I Appeal To Caesar!

P. 7 “Speaking in tongues [a language never learned],” is an immediate, miraculous, visual-audible proof that a new convert is actually filled with the Holy Spirit; this same evidence, recorded in Luke’s account, also took place in Jerusalem, Caesarea and Ephesus. This experience is not meant to be a “one and only” experience, but rather an ongoing enhancement of the personal prayer experience. That is why in the opening verses of 1 Corinthians 14 Paul says that speaking in tongues edifies the person so doing. P. 7 Water Baptism, NT occurrences. Peter preaching in Jerusalem (Acts 2:38), Converts at Pentecost (2:41), Samaritans (8:12, 14-18), Ethiopian Eunuch (8:26-39) Caesarea (10:1-48), Philippi (16:14-15; 30-33), Corinth, 18:8), Ephesus (19:1-7). P. 12 Paul in Petra. “The fact that St. Paul went to Arabia after his escape from Damascus is addressed in Galatians 1:17. There is a very real possibility that the ‘Arabia’ mentioned is that area far to the south of Amman, Jordan, that had as its chief city, Petra. This was the capital city of King Aretus who significantly is mentioned by Paul in II Corinthians 11:32. It is difficult to imagine St. Paul spending time in Arabia Petrea (as it was known) without staying in the glorious city of Petra itself. It was the only city worthy of the name at that time in an otherwise barren desert area. Here he received from Jesus Christ, he said, those special revelations of the gospel of grace which gave such freedom and power to the churches he organized.” William Steuart McBirnie, The Search for the Twelve Apostles, p. 280. Location and Use of Petra. The map shows Petra was some 240 miles south of Damascus, some 70 miles south of the southern tip of the Dead Sea. Reader’s Digest Atlas of the Bible. “The city was built on a terrace, pierced from east to west by the wadi Muso (the Valley of Moses)–one of the places where according to tradition, the Israelite leader Moses struck the rock and water gushed forth. The valley is enclosed by sandstone cliffs veined with shades of red and purple varying to pale yellow; and for this season Petra is often called the ‘rose-red’ city.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol VII, p. 914. The one-chapter Book of Obadiah gives some interesting insights. See Ernest Gentile, The Major and the Minor Prophets, pp. 15-20.