His Story

Acts 19:24–32

“A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there. He called them together, along with the workers in related trades, and said: “You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.” When they heard this, they were furious and began shouting: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” Soon the whole city was in an uproar. The people seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul’s traveling companions from Macedonia, and all of them rushed into the theater together. Paul wanted to appear before the crowd, but the disciples would not let him. Even some of the officials of the province, friends of Paul, sent him a message begging him not to venture into the theater. The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.”

Our God is greater! Jesus Christ stands alone amongst other gods and goddesses as the One True God as attested in Scripture, in nature, in history, and in our experience. He is simply who He claimed to be, the very God who created the Heavens and the Earth and that “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). We see today that indeed, for many reasons, as Christian philosopher William Lane Craig writes, “this particularistic doctrine was just as scandalous in the polytheistic world of the Roman Empire as in contemporary Western culture.” However, history is on the side of Christ, it is, as most Christians would say, His story, and most other narratives are simply rendered myths because these have little to nothing that corroborates it. It is interesting to note that this chapter of Acts, in fact, the entire Book of Acts itself, and the corresponding first volume, the Gospel of Luke contains numerous earmarks of historicity and are thus reliable historical documents. The expression “the great goddess Artemis” is attested to by early inscriptions found around Ephesus, and further down in v. 37: “You have brought these men here, though they have neither robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess”, in the Greek, we find the curious way of addressing Artemis as a ‘feminine god’ (not a ‘feminine goddess’, as one would refer to Athena, Hera, etc.), this is idiosyncratic to the locals, within the region, and of the time. We also find, say in v. 31 the term used as ‘provincial officials’ is also unique to the time and region. There are many others to the effect telling us that the Apostle Luke is a careful documenter, “from the sailings of the Alexandrian corn fleet to the coastal terrain of the Mediterranean islands (Acts 27) to the peculiar titles of local officials (Acts 17:6, 19:31), and more than 80 facts, Luke gets it right.” (Colin J. Hemer, 1989), also Acts 18:2-3 (not 

even mentioned by the Jewish historian Josephus, but by the Roman Sotonius “at the instigation of Crestus, Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome”). I say these only to point out that the God we worship is none like any other, for the precise reason that He is real, and all others are idols! Polytheism isn’t necessarily true for a tool in philosophical analysis called Occam’s Razor ‘shaves’ off a multiplicity of divine beings responsible for the creation and design of the universe, the foundation of objective moral values, meaning, and reason, the truth is but one, Jesus Christ: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made… And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us… full of grace and truth (John 1:1–3, 14)!”