Pauline Dispensationalism

[BlessedinHim]

Thank you again for your questions. I would like to see how the letters all plug into the story of Acts. I can see where some were necessary just in the book of Acts.

Thanks to all who posed questions, answered questions and brought out more info. It has all been important to this study. There is more stuff on the Pauline dispensationalism, although it has been shown that it has its flaws as all mens doctrine does, I will finish posting the rest of that for further discussion......

Well, I was just looking at the other stuff that is left, and I have decided to start a different thread on that part, as it deals with covenant theology. Lets see where this will take us. See you on the new thread.

[God's Trombone]

Excellent! Most excellent, blessedinhim! Thank you for posting this study. I think that it has been shown clearly that Paul did indeed preach to both gentiles and Jews before and after his heavenly revelation and that Peter and the others preached to both Jews and gentiles. It also shows that water baptism continued to be practiced during the church age. And also that repentance is a necessary part of the salvation experience.

I admire your love for the Lord and His Word and your persistance in following through in this excellent study to find out the truth. :hug

God is so awesome and His Word is faithful and true because it is not of men, but "holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."

Hallelujah! All praise, honor and glory to our great God and Savior! :yeah

God bless you!

This is to this poster and also BIH, HIE, and the others who have not believed what I and others have said about the Gospel of our salvation preached only by the Apostle Paul, the "Apostle of the Gentiles." Much "cut n paste" was done, and much listing of verses. In honesty, little was done to show your side is scripturally sound.I admit some areas of study are difficult, but that doesn't lead me to conclude other than what the entire message means.

It is not right before God to leave anyone thinking your conclusions, basically what denominational churches teach you, are Bible Truth. When you conclude that the good news preached to Israel about the promised kingdom on earth, is the same as the hidden message Paul preached to us you are tragically wrong. I do not intend continue contending because, though you deny getting your answers from me, I did give them. That you won't BELIEVE them is on your part, not mine. I have stated that the Word of Truth must be contended for because the result of the "Gospel" you now follow is the mixing in of
things that are not part of the Word of Truth to us. Various religious leaders use this "inroad" to control and manipulate their congregations. Water baptism is definitely not a part of our Gospel, otherwise Paul would never have said the words "I hope I didn't baptize any others." (I Cor. 1:17)
And if Peter preached the message Paul did as you say, why didn't Peter say to the thousands he baptized with water "I hope I baptized no other", or "Christ sent me not to baptize?"

If you do trust in Jesus Christ, and Him alone as the One who died for your sins and rose back to life, you are saved. That is my prayer for each of you.

[BlessedinHim]

Oh, GT, I am not blinded by religion. I dont follow mans religion. In my study, the word said what it said. I did not cut up and paste the word in any part that I did. Everything was in context.

Acts 16:28But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.

29Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,

30And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?

31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

32And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.

33And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized(baptizo), he and all his, straightway.

Acts 18:6And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

7And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house, named Justus, one that worshipped God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.

8And Crispus, the chief ruler of the synagogue, believed on the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing believed, and were baptized.

Acts 19:4Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
5When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

6And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

7And all the men were about twelve.

Whether Paul did the baptizing or not, they were baptized under/after the message of Paul.

1 Corinthians 1:14
I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;

Paul did practice baptism. He said that because of a dispute that came up. Read it all in context.



I dont know how else you can read the above passages.

[CarolLyn]

If you do trust in Jesus Christ, and Him alone as the One who died for your sins and rose back to life, you are saved. That is my prayer for each of you.

And mine for you, brother. God bless!

[HeIsEnough]

It is not right before God to leave anyone thinking your conclusions, basically what denominational churches teach you, are Bible Truth.

Actually brother, I have never been a member of any church, nor a proponent of any denomination. I am a Berean, and the arena here is biblical truth by way of the scripture. You will only get this believer to concede to your view as you prove your case by the scriptural record. You have not done so, and have been presented scripture overwhelmingly proving your claims false.


I have stated that the Word of Truth must be contended for because the result of the "Gospel" you now follow is the mixing in of
things that are not part of the Word of Truth to us.


A strong charge, a baseless charge. I contend for the truth, according to the scriptures.

