An inspiration to the whole field

Joyce Voysey

We come to Paul’s adventure on the eastern Mediterranean Sea in being taken from Caesarea to Rome to be tried before Caesar.  Graphic details delight us, as does Paul’s consciousness that God is in control of every event of his career.  Didn’t he say that the ship should not have left Crete because there would be “much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives” but also, when that damage actually came to pass he predicted that there would be no loss of life, though the ship would be lost.  As it turned out when they hit (i.e. were shipwrecked) on Melita (Malta), where they spent three months and where Paul healed snakebite and the fever and “bloody flux” of an important man’s father.

And so on to Rome.  Wikipedia reports:

 He arrived in Rome c. 60 and spent another two years under house arrest (beyond his two years in prison in Caesarea).^{[14][Acts 28:16]}

Irenaeus of Lyons in the 2nd century believed that Peter and Paul had been the founders of the church in Rome and had appointed Linus as succeeding bishop.^[70] Paul was not a bishop of Rome, nor did he bring Christianity to Rome since there were already Christians in Rome when he arrived there.^{[Acts 28:14-15]} Also, Paul wrote his letter to the church at Rome before he had visited Rome.^{[Romans 1:1,7,11-13;15:23-29]} However, Paul would have played an important role in the life of the early church at Rome.^[71]

Neither the Bible nor other sources say how or when Paul died, but Ignatius, probably around 110, writes that Paul was martyred.^[72] Christian tradition holds that Paul was beheaded in Rome during the reign of Nero around the mid-60s at Tre Fontane Abbey (English: Three Fountains Abbey).^[73] By comparison, tradition states that Peter, who was not a Roman citizen, was given the more painful death of being crucified upside-down.^[74]

I have just read my opening comments on the book of Acts.  What excitement at what was to be revealed!  Our editor would like on an uplifting thought with which to leave this month’s study.  So, God, you are the only Mind; how are we to think of Paul NOW?

I will quote Paul on the resurrection from I Cor.15 King James Version: (lifted from BibleGateway.com):

15 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

² By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

³ For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

⁴ And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

⁵ And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

⁶ After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

⁷ After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

⁸ And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

¹¹ Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

¹² Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

¹³ But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

¹⁴ And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

¹⁵ Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

¹⁶ For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

¹⁷ And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

¹⁸ Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

²⁰ But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

²¹ For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

²² For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Paul knew that he had not died.  He lives.  One is reminded of Mrs. Eddy’s note about the passing of Edward Kimball: My beloved Edward A. Kimball, whose clear, correct teaching of Christian Science has been and is an inspiration to the whole field, is here now as veritably as when he visited me a year ago.  If we would awaken to this recognition, we should see him here and realize that he never died; thus demonstrating the fundamental truth of Christian Science.  Miscellany 297:8