The Acts of Jesus
If the Gospel According to Luke (the “former treatise, O Theophilus”) is about what Jesus “began to do and to teach,” then Acts is about what Jesus continued to do and to teach, through the Holy Spirit and the apostles, after his ascension. Compare that beginning to the way Acts ends, with Paul under house arrest but nothing resolved. The narrative doesn’t really end. It just stops. And that is the point.
We live in Acts chapter 29. We tend to think of the gospel as what Jesus did (rightly), and of church history as what we have done (rightly, up to a point). But Jesus is still doing things. Every time the Holy Spirit calls a person to faith and regenerates him and makes him a new creature, Jesus is still acting through his personal Agent and Emissary. And whenever we proclaim the gospel faithfully and back it up with sound apologetics, Jesus is still teaching.
If we think of church history as what Jesus is still doing through us, and of ourselves as living in Acts chapter 29, we will be thinking of things the way Luke did.
Donald T. Williams is Professor Emeritus of Toccoa Falls College. He stays permanently camped out on the borders between serious scholarship and pastoral ministry, between theology and literature, and between Narnia and Middle-Earth. He is the author of fourteen books, including Answers from Aslan: The Enduring Apologetics of C. S. Lewis (DeWard, 2023). He is a contributing editor of Touchstone.
Get six issues (one year) of Touchstone PLUS full online access including pdf downloads for only $39.95. That's only $3.34 per month!
Get a one-year full-access subscription to the Touchstone online archives for only $19.95. That's only $1.66 per month!
bulk subscriptions
Order Touchstone subscriptions in bulk and save $10 per sub! Each subscription includes 6 issues of Touchstone plus full online access to touchstonemag.com—including archives, videos, and pdf downloads of recent issues for only $29.95 each! Great for churches or study groups.
Transactions will be processed on a secure server.
more on bible from the online archives
32.3—May/June 2019
on the Implications of Changing the Pater Noster by John M. McCarthy
24.3—May/June 2011
The Making & Endurance of the King James Bible, 1611-2011 by Barton Swaim
more from the online archives
29.3—May/June 2016
A Deathbed Reflection on Catholic Social Teaching & Our Future Prospects by Karl D. Stephan
30.5—Sept/Oct 2017
on Costly Grace in Breece D'J Pancake's Flyover Country by Casey Chalk
calling all readers
Please Donate
"There are magazines worth reading but few worth saving . . . Touchstone is just such a magazine."
—Alice von Hildebrand
"Here we do not concede one square millimeter of territory to falsehood, folly, contemporary sentimentality, or fashion. We speak the truth, and let God be our judge. . . . Touchstone is the one committedly Christian conservative journal."
—Anthony Esolen, Touchstone senior editor
