to this kind of preaching (Acts 4), laid hands upon
the preachers, and put them in prison. When they were
examined the next day before (Acts 4:5-13) the Jewish
tribunal, the apostles spoke even more boldly of Jesus and
his resurrection and refused to be silenced (Acts 4:13-20,
33). Again an attempt was made to stop the preaching
of the apostles, but they refused to keep still (Acts
5:16-33). A remarkable prison deliverance by the "Angel
of the Lord" (Acts 5:19, 20) gave them great courage in
proclaiming "all the words of this life."

At this point Gamaliel (Acts 5:34-42) proposes in the
Jewish council a new policy, which was to let the followers
of Christ alone, arguing that then they would speedily
give up their preaching. This policy was adopted (Acts
5:40). But with the election of Stephen as a deacon
(Acts 6:1-8) the followers of Christ began to multiply
with great rapidity and it was soon seen that "the
let-alone policy" was a mistake (Acts 6:9-15). Persecution
again breaks out which results in the death of Stephen
(Acts 7), the bringing out of Saul as the arch persecutor,
and the scattering of the church (Acts 8:1-4).

+The Inevitable Conflict.+--Had the early Christians
been content to have proclaimed Jesus Christ to be but a
great teacher and prophet, they would in all probability
have become a Jewish sect and been speedily lost to sight.
But extraordinary claims were put forth that Jesus Christ
was the promised Messiah (Acts 2:25-40), the Son of
God (Acts 3:26), the Forgiver of sins (Acts 2:38; 5:31),
that He was risen from the dead (Acts 4:33), that
obedience to Him was above that to the Jewish rulers (Acts
4:18-20), that the Jews had wickedly slain Christ (Acts
3:14, 15), and that salvation was only through Him
(Acts 4:12). Further than this they wrought miracles in
the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 3:2-8, 16; 2:43; 5:12).

It was very soon plainly seen that Christianity could
keep no truce, and proposed to keep no truce, which
called in question or denied the supremacy of Christ.

+The Cruelty of the Persecutor.+--To a man of Paul's
temperament and zeal there could be no half way measures
in a case like this. He could not be content to bide his
time. Either the claims of Christ were true or false. If
false, then they were doing harm and His doctrine and
teaching must be eradicated at any cost. All the aggressive
forces of the Jews found a champion in this Saul of
Tarsus. Drastic measures