Bible Doctrine
The 3 Most Popular Christian Myths And Misconceptions Surrounding The Second Coming Of Jesus Christ
It is excellent to hand out gospel tracts, and to plead with lost souls to get saved. In fact, it is the work the Lord Jesus has charged us with in the time we have left. But if you think that any of that is going to speed up the Rapture, Second Coming, or make the Lord come sooner, or ‘bring in the kingdom’, it’s not.
If you wanted to compare the so-called evangelicals with Bible believers in terms of working out, the Bible believers would be the original Gold’s Gym in California, and the evangelicals would be your average Planet Fitness with their ‘Judgement-Free Zone’.
“I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please. The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.” Song Of Solomon 2:7,8 (KJV)
It seems that everywhere I look lately, be it online or something I overhear in conversations on the streets, that so many people are repeating things they ‘know to be true’ about the return of Jesus Christ that simply are are not true at all, according to the Bible.
An article in the UK Guardian today really got my blood boiling. In it, they were attempting to say that the evangelical community in America was experiencing ‘end times fatigue’ because events long prophesied haven’t come to pass so far. This is what they said:
This “post-evangelical” generation was raised on a steady diet of low-budget movies and pulp novels that injected a potent fear of the coming Rapture, a dynamic most eloquently described by the late Billy Graham. “I pick up the Bible in one hand,” he said, “and I pick up the newspaper in the other. And I read almost the same words in the newspaper as I read in the Bible. It’s being fulfilled every day round about us.” In the 1990s, Christopher Stroop was one such evangelical. He has now abandoned his faith and leads a social media campaign seeking to galvanize “exvangelicals” with hashtags like #emptythepews and #raptureanxiety. He said he had “definitely seen a lot of ex-evangelicals talking about being triggered by the Jerusalem news”. source
Man oh man, what a load of hooey that is. Why is it that news outlets like the Guardian and others never, and I mean never, will interview a Bible believer about the end times and instead choose to post the ridiculous views of “ex-Christians” who have “abandoned their faith” because the Rapture didn’t happen. Complete and utter nonsense. If you wanted to compare the so-called evangelicals with Bible believers in terms of working out, the Bible believers would be the original Gold’s Gym in California, and the evangelicals would be your average Planet Fitness with their ‘Judgement-Free Zone‘. I mean, really. Any “christian” who abandoned their faith in Jesus Christ because the “rapture didn’t happen” was quite likely never saved in the first place.
If You’re Left Behind After The Rapture Of The Church, You May Never Get Another Chance To Get Saved
So here are a few easy-to-digest bullets points that I hope will go a long way towards correcting some of the many unbiblical assertions being made today about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and at the same time boost your faith in God’s preserved word as found in the King James Bible.
- THE RAPTURE IS NEITHER THE SECOND COMING OR END OF THE WORLD: In various places in the Bible, we read about the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church that takes places just before the start of the time of Jacob’s trouble. “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” Revelation 4:1 (KJV). We know that it cannot be the ‘end of the world’ because multiple events over a 1,007 year period take place right afterwards. And we also know that it is not the Second Coming of Jesus Christ because in the Rapture of the Church, Jesus only comes back as far as the clouds and pulls the born again believers up to Him. “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (KJV). At the Second Coming, Jesus returns to rule and reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years, quite different from the Rapture of the church. Things that are different are not the same.
