Book a Witness to Christ

¶ … spiritual matters do so with an eye to explain spiritual matters in a way that is acceptable to modern man. For these authors, Jesus was a great man, but not the son of God. For this group, the early church was a group of misguided and overly enthusiastic groupies who needed a political leader with divine attributes, and the record of Jesus contained in the New Testament is nothing more than the embellished stories which they told each other in order to find comfort in their political and social misery. Not so for Dr. Stewart Custer. Dr. Custer's treatment of the Book of Acts in his book Witness to Christ is a biblically-based scholarly work which expounds on the record while honoring the identity of Christ as the Son of God, and God the son. For bible students who want to get to know the historical context of the early church, while at the same time building an orthodox, fundamental understanding of both the bible and the early church, this book is a powerful addition to a personal library.

Dr. Custer's purpose in this book is to bring the reader close to the message, and the culture and experiences of the first century church as recorded in the book of Acts. His work is to help the reader understand that the founding years of the church, as recorded by Luke the physician, were filled with cultural, social, and cultural events which helped form the identity of the early church. At the same time, the message of the Book of Acts was one that was consistent with theology presented in the rest of scripture.

The early church was composed significantly if insignificant men. Fisherman, tax collectors, former prostitutes, and other common people were transformed into leaders of an organization which affected the entire known civilized world. These people had only one event in common - an encounter with the living Christ, and the experience of his death and resurrection. The book of Acts is the record of their efforts, and how a small ragtag band of cultural castaways changed the understanding of religion, and faith based on their encounter with Jesus Christ. Dr. Custer's book examines these men, and women's efforts, and rather than explaining away the importance of Jesus Christ as cultural folklore, he helps the reader understand that the experiences of Jesus' death and resurrection transformed the early church, gave it his energy, and created a change point around which all history revolves.

Paul the apostle, who is the subject of over half of the book of Acts, was one of the few scholarly individuals who knew Jewish heritage from personal study of the Old Testament books. Paul begins his encounter with the early church as a persecutor, determined to destroy the men and women who professed faith in the resurrection of Christ. However, he too was changed by a personal encounter with the living, resurrected Christ. And after a period of personal growth and maturing in the community of faith, he became one of the Church's most effective apologists. As accurately identified by Dr. Custer, these men and women were not changed by elaborative folk tales told to each other while hiding from Roman and Jewish persecution. The stories of he Book of Acts are not the result of overly ambitious need for social identity. The Book of Acts is a witness to the power, and work of Jesus Christ in the lives of individual believers and in the collective life of the living church. To this end Dr. Custer is able to create a book which builds the faith of the present day church by using example of the early church as a standard by which we can, and should measure our own response to the message, and presence of Christ.

Dr. Custer accomplished his purpose of bringing modern believer face-to-face with the changing power of the gospel by unpacking the message of the book of acts. The early church founders were, in many ways, the same as present day followers of Christ. They has a personal experience with the living and resurrected Christ in the same way which believers today can have a personal experience with him. When that experience if mixed with faith, and a willingness to follow the message of the gospel, today's believer can have a similar experience in their faith as the early church.