The Bible Study Blog begins our study of the Book of Acts today.  All are welcome to join.  Here’s an introduction.

The Book of Acts is fast-paced and full of action.  It chronicles the early church, from Jesus’ ascension into Heaven through Paul’s imprisonment shortly before his death in Rome roughly 30 years later. 

I used to not like this book, but I think that was because I read it too quickly and got mixed up with all the people and places (My study Bible listed 20 “key” cities in this book alone).  Now it is one of my favorites. 

The author is Luke, who also wrote the Gospel of Luke.  If you’ve read the Gospel of Luke you’ll notice the similarity in style.  Luke was a very detailed historian.  He was a Gentile (non-Jew) who was a close companion of the Apostle Paul.  He gets every detail just right and his writings have been repeatedly validated by archeology.

It was probably written in the early 60’s AD (not the 1960’s) since it ends without documentation of the Apostle Paul’s death in Rome in roughly 65 AD.

Also see Love in the Book of Acts.  It starts with a trivia question: Roughly how many times is the word love mentioned in the book of Acts?  Then it addresses the theme of evangelism in Acts. 

There are many powerful and exciting stories and lessons in the Book of Acts.  We’ll cover the ascension of Jesus, the coming of the promised Holy Spirit, Peter’s ministry, Paul’s conversion and ministry, the first martyr (Stephen) and much more.

I hope you will join the study!