- YOU ARE NOT ‘BRINGING IN THE KINGDOM’: The Kingdom of Heaven in the Bible is a literal, physical and visible earthly kingdom over which Jesus Christ will rule as King for a thousand years, and His Throne will be in Jerusalem. This kingdom cannot and will not be established on the earth until Jesus and His army of redeemed saints on white horses return at the Second Coming at the end of the time of Jacob’s trouble, at the Battle of Armageddon. We read about this in Revelation 19. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Revelation 19:11-16 (KJV). The Kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom that everyone who is saved during the last 2,000 years of the Church Age is automatically put into the moment they became born again. You don’t “bring in” the kingdom of God, you are brought into it when you get saved. Huge difference! So when I hear Christians tell me that they are ‘working to bring in the kingdom’, I always ask them “which one”? Biblically, there is no work any Christian can do to bring in either kingdom, that is all the Lord’s doing, and it requires exactly nothing from us to make either one a reality. “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 (KJV)
- JESUS WILL NOT COME BACK WHEN THE ‘LAST PERSON’ GETS SAVED: Again, this is something I hear just about everyday in one form or another, and it is 100% not true. Many Christians will tell me that the reason why they hand out gospel tracts and witness is so that Jesus will come back sooner. Here is the verse they claim for doing that. “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matthew 24:14 (KJV). Honestly, if that’s why you witness, then stop. That is a terrible reason to witness to people. The only reason why a Christian should witness to lost people is because Hell is real, and you don’t want them going there, and Jesus will save them from that fate if they get saved. There is no other reason to witness to lost people. The ‘proof-text’ they use from Matthew 24 is not talking about the Church Age, it is talking about how it will be at the end of the time of Jacob’s trouble, otherwise known as the Great Tribulation. In that time you will have the Two Witnesses preaching for 3.5 years from Jerusalem, and you will have the 144,000 sealed servants of the Living God doing their thing as well. At the end of all those things after the last 3.5 years, then the end will come. Not the end of the world, but the end of the time of Jacob’s’ trouble. These are correct conclusion we come to when we ‘rightly divide’ the scriptures as Paul tells us to do, and make a clear delineation between the Church Age for born again Christians which we are in now and will end at the Rapture, and the coming time of Jacob’s trouble for the Tribulation Saints.
Bible prophecy is great and very compelling, in fact, it’s my second favorite thing in the Bible. But the main thing that thrills my soul like nothing else is reading about The One who loved me so much that He shed His own blood on the cross as Calvary, was died and buried, and on the third day rose again to prove He had power over death and Hell.
“Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:” 1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (KJV)\
The Bible Believers Guide To Understanding The Differences Between The Rapture And The Second Coming
How well I remember my own personal “midnight cry” out to the Lord to save me, on my knees in my room at midnight with my King James Bible opened to John 3:16, now over 27 years ago. I asked Him to save me, and He did. Full and complete pardon on the spot, no waiting necessary. What Jesus did for me on that blessed evening He will do for any and all people who ask Him.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (KJV)
I scan the eastern sky every night in the fervent hope that today will be the day that Jesus calls us up to be with Him in the clouds. This is what Paul calls the ‘blessed hope’ of all born again believers in Jesus Christ, the Pretribulation Rapture of the Church. Or as we say around here at NTEB, Flight #777 on Titus213 Airlines!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJV)
But my love for Jesus Christ is not predicated on Him coming to get us according to my timetable. I love Him because He first loved me and then He saved me from Hell! I love Him for who He is, and for what He has already done for me, everything and anything else like the Rapture and other fulfillment of Bible prophecy is simply gravy on the roast beef. If it comes in my lifetime, which I believe wholeheartedly it will, then great! But if not, then that’s great too because one way or the other I am headed for Heaven and that’s something that even the Devil can’t prevent from happening.
It is excellent to be a strong Christian witness, to hand out gospel tracts, and to plead with lost souls to get saved. In fact, it is the work the Lord has charged us with in the time we have from the day we got saved to the day we leave this world through death or rapture. But if you think that any of that is going to speed up the Rapture, make the Lord come sooner, or ‘bring in the kingdom’ which we have already shown is impossible, then please pull over and park for awhile and recheck your motivations.
I and my team have been preaching on the streets for the past 6 years, we preached this afternoon from 12-2:00 PM . Why on earth would I choose to give up the absolute best part of every Saturday afternoon to stand in the hot Florida heat to tell people on vacation about Jesus? It’s quite simple, actually, and it has nothing to do with the Rapture or the end times.
Because since Jesus saved me, I know that Hell is real and I don’t want anyone going there. That’s why I witness, that’s why I hand out tracts, and that’s why I preach. And that’s why news outlets like the UK Guardian will never want to interview me about the ‘end times’, because they don’t want the truth from people who actually believe the Bible.
Brethren, the war is real, the battle hot, and the time is short…to the FIGHT!
Bible Doctrine
The Amazing Way That The Letter ‘X’ Is Used In Your King James Bible As It Relates To The Antichrist And His Soon-Coming, Short-Lived 7-Year Kingdom
Let’s do a quick King James Bible study on the many appearances and inferences of the letter ‘x’ in relation to the Antichrist and his coming kingdom
On our Podcast this afternoon, we had a wonderful time going through our King James Bibles to discover some peculiar anomalies with the letter ‘x’ and verses related to the coming Antichrist and his short-lived, 7-year kingdom. It was so well received that I thought a quick follow-up on the topic was in order. Enjoy!
