Again, greetings Alexei and here is the second part of my response to your comments on Acts 16. Please read the first part of the response in my last post to enable this post to make sense.
After the Council in Jerusalem Paul and another Christian Timothy, began to travel into the outer reaches of the European portion of the Roman Empire. Paul had a burning desire to go to Asia, but the Holy Spirit prevented him from doing so AT THAT TIME. The question is why was he prevented from going, when the mandate was to go to ALL THE WORLD?
The answer is found in verse 9 of Chapter 16. Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia begging him to come and help the macedonians. The Bible states that "After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready for Macedonia, conconcluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. "
He travels to Macedonia as instructed by the Holy Spirit and the result is that Lydia is converted in Thyatira as he travels through that city. and then after Paul exorcises a demon from a slave girl in that same city he and Silas are put in jail. whilst in jail, miracles happen which lead not only to the release of Paul and Silas, but the conversion of the jailer and his family and later throughout the following chapters, many, many others.
Now, had Paul been disobedient to the command of the Holy spirit not to go to Asia at that time, all these people would not have heard the Gospel. Now, we have said over and over, that God loves us so much, that even one individual person is as important to him as an entire nation, so each of these people who had cried out to God in their need, found Him, because of Paul's obedience.
however, that didn't stop paul's desire to go to Asia, or the intention of the Holy Spirit that the WHOLE WORLD including Asia would hear the Gospel. When Paul had finished all that was set for him to do in Macedonia, He then moved onto Asia. Now please note, this was at least two years after he was not allowed to go on the first attempt.
On arriving in Ephesus the chief port city of Asia, He immediately begins to minister to the believers there, and then in chapter 19:8-22, many respond to the Gospel. In fact, so great was the response in Ephesus, that Paul spent two years there, and the Gospel spread to the entire province of Asia. (Acts 19:10) Many gave up their occult practices, and publically burned their scrolls. One of the summary verses for the Book of Acts is found in Acts 19:20
In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power."
Alexei, please never read the verses of the Bible out of the context they were written. Your conclusions were very logical, but you missed the entire point of the verses in coming to those conclusions and the wonderful result of Paul's obedience in chapter 16-19 and the result of his burning desire to see the Asian people come to know the Lord.
I look forward to hearing more from you
blessings
Carol