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

• HOW TO DONATE: Click here to view our WayGiver Funding page

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.

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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

The beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 comprise the constitution of the coming Millennial Kingdom of King Jesus.

You can take any part of the Bible, Old or New Testament, and find some kind of a spiritual application you can make from it. But when it comes to doctrinal teachings, something that can be applied to born again Christians who are part of the Body of Christ, living in the Church Age, this is where Paul’s command in 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJB) to ‘rightly divide’ the scripture is so very important. The Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount are one of those great passages that have much spiritual benefit to souls living in the Church Age, but cannot be applied doctrinally as you will soon see.

“And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,” Matthew 5:1,2 (KJB)

At His First Advent, Jesus came to make a payment on the cross, as the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. At His Second Advent, He returns as KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS with His Body the Church riding on white horses. This begins a dispensation known as the Millennial Reign of Jesus Christ, and as the name tells you, lasts for a 1,000-year period of time. It is then and there where the Kingdom of Heaven is established on the earth, finally, a literal, visible kingdom in Israel with Jesus on the throne in Jerusalem.

“He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke 1:32,33 (KJB)

The blessings mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount constitute what life will be like during that time period, it is a constitution of that kingdom as prophesied in the Old Testament. It is not doctrine for Church Age believers, but a wonderful promise of what is to come when King Jesus is ruling in perfect righteousness.

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Beatitude #1

• “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:3 (KJB)
• “For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” Isaiah 66:2 (KJB)

This first beatitude, or blessing, is for the ‘poor in spirit’, they are promised the Kingdom of Heaven which is the literal, visible and physical restored Israel where King Jesus will rule from the throne of David. In Acts 1:6, the Jewish apostles were looking for that Kingdom, and wanted to know when they might expect to receive it. Jesus told them to “wait”, and in 7 short chapters that wait was over, the Jews blew it, and the Church Age under the leadership of the arch-enemy Paul was ushered in. At the Second Advent, the Jews who are ‘poor in spirit’ after 7 years of Antichrist will finally get that kingdom.

Beatitude #2

• “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” Matthew 5:4 (KJB)
• “To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;” Isaiah 61:2 (KJB)

The first two verses of Isaiah 61 are some of the greatest verses anywhere in the Bible to show rightly dividing, giving you both Advents of Jesus Christ and using a comma after the word LORD to show the 2,000 period of the Church Age. Compare to Luke 4:18-21 and you will see what I mean. The Jews and Tribulation Saints that make it through that mess will indeed be mourning, knowing they missed the Rapture because of their rejection of the gospel of the grace of God. King Jesus will return and comfort them while at the same time stomping His enemies.

Beatitude #3

• “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5 (KJB)
• “When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.” Psalm 76:9 (KJB)

In this third beatitude, Jesus is talking about the meek inheriting the earth. Is that what happens to the meek in 2023? Nope. In our day, the all-too trusting meek lose their life savings in email scams, get passed over for promotion on the job, and basically get the short end of the stick the majority of the time. Not so when King Jesus is on the throne! Psalm 76 shows you the Lord rising up to return to settle accounts, in that day the meek who trusted in Him wind up on top. You will also note that beautiful, little word ‘Selah’, denoting it takes place after the Rapture and during the time of Jacob’s trouble.

Beatitude #4

• “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6 (KJB)
• “Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” Psalm 96:13 (KJB)

During the time of Jacob’s trouble, evil is ruling as the whole thing is handed over to Satan for a 7-year period, and true righteousness is quite hard to find. People in this time will be crying out for the Lord to step in and fix things, and He will but it won’t be till the Second Advent when He comes to judge the earth. See Revelation 6:9-11 for more context.

Beatitude #5

• “Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7 (KJB)
• “With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright;” Psalm 18:25 (KJB)

In the Millennium, it will be a combination of faith plus works, if you want mercy you have to show mercy. In the time of Jacob’s trouble, showing people mercy will likely not have mercy returned unto them. The merciful will not obtain mercy until Jesus returns. Christians living in the Church Age do experience the mercy and grace of God, because we are living in the age of Grace. That said, the context of this fifth beatitude is certainly the time of Jacob’s trouble.

Beatitude #6

• “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Matthew 5:8 (KJB)
• “He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” Psalm 24:4 (KJB)

Jesus here is telling of a day when the pure in heart will see God with their eyes, He will be standing right in front of them. That obviously is a Second Advent passage. Christians in the Church Age see Jesus through the eyes of faith only now, and must wait until death or the Rapture to see the Lord Jesus face to face.

Beatitude #7

• “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” Matthew 5:9 (KJB)
• “Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.” Isaiah 27:5 (KJB)

Isaiah 27 is Second Advent all the way, starting off right around Revelation 12 and following. The ‘peace’ in view here is Israel and the Jews being restored when Jesus returns as verse 6 says “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” That’s the peace that’s in view, for contrast see 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

Beatitude #8

• “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:10 (KJB)
• “And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.” Deuteronomy 30:7 (KJB)

Another great passage foretelling of the time when the Jews and Israel shall finally be regathered and restored under their true Messiah, Jesus Christ. Jesus was persecuted for righteousness sake, persecuted by the very people He came to save, the Jews. All through the gospel Jesus teaches the disciples that they will encounter much the same treatment that He did, and guess what? They sure did. Peter was crucified, Paul was beheaded, James was killed, and the list goes on and on.

