Two Groups in the One Body

[James4_14]

The dispensational boundary at Acts 28 is very important to understanding.
Example...
We read in here:
***1 Tim 5:14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children…….
But here we read:
***1 Cor 7:8 I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I….. (unmarried)
And here also in Corinthians:
***1 Cor 7:38 So then he that giveth her in marriage doeth well; but he that giveth her not in marriage doeth better.

Why the difference? Keep in mind 1 Timothy is AFTER Acts 28 and Corinthians is an Acts epistle.

 

[riverrat]

James4 14: Are you saying that Paul did not preach the gospel of grace until Christ revealed it to him during his roman imprisonment? Are you saying that after his conversion on the road to Dasmascus and during his three missionary journeys that he preached the kingdom gospel?

If this is what you are saying in many colors (I do wish I was color blind) then I,for one, completely disagree with you.

After his conversion Paul preached the kingdom gospel in Damascus. He went to arabia where Christ revealed to him the gospel of grace which he then preached from that point on.

 

[James4_14]

*James4 14:* Are you saying that Paul did not preach the gospel of grace until Christ revealed it to him during his roman imprisonment?

No. I am not. The message received while imprisoned is Grace beyond our comprehension. If you will read Colossians and Ephesians you will see a message like no other in the Scriptures. We are also completely freed from works to show forth our faith. If you say we are not freed....then what works must we show forth? I am not including the fruit os the Spirit as being done away with either.
***Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
***Eph 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Are you saying that after his conversion on the road to Dasmascus and during his three missionary journeys that he preached the kingdom gospel?

He did preach the kingdom gospel.
***Acts 28:20 For this cause therefore have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you: because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.
That was the promises made to the “fathers” (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob)
pertaining to an earthly kingdom and the New Jerusalem that descends down from heaven from God (Hebrews 11). Our destination is to be manifested into the “heaven far above all” and not “raptured” just to come back down to earth with the Lord as in Thessalonians. Romans 9, 10 and 11 are for Israel as a NATION. Romans 11 is yet future for the divorce at Acts 28:28 put that prophecy on hold. Israel was “first” there but NOW the Gentiles are on an even plane with that Nation. God will turn back to them later as He has always done in the past. Even in the past “lo-ammi” (Hosea 1:9) status' they were still first. But not now. Again....I am NOT saying He has forsaken them for this reason:
***Rom 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

 

[riverrat]

James4 14: Seems to me that you have contradicted yourself.

 

[Dispy]

I believe you would agree that 1 Timothy 1:16 belongs to all believers. The problem in understanding is that all believers do not belong to the same "company" but it is assured that Christ is "all and in all".

Yes, I do believe that 1 Tim. 1:16 is to all believers.

In Acts 7 we find that the leaders of Israel rejected the Third Person of the Trinity with the stoning of Stephen. Israel, as a nation had already rejected God the Father, as Paul states in Rom. 10:1-3. The rejected God the Son when they cried "curcify Him". We know, because of this, that God gave Israel temporary slumbering eyes. Paul explains this in Rom. 11.

It is in Acts 9 that we have the conversion of Saul/Paul, and in Acts 10 (approx. AD 38) that we find God showing Peter, via a vision, that he should no longer consider "...one of another nation, common or unclean" (vs. 28). This, I do believe, where the "middle wall of partition" was broken down. Yes, Paul does write about this in Eph. 2.

Saul studied under the Jewish scholor Gamalial, and was zealous of the Law. He himself said that he was a Hebrew of the Hebrews.

After Saul's (Paul's) conversion, he first went to the Jews. Did he preach the Law, and kingdom gospel, to them? NO!!! He showed them, from OT Scriptures, that Jesus was the Christ, and they deeded to believe on Him for their salvation. He, more the any NT writers, used the OT Scriptures that Jesus was the long promised Messiah. Nowhere do I find that Paul ever "the gospel of the kingdom" that Jesus and His disciples preached.

Paul, I do believe, preached Grace. However I believe he was not given the full knowledge of the mystery until his prison epistles. He writes in 2 Cor. 12:1 "...I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord!.

Between Paul's conversion in Acts 9, and Acts 28, there was a transition period where those thins under the Law vanished, and the knowledge of Grace increased.

In all of Paul Epistles that he wrote prior to Acts 28, one ill find references to signs, miracles, wonders, tongues, and/or legal ceremonies.

In his Epistles he wrote after Acts 28, one will not find any of the above. They had vanished as Paul said they would.

 

[riverrat]

Dispy:

I enjoyed your post above (#25) but have to respectively disagree with you.

Israel rejected Christ by crucifying him. After his death, resurrection and ascension Peter and John continually offered the kingdom to Israel if only all Israel would believe that Jesus was the Christ, the kingdom gospel. Israel finally rejected this offier by the stoning of Stephen. God then hardened Israel and Israel is still hardened to this day. God then called Paul and revealed to him the gospel of grace which he was to take to the gentiles.

Eph 2 clearly states that the blood of Christ has broken the dividing wall between jew and gentile. It is not referring to Peter's vision in Acts chapter 10.

After Paul's conversion he preached the kingdom gospel (not the law) to the jews in Damascus, Acts 9:19-23. The kingdom gospel was the only gospel that Paul knew as the gospel of grace had not been revealed to him until later in Arabia where Christ revealed it to him there. After returning from Arabia Paul began to preach the gospel of grace.

1 Cor 12:1 was written before Paul's imprisonment in Rome and is therefore not referring to visions which he had in Rome.

The whole book of Acts is a transition from law to grace.