from the (mother’s) milk and drawn from the (her) breasts. For (the search for knowledge and understanding of His Word) must be (done) precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” In verse 13 He describes those who do not follow His study instructions. The Bereans followed God’s instructions as Acts 17 tells us. Here Paul describes them as “more NOBLE than those of Thessalonica” in that they “received the Word of God with ALL READINESS OF MIND AND SEARCHED THE SCRIPTURES DAILY (to determine) if those things (that Paul and Silas were telling them) were so.” Though the Bereans were zealous in their worship of the Biblical God, they, as did Lydia and Apollos, needed to be taught the way more perfect before they could enter the strait gate and walk the narrow path leading to salvation (Mat. 7:13,14).

As an aside, let us determine what Scriptures the Bereans were searching? The same Scriptures from which Paul and Silas taught–THE OLD TESTAMENT–THE ONLY SCRIPTURES IN EXISTENCE  AT THAT TIME. The New Testament would not be codified for several generations. To be continued. L.J.