‘Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers. Acts 7:51,52
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen. Acts 7:57-59
Note: From this time onwards there was severe persecution of the new Christians. They were rounded up, put in prisons or executed. The young man Saul at the stoning of Stephen was foremost in these operations. The Christians fled and scattered and so the teachings of Jesus spread over all the then-known world. The opportunity for the Jewish nation had ended as prophesied, in AD 34, at the end of the 70th week. Now the prophecy using individual who believed in Jesus and comprised the Christian church would move on to the remainder of the time left in the 2300 years. |
