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Before beginning the fourteenth installment expounding the book of Acts,, John Ritenbaugh focuses upon the intent or purpose of the scripture in Deuteronomy 23:2 prohibiting offspring from illegitimate unions(often carrying psychological baggage and irreversible physical damage) from holding offices of responsibility in physical Israel for ten generations. Acts 14 begins with the people of the Lycaonian cities of Lystra and Derbe mistaking Paul for Hermes and Barnabus for Zeus .When Paul convinces the crowds that he and Barnabas were not gods, they were treated with contempt rather than adoration. The church, it seems, has always been forced to live in hostile environments. At the beginning of chapter 15, the question is posed whether a Gentile must undergo circumcision in order to be saved or keep the law in order to become justified. Law-keeping in the present does not justify past sins- nor is it intended to be a vehicle for salvation. This understanding does not do away with God's Holy Law, which must be kept in the spirit with the help of God's Holy Spirit Following the Council of Jerusalem, God now begins His spiritual work through the church (the Israel of God displacing physical Israel), taking His Word out to the nations.

Ammonite Apostle Athena Derbe Description of Paul Difficult scripture Justification through faith Ikon Law Lystra Metamorpheses, Moabite Ovid Physical ancestry Prometheus Ralph Waldo Emerson Roman roads Statutes Superstition of Lycaonian cities Timothy Via Sebaste