“And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” Luke 4:5-7 (KJB)
The main theme of your Bible is the coming King, Jesus Christ, and the kingdom that will soon be given to Him at the Second Advent. Jesus is the ‘volume of the Book’ from Genesis 1 to the end of Revelation 22. But before that can take place, the Devil is going to get a throne for 7 short years, and will try his best to hold onto it. When we look closely at the following passages, some pretty weird things present themselves to us regarding words that either end or begin with the letter ‘x’. Please note the following:
- Rex – King, this is Antichrist the counterfeit king, a Xerox copy. “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” Revelation 6:2 (KJB). The Latin word for king is ‘rex’, and that’s exactly what the Antichrist is, a king, but with a catch. He’s not the actual Messiah, he’s a counterfeit, kind of like when you make a copy of something with a copying machine like, say, the industry-standard and iconic Xerox.
- Hex – a curse or magic spell. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:” Revelation 13:16 (KJB). Now this counterfeit king, let’s call him Mr. Xerox, brings something when he arrives, and we call that a ‘hex’. It is something that curses the one who receives it, please see Revelation 14:9-11 (KJB). The Bible calls this ‘hex’ the Mark of the Beast.
- Pox – pus-filled, a pustule, blister, ulcer or vesicle. “And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.” Revelation 16:2 (KJB). So King Xerox gives out his hex and what does that produce? It produces a pox in the bodies of the people who received. Is it just me or is there a preponderance of the letter ‘x’? There is, and it gets better (worse?).
- χάραγμα cháragma – the Mark. “And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16,17 (KJB). I rarely go to the Greek, but today I did and what did I see? The Greek word for ‘mark’, as in the Mark of the Beast, and it’s χάραγμα, or cháragma in English. Do you notice how the Greek word begins with the letter ‘x’? Odd.
- χξϛ chx stigma – 666. “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” Revelation 13:18 (KJB). Here we have the words 600, 60 and 6 written out in Greek as χξϛ, or chx stigma in English. Did you notice what the first letter of that was? Yep, it’s an ‘x’. Amazing.
In math and science, ‘X’ stands for an unknown quantity, perhaps you recall ‘solving for x’ in your high school algebra classes. I cannot tell you the name of the coming Antichrist, no one can, he is truly Mr. X, but maybe his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness. From an end times perspective, seeing a large amounts of x’s should be setting off your prophetical ‘red flags’, and in 2023 we have buckets of them. Elon Musk just rebranded Twitter as X, and his opening goal is to take over a minimum of 50% of the global financial system. That’s a lot of ‘buying and selling’, don’t you think? Why don’t you mark that down for later? In the meantime, go listen to today’s Podcast on this very subject.
ORDER RUCKMAN’S BOOK ‘THE MARK OF THE BEAST’
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
Please continue to pray for us, and for wisdom for me especially, as we continue taking steps to print the NTEB branded King James Bible for our free Bible and Bibles Behind Bars program. It is exciting and intimidating at the same time. If the Lord has prospered your financially, we ask you to donate to help us continue to send out free Bibles at this level, and even higher than we are at the moment. It takes a lot of prayer, and a lot of resources to do all this. Praise the Lord we are doing it, all of us together, labouring in the Lord’s harvest field. TO THE FIGHT!!!
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
Bible Doctrine
There Is No Such Thing As ‘Limited Atonement’ In Your King James Bible, Jesus Christ Paid For The Sins Of The Goats Just As Much As For The Sheep
No such thing as a limited atonement in the Bible as far as what Jesus did on the cross is concerned, the atonement God provided becomes self-limiting when it’s refused by a sinner who doesn’t want it.
