Acts 21:15-26. Paul leaves Jerusalem with his followers and some of the disciples from Caesarea. They are received gladly in Jerusalem and are brought to James and all the elders where Paul recounts all that has happened through his ministry. They glorify God for all that He has accomplished through Paul, but they then warn Paul of the zealous Jews in Jerusalem who believe Paul has been teaching Jews to forsake Moses and forego circumcision. They recommend that Paul go with four of their number who have taken a vow to purify themselves at the temple, and that Paul pay all their expenses. This, they believe, will convince the Jews that Paul lives in observance of the law. They also tell Paul that they have written to the Gentiles advising them that the laws they must observe are abstinence from what has been sacrificed to idols; from what has been strangled; and from unchastity. So Paul takes the four men the next day and purifies himself with them and goes to the temple to pay the offering for each of them and announce when the purification will be fulfilled.

We know that Paul cut his hair in accordance with his vow in Cenchreae and shortly thereafter returned to Jerusalem between his second and third missionary trip. I had assumed he did his vow purification while he was there, but here it seems he had not done so. Or perhaps he did, but is now "taking cover" among the four who haven't yet, and re-purifying himself in the process. In any event, the elders in Jerusalem are aware of the danger of Paul is in and have devised a plan to assuage the Jews. We will see how it works!

What I am struck by today is the miscommunication and misunderstanding between the non-believing and the believing Jews. The non-believers are hearing bits and pieces of what Paul has been preaching - that Jesus fulfills the law of Moses, that circumcision is not necessary to be a believer - but they are hearing it as hearsay - from someone who heard it from someone else. Thus, each person's biases and misinterpretations get added to the testimony, so that it becomes a wholesale rejection of Judaism by the time it reaches the Jews in Jerusalem. Obviously this is not at all what Paul was preaching. Paul remains a faithful Jew who simply believes, correctly, that the Messianic promise has been fulfilled. This is true for all the elders. One would think that this problem could be solved by simply talking directly to Paul, but it really can't be. Once these biases and misunderstandings become set, especially in the case of faith and religion, there is no easy way to correct them. Religious people "know" that they have God on their side, so they "know" the other person must be a heretic.

We see this happening all over the place today, both in the Church and in the secular world. I have every confidence that God will guide His Church, but in the world at large various ideologies such as wokism, environmentalism, transgenderism, etc., have become religions in and of themselves. Their followers have heard simplified and biased descriptions of what the Church actually teaches, and have decided that the Church is hateful and heretical to their religion of choice. The ability to communicate directly with people on the internet would seem like it would help this miscommunication, but in fact it makes it much worse. We believers today, then, face the same threat that Paul and the early Church did. We believe in and are preaching the truth, but the truth is subtle and not always obvious. It needs to be explained, and requires personal open-heartedness in order to take root.

As the world holds on to more and more lies as truth, Christian beliefs will become more and more heretical to the world. Paul, at least, could in good faith continue to engage in the Jewish rituals to establish his "bona fides" with the Jews. Unfortunately, Chrsitians today cannot participate in the rituals of the "religions" of our time - they truly amount to idolatry, so we must continue observing our own rituals and pray for those who are falling prey to the Zeitgeist.