Where Do We Go From Here

57 WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? To answer this, we need to pay attention to what we can identify as six different forms of “testimony” and how each testimony is evaluated and checked for authenticity. I suggest you read the passage again carefully and ponder each of these in turn. I’ve bolded each testimony and underlined its corresponding evaluation: 1. Reportive testimony - “the believers… heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God” (v. 1). The remarkable inclusion of the Gentiles is reported, yet the report is not taken as accepted, for they “criticise” Peter and demand an explanation. 2. Narrative testimony - Peter then tells a story from his own life, his own witness to the report (v. 4). The entire telling of the story is evaluated after it is told, with the outcome being that the Jewish Christians “were silenced and praised God” (v. 18). 3. Revelatory testimony - within Peter’s story, he recounts the famous vision of the clean and unclean food (vv. 5-10). So those listening not only have to reckon with his story, but his witness to God’s revelation via the dream. Interestingly, in the telling of this, Peter notes that he himself disputed the “voice from heaven” three times, as he couldn’t believe what was being revealed.