CRUCIAL event in history you HAVE to get

Sir Robert Anderson called it “the secret crisis of the Book of Acts.” Inherent to any Christian’s basic ministry is an understanding of the monumental dispensational change that took place with the stoning of Stephen and the subsequent fall of Israel.

“I know most Christians you talk to today don’t know beans about this, but when the Spirit of God, speaking through Stephen, declared the Jews to be ‘stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, always resisting the Holy Ghost,’ Israel was set aside; cast away,” explains Jordan.

“In Romans 11, in the midst of Paul writing about the status of Israel today and what’s going to happen to them in the future, you find verse 15: “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?”

“When was Israel cast away? Verse 11 says, “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”

“When you cast something away, you get rid of it; it’s not of any value anymore. When you fall, you move from one position to the other.

“If when Israel fell they became useless in the program of God, what’s the result? ‘The reconciling of the world.’ You see, in order for God to bring about the dispensational condition necessary to form the Church the Body of Christ, He had to change that program. To change the program, He had to take Israel from her privileged position and put her down here.

“As Paul explains it, ‘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.
[33] O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

"You see this again in Ephesians 2; Paul just uses different terms. The verses are not talking about you getting saved, making peace with God. They’re talking about removing the enmity between Israel and the Gentiles. He’s talking about a dispensational peace that comes about by taking out the middle wall of partition, having abolished it.

“You don’t get reconciled to God in one body by the Cross except here. This is the dispensational change that takes place. God takes out all of Israel’s program. God takes out circumcision. He takes out the law and nails it away, getting rid of it so that He can form this 'one new man. '

“He’s reconciling you and me individually to God through the blood of Christ, and to one another, in one body, so today there’s no Jew or Gentile, bond or free, in Christ. You and I have been made one with one another. God has changed the program so He can form this new body of Believers through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

(Editor’s note: Below is an older piece, from my website LisaLeland.com, on the same subject. New article tomorrow):

Dispensationalists for generations have placed the fall of Israel at the Cross but that’s not where it took place.

“Israel got a renewed opportunity of repentance coming out of the Cross and that’s what the first part of the Book of Acts is all about,” explains Jordan. “In Acts 1-7 they get another opportunity to repent and receive Christ and then in Acts 7, with the stoning of Stephen, they fall.

“Paul says in Romans 11:11, ‘I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.’

“As the consequence of the stoning of Stephen, the next thing you read about is the salvation of Saul of Tarsus.

“Jesus warns the religious leaders of the nation Israel in Matthew 12:31, ‘When God the Father sent John they rejected Him.’ Harod cut his head off. With Jesus Christ, God the Son, they demanded that Rome kill Him. The Holy Ghost comes, and if you reject Him, where do you go?!

“From the Father you could go to the Son, and from the Son to the Holy Spirit, but then you’re out. You know the saying, ‘Three strikes and you’re out’? There’s nowhere else to go!

“The whole of the godhead is exhausted and you’ve rejected all of them. So if you reject the Holy Spirit, there’s nothing left for you but wrath. There’s no salvation; it won’t be forgiven in this world or the world to come. There will just be wrath and judgment.

“In I Timothy 1:13 the apostle said, ‘Before I got saved I was a blasphemer.’ He was standing right there when Stephen was killed.

“Tell me something, if he blasphemed against the Holy Spirit, was there any salvation for him back here? Any salvation for him over here?

“In order to save Saul of Tarsus, He had to introduce a NEW program. People ask, ‘When did the church the Body of Christ begin? Something new began with Saul of Tarsus because the only way he could have gotten saved, being a blasphemer, was through a new program. That’s why I Timothy 1:16 says, ‘Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.’

“Saul is a pattern for a group of people who are going to believe. Something new does begin, but it’s not in Acts 2, it’s at the salvation and commissioning of the Apostle Paul and takes place historically in Acts 9. Progressively you see more and more about it through the Scripture.

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“There are three big events in Acts you have to get. One is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Why did he do that? He did it in fulfillment of Joel 2. There’s the outcry against Stephen where the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit takes place. Then there’s the outgoing to the Gentiles through Paul’s ministry.

“Hebrews 2: 3-4 says, [3] How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
[4] God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

“The Pentecostal era, according to Hebrews 2: 3-4, is a continuation of what Jesus taught in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; His kingdom salvation. It’s Israel’s program; it’s not something new.

“The compulsion to have it be something new is just tradition. The compulsion to start the church the Body of Christ in Acts 2—you know, you hear people say, ‘I thought the church was birthed at Pentecost.’ Well, that’s what you thought but that’s not what the Bible teaches.

“You say, ‘Well, my Scofield Reference Bible says that. Dr. Ryrie says that. Larken says that.’ I know a lot of people say it but that don’t make it true. It’s what does the Book say?

