1Now the apostles and the brethren who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2And when Peter came up to Jerusalem, those who were circumcised took issue with him,3saying, "You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.

 "4But Peter began speaking and proceeded to explain to them in orderly sequence, saying,5"I was in the city of Joppa praying; and in a trance I saw a vision, an object coming down like a great sheet lowered by four corners from the sky; and it came right down to me,6and when I had fixed my gaze on it and was observing it I saw the four-footed animals of the earth and the wild beasts and the crawling creatures and the birds of the air.7"I also heard a voice saying to me, 'Get up, Peter; kill and eat.'8"But I said, 'By no means, Lord, for nothing unholy or unclean has ever entered my mouth.'9"But a voice from heaven answered a second time, 'What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.'10"This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky.11"And behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea.12"The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings These six brethren also went with me and we entered the man's house.13"And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, 'Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here;14and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.'15"And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning.16"And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.' 17"Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?"18When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, "Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life."

 22So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.

1st Cor. 14:22

  19So then those who were scattered because of the persecution that occurred in connection with Stephen made their way to Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except to Jews alone.20But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who came to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks also, preaching the Lord Jesus.21And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord.

22The news about them reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas off to Antioch

23Then when he arrived and witnessed the grace of God, he rejoiced and began to encourage them all with resolute heart to remain true to the Lord;

 24for he was a good man, and full of the Holy Spirit and of faith And considerable numbers were brought to the Lord.

 25And he left for Tarsus to look for Saul;26and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch And for an entire year they met with the church and taught considerable numbers; and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. 27Now at this time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch.28One of them named Agabus stood up and began to indicate by the Spirit that there would certainly be a great famine all over the world And this took place in the reign of Claudius. 29And in the proportion that any of the disciples had means, each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the brethren living in Judea.30And this they did, sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders.

1. Prophecy is not of private interpretation. 2 Peter 1:19-21.

(It is not the product of man’s intellect.)

The purpose of anything God has done is redemption. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was so God could save a few. The purpose of the flood was so God could save just a few. This is the same message that we have in the NT. Only a "few" people will be saved (Matthew 7:14).

II Peter 1 the whole chapter, but especially verses 19-21 are foundational for a proper understanding of the purpose of prophecy. “No prophecy is of private interpretation” explains how prophecy gets to man. It is not about what man does with that prophecy.

Every prophet before he speaks, sees a vision.

A prophet used to be called “seer” I Samuel 9:9. “Come and let us go to the seer; for he who is called a prophet now was formerly called a seer.” Called seer because he sees a vision. Every prophet except Moses and Jesus were dependent upon seeing a vision.

John was told Revelation 1:11 “Write in a book what you see.” What is that book called? Prophecy Rev. 1:3.

II Corinthians 12:2 “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago–whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows–such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man–whether in the body of or apart from the body I do not know, God knows-- was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.”

Revelation 22:19 “And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.”

How did the prophets get their word? They saw a vision. Isaiah 6:1 “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.”

Jeremiah 1:11 “What do you see Jeremiah? And I said,’I see the rod of an almond tree.’” He had to wait for the interpretation from God.

Who is the only One who can interpret a vision? The One who gave it. When Joseph was asked by Pharaoh to interpret his dreams, he replied, “It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer” Genesis 41:16.

2. Prophecy is not the product of man’s desire.

“Neither did any prophecy come from the will of man.” Man didn’t will to say, “Hey, we need a prophecy.” They were moved by the Holy Spirit. Moved from here to there.

3. Prophecy is not the product of man’s power.

Jeremiah wanted to quit. (Retire) Tried to quit but: Jeremiah 20:9 “But if I say ‘I will not remember Him or speak anymore in His name.’ Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot endure it.” He had to speak.

A New God-Given Name

By Hugo McCord

"Israel," the complimentary name which God gave to Jacob and to his descendants (Genesis 32:28; 35:10; 1 Kings 18:31; 2 Kings 17:34), was to be replaced, said Isaiah (62:2, ASV), "by a new name which the mouth of YHWH shall name."

Some have said that the "new name" was "Hephzibah" (Isaiah 62:4), but Hephzibah was not new, being the name of Manasseh's mother (2 Kings 21:1). Some have said that the "new name" was "Beulah" (Isaiah 62:4), but the word "beulah" was not new, having already been used by Isaiah (54:1, beulah, "married").

The only "new name" by which Jesus' disciples were called was "Christian" (Christianos, meaning "belonging to Christ." It fulfills the prediction of "a name better than of sons and daughters," of "an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 56:5).

Various names (not spelled with a capital letter) of Jesus' followers were "believers" (Acts 4:32; 5:14), "brothers" (Acts 9:30), saints (Acts 9:32), and "disciples" (Acts 6:2; 9:26). It is sad that Alexander Campbell exalted the word "disciples" into a proper name, "Disciples," thus making it the "new name" of Old Testament prophecy. His fellow restorationist and friend Barton W. Stone criticized Campbell for this error. But today Campbell's error remains in "The Disciples of Christ" denomination, a "sect founded by Thomas and Alexander Campbell" (Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, p. 321). Biblically the only name that came originally from "the mouth of YHWH" (Isaiah 62:2), and in which Jesus' followers are commanded to "glorify God," is the name "Christian" (Acts 11:26; 26:28; 1 Peter 4:16).

