Precept Upon Precept: Acts Part 1: JESUS’ WITNESSES EMPOWERED BY HIS SPIRIT

Precept Upon Precept

by Kay Arthur

169 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2014

About the author

Kay Lee Arthur was an American Christian author, Bible teacher, and co-founder of Precept Ministries International. Renowned for her accessible and inductive approach to Bible study, she helped millions engage deeply with Scripture. Arthur began her ministry informally, teaching teenagers in her living room alongside her second husband, Jack Arthur. Their work soon grew into a global outreach, headquartered in Chattanooga, Tennessee, under the name Precept Ministries International. She hosted the daily Bible teaching program Precepts for Life and became a respected voice in evangelical circles. Arthur authored numerous books and was a four-time winner of the ECPA Christian Book Award for titles such as A Marriage Without Regrets and The New Inductive Study Bible. Her ministry was rooted in a personal reawakening to faith in the early 1960s, following a divorce and a return to religious life. She and Jack also served briefly as missionaries in Mexico before founding their ministry. Arthur remained active in public faith-based initiatives into her later years and was known for her firm stances on social issues. She passed away on 2025 leaving behind a lasting legacy in Christian education and publishing.

Reviews

[Rodney Harvill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jesus had commanded His apostles to be His "witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). This study covers chapters 1 through 12 of Acts, which describe the foundation of the church and its growth in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Although the remainder of the book of Acts relates the start of church growth toward the remotest parts of the earth, there are a few events in these first chapters relating to and establishing the foundation for evangelism outside Judea and Samaria:

- The Ethiopian eunuch may well have been the first truly Gentile convert and undoubtedly would have taken the message of Christ with him to the land of Cush.
- Saul of Tarsus, a zealous young Pharisee who was on his way to Damascus to detain Jewish Christians and return them to Jerusalem for prosecution by the Jewish leaders, saw Jesus in a vision and was converted. Later known as Paul, he became as zealous an evangelist for Christ as he had previously been a persecutor of Christians.
- Cornelius was the first Gentile convert. The involvement of Peter, one of the most prominent apostles, and the outward manifestation of the Holy Spirit by Cornelius and his household established that it was the will of God that Gentiles, not just Jews and Jewish proselytes, be welcomed into the church.
- After the stoning of Stephen, a great persecution drove many Christians out of Jerusalem. Some went as far as Antioch in Syria and converted many Greeks.

Although this study is fast paced, twelve chapters of Acts in eight weeks, I found it highly profitable.