Featured Defending Biblical Dispensational Teaching. What Are Your Questions

Sometimes people get locked into a mindset from which they can never escape. They assume they have been given the right information and therefore they are asking the right questions. You must open your mind to the possibility that your foundational understanding needs to be tweaked

Before we continue will you please respond to my op. I dealt with God changing his operative principle of divine dealing with Israel away from the law of Moses after the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ in AD 30 in what Jesus said clearly and unambiguously was a fulfillment of that law. I hope you understand that the book of Acts recorded the new dispensation for both Jews and gentiles and the 13 epistles of Paul the apostle explains the history of the book of Acts. The book of Acts records history of the beginning of the church for about 35 years during it's foundational years, the apostolic era. God made the gospel of Christ efficacious to gentiles ten years after he had sent his Holy Spirit from heaven to the Jews to indwell the bodies of those who would believe the gospel of Jesus Christ giving them the life of God, whom they killed and whom God the Father raised from the dead. It was AD 40 before the first gentile was saved and it would not have mattered if Cornelius had believed the gospel or whether he did not before God sent Peter to preach the gospel, and according to Acts 14, Paul said this is when the door of faith was opened to the gentiles. No gentile could have been saved before this because God had not sent his Spirit upon us until then.

God had baptized Israel with the Holy Ghost, whose chief symbol in this context is water, and he sent him in such abundance that everyone could receive him by believing the gospel and in the name of Jesus Christ because they were as a nation and a people immersed in him. In Acts 10 God poured out the Spirit on the gentiles in the same manner and whoever believed would receive the indwelling Holy Spirit from God as a gift. This is salvation. Peter, giving his defense to the Jews in Jerusalem and answering their question why he went to the home of gentiles said as much and it is where I get my information. Read it with me.

2 And when Peter was come up to Jerusalem, they that were of the circumcision contended with him, (about going to gentiles)
3 Saying, Thou wentest in to men uncircumcised, and didst eat with them.
4 But Peter rehearsed [the matter] from the beginning, and expounded [it] by order unto them, saying,
5 I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:
6 Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
7 And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.
8 But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.
9 But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed, [that] call not thou common.
10 And this was done three times: and all were drawn up again into heaven.
11 And, behold, immediately there were three men already come unto the house where I was, sent from Caesarea unto me.
12 And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house:
13 And he shewed us how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter;
14 Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.
15 And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them (gentiles), as on us (Jews) at the beginning (beginning of the church and beginning of this (world = age).
16 Then remembered I the word of the Lord, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost.
17 Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as [he did] unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?
18 When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.

If I were of the persuasion that words do not mean what they say and I was not a dispensationlist, I would anticipate some questions when I read this text.
1) Why did Peter mention that the Holy Ghost was poured on the Jews in the beginning?
2) He was referring to ten years earlier when the Holy Ghost was poured out on the Jews, so what was it the beginning of?
3) If gentiles were being saved all along, what is unique about them being saved in Acts 10?
4) Why did the apostle Peter say that this baptism of the Holy Ghost on the gentiles was a fulfillment of the prophecy of John the Baptist?
5) Why is the Holy Ghost the gift of God?
6) Why is salvation equated by the text as having received the gift of the Holy Ghost from God?
7) How did Cornelius and his household receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and when did they receive him?

Continued in next post.

 

Now, to answer your questions.

Are there on one peop[le of God, or two peoples of God, Israel and the Church?
Israel is the people of God, but they are not children of God. They occupy the OT and have a relationship with God. They are a nation of people and servants of God.
The church of Jesus Christ is not a subject of the OT prophets and is a mystery hidden in ages past and revealed as a new entity after the resurrection Jesus Christ. It is presented as a living organism, the body of Christ and the bride that is espoused to him and is foreshadowed in an absolutely marvelous way by the story of Adam and Eve, how Adam was put to sleep by God while he took his rib and fashioned Eve from his body and then presented her to him as his bride. This is what happened at the cross when "God has made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." The soldier pierced his side with the sword and blood and water came out. The pure blood of God came out which can cleanse us of our sins and the water came out, which is symbolic of the Spirit of God, who can give us eternal life by his eternal presence in us. The life of the flesh is in the blood and the Spirit is the life of God and Jesus shed both on the cross for us as he paid the ultimate price for our sins that day.
All people who permanently possess the Spirit of God in their bodies are sons of God. This is what it means to be born again.

was the church plan B, aftre thought in mind of God, or always his primary plan?

No, but the inclusion of the gentiles into this body was a contingency based on the unbelief of the nation of Israel.
Now, I would like to prove that to the person who believes the words of scripture.
Rom 11:13 For I speak to you Gentiles,
What I am getting ready to quote is directed at gentiles as opposed to Israel, according to the text I am quoting. I keep reminding you that Paul wrote this in 58 AD. The tenses of the verbs are very important when studying the scriptures. Time elements are very important. Events relative to the time is very important. The actual words and to whom they are directed are of utmost importance. See context.

In AD 30 Jesus Christ was crucified and was buried and rose from the dead.
40 days later he ascended from earth to heaven with a promise he would come back in like manner.
10 days later God sent the Holy Spirit from heaven upon Israel with the same properties in the spiritual as rain water from heaven is in the physical. No one can live without water and those who live must drink. The rain water falls all over the earth and it falls in such abundance that no one can commercialize and deny it from others and it is always available to be consumed. It rains on the just and the unjust. It is available to all.

Re 22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Jn 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified)

Now, here is the quote to the gentiles from Romans 11;

25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
26 And so (and so means after the fullness of the gentiles be come in as demanded by the context) all Israel shall be saved (s opposed to a remnant of them as before): as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father's sakes.
29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

There is safety in believing the words.