[God's Trombone]

I have embarked on a journey through the scriptures without any "outside" commentary or
references. I am reading Acts and a list of when and where Paul wrote each of his epistles, then reading each epistle in the order written.

I expect that when I have finished this project I will have something to say here about some of the conclusions reached by some contributors.

I can report so far, after reviewing Acts 1-19, and Galatians, I and II Thess., and I Cor. that
Paul began preaching his new revelation from Christ
from the very outset after his conversion. It is/was what he called "my Gospel" and its message
of "Christ died for your sins" was never before preached by anyone else. It was not preached by anyone other than Paul and his group of Apostles and Prophets.

When I have completed this project, I will post the notes I made as I worked through each chapter of Acts and Paul's letters.

I welcome comments or questions.

[Sing4Him]

EXCELLENT BIH! Thank you. :hug

[Aliya]

I have embarked on a journey through the scriptures without any "outside" commentary or references.

This has also been my approach, and oh, the lord has richly blessed me for it. I have also noticed the increased spiritual warfare, and I now realize why. As true believers come to see this right division of the word, denominational differences fall away and we are in unity. The Body of Christ as a unified dynamic organism would be an incredible force to be reckoned with!

Paul is the only scripture writer who tells us to rightly divide the word. Paul is the only scripture-writer writing specifically to Gentiles. Paul is the only scripture-writer speaking to the Body of Christ. The incredible promises to the Body of Christ become confused and the body disjointed when we fail to heed Paul's instruction.

[CarolLyn]

This has also been my approach, and oh, the lord has richly blessed me for it. I have also noticed the increased spiritual warfare, and I now realize why. As true believers come to see this right division of the word, denominational differences fall away and we are in unity. The Body of Christ as a unified dynamic organism would be an incredible force to be reckoned with!

Paul is the only scripture writer who tells us to rightly divide the word. Paul is the only scripture-writer writing specifically to Gentiles. Paul is the only scripture-writer speaking to the Body of Christ. The incredible promises to the Body of Christ become confused and the body disjointed when we fail to heed Paul's instruction.

Aliya, As I think you know, I have been open-minded and have prayerfully considered this point of view. There are many things that trouble me about it, which have caused me to reject it. Some of them are contained in your post here.

---Yes, Paul is the only scripture writer who tells us to "rightly divide the word". 2 Timothy 2:15 is the only place in scripture where this Greek word is found and it seems to me that you are hanging your whole emphasis on this phrase, taking it to mean that it means to separate scripture from scripture. I can not see from the context that this was the intent of the phrase.

---You keep identifying Paul as the scripture writer. It is my belief that Paul merely pinned the words that God gave him to write. I believe that God not only inspired the ideas, but He inspired (breathed) every word of scripture. It makes no difference who pinned the words--they are God's words.

--As blessedinhim went through the book of Acts, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, she found so many contradictions of your view that I felt that the Lord was showing me that it had no merit. (Especially the fact that Paul preached to both Gentiles and Jews, and the other apostles preached to both Jews and Gentiles). Neither you nor God's Trombone interjected to explain the contradictions. I have to admit that there are many things in the books of James through Jude that are troubling to me and your "Pauline" explanation seemed like an easy answer to it all, I'm far from being convinced that it is the right answer. I want the right answer. My mind and my heart are still open. I seek truth--nothing more and nothing less (I'm sure you do too). It seems that you are sure that you have found it. It really troubles me that you did not interject your pov, and support it with scripture when blessedinhim was doing this study in Acts. I'm sure there will be many more lively discussions on this topic...I will be there, seeking and praying for understanding and discernment.
God bless you.

[Majorgrace2]

I would have been very confused if I had not been taught the ages(dispensations) that Paul was given to reveal to us and I thank God for it.

DISPENSATION
A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God. Seven such dispensations are distinguished in Scripture.


The First Dispensation: Innocency. Man was created in innocency, placed in a perfect environment, subjected to an absolutely simple test, and warned of the consequence of disobedience. The woman fell through pride; the man deliberately. (1Ti_2:14) God restored His sinning creatures, but the dispensation of innocency ended in the judgment of the Expulsion (Gen_3:24)
When looked at as a whole it is easy to understand that God has answered the what if's on the day of judgement.

The Second Dispensation: Conscience. By disobedience man came to a personal and experimental knowledge of good and evil -- of good as obedience, of evil as disobedience to the known will of God. Through that knowledge conscience awoke. Expelled from Eden and placed under the second, or ADAMIC COVENANT, man was responsible to do all known good, to abstain from all known evil, and to approach God through sacrifice. The result of this second testing of man is stated in (Gen_6:5) and the dispensation ended in the judgment of the Flood. Apparently "the east of the garden" (Gen_3:24) where were the cherubims and the flame, remained the place of worship through this second dispensation.

The Third Dispensation: Human Government. Under Conscience, as in Innocency, man utterly failed, and the judgment of the Flood marks the end of the second dispensation and the beginning of the third. The declaration of the Noahic Covenant subjects humanity to a new test. Its distinctive feature is the institution, for the first time, of human government -- the government of man by man. The highest function of government is the judicial taking of life. All other governmental powers are implied in that. It follows that the third dispensation is distinctively that of human government. Man is responsible to govern the world for God. That responsibility rested upon the whole race, Jew and Gentile, until the failure of Israel under the Palestinian Covenant (Deuteronomy 28 - (Deu_30:1-10)) brought the judgment of the Captivities, when "the times of the Gentiles" (See); (Luk_21:24); (Rev_16:14) began, and the government of the world passed exclusively into Gentile hands; (Dan_2:36-45); (Luk_21:24); (Act_15:14-17). That both Israel and the Gentiles have governed for self, not God, is sadly apparent. The judgment of the confusion of tongues ended the racial testing; that of the captivities the Jewish; while the Gentile testing will end in the smiting of the Image (Da 2.) and the judgment of the nations (Mat_25:31-46).

The Fourth Dispensation: Promise. For Abraham, and his descendants it is evident that the Abrahamic Covenant (See Scofield) - (Gen_15:18) made a great change. They became distinctively the heirs of promise. That covenant is wholly gracious and unconditional. The descendants of Abraham had but to abide in their own land to inherit every blessing. In Egypt they lost their blessings, but not their covenant. The Dispensation of Promise ended when Israel rashly accepted the law (Exo_19:8). Grace had prepared a deliverer (Moses), provided a sacrifice for the guilty, and by divine power brought them out of bondage (Exo_19:4) but at Sinai they exchanged grace for law. The Dispensation of Promise extends from (Gen_12:1) to (Exo_19:8); and was exclusively Israelitish. The dispensation must be distinguished from the covenant. The former is a mode of testing; the latter is everlasting because unconditional. The law did not abrogate the Abrahamic Covenant (Gal_3:15-18) but was an intermediate disciplinary dealing "till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made"; (Gal_3:19-29); (Gal_4:1-7). Only the dispensation, as a testing of Israel, ended at the giving of the law.

The Fifth Dispensation: Law. This dispensation extends from Sinai to Calvary -- from Exodus to the Cross. The history of Israel in the wilderness and in the land is one long record of the violation of the law. The testing of the nation by law ended in the judgment of the Captivities, but the dispensation itself ended at the Cross.

(1) Man's state at the beginning (Exo_19:1-4).

(2) His responsibility (Exo_19:5); (Exo_19:6); (Rom_10:5).

(3) His failure (2Ki_17:7-17); (2Ki_17:19); (Act_2:22); (Act_2:23).

(4) The judgment (2Ki_17:1-6); (2Ki_17:20); (2Ki_25:1-11); (Luk_21:20-24).


As a dispensation, grace begins with the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom_3:24-26); (Rom_3:4); (Rom_3:24); (Rom_3:25). The point of testing is no longer legal obedience as the condition of salvation, but acceptance or rejection of Christ, with good works as a fruit of salvation, (Joh_1:12); (Joh_1:13); (Joh_3:36); (Mat_21:37); (Mat_22:24); (Joh_15:22); (Joh_15:25); (Heb_1:2); (1Jo_5:10-12). The immediate result of this testing was the rejection of Christ by the Jews, and His crucifixion by Jew and Gentile (Act_4:27). The predicted end of the testing of man under grace is the apostasy of the professing church:

"Apostasