Acts 16:6-10: Divine Guidance and Decision-making
6 And they went through the region of Phry′gia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. 7 And when they had come opposite My′sia, they attempted to go into Bithyn′ia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them; 8 so, passing by My′sia, they went down to Tro′as. 9 And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedo′nia was standing beseeching him and saying, “Come over to Macedo′nia and help us.” 10 And when he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedo′nia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
This is another pivotal moment in the mission of the early church, as Paul and his companions leave Asia Minor and take the Gospel for the first time to Europe. These five verses also give us a look into the role of divine guidance in apostolic decision-making. Paul was clearly attentive to the Spirit’s inspiration, although how precisely this was experienced is not always explained. He had planned to bring the mission to the Roman province of Asia in northeast Asia Minor, and at least for now something stopped him (later, on his third missionary journey, Paul would have a very successful series of mission-plantings there, including Ephesus.) Luke interpreted this as “having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit.” Likewise Paul wanted to go into the adjoining province of Bythinia, but again “the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.” So two doors were inexplicably closed. But another door unexpectedly opened through a dream. And Paul acted on the dream to bring the Gospel to the people of Macedonia, “concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
The late Yale scholar (and Orthodox convert) Jaroslav Pelikan wrote an excellent commentary on Acts for the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible series (2005). While underlining the centrality of Scripture and the finality of the revelation of Jesus Christ, Pelikan also emphasizes the role of the Spirit in guiding decisions and actions in the early Church. It is worth citing him at length.
The emphasis of Acts on the authority of the Old Testament Scripture and of its normative interpretation and on the finality of the revelation in Jesus Christ must not be permitted to obscure the evidence that from the second chapter to the second-to-last chapter, the Acts of the Apostles is replete with visions, trances, and private revelations. Indeed, the only book of the New Testament that makes more of these special disclosures of the will of God is, as might be expected, the Revelation of Saint John, with its many parallels to the prophetic books of Ezekiel and Daniel. The book of Acts at the outset (2:17-21) appropriated for the church the prophecy of Joel (Joel 2:28 LXX):
And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
That I will pout out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and daughters shall prophesy,
and your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.Having done so, Acts then sets out to provide more than ample documentation throughout the balance of its narrative, that all of these were precisely what had happened.
In the 3rd-century the Church had to condemn the excesses of Montanism, which overemphasized charismatic special revelations and upset the balance and moderation of healthy spiritual life. Pelikan says, “The condemnation of Montanism not only for what it taught but for what it claimed as a prerogative does signal the problematic nature of postapostolic and postbiblical revelations.” But even so, nothing in the later history of the Church stopped its conviction and experience that the Holy Spirit can inspire practical decision-making.
There is no indication here or elsewhere in the book of Acts that there would ever come a point in the history of the church when such visions and special revelations would cease. And in fact they did not cease. Not only the visions of the seer of Patmos, but the Shepherd of Hermas, who in his sleep was “carried away” and heard voices revealing the will of God, and Eusebius’ claim that the Emperor Constantine “saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, and bearing the inscription, CONQUER BY THIS”—these and countless other accounts of revelation granted especially to mystics and hermits, which are standard features in the lives of saints, are evidence of that.
Update
Metropolitan Tikhon met with Treasurer Melanie Ringa and me yesterday to review plans for visiting the various dioceses to discuss the Metropolitan Council’s proposal for financing the Metropolitan’s office and the OCA Central Administration. Over the past year (and more) the Metropolitan Council has been working toward a more fair and uniform system of contributions from dioceses based on proportional giving rather than the current assessment (or “head tax.”) A resolution will be presented at the 18th All-American Council in July and will be published in its final version at least 60 days beforehand.