“The Use of the Scriptures in Acts” is a worthy study in and of itself. Acts is part of the entire “oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11). Our study will discuss the following: 1) What is the meaning of the term Scripture? 2) The Acts of the Apostles as Scripture. 3) The use (purpose) of the Acts of the Apostles as Scripture.

It is always important to define the terms of one’s study and follow the principle set forth by Marsh, “Define your terms and then keep to the terms defined” (1). By the term “use,” Webster defines as: “1a: the act or practice of using something . . . d: the method or manner of using something . . . 2a (1): habitual or customary practice . . . 7: a part of a sermon on which a doctrine is applied to life” (2523).

The phrase “the Scriptures in Acts” is used in the sense of Old Testament references, the apostolic letter written by “the apostles and elders and brethren” (Acts 15:23-29). It also refers to the oral teaching in Acts.

What is the Meaning of the Term Scripture?

Before I was converted to the Lord Jesus Christ, I had a few friends who claimed to believe in Jesus but, for various reasons, had rejected any necessary urgency in following Him. At that time, the only thought I had was to agree with them. After I was converted to the Jesus of the Bible, I held to a commitment of following Him with the urgent conviction that He may return at any time as He promised with need to be ready to meet Him (1 Thessalonians 1:3; 2:4; 4:1, 7; 5:8-11).

Christianity is a religion founded in history. Its authoritative text, the New Testament, is a document likewise founded in history. Mythology is not history, and if Christianity were simply a compilation of mythological superstitions, then it would be abjectly divorced from the reality of history. But the very opposite is the case, as we shall see: Jesus Christ and His teaching and actions, including the miraculous, are grounded in human history and human relationship, and are neither explained nor defended in a vacuum outside the scope of literal, actual human experience. One may deny the meaning or purposes of the events recorded, but not the context of human experience in which they happened and are chronicled.