Hi Dan:
Some Bible teachers or commentators, tell us about a transition period. Most who will NOT agree with me are Covenant theology OR Acts 2 believers.
First of all, the fact that other CF.com members agree or disagree with you has very little to do with anything. Your interpretation ‘is’ supported by God’s Living Word ‘or’ it simply is not. Period. Our interpretations of ‘
The Truth’ says
exactly what God says ‘and’ without creating a single contradiction. I have some idea of what you are talking about in referencing a
‘transition period,’ but the typical CF.com member and reader might not understand what the heck you are even talking about. :0) The ‘transition’ I think you are referring to is the
‘Dispensational Shift’ from this diagram:
The first transition is created by John the Baptist (Elijah), as the
“Prophets and the Law prophesied until John” (
Matt. 11:13) and God began to fulfill His promises to
Israel ONLY (
Matt. 15:24) by offering the
“Gospel of the Kingdom” (
Matt. 4:23, 9:35) shaded in blue. Peter’s
Early Rains (James 5:7)
Kingdom ‘Bride’ (
Jn 3:29) is then
‘cut off’ (Rev. 20:4) with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD, which eliminated the possibility of keeping
the whole law (
James 2:10). God raised Paul up (conversion = Acts 9:15-16) to give him a brand new
‘gospel I preach among the Gentiles’ (
Gal. 2:2) through
“a revelation of Jesus Christ” (
Gal. 1:11-12) seeing the Dispensational Shift from Peter’s Kingdom
‘Bride’ to Paul’s Mystery
“Body of Christ” (
Eph. 4:12) still very much in the world today with the
“Dispensation of God’s Grace” (
Eph. 3:2) shaded in red. The next transition will take place at our Rapture (
1Thes. 4:15-17), when the Holy Spirit baton will be passed back to Elijah returning to
restore ‘all things’ (
Matt. 17:10-11) as the
‘prophet’ of
Acts 3:22-23 to include the
‘tabernacle of David/Adam.’ Acts 15:16-18 =
advanced diagram.
1) Some really see where some of these transitions ARE.
Yes. Some of us are very familiar with the different dispensations and can identify dispensational shifts using Scripture and many diagrams. :0)
2) Some say that Acts 2:1-16 is pivotal because the Holy Spirit was given to them to speak in tongues, forgetting that it was prophesied in Joel and they should have known this and Christians refuse to believe it that it was prophecy and say that the Body of Christ began here and call them selves Acts 2.
The Gospel of the Kingdom is preached in
three separate ministries of the
Father (
John the Baptist),
Son (
Christ Himself) and the
Holy Spirit beginning on the
Day of Pentecost shown here:
John the Baptist’s ministry (prophet of the Most High = Luke 1:76-78) is shown in
golden yellow (spirit witness), while Christ’s earthly ministry is shown in
red ‘and’ the Holy Spirit’s ministry preaching the
“Gospel of the Kingdom” began on the
Day of Pentecost shown in
blue. Note that the Dispensational Shift ‘downward’ for the
Kingdom ‘Bride’ actually begins with the stoning of Steven (Acts 7) where Paul comes into the picture just prior to his conversion in Acts 9. The fact is that the Day of Pentecost has
NOTHING whatsoever to do with our mystery
‘Body of Christ’ (
Church #2 here) that began with Paul’s conversion as the
‘first’ (protos =
1Tim. 1:15-16) member of
Christ’s Body to be baptized into
Christ Himself for becoming an
active participant in
His death (
Gal. 2:20),
burial (
Rom. 6:3-4)
in the tomb and glorious
resurrection (
Col. 3:1-3) to be
seated with Christ IN the heavenly places that are IN Christ Jesus.
Eph. 2:6. Peter’s Kingdom
“Bride” obeying the
Gospel of the Kingdom does NOT place anyone into Christ ‘and’ imparts
“Christ IN YOU” (
Col. 1:27) in NOBODY. We are currently living within the
2000 Year Mystery Time (in red again) that
NONE of the OT Prophets were given to see, but they see very clearly into the upcoming
1000 Year Day of the Lord (
lower right = in
blue again).
3) They can not be called Dispensationalists or mid-Acts.
