10. The Crisis of Prejudice Tradition or Vision?
Alliance Witness, 1980.05.28, P. 24-25.

IN SPITE of all the teachings and examples of the Lord as well as their own experience, the apostles held traditional concepts that belonged to an older era.

They failed to learn from the Lord’s teaching that He had “other sheep” whom He must gather into the fold (John 10:16). They failed to learn from the Lord’s own example of showing grace to the Gentiles (Matthew 15:28).

They failed to learn from their own experience in the city of Samaria that the Holy Spirit was also given to Gen- tile believers (Acts 8:17). Peter still hesitated as to whether he should accept the invitation to go to Caesarea to preach to the household of Cornelius.

How difficult it is to rise above traditional concepts and practices. It took a vision from God to change Peter and liberate him from the bond- age of tradition and prejudice.

(9) On the morrow, as they went on their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour:

(10) And he became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell into a trance,

(11) And saw heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth:

(12) Wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.

(13) And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.

(14) But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for Z have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.

(15) And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.

(16) This was done thrice: and the vessel was received up again into heaven (Acts 10:9-16).

Peter’s vision was of far-reaching significance. I call it a “vision of transcendence” because it enabled Peter to transcend limitations im- posed on him by tradition. He then began to preach to the Gentiles. This vision together with the vision given to Paul created a new age-a new age of worldwide evangelization!

There are five points in regard to this vision that are worthy of our attention:

1. It was born of prayer. Peter received it when he had been praying (10:9).

2. It was born of need. Peter felt hungry and he needed food (10:10), but through this vision God showed him another need that was greater-a breakthrough that would feed many souls with the Word of God.

3. It introduced a new concept. Peter answered the voice from heaven, “Not so, Lord” (10:14)-in other words, “No, Lord.” “No” and “Lord” are contradictory, yet they were joined by Peter. How difficult it is for us to learn anything that is different from our old concepts.

4. It was a persistent message. The voice from heaven spoke to Peter three times-a strong emphasis. We too, like Peter, often need repeated reminders from the Lord before we learn anything from Him.

5. In it God seemed to be contradicting Himself. He was calling some- thing clean that in the Old Testament He had called unclean. Peter was greatly puzzled — how could God be self-contradictory?

This seeming self-contradiction of God teaches us at least three lessons. First, that God is a God of paradoxes. To the eye of finite man the infinite God by necessity appears self-contradictory. Our limited minds can never harmonize between time and eternity, between the plurality and the singularity of God, between the divine nature and the human nature of Christ, between “eternal” and “generation” in the eternal generation of the Son.

We would have to be infinite to understand things that belong to infinity. These paradoxes are a part of the higher unity of the things of God. We must know our limitations as hu- man beings and never stretch our claims beyond our finite territories. The things that belong to infinity are the hidden things of the hidden God (see Isaiah 45:15).

Second, we learn that the letter of the Law was only a type or a shadow of spiritual and moral truth. It was transitory, leading to the fulfillment of the spirit of the Law. A shadow automatically disappears when the substance of truth comes into full light. The commandment not to eat anything categorized in the Old Testament as unclean was a shadow of the spiritual truth that God is a holy God and His people should be a holy people. When the spiritual reality of holiness was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the shadow automatically disappeared and unclean things became clean.

A third lesson from God’s seeming self-contradiction in Peter’s vision is that all commandments, traditions, regulations and measures of a transitory nature must give way to new features and new approaches for a new age. God has different methods for different eras. This fact is very important for us. We must discover the methods God wants us to use in our day in evangelism and missions.

The realization of this truth generates in us a sense of contemporariness a desire to preach the gospel effectively to modern man and to relate gospel truths to current issues through the best methods of communication.

We must learn to be readily responsive to Biblical truths and patterns as God shows them to us, no matter how different they may be from our traditions and old concepts.