For my Bible reading this year, I have been using the M’Cheyne Reading program and today I was reading in Acts 14 when I saw Acts 14:2. I have read this verse many times but today I noticed the phrase in the ESV, “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.” If we look at several other translations the verse becomes very interesting indeed. Notice several other translations:
NIV – But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
KJV – But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles, and made their minds evil affected against the brethren.
NLT – Some of the Jews, however, spurned God’s message and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against Paul and Barnabas.
HCSB – But the Jews who refused to believe stirred up and poisoned the minds of the Gentiles against the brothers.
NASB – But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles and embittered them against the brethren.
Amplified – But the unbelieving Jews [who rejected their message] aroused the Gentiles and embittered their minds against the brethren.
Notice how the NASB and the HCSB translate Acts 14:2. The NIV also captures what I believe Acts 14:2 powerfully sets forth and that is that these Jews that Luke mentions rejected the gospel. As the Holman Christian Standard Bible reads, these Jews refused to believe. By their own choice they rejected the gospel.
Acts 14:2 HCSB then, along with other translations, lines up with the Arminian understanding that people can reject the gospel. The gospel call is be proclaimed to all (Mark 16:15-16), and without the preaching of the gospel there can be no salvation (Romans 10:14-17) but people, even under the conviction of the Spirit of God, must choose to believe and repent. No doubt, when a sinner repents and believes the gospel, God saves them by His grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). After all, we love because He first loved us (1 John 4:10 NKJV). God gave His only begotten Son (John 1:18 NKJV) to die for our sins (1 Peter 2:21-24; 3:18) and by His grace and love, God has saved us through faith in His Son (Romans 5:8-9). The conditions for salvation that God has purchased in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) is simply this: faith and repentance. He calls all people everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30-31; 2 Peter 3:9). God has demonstrated His universal love by sending His Son (Hebrews 2:9; 1 John 2:1-2). God gave His Son to be a ransom for many (Mark 10:45) and to be the Mediator of the New Covenant that Jesus established with His own blood (Matthew 26:28; 1 Timothy 2:1-6; Hebrews 9:13-15).
So why do people go to hell? Because of their sins and because they refuse God’s remedy for sinful humanity: the precious blood of His Son. No one goes to hell because God elected some to salvation and the rest He elected to eternal damnation (or as many Calvinists suggest, He simply passes the non-elect by, yet either way God could have saved them but chooses not to save them by His own sovereign purposes). John Wesley rightly saw this doctrine as one that “makes our blood run cold.” Just as these Jews in Acts 14:2 rejected the gospel and brought condemnation upon themselves, so it is with all people (Romans 1:18-32; 3:10-18; 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10). The song most sung in hell is this: I did it my way. For apart from God’s way, through His Son (John 14:6; Acts 4:12), there is no hope of eternal life (Hebrews 9:22, 27-28).
[Link to original post and comments on Roy Ingle’s website.]
