As described in Acts 3, in the most significant building in Jerusalem, Peter the disciple performed a miracle before a great crowd of witnesses. It could not be denied, so the ruling leaders needed another plan – and they found one. It was “marginalization,” Dr. Voddie Baucham explains.
Baucham, a Californian reared in Texas, used two prominent Texans – former President George W. Bush and current U.S. Senator Ted Cruz – as examples of modern-day men marginalized for their beliefs. Both hold Ivy League degrees: Bush from Yale, Cruz from Harvard.
“But they’re shining examples of this,” Baucham said at the Family Research Council’s Pray, Vote, Stand Summit in October. “Because of their views they’re seen as untrained, uneducated men. They’re marginalized.”
After Jesus’ earthly death and return to the Father, Peter healed a lame man at the Temple. Baucham recounted the story from Acts 3 and the Sanhedrin’s response of marginalization in Acts 4. The lame man was not only walking, he was leaping. He was jumping for joy. Not only could the Jewish leaders see this, but so could many others at the Temple.
“Since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say,” writes Luke in Acts 4:14.
The Sanhedrin couldn’t deny, so they chose to marginalize.
“When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished, and they took note that these men had been with Jesus,” Luke wrote in verse 13.
“From a spiritual, theological perspective," Baucham said, "those of us who have the audacity to believe the Bible are seen as untrained, uneducated men. It doesn't matter how many letters we have behind our name. It doesn't matter where we've been educated or where we've been trained.”
Believers in a post-Christian culture need to understand this, he argued, noting that the post-Christian culture is here.
“They're being marginalized because the things that they believe and hold dear are seen to be on the outskirts of what is acceptable. We have that in our day, do we not? We are marginalized in this post-Christian culture just like they were in their pre-Christian culture.”
But a message of marginalization doesn’t cover reality: witnesses saw a lame man walk.
In verse 16, Luke records the Sanhedrin's reaction: “What are we going to do with these men? Everyone living in Jerusalem knows they have performed a notable sign. We cannot deny it.”
The Sanhedrin plan
The Sanhedrin set about developing a plan because they understood they couldn’t ignore what had happened. They couldn’t do nothing.
“Neutrality is not an option here. That’s what they’re saying,” Baucham said. Nor is neutrality an option in a post-Christian world, he added.
“There are many Christians who believe if we just keep our heads down, if we just go about our lives, if we just stay off social media and don’t say the wrong things, that somehow we will come out of this unscathed,” Baucham said.
It’s hard for Christians to remain silent in the face of a hyper-sexualized society that in many quarters celebrates blending of the genders among adults and promotes the confusion of the genders through life-altering drugs and surgical procedures among children.
“What they want from us is not our silence. What they want from us is our submission,” Baucham emphasized.
The evangelist and author noted today’s culture will not allow the silence of believers.
“You have to speak. It’s 'use my pronouns or lose your job.' It’s 'acknowledge this marriage, in quotation marks, between these two men or these two women.' It’s 'bake the cake or lose your bakery,' 'make the clothes or lose your business.' Neutrality is not an option,” Baucham said.
The ministry leader acknowledged that using the name of Jesus in public is still acceptable – provided it is attached to good works like sheltering homeless or feeding the poor.
“The kind of Christianity that just does soup kitchens and 12-step programs, nobody ever worries about that brand of Christianity,” Baucham argued. “But the minute you speak that name, there’s a problem.”
The Sanhedrin demanded that Peter and John stop proclaiming Jesus’ name.
“Today, verse 19 would read something like this: ‘Peter and John answered, that’s okay. We’ll just witness with our lifestyle.’ But that’s not in there,” Baucham noted.
More than lifestyle testimony
Instead, Peter and John answered, “We cannot but speak of what we’ve seen and heard.”
Baucham contrasts that with how he sees many Christians reacting in today's culture.
“There were Christians who stood up and who boldly opposed this whole movement toward so-called 'same-sex' marriage. But after Obergefell in 2015, now the response is, ‘Well, it's the law of the land.’ How long before we roll over and play dead on all this transgender nonsense?” he said. “This is where the parallel falls apart.”
As abortion and same-sex marriage became U.S. law, the objections of Christians grew more faint, Baucham pointed out. “Because we're just not willing to say, ‘You do what you have to, and we will accept the consequences as they come.'
"Instead, we shave off the edges – just a little here, just a little there – until eventually the sound of that name [of Jesus] is so faint that we may as well not be saying it anymore.”
