“And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith.” (Acts 6:7). Looking again at the second ‘Faith̓ event in Acts.
Now in the nominative, faith as ‘a noun’; shifting drastically our understanding of faith in this the second use of ‘Jesus faith̓ in Acts. Radical is the transition from faith being ‘something’ that is ‘within a person’, that ‘can be seen’ with a ‘spiritual eye’, and that manifests itself as a ‘power in the healing processes’ of life. It is now for the first time being used to name ‘a thing’— ‘something’ that even The Priests are being persuaded by.
‘Upakouos’, translated by both the King James Version and the Revised Standard Version as ‘obedient’ is actually rooted in the word ‘akouo’— ‘hearing’. Whereas, outside of the biblical tradition ‘seeing is believing’ and most all primitive religions give predominance to what ‘the eye sees’ as revelation of the acts and ways of god(s). Biblical religions, and those who take root in them, are ‘religions of the word’. Never to overlook or underestimate the importance of ‘seeing’ in Judeo-Christian traditions as we have already witnessed, but, to recognize how the ‘power of hearing’ has now become of ‘critical mass’ in defining this ‘new age faith’. ‘We need to be able to spend all our time on ‘the word’, the Apostles bemoaned, we don’t have time to do what …we can appoint ‘Seven’ —to do!
‘Upakouos’ then, is a rarely used form of ‘hearing’ which denotes those who stand in a ‘divinely willed relationship’— always expressions of MORALITY and TRUTH. It is further clarified by Jesus’ teaching in ‘The Parable Of The Sower’ where the Word is like a seed that falls on all kinds of ground. When the ‘Word gets right’, it has power to provoke faith which ‘comes by hearing’.
Have you ever really taken notice of how difficult hearing really is? No, I mean considering the fact that in a room of 1,000 people, ONE person delivering a word to 1,000? If in TRUTH, God has made no two people alike then, no two people should even hear the same thing. What I’m saying is that what you hear someone say… has processes —through YOUR knowledge and truth base. The saying, ‘if you don’t bring nothing, you don’t get nothing’ is somewhat ludicrous to me. “I don’t get nothing, because, I bring so much!” (me). Hearing, for me, comes by a WORD of TRUTH. What I have come to know more importantly in 2026 America is a sharpening of MY POWER to HEAR —TRUTH! But you must BRING TRUTH/”Know Truth” to… Get Truth. The kind of TRUTH that sets YOU FREE. What did you hear? It was good, so good. But, what did you HEAR?
The Priest, (though by now in this Greco-Roman world are not exclusively Hebrew), are they that have made life commitments to the study, teaching and transmission of FAITH. Some were even born into the priesthood as Levites, inheriting this moral and religious life’s commission. But, there was ‘something being said’, preached, proclaimed by the Apostles and Disciples of what is now becoming a religious institution— distinguishable enough for Priest to have a ‘change of heart’ while ‘hearing’ and becoming obedient to this WORD of TRUTH.
America in 2026 is a ‘PODcast’. Anyone, EVERYONE talking loud over amplified sound waves to… unknown numbers of HEARERS. Dogma. Doctrine. Nationalism. Propaganda. Subliminal Nonsense. Make it make sense. Truth? Dares? Fallacies? Lies? Off the top of heads who in Mammon motivated dissemination… BRING —nothing; but, Creation back …into Chaos.
How unsuspecting the Church is when Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee plays god in placing a FALSE morality and unTruth in the hearing of 1,000 Pastors, who in turn unleashes a demagogue WORD in YOUR HEARING? Where is your Faith/HEARING …NOW?
As an endnote, I HEAR W.E.B. DuBois saying: “And this is the land that professes to follow Jesus Christ. The blasphemy of such a course is only matched by its cowardice.”
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