Acts 11:25

And he went forth to Tarsus to seek for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. And it came to pass, that even for a whole year they were gathered together with the church, and taught much people; and that the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.

When he had found him ... This seems to say that Barnabas might have had some difficulty in locating Saul; and, if the fact of Saul having been disinherited by his family (as supposed) had cut off his association with them, this could have complicated the problem of locating him. In any case, Barnabas succeeded in finding him and bringing him to Antioch.

Some have speculated on the reasons which might have prompted Barnabas to search out Saul and introduce him at Antioch. Probably it was because the word of the Lord had revealed to Ananias that Saul would bear the Lord's name before the "Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15). The immediate mention of the "name" in the same context supports this view.

The disciples were called Christians ... The importance of this makes it imperative to study more fully both the name "disciples" and the name "Christian," which replaced it.

CONCERNING DISCIPLES

"Disciples" occurs 72 times in Matthew 44 times in Mark 38 times in Luke 77 times in John, and 30 times in Acts - 261 times in the first five books of the New Testament; but it is not used even once in the last 22 books of the New Testament. The significance of this is further emphasized by the fact that the apostle John, after using it 77 times in the gospel, never used it even once in the short epistles and Revelation. Following the book of Acts, no follower of the Lord was ever called a disciple. The conclusion is mandatory that "disciple" as a name for members of the body of Christ was countermanded and negated by the Holy Spirit. (It should be noted that this in no manner denies that all New Testament teaching regarding "disciples" and discipleship applies likewise to Christians. It was the name, not the doctrine, that was changed.)

Among the reasons behind the dramatic change of names evident in this passage is the primary fact that the word "disciple" means "learner"; and although true in a sense that Christians must always be "learners," there is a vital and necessary sense in which Christians are "taught persons," in all vital elements of the holy faith. See John 6:44,45; Jeremiah 31:31-35; 2 John 1:1:2; and Isaiah 54:13. The hurtful notion that Christians are merely "trying to learn the truth" is antithetical to the passages cited. An apostle said that Christians "know the truth" (1 John 2:21). Paul declared that Christians "believe and know the truth" (1 Timothy 4:3); and this concept of the Christian's being in possession of "all truth" through the revelation of God to the apostles is denied by such a name as "disciples" or "learners." This alone was sufficient reason for God's repudiation of the name "disciples."

As Kenneth Hoover, distinguished preacher of Benton, Kentucky, said:

From ancient times to the present, the finite mind of man has wrestled with the infinite concept of God, the concept of truth. The halls of learning reverberate with a monotonous combination of postulates and abstractions about truth which sound good but mean nothing.[34]

Hoover stressed that the truth has been revealed from God, in Christ, by the Spirit, through the apostles, and that "The truth is the gospel of Christ, the word of God."[35]

Christians are commanded to love the truth, hear the truth, walk in the truth, obey the truth, and to "teach the truth in love." If they should be named merely "learners" or disciples, it would be incongruous.

CONCERNING THE NAME "CHRISTIAN"

The near-unanimous chorus of scholars and wise men shouting that this name was given in derision of the new faith is as shameful as it is amazing. We shall not use the space to record the names and comments of those affirming that "Christians" was a name given in derision, belittling the members of Christ as "goody-goodies," etc., the tragedy being that even some brethren have fallen in with such an "accepted" explanation! Even the Encyclopedia Britannica chimes in with "It was at Antioch that the term `Christian' was first given to converts to the new faith, as some maintain, in derision."[36] But where, in God's holy name, is there any intimation of such a thing, either in the word of God or any dependable history? Hervey emphatically declared, and it is true, that "There is no evidence of its having been given in derision."[37] Furthermore, if the name "Christian" was given in derision of the faith by the enemies of the gospel, whatever became of that everlasting "new name" which the mouth of God named upon his children?

I. God promised that he himself would give his people a new name. He promised that it would be given at a time when "the Gentiles and kings" had seen his "righteousness" (Isaiah 62:2). It was not to be a name which enemies would give, for God said, "I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off" (Isaiah 56:5). It was not to be a name which would arise beyond the fellowship of God's people; but, as the Lord said, "Even unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters" (Isaiah 56:5). If God made good on that promise, the name was given in his house and within his walls; and that cannot mean in the ranks of the despisers of his truth. Moreover, it was to be "a new name" (Isaiah 62:2), and a name "which the mouth of the Lord" would name.

II. Significance of the name's being "new." If "disciples" had continued to be the name of God's followers, there would have been nothing new in such a designation, because the Pharisees and John the Baptist also had "disciples." Implicit in the new name was the teaching that Christianity was never to be confused with Judaism, or any of the sects of the Jews, all of which had their "disciples," the very name being indicative of the Jewish connection.

III. This is the only name specifically commanded by an apostle as the one in which the Lord's people should "glorify God" (1 Peter 4:16). And how, it may be asked, does the name "Christian" worn by God's people glorify the Father in heaven? This is done by its emphasis upon the name of Christ, the name literally meaning "of Christ." Herein also appears the utter impossibility of such a name having been given by the instigation of Satan. It is contrary to the nature of Satan to suppose for even a moment that the evil one would have concocted a name with so much of Christ in it. People who can really believe that Satan invented and instigated this name might also very well believe that the devil invented the Lord's Supper.

IV. The contrast between the New Testament handling of the name "Christian," as distinguished from many designations applied to the followers of the Lamb in the New Testament, stresses the uniqueness of the term "Christian." For example, the Holy Spirit referred to the Lord's followers as (1) the called of God (Romans 1:6; 8:28), (2) sons of God (Romans 8:14), (3) children of God (Romans 8:16), (4) the sanctified (1 Corinthians 1:2), (5) the faithful in Christ (Ephesians 1:1), (6) servants of Christ (Philippians 1:1), (7) the elect of God (1 Peter 1:1), (8) God's elect (Colossians 3:12; Titus 1:1), (9) saints in Christ, the term "saints" being used 50 times in the epistles (10) brethren, this designation being used 132 times in the epistles, and (11) simply "the church," as used 85 times.

Nevertheless, it was the name "Christian" which above all others came to be the historical designation of the brethren. This was the only name an apostle commanded the saints to wear (1 Peter 4:16), the only name advocated before kings (Acts 26:28), and the only name consciously designated by an inspired author of a New Testament book as a replacement for "disciples," as in Acts 11:26.

V. Finally, the events leading to the giving of this new name were ordered, not on earth, but from heaven. First, a "name bearer" was chosen of God and converted in Acts 9; next the Gentiles were made participants in the blessings of the faith, upon the same terms as Jews, this being accomplished by a whole series of supernatural occurrences leading to the conversion of Cornelius and his house in Acts 10; and then in Acts 11, as soon as the first great Gentile church had been assembled at Antioch, a man full of the Holy Spirit went and called the "name-bearer" from Tarsus, the same line recording the fact that the disciples were called "Christians" first at Antioch. From this, the conclusion may not be denied that Paul himself announced this name within the church at Antioch, the inspired apostle being God's spokesman.

[34] Kenneth Hoover, Minister, Church of Christ, Benton, Kentucky, a private manuscript, 1975.

[35] Ibid.

[36] Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 2, p. 149.

[37] A. C. Hervey, op. cit., p. 359.