Looking into the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth or should I say the Bible, the name that it is popularly called we will encounter a man named Cornelius. The book of Acts of the Apostles gives a detailed account of all the glorious activities done by the apostles. We see the works of Peter, who is the head of the church till today, Peter majorly and also the activities of the Seven Deacons e.g. Philip, Steven, Nicanor, Parmenas, Nicolaus and many others. Today’s write up will be on a noble man named Cornelius.
Cornelius is a soldier or the Bible will refer to him as a centurion. A centurion is someone in charge of an army i.e. the head of a group of soldiers and that is position Cornelius was occupying. Clearly looking into the bible using the RSV (Revised Standard Version) you the Bible made mention of Cornelius being “the centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort”. This tells of Cornelius as a The Head of the Roman Army.
All you writers know how centurions are. They are not the Godly type in fact most are evil. But in the case of Cornelius the story seems to be different. Cornelius was said to be a God fearing man, a devout man who gave alms liberally to people. To see a centurion such as this one you would sweat because the ones I am seeing are the worst. Cornelius is a gentile and I know most Christians here know who gentiles are. Gentiles are uncircumcised group of people so any uncircumcised person is practically a gentile. Nowadays Muslim males are uncircumcised so in those days they would be called gentiles. The covenant God had with Abraham was circumcision and that was why Abraham circumcised Isaac. This is to say that unless you are circumcised you cannot belong to God. These days if you are not circumcised you are practically a Muslim.
We can see clearly that Cornelius was gentile but the question is why Cornelius is a God Fearing man or a Christian. This question can be answered when we visit the book of Acts of the Apostles chapter 10. You will see that God visited Cornelius and told him “that his good deeds and alms have come up to God as a memorial and he should send for a man named Simon Peter who is lodging with a man named Simon the tanner”. This seems interesting and this shows that anybody can be used by God. Cornelius sent two of his servants and his soldiers to get Simon Peter.
Meanwhile that time Simon Peter had a trance where a sheet was let down from heaven with different types of animals on it including reptiles. Then a voice came to peter saying “Rise Peter kill and eat” and it appears that as at that time Peter was hungry. But he told God that he cannot eat anything common or unclean. The voice came to him again telling him “What God has cleansed you must not call common or unclean” and this happened three times and the sheet was taken up to heaven. I will explain this now and clearly. The whole scenario was to tell peter that anybody can be used by God whether the person is a circumcised or not circumcised. If God could use Paul a persecutor of Christians why can’t he use Cornelius a God fearing gentile?
Completing the story you will get to know that Peter later met Cornelius and He bowed down to Peter but peter told him he should stand for he is a man like him. This shows how humble Peter is, you must not take glory for what God did. Peter told Cornelius how wrong it was for a person like him to get involved with gentiles but he told Cornelius about the trance that he had before he came to meet him. That day Cornelius and his household were converted although they were not circumcised.
My fellow writers God can be use anybody he decides because he created all. This topic is quite similar to that of Paul and I will deal on Paul very soon and I will also deal on peter.
My first article, genuine and straight from the medulla. Read and be blessed. Bye.
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