While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit came down on all the listeners. Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were all astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit should be poured out on gentiles too, since they could hear them speaking strange languages and proclaiming the greatness of God. Peter himself then said, 'Could anyone refuse the water of baptism to these people, now they have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?' He then gave orders for them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterwards they begged him to stay on for some days.
June 23, 2006
Acts 10:44-48
While Peter was still speaking the Holy Spirit came down on all the listeners. Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were all astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit should be poured out on gentiles too, since they could hear them speaking strange languages and proclaiming the greatness of God. Peter himself then said, 'Could anyone refuse the water of baptism to these people, now they have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?' He then gave orders for them to be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Afterwards they begged him to stay on for some days.
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Here is the nitty-gritty of the Cornelius story. Peter came to his house with a very neutral tone like "what do you want with me?" When he found out he preached, and they "got the Holy Spirit".
Peter, an impulsively tribalistic Jew, was forced to admit that non Jews could receive the grace that Jesus had left, not just to the Jews, but to all humanity.
The conflict between those who accepted Gentile converts and those who didn't rages through the Book of Acts.
And indeed it's still raging. All too many 'Christians' are tribalists before they are followers of Christ: "my way or the highway". Or "their's no other way", except what I understand to be the way. So we still fight and kill. And millions of us abandon Christianity; it's too corrupt-- and mindless.
Peter and Paul were universalists: their definition of a Christian did not require any hocus pocus. Like Jesus they just wanted people to love God and one another.
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