John Calvin was a philosopher who created a system of biblical interpretation that ‘sounds good’ when you first hear it, but if you have any Bible knowledge at all, it falls apart pretty quickly. The theology of Calvinism has been immortalized in the acronym TULIP, which states the five essential doctrines of total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. With all that in mind, let’s take a look at limited atonement, shall we?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 (KJB)
I went to a site supporting Calvinism and found this definition of limited atonement: The doctrine of limited atonement—the L in TULIP—teaches that Christ effectively redeems from every people “only those who were chosen from eternity to salvation” (Canons of Dort, II.8). As Ursinus explains in his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Christ’s death was for everyone “as it respects the sufficiency of satisfaction which he made, but not as it respects the application thereof.” In other words, the death of Christ was sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world, but it was God’s will that it should effectively redeem those and only those who were chosen from eternity and given to Christ by the Father. Particular redemption is often considered a more favorable term, because the point of the doctrine is not to limit the mercy of God, but to make clear that Jesus did not die in the place of every sinner on the earth, but for his particular people. source
So that’s the premise of limited atonement, that Jesus on the cross only paid the sin debt of the sheep who would believe, but no payment for the goats who rejected Him. Does that sound right to you? Sure doesn’t sound right to me, and your King James Bible is in agreement as well. Jesus on the cross paid for the sins of the whole world, everyone. He paid for the sins of Adolf Hitler, Buddha and the Ayatollah Khomeini just as much as He paid for the sins of Jim Elliot, DL Moody and Robert Sheffey.
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.” 1 Timothy 2:3-6 (KJB)
Now John Calvin and John MacArthur teach that the “all men” is only referring to the elect, and not to ‘all men’ even though is says all men. But as you can clearly see, three times in the passage Paul is telling us that Jesus paid for the sins of all men. What would settle this debate, would be if we could find a verse showing that the Lord Jesus bought and paid for the sins of the people who rejected Him and who didn’t want His payment. Does such a verse exist? Yep, sure does.
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.” 2 Peter 2:1 (KJB)
Peter shows us a remarkable truth, that Jesus bought and paid for the sins of the people who rejected Him, who died in their sins as the entire chapter shows us, and went to Hell despite having their sins paid for. Wait a minute! If their sins were ‘bought and paid for’, how did they wind up in Hell? That’s a great question, it’s such a good question in fact that John MacArthur and all his many minions are unable to answer it. Your King James Bible doesn’t hesitate for even a nano second to answer it.
“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:22,23 (KJB)
“That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:12-14 (KJB)
Jesus died on the cross, shed God’s blood, and made a payment for the sins of the whole world. When a sinner hears the gospel, receives it and believes it, they are then ‘sealed unto the day of redemption’ and placed into the body of Christ, which the Bible says is the Church. Do you see what just happened there? Don’t miss it! A sinner is saved when they believe the gospel and then put into the body of Christ. How is that possible? Because Jesus made their payment on the cross. A payment for who? For all sinners. What happens to the sinners who hear the gospel and refuse it? They are not put into the body of Christ, they remain unsaved, die in their sins and spend eternity in Hell. So who are the elect? Glad you asked.
“Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” 1 Peter 1:2 (KJB)
“Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.” Romans 8:33 (KJB)
The elect are not a pre-determined group of people, meaning God did not preselect some to be saved and some to be lost, that’s not Bible doctrine. The elect in the Church Age are sinners who heard the gospel, believed it and became born again. Can anyone become part of the elect? Absolutely, happens all the time. In just the past few weeks, Amber, Shaun and Patricia prayed to get saved after considering the gospel for a period of time. Those 3 souls are part of the newly-elected body of Christ. But what about predestination, you cry?!? Glad you asked.
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” Romans 8:29,30 (KJB)
Look carefully at those verses from Romans 8 I just gave you, what does it say? It says that God 1). foreknew who would believe the gospel and become born again, no question about it, God is omniscient. Now what did He predestinate those souls to do? God predetermined what would happen to all those souls who trusted in Him, the verse does not say He predetermined who those souls would be. This is where MacArthur, Sproul and even John Calvin hit the wall and crashed. An understanding of 6th grade English shows you that quite clearly.
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9 (KJB)
God foreknew who would receive the gospel, and predetermined what would happen to them after they got saved. All mapped out ahead of time. But if you cannot understand basic English, and know the difference between the subject and the object, then you will come to a wrong conclusion every time. No such thing as a limited atonement in the Bible as far as what Jesus did on the cross is concerned, the atonement God provided becomes self-limiting when it’s refused by a sinner who doesn’t want it.
