Philippi and Fort Worth: The Same Battle Across the Centuries
By Elizabeth Prata
The scene: Acts 16:19-40. Paul and Silas are preaching in Philippi. A demon possessed slave girl was following them and making pronouncements positive to them, but the source of course was all wrong. So Paul cast out the demon from the girl. The slave girl’s owner became angry that his source of income was gone, so he accused them of advocating for unfamiliar customs and causing chaos and uproar. The result was the duo were arrested, beaten without a conviction, and put into jail- and in stocks no less.
The July 11 entry in the John MacArthur Daily Bible explains the situation from a historical perspective:
It was true that Roman citizens were not to engage in any foreign religion that had not been sanctioned by the state. But it was a false charge that they were creating chaos. Every Roman colony had two magistrates serving as judges. In this case, they did not uphold Roman justice: They did not investigate the charges, conduct a proper hearing, or give Paul and Silas the chance to defend themselves. Instead, the magistrates had them beaten with rods. This was an illegal punishment since they had not been convicted of any crime. The officers (v. 35) under the command of the magistrates administered the beating with rods tied together in a bundle. Paul received the same punishment on two other occasions (2Co 11:25).
False charges, abuse of authority, injustice done because it was done in anger.
As Paul and Silas sang in prison, an earthquake came and the prison walls fell and the chains of all the prisoners were opened. Obviously, a violent earthquake can’t loosen chain locks while the people attached to them remain unhurt and untouched. It’s a divine intervention.
To continue the JMac note:
Later, when Paul told them they were “Romans” (v. 37), it was a real problem. To inflict corporal punishment on a Roman citizen was a serious crime and made more so since they did not receive a trial. As a result, the magistrates faced the possibility of being removed from office and having Philippi’s privileges as a Roman colony revoked. John MacArthur Daily Bible, July 11
OOPS!
It was interesting that I read this section of Acts on the day I was observing another scenario occurring in today’s day. Two police officers in Fort Worth TX harassed a Christian street preacher at a Pride Festival this past June. They warned the Christian street preacher he could be ticketed for his speech if it offended others. This is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. It is also an abuse of authority as a law enforcer. One of the preachers actually was ticketed, for being too loud with a bullhorn. The officer was also noted to have done the same in a prior encounter in June 2025 at a similar Pride event where she stopped Christians from attending the event, while again warning for citations about offensive speech.
The news organization LibsofTikTok brought the issue forward and put pressure on the Ft. Worth Police Department to handle this appropriately. In response the Police Department official social media account on Twitter…banned LibsofTikTok. This also is a violation of the First Amendment of free speech. A government entity cannot ban citizens from access to their facilities or social media accounts, even if they are critics, due to the First Amendment protection of free speech.
Fort Worth, TX noise ordinances do restrict amplifiers and bullhorns. Those items are banned entirely with just a couple of exceptions: Noise ordinance from Ft. Worth, “Amplifiers in Public ROW and on City Property. The use of a bullhorn, loudspeaker, or other amplification is prohibited in the public right-of-way and on City of Fort Worth property.”
The only exceptions are the police using one in an emergency, or a citizen who had obtained an event permit.
So like Paul and Silas technically being in the wrong by promoting a religion not authorized by Rome, they were unjustly accused of causing chaos. Similarly, the street preachers were technically in the wrong if they used a bullhorn on a right of way or on City property without a permit, (and I believe they did not possess a permit), but the officer was wrong to warn them of citations for their speech.
In reading about the Paul-Silas situation from the Bible, and reading the ongoing news about the struggle for free (Christian) speech in Fort Worth, I’m struck by not only the similarity but the lengths to which people who oppose the Lord will go.
I mean, yes, we know this in our heads because we read our Bibles. We are told this will happen-
“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well; if they followed My word, they will follow yours also. But all these things they will do to you on account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.” (John 15:18-21)
We know it in our head, but then our hearts become heavy when we see it played out again and again. Certainly Christians in the 10/40 window of the globe’s unreached areas know the hard persecution that can come, often persecution to the death. Here in the US other kinds of troubles pop up similar to the Paul-Silas issue of false accusations, abuse of power, and arrests.
These things happen because they hate the Light. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, so that his deeds will not be exposed,” says John 3:20.
I am grateful for street preachers who promote the Gospel in public and call sinners to repentance. We are familiar with abuses of authority in the Bible. The Pharisees/Sadducees/Scribes killed Jesus unjustly. Nero and other Roman Emperors did the same to the brethren. We should not be surprised when softer persecutions occur even in a free country like ours. Sinners everywhere hate the light and will do what they can to squelch it.
As a side note, many cities do ban amplification devices on their public ways. In my opinion, cities with ordinances banning certain kinds of amplification offer a legitimate way they can arrest someone with whose speech they do not agree. Street preachers could start learning how to amplify their own voices like Whitfield or Spurgeon, whose voices carried over the heads of thousands of listeners assembled, in order to remove any means of squelching the voice of street preachers any abusive powers may try to exploit.
What a relief to know the Light of Jesus will remain forever, until the whole world is filled with His glory!