“I realize that’s a shift that bothers people, and the reason it does is because you get so plugged into tradition and saying that that’s us, that when you read it and it’s not you, and you didn’t want it to be you anyway because there’s all kind of stuff in Acts 2 you didn’t like.

“You didn’t like the baptismal forgiveness of sins. You didn’t like tongue-talking. You didn’t like having ‘all things in common.’ You didn’t like having it be to Israel first. You didn’t like all that so you just ignored it.

“You say, ‘Well, now we aren’t going to have the Great Commission to go by,’ but you weren’t going by the so-called Great Commission anyway! There’s not one person you ever met who ever followed Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20 or Acts 1—all of them or any of them!

“Think about what they say. In Matthew 28, Jesus says, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.’ When is that commission going to be accomplished? When He’s with them! When is He going to be with them? Well, He’s going away. He’s not with them there. He’s going to be with them over here. You know when that commission’s going to be accomplished? When He’s there. Think about what it says.

“ ‘Go ye therefore and teach all nations.’ Go ye. He’s talking to His disciples, isn’t He? Numbers 23 says that Israel is not to be reckoned among the nations. If you follow Matthew 28:19 you can’t preach to Israel.

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“I’ve got a friend who runs a Jewish ministry out of Miami, Florida and he uses Matthew 28:19 as his proof text. And I tell him, ‘Brother, you can’t preach to Israel if that’s your verse because that verse says to ‘teach all nations.’ Numbers 23:9 says Israel shall not be reckoned among the nations.

“Look at all those verses where He separated Israel apart from the nations. You say, ‘Well, why wouldn’t we preach to the nations?’ Hebrews 8 says that when the new covenant comes into effect and Israel gets her kingdom, ‘they will all know me from the least to the greatest.’ No more need to teach neighbors.

“It’s redeemed Israel, converted Israel. All Israel’s going to be saved in that kingdom. They’re not going to need to evangelize each other anymore; that’s what the new covenant’s all about. The nation is redeemed and now the redeemed nation goes and preaches to the Gentiles.

“But when does that happen? You can’t do that today because the text tells you what to do and you can’t do what the text tells you to do. He says, ‘Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.’

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“In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 Jesus says, ‘Anybody that doesn’t teach the law can’t be great in the kingdom.’

“Now, that’s what He commanded them. Go read Matthew 5: 19-20. He that’s great is going to teach the law; the commandments. Well, Paul says you’re not under the law but you’re under grace. How are you going to do that?

 “One of the commandments is, ‘Keep the Sabbath day holy.’ Today’s the Sabbath, not tomorrow. People say, ‘Well, it’s the Christian Sabbath.’ Where’d you read that in the Bible? You didn’t; you read that in a bunch of church history.

“You see, sooner or later you’re going to read verses that are going to contradict what the preacher says. You’re going to go ask the preacher about those verses and he’s going to say, ‘You’re trying to cause trouble; beat it!’ Some of us have been there, done that and then we say, ‘Well, now what?’

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“Mark 16:15. Don’t you love that verse? ‘And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.’

“Who couldn’t love that verse? But you know, when you leave it in its context it doesn’t sound so good. Jesus is talking to His disciples and says, ‘[16] He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
[17] And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
[18] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.’

“Two days before He died, He told them in Matthew 24, ‘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.’

“You know anywhere in your Bible between the time He said that and five days later when He told His disciples to go preach the gospel, where He changed the gospel? No. What gospel are they going to preach? The gospel of the kingdom.

“You know they preached the gospel of the kingdom for three years and didn’t know Jesus was going to die on the Cross and be resurrected? Can you preach the gospel today without knowing that?

“So the gospel message was different. Besides that, He said they would be ‘damned.’ You say, you mean you got to be baptized to be saved? That’s what it said. All you got to do to be damned is don’t believe, but to get saved, you got to be baptized.

“You don’t preach that. You go to missionary conferences, you see Mark 16:15 on the wall, but you never see verse 16, unless you go to a Campbellite or Apostolic church.

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“Then it says, ‘In mine name they shall cast out devils.’ I was in a meeting one time with a guy who believed all that and I brought a can of Drano with me and took it out of my briefcase and put it on his desk and said, ‘I want to see you demonstrate the verse.’

“He said, ‘You’re trying to tempt God.’ I said, ‘I’m not trying to tempt God; I’m tempting you. You’re the one running off at the mouth about how you can do what this verse says. Let’s see if it works.’

“You know what, he didn’t do it. He knew it would kill him. He knew those verses didn’t work.

“Now, why don’t they work? You know what fundamentalists and evangelicals do? They redefine them. They say, ‘Well, when you get saved, you speak with a new tongue. You quit cussing and lying.’

“That’s got nothing to do with what that verse says. How do I know? I read Acts 2 when they spoke with new tongues; they spoke in the tongues of all the languages that they previously hadn’t learned so that all those people could hear the message.”