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
- HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page
Please continue to pray for us, and for wisdom for me especially, as we continue taking steps to print the NTEB branded King James Bible for our free Bible and Bibles Behind Bars program. It is exciting and intimidating at the same time. If the Lord has prospered your financially, we ask you to donate to help us continue to send out free Bibles at this level, and even higher than we are at the moment. It takes a lot of prayer, and a lot of resources to do all this. Praise the Lord we are doing it, all of us together, labouring in the Lord’s harvest field. TO THE FIGHT!!!
When you contribute to this fundraising effort, you are helping us to do what the Lord called us to do. The money you send in goes primarily to the overall daily operations of this site. When people ask for Bibles, we send them out at no charge. When people write in and say how much they would like gospel tracts but cannot afford them, we send them a box at no cost to them for either the tracts or the shipping, no matter where they are in the world. We have a Gospel Billboard program. We are now broadcasting Bible studies, Podcasts and a Sunday Service 5 times a week, thanks to your generous donations. All this is possible because YOU pray for us, YOU support us, and YOU give so we can continue growing.
But whatever you do, don’t do nothing. Time is short and we need your help right now. The Lord has given us an open door with a tremendous ‘course’ for us to fulfill that will create an excellent experience at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Please pray for our efforts, and if the Lord leads you to donate, be as generous as possible. The war is REAL, the battle HOT and the time is SHORT…TO THE FIGHT!!!
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
“Thank you very much!” – Geoffrey, editor-in-chief, NTEB
Bible Doctrine
Contrary To What The Hyper-Dispensationalists Tell You, The Body Of Christ Began At The Cross And Not Somewhere In The Book Of Acts, And It’s Before Paul
The body of Christ started the same time the Church started, on the cross at Calvary where Jesus made a payment for sin in God’s shed blood.
Nothing like a King James Bible to clear up false teaching, and today we take a look at when the body of Christ, and the Church, actually began. The hyper-dispensationalists will try and tell you that it started in Acts with the commission of Paul, and nothing could be further from the truth. Paul himself tells you in Romans 16:7 that there were many people in the body of Christ before he was. In fact, the body of Christ doesn’t begin anywhere in the book of Acts, it begins on the cross at Calvary.
“And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:” Ephesians 2:16 (KJB)
What was Jesus doing on the cross? Lots of things. First of all, Jesus went to the cross to make a payment for sin, and that payment is the shed blood of God as we see in Acts 20:28. That payment is the thing that makes reconciliation between lost sinners and a holy and righteous God possible. Heretics like John MacArthur and the ‘reformed’ crowd will try and talk you out of it, but don’t you let them.
“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” Ephesians 1:7 (KJB)
“But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” Ephesians 2:13 (KJB)
Secondly, Jesus shed blood on the cross established something on this earth the bible calls the body of Christ. What is the body of Christ? It is Jew and Gentile come together by faith in Jesus Christ and His work on the cross, and it is called the church, the called out assembly. On the day of Pentecost, this assembly, the Church, was placed into the body of Christ where it will remain for all eternity. Everyone who becomes born again by saving faith in what Jesus did on the cross, and receives that payment made in God’s blood, is placed into the body of Christ through the Church.
“And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:22,23 (KJB)
By the time Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus, the Church is well established and made up exclusively of Jews and Jewish proselytes. But when the Holy Ghost is offering them the Kingdom of Heaven in Acts 7, all they have to do is believe and repent at the preaching of Stephen, they instead murder him, an act which simultaneously put the Kingdom of Heaven on a 2,000 year pause, and ushered in what we call the dispensation of the Church Age. From this point on, Jews will be side-by-side with Gentiles in a mystery called the body of Christ which Jesus will task Paul with revealing. It didn’t start with Paul, but the knowledge of it comes through Paul by the Spirit. It began on the cross at Calvary.
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.” Ephesians 3:1-7 (KJB)
Paul was given the job of revealing the mystery of the body of Christ, but it did not start with him as you can obviously see. The hyper-dispensationalists get it wrong, as they usually do, because they don’t understand what the ‘rightly dividing’ of 2 Timothy 2:15 actually is. True biblical rightly dividing is not a hammer to smash things with in large pieces, as evidenced in the ‘Romans to Philemon!!’ battle cry of the hypers. No, rightly dividing is done on a verse-by-verse-basis anywhere in the Bible, comparing what you read, in the context that you find it, to what God has written through the apostle Paul.
Now The End Begins is your front line defense against the rising tide of darkness in the last Days before the Rapture of the Church
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“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” Titus 2:13 (KJB)
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