Sad it is for anybody not to know the origin of the name "Christian," but especially when some Bible scholars do not know. "Many denominational commentaries give the source of the name (Christian) as originating with the unbelievers or heathens in Antioch" (Conybeare and Howson, The Life and Epistles of St. Paul, p. 100; David Stevens, Therefore Stand, February 1995, p. 13).

"Christian" is "the name given to the disciples by pagan gentiles at Antioch" (A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, G. Abbott-Smith, 484). The name "Christian" was first given to the worshipers of Jesus by the Gentiles" (A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, Joseph Henry Thayer, 672). The name "Christian" was "coined by the pagan slang" of "the citizens of Antioch" (James Moffatt, A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels, I, 316).

No, the name "Christian" was not "coined by the pagan slang" of "the citizens of Antioch," but first came "from the mouth of YHWH" (Isaiah 62:2). Unbelievers did not use the name "Christian" in their condemnation of Christianity, but they called Christians "the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5), and by such a question as "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" (John 1:46).

Julian, an ex-Christian, was emperor of Rome 331-363 A.D., but he became such an adversary of Christianity that he ordered all citizens of the Roman Empire to stop calling Jesus' followers "Christians," and, instead, to belittle them by calling them "Galileans" (Robert Milligan, The Scheme of Redemption, 473). Truly "Julian the Apostate" (as he is known in history), was a leader among those of whom the inspired James had earlier written: "they blaspheme the honorable name by which you are called" (James 2:7).

In the New Testament the name "Christian" first appears in Acts 11:26, where the KJV and the ASV say "the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." But those translations do not tell who first called the disciples "Christians." This is because the translators of the KJV and the ASV overlooked the special meaning of chrematizo, overlooking the fact that Luke had not used kaleo or phoneo, meaning "call," but had used chrematizo, a word also meaning "call," but in the Bible always means a "divine call" (Jeremiah 25:30; 26:2; LXX 32:30; 37:2; Matthew 2:12, 22; Luke 2:26; Acts 10:22; 11:26; Romans 7:3; Hebrews 8:5; 11:7; 12:25), meaning "to give a divine command or admonition, to teach from heaven" (Thayer, 671). If Luke had used kaleo or phoneo, who did the calling could be anybody, on the earth or in heaven. However, since the inspired penman Luke used chrematizo, the calling cannot be an earthly source, but has to be divine, and so is restricted to "the mouth YHWH" (Isaiah 62:2).

This means that echrematisan (Greek manuscript D, aorist passive), "were called," refers to a divine calling, a teaching "from heaven" (Thayer, 671), and so the word "divinely" needs to be inserted in the KJV and the ASV translations of Acts 11:26: "the disciples were divinely called Christians first in Antioch." This was done in the FHV [Freed-Hardeman Version], first edition.

The NWT [New World Translation] of the Jehovah's Witnesses ("the worst of all translations," Guy Woods) in Acts 11:26 is superior to the KJV and the ASV: "the disciples were by divine providence called Christians," showing that the NWT translators recognized the special meaning of chrematizo. However, when the Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door, and are asked to follow their own translation in Acts 11:26, to call themselves "Christians," they refuse and go away.

Reference was made above to the Greek manuscript D in Acts 11:26, echrematisan, in the passive voice, "were called." However, it is most likely that the Greek manuscripts Aleph, A, B, C, with chrematisai, in the active voice, "called," is what Luke actually wrote. This would mean that Jehovah did the calling through the mouths of Paul and Barnabas, making Acts 11:25-26 to read:

Then he [Barnabas] went to Tarsus to look for Saul [Paul]. When he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came to pass, even for a whole year, they were gathered together with the congregation, and they taught a large multitude, and, first in Antioch, by a divine revelation, they called the disciples Christians (FHV, 4th edition).

As Moses and Jeremiah, each one, was "the mouthpiece of divine revelation" (Thayer, 671; Exodus 3:1-12; Jeremiah 26:2; Hebrews 8:5; 12:25), so were Paul and Barnabas the mouthpieces of a "divine revelation" predicted as "from the mouth of Jehovah" (Isaiah 62:2). Thus God used Paul, an apostle and a prophet "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Galatians 1:1; Acts 9:17; 13:1), and Barnabas, a prophet "full of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 11:24; 13:1), as his spokesmen to deliver first to the disciples at Antioch the "new name" (Isaiah 62:2) "Christian."

Greek students would be interested in the grammatical exegesis of Acts 11:26 by Melvin E. Elliott, 7671 W. Karen Lee Lane, Peoria, AZ 85382-38-38:

de 'and' the transition from arriving at Antioch to the things that happened there; egeneto 'it happened' autois 'to them' (to whom?) dative plural, to Barnabas and Saul; to do what? 1) sunachthenai aorist infinitive passive 'to be gathered together' for an entire year in the church; 2) didazai aorist infinitive active 'to teach' a considerable crowd; 3) chrematisai aorist infinitive active 'to call.'