Unfortunately, the Dispensationalism Denominations include real members of
Christ’s BODY (1Cor. 12:27 = like us)
and many pretenders playing as
‘servants of righteousness’ serving their
‘angel of light’ (
2Cor. 11:14-15) having
no idea about what they are even doing under the power of the
‘deluding influence’ forcing them to
‘believe what is false.’ 2Thes. 2:11. They can call themselves Dispy’s or anything else that comes to mind . . . :0)
4) Another transition post is in Acts 7:51-60. Here Israel is called stiffnecked like those today.
You are talking about the account of Steven (name means
‘crown’)
‘full of the Holy Spirit’ (
Acts 6:5, 7:55) and stoned to death by Israel’s own hands!! This does not mark
the ‘transition,’ but represents the beginning of the third and final
‘rejection’ of the Gospel of the Kingdom recognized by Paul as Israel’s
‘transgression’ (
Romans 11:11). The actual Dispensational Shift will take place later in
70 AD, when God executes
His judgment (after
40 years from 30 AD) by destroying Jerusalem and the Temple. This marks the time that the Kingdom
Bride began to
‘decrease’ in the same way that the Holy Spirit went from John the Baptist to Christ (
Matt. 3:15-16) and John began to
‘decrease.’ John 3:30. Therefore, the Steven account is just one of many events leading up to the coming ‘transition’ or Dispensational Shift.
5) And most miss the importance of Act 9 and don't understand his ministry in Acts 9: 15 where his ministry is DUAL , to the Gentiles and kings and to the Children of Israel. If you don't understand this truth you will NEVER understand the book of Acts.
We agree 100 percent. :0) The Book of Acts is the Transitional First Veil (
diagram) standing between the
13 Kingdom Books (Court of Scripture) and the
13 Pauline Epistles (Holy Place of Scripture). Jesus Christ came in
‘water and blood’ (
1Jn 5:6) meaning He came in
“Kingdom” (Peter’s Kingdom Bride) and
“Grace” (Paul’s Mystery Body of Christ), but most people have no idea about what these concepts even mean. :0) The Book of Acts contains doctrinal components of
Peter’s Kingdom Dispensation ‘and’
Paul’s Mystery “Dispensation of God’s Grace” described in
Acts 20:24-27 as
‘two’ parts of the
'whole purpose of God.' The typical CF.com member and reader simply tosses everything into a single pot to extract only those things tasty to their particular form of Denominationalism without ever raising their head above the crowd for
‘rightly dividing’ (2Tim. 2:15) anything. Dan is a younger member of Christ’s Body who ‘can’ see some of these differences ‘and’ he feels a bit frustrated because
MANY cannot see
‘our gospel’ (
2Cor. 4:3-4) as something totally new.
6) After his salvation, Paul receives very intense training from the risen Christ Himself Gal 1:11-24.
We Agree. Paul refers to these lessons as
‘visions and revelations of the Lord.’ 2Corinthians 12:1. Paul receives
‘our gospel’ (
#2 here) through a
‘revelation of Jesus Christ’ (Gal. 1:11-12) and even submits the
‘gospel I preach among the Gentiles’ (Gal. 2:2) to
this same Peter and John who preached the
“Gospel of the Kingdom” from the very beginning, but
MANY people running around this place want to believe everyone is preaching
‘their’ version of a ‘one gospel’ that has no basis in Biblical reality whatsoever. Our Gospel is
VEILED to those who are PERISHING (2Cor. 4:3-4) and those among us who
‘do’ know the difference must face the fact that MANY are distorting this
‘wisdom given him’ (Paul) to
“their own destruction.” 2Peter 3:14-16.
7) Pages could be said about the transition. And the verse of scripture that describe it is found in 1 Cor 13: 8-13
The ‘sign gifts’ are connected directly to the
“Gospel of the Kingdom” (Gospel #1) that Peter is preaching in Acts 2, according to Christ’s Great Commission commands of
Mark 16:15-16. The ‘disciples’ in the Corinthian congregation said to be
“of Apollos” and
“of Cephas” (
Gal. 1) are the people who
‘did’ have the sign gifts, but the members of
“Christ’s BODY” (like us) only received a
pledge (earnest = down payment) of their inheritance (
Eph. 1:13-14), until we receive the remainder on the ‘day of redemption’ (
Eph. 4:30). The ‘transition’ you are talking about here (1Cor. 13) is about
the gifts of prophecy, knowledge and tongues continuing in Paul’s day, BUT they
‘ceased’ by the time the
‘perfect’ came in the form of the complete Word of God (the Scriptures = 2Tim. 3:16-17).
[Continued]
