¶ … 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...

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…