It is helpful to study Acts from the viewpoint of faith, especially to note the foundation for faith. On what was their faith based? How did they come to believe in God and his Son? We have a diverse audience of people hearing the Gospel preached. There were Jews, Greeks, Romans, political leaders, men, women and philosophers.

The Bible nowhere sets out a formal case for believing in God and his Son. Faith is declared to be a work of God, providing sufficient information to produce faith in the hearts of those who want to do God’s will. (John 6:29.) Faith is produced by hearing the Word of God proclaimed. (Rom. 10:17.) David boldly proclaimed that "the fool has said in his heart there is no God." (Psalm 53:1.)

Since Acts is an account of many obeying the Gospel and the spread of the Gospel in the first century, it is helpful to ask, What produced faith in the hearts of the hearers?

Belief is fundamental and foundational to conversion. Without faith in God and a trust that Jesus is God’s Son, conversion cannot occur. It is often stated by Luke that some believed and others did not believe what was preached. A typical summary of the result of preaching the Gospel is this one at Thessalonica:

"Paul. . . opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ. And some of them believed and consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great multitude and of the chief women not a few. But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy." (Acts 17:3-5.)

"And all that believed were together and had all things common." (Acts 2:44.) "And by him all that believe were justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:39.) "And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." (Acts 15:9.)

The elders and apostles replied to Paul in Jerusalem, "Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe and they are all zealous of the law." (Acts 21:20.)

The Ethiopian eunuch replied to Philip, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." (Acts 8:37.) Jesus said, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." (Mark 16:16.)

"Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . " (Acts 20:21.)

We do not know all the reasons why some believe and others do not, or why some obey the Gospel so readily and others refuse. The reasons may be as varied as individuals are. But we do know that there must be a will to believe. Some will not believe regardless of the amount of proofs presented. Abraham said to the rich man, "Neither will they (his brothers) be persuaded though one arose from the dead." (Luke 16:31.) The philosopher, William James, wrote that there must be a will to believe. Jesus said, "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. Whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:17.) Others do not believe because they love darkness and not light. Jesus said, "This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil." (John 3:19.)

For both the Jews and Gentiles, there were some stumblingstones to believing. Due to some things peculiar to their own customs and traditions, there were hindrances to faith.

The major problems confronting the Gentile world was the concept of many gods and porneia. (1 Thess. 4:3-5, 1 Peter 2:11.) The Gentiles were not heathens in the sense that they were not religious. They were, in some cases, as Paul said on Mars’ Hill "too religious." (Acts 17:22.) They needed to see the right conception of God, his oneness. This was a great hurdle for them to overcome. They needed to believe that God came down to earth in the person of Jesus Christ to save lost mankind.

The Jews had their unique circumstances which hindered them in believing in Jesus Christ. It was their misunderstanding of the law. They thought they were justified by keeping the Law; therefore, they did not need Jesus Christ.

"Behold, I lay in Zion a stumblingstone and rock of offence. Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed." (Rom. 9:33, Isaiah 8:14, Isaiah 28:16.) They stumbled at the stumblingstone. They sought justification as if it were obtained by the works of the law and not by faith.

We too can have many stumblingstones in the path of believing. Some of them might be: a desire to live a physical, sensuous life or a doubting mind produced by the strong unbelief of others or bad examples of family members.

The created world. Especially for the Gentiles, the preachers often appealed to the created world around them.

"We also are men of like passions with you and preach that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven and earth and sea and all things that are therein. Who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless, he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness." (Acts 14:15-17.)

David appealed to the creation. "The heavens declare the glory of God and shows his handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." (Psalm 19:1-3.) It is interesting that this psalm is divided into two parts. The first part appeals to creation (verses 1-6), and the last appeals to the Word of God (verses 7-14).

Paul wrote this to the Romans: "For the invisible of him from the creation of world are clearly seen, being understood by the things which are made, even his eternal power and godhead." (Rom. 1:20.) "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." (Heb. 11:3.)

Prophesy and fulfillment. This was especially meaningful to Jews who had been taught the Law and Prophets. They had been anticipating a coming Messiah or Christ. When Jesus walked with the two Jews from Emmaus after his resurrection, he reasoned with them about the words of the prophets.

"He said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:25-27.)

Likewise the apostles and teachers in Acts appealed to the Law and Prophets to produce faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Philip used the very place where the eunuch was reading to teach him about Jesus. (Acts 8:35.) Peter did the same thing on the Day of Pentecost. He used David’s writings in the Psalms to teach that the Old Testament foretold that Jesus would not be see corruption in the tomb. That passage could not refer to David since David was still in his tomb in Jerusalem. David did see corruption, but Jesus Christ did not. This was a meaningful way to teach because the Jews already respected the Word from God that was given to them.

If this, prophesy and fulfillment, convinced the Jews in the first century, how much more powerful should this be for us today having before us the completed Word of God. We can see so much more than they concerning the overall plan of God. Someone has well said that man could not have written the Bible if he wanted to (because he cannot know the future), and he would not write it even if he could (because man stands condemned in sin before God).

Conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Over the years, many have used the example of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus to reason concerning the truthfulness of Christianity. The major points in that discussion are these. Saul was very much opposed to becoming a Christian, but something changed his mind. Since Saul was well taught at the feet of Gamaliel the doctrines of the Pharisees, what convinced Saul to turn from all that he was taught to become a disciple? Saul was obviously a very intelligent man. His family was wealthy enough to provide a good education for him. He could not be so easily duped by religious fanatics. Furthermore, Saul had no earthly motive to change his religious views. The result of becoming a Christian would be stiff opposition and death. He did not receive large sums of money in pay or a position at some large influential church. There was just no motive that is earthly or fleshy that can attributed to Saul’s conversion.

Is it possible that Paul just thought he saw something on the Damascus Road? But other men who were with him saw the light and heard the voice of God speaking, but they did not understand what was said. No, it was not an illusion. Saul was blinded by the light for three days. (Acts 9:9.) He had to be healed for him to see again.

There is just no logical explanation that can be given as to why Saul of Tarsus left the faith of his parents to become a Christian, except that Jesus did appear to him on the Damascus Road. This appearance proves the resurrection of Jesus from the dead and establishes the central tenet of Christianity. Our faith is centrally based upon the truth that Jesus was raised from the dead. We have hope that we also will be raised. (1 Cor. 6:14.)

Two men who held to principles of infidelity, Lord Lyttelton and Gilbert West, set out to show that the Bible was an imposture. Lyttelton chose to write on "The Conversion of Paul" and West on "The Resurrection of Jesus." They both sat down filled with prejudice against the Bible as the Word of God. Through their research, each became convinced of the truthfulness of the biblical record. Lord Lyttelton wrote an extensive analysis of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. He considered if Paul was an imposter, if he was an enthusiast, if Paul was deceived by Christians to believe, or if the account is true as told by Paul the apostle. (See the full text in James D. Bales’ book, Saul: From Persecutor to Persecuted, 1975, 106-137.)