13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Peter

Peter was given the 2 keys to the door of the Kingdom...firstly to the Jews, then to the gentiles.

When the strangers of Rome returned from Jerusalem, they would unquestionably speak more about Peter than the rest, because he was chief speaker.

From this fact, he would acquire the title "Prince of the Apostles" and Holder of the Keys: and though there is no reliable evidence that he ever was in Rome (and, if he ever had been there, the account of it would hardly have been omitted from the Acts), the part he enacted was so conspicuous, that his relation to Rome in the introduction of the gospel there, would seem almost like his personal presence.

In process of time, this would be affirmed, like many other imaginary things, to be a fact; and then, when popes came into fashion, they would seek to sanctify the imposition by styling Peter "the first pope!"

Eureka 13.13.

Literary culture or great breadth of mind are not usually found among fishermen, and did not characterise the apostles. The absence of educational polish is expressly noted in Acts iv. 13, where it is recorded that the rulers "perceived that they (Peter and John) were unlearned and ignorant men."

The natural crudeness of character mostly belonging to them comes out in a variety of instances: such as the dispute among them who should be greatest in the Kingdom (Mar. ix. 34); their repulsion of the mothers with their children, who were seeking the blessing of Jesus (Mar. x. 14); their impulse to invoke judgment on the Samaritans (Luke ix. 54); the obstinate scepticism of Thomas (Jno. xx. 25); and Peter's threefold denial of Christ in the hour of darkness (Matt. xxvi. 74, 75).

But it does not follow that peculiarities which would have disqualified them for the execution of a human enterprise, were disqualifications for a work which God proposed to accomplish through them.

On the contrary, it is possible to see that the supposed disqualifications were positive qualifications.

... "Ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the things that are mighty ... that no flesh should glory in His presence ... according as it is written. Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord" (1 Cor. i. 26, 31).

The object being to exhibit the wisdom and power of God, in the salvation of men by His grace for His glory, it was needful to make use of instruments who would not frustrate or obstruct this exhibition by distracting attention to themselves.

Men of great polish and high natural gift would have been liable to fall into this mistake, without design. They would have figured largely in the eyes of the public, and would have been in danger of becoming important in their own eyes, especially with miraculous power at their command.

God would not have been so visible as the instruments. This was the (unpremeditated) crime of Moses for which he was excluded from the land of promise.

"Ye sanctified me not in thee eyes of the congregation."

In a moment of natural impatience with Israel's obduracy,he appeared to take the credit of giving them water out of the rock:

"Hear now, ye rebels,must we fetch you water out of this rock?"

Thus God was hidden when he was aiming to be seen, and thus it likely would have been with the apostolic work had men of position, parts, and education been chosen as its instruments, instead of men of obscurity, deficiency, and illiteracy.

Nazareth Revisited Ch 22

20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.

That they had seen and heard them is evident from the fact that they submitted to persecution,‭ ‬and ultimately surrendered their lives for declaring that they had so seen and heard Jesus of Nazareth for forty days after he had been put to death.‭

That fact is evidence to us that what they said was true.‭ ‬Men never go in the face of disadvantage and opposition,‭ ‬without a motive.‭ ‬The motive in this case was a conviction that certain‭ ‬facts were true.‭ ‬It was not,‭ ‬as in the case of the persecuted Puritans,‭ ‬a persuasion of certain doctrines.‭

The boldness of the apostles,‭ ‬on the one hand,‭ ‬and the antagonism of the Jewish rulers on the other,‭ ‬turned upon a question of fact,‭ ‬viz.,‭ ‬whether the crucified Jesus had risen.‭ ‬Upon the fact,‭ ‬doubtless,‭ ‬the apostles founded a doctrine,‭ ‬but it was the fact and not the doctrine,‭ ‬that was the cause of the dispute that cost them their lives.‭ ‬Hence their firmness is evidence of the fact,‭ ‬which they asserted,‭ ‬and the basis of our faith.‭

Their subsequent proceedings and writings show too much sanity and discrimination to admit the suggestion that though sincere,‭ ‬they were hallucinated.‭

‭Bro Roberts - ‬Sunday morning No 4

26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

Jesus the Redeemer of Israel

There is not a prophecy in scripture in which the coming of Messiah is not connected with the glory of the tribes of Israel, as a kingdom of priests and a holy nation upon earth; with their universal ingathering, and the confirmation of the New Covenant with them, and with all the nations blessed in them, look for example at Gen. 49:10; Acts. 4:27; Psal. 11; Isaiah 11; Mic. 5:2: and if any one, through the sinful ignorance which reigns in the religious world upon this subject, and which their superficial preachers would perpetuate and deepen, doubts of this, we can put you upon a course of study, simple and unexceptionable, which will remove that doubt in the course of one evening.

It is to take those prophecies quoted in the gospels, and there applied by the Holy Spirit, to Jesus of Nazareth; take them one by one, and turn to the passage in the Old Testament, of which it is a part; read the whole context of that psalm and prophecy, and let your natural understanding judge, and for which purpose it is given you, whether the main drift of it be not to set forth Christ as the king and prince priest of the Jewish people, gathered together in great and everlasting mercy, and made a blessing unto all the ends of the earth.

Do this, and we assert without the smallest hesitation, and that without a single exception, every prophecy of the Old Testament which the Holy Spirit has thus applied to Jesus of Nazareth, represents him as redeeming the Jews from the bondage of oppression of the Gentiles, restoring them to their own land, sealing them with an everlasting covenant of holiness, reigning over them, and through means of them, over the whole earth.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Aug 1859