Beatitude #9

• “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” Matthew 5:11,12 (KJB)
• “Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.” Jeremiah 17:18 (KJB)

One of the main themes of the prophets all the way through is the mistreatment the children of God receive at the hands of others including from the fellow Jews. Jeremiah talked about that a lot because he was on the receiving end of it. Stephen in Acts 7:52 asks “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?” Great question! Jesus says that people who endure that mistreat receive a reward, a reward paid when King Jesus is on the throne in Jerusalem.

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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

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.

CLICK NOW TO HELP US SEND THOUSANDS OF KING JAMES BIBLES INTO JAIL, PRISONS AND DETENTION CENTERS ALL ACROSS AMERICA!!

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

In Acts 13:48, the Bible shows us how God ordained and appointed the gospel to go to the Gentiles as prophesied in the Old Testament that they might believe, this is not a proof text for Calvinism.

I read an article earlier today called The Bible Verse That Made Me a Calvinist and it’s sad little story about a man who reads one verse in the book of the Acts of the Apostles and has the stunning revelation that yes, John Calvin was right about everything. So right, in fact, that the author decides, as John MacArthur teaches, that it’s John Calvin and not Paul who is actually the apostle to the Church Age, and it’s Calvin’s doctrine we are to follow. This type of result is typical of shallow study and sloppy exegesis, the antithesis of 2 Timothy 2:15.

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.” Acts 13:48 (KJB)

Someone once remarked that ‘a text without a context is a pretext for a proof text’, and that’s pretty much ‘right on the money’ as the Bible is filled with verses that, removed from the safe mooring of their context, yield wildly differing results. In Acts 13:44-52, the context is the hardness of the Jews hearts, and their refusal to believe the gospel. The Bible doesn’t say they can’t believe, it says they refused to believe, and because of their refusal, God turns to a group of people who will believe, the Gentiles. That the Gentiles would one day hear and believe the gospel is an Old Testament prophecy found in places like Isaiah 49:6 and Isaiah 60:3 in your King James Bible.

“Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.” Acts 13:46 (KJB)

Calvinism may teach, and it does, that no one gets saved until God ‘regenerates you’ in order for you to be able to believe, and then you become born again after God ‘flips your switch’. But this is not what your Bible teaches, it says the opposite of that. In Matthew 23:37, Jesus calls out the Jews for refusing to believe Him and His teachings, clearly showing they could believe if they had wanted to. In Acts 28:23-27, our apostle Paul speaks something very similar to what Jesus said in Matthew, again placing all the responsibility for the disbelief of the Jews on themselves, and not on God for not ‘regenerating’ them. Then in verse 28, Paul gives us a key to unlock Acts 13:48 as we see here:

“Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.” Acts 28:28 (KJB)

What did God do? He ordained the gospel to go to the Gentiles, just like it did to Cornelius in Acts 10:1-44, He appointed them the opportunity to have the gospel preached to them that some might believe. The Bible is not saying that God ordained and appointed individuals to salvation before they believed the gospel, rather that He was no longer dealing just with Israel. Romans 10:9-17 is quite clear that a person becomes saved when they call upon the name of the Lord and confess Him as Saviour after they’ve had the gospel preached to them. Paul repeats this theme again in Ephesians 1:10-14 where he shows us that a person gets saved after they hear the gospel preached, they believe it, receive it, and then are “sealed unto the day of redemption“ by the Holy Spirit.

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Remember Cornelius? The Bible says that he was a ‘just man’ and one that ‘feareth God’, who had a ‘good report’ among all who knew him. But there was something pretty huge that Cornelius did not have, he wasn’t saved. So, God appeared to Peter and ordained him to go and give Cornelius the gospel on an appointed day, and that’s exactly what happened. Peter preached the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ to Cornelius, and the man got saved after he believed what Peter preached. What does Calvinism have to say about any of this? Nothing, because there is not one iota of Calvinism anywhere needed to bring this about. Now let’s wrap this whole thing up, shall we?

“Who shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved.” Acts 11:14 (KJB)

The Greek word used for ‘ordained’ is tetagmenoi which means ‘to put in order, to station, to place in a certain order, to arrange, to assign a place, to appoint’. This is just what God did when He turned to the Gentiles, as Paul says, and ordains or appoints them the opportunity to hear and believe the gospel. To come to any other conclusion is simply bowing to the filter of Calvinism, and being ‘willing ignorant’ of the abundance of scripture, rightly divided and in context, showing Calvin to be in grievous error. Don’t you make the same mistake.

John MacArthur Led 3,500 Pastors To Believe On John Calvin

This is typical MacArthur garbage. You will notice that Mac doesn’t defend Calvinism from the Bible, which you can’t do, but instead appeals to the “suffering and study” of Calvin as the reason why we should accept the private interpretation of Calvinism.

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

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.

CLICK NOW TO HELP US SEND THOUSANDS OF KING JAMES BIBLES INTO JAIL, PRISONS AND DETENTION CENTER ALL ACROSS AMERICA!!

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