Acts 1-2, Gonzalez Ch.

1-2
Paden Jones
1. Of all the questions that came to you as you read the chapters, which one
intrigues you the most?
I would like a map with arrows and descriptions of everything thats going on. The
biggest question I have is, and its due to my ignorance of historical timelines, is
what events from my history classes happened at roughly the same time as the
gospel events we learn about in church. I think it would be fascinating to compare a
theological a non-theological event timeline.
2.According to Acts 1, how did Jesus lead His church when He is personally not
present?
The 12 apostles. From the Gospel Fundamentals manual, we learn that, His Church
continued on earth. It was led by the Twelve Apostles. When an Apostle died, Jesus
chose another man to replace him. Through the Holy Ghost, Jesus made known to
the other Apostles who the new Apostle should be.
3. What advantage did Hellenism play in spreading the gospel? How was it a
disadvantage for Christianity?
Hellenism is the phenomenon where different beliefs and ideologies mix as certain
cultures conquer other cultures. Hellenism provided a mechanism for Christianity to
spread relatively smoothlythe mechanism enabled it to be smoothly implanted
into a culture. However, because of Hellenism people wanted to mix beliefs from
other religions in with Christianity which caused a lot of grief. There were some Jews
who did not want to mix religions at all. Because of this, those Jews appeared
obstinate to the Roman brand of tolerance. This led to fighting and chaos.
4. How was syncretism advantageous in spreading the gospel? How was it a
disadvantage for Christianity?
The indiscriminate mixing of elements from various religions. The book goes on to
state, In that atmosphere, Jews and Christians were seen as unbending fanatics
who insisted on the sole worship of their One Godan alien cyst that must be
removed for the good of society. From this we learn that syncretism deals more
with the Greek and Roman gods rather than our one true God. This is advantageous
to spreading the gospel because Christianity appears foreign and strangein other
words, it gets us noticed. At the same time, Christianity is also the weird kid on the
street, the one which people tend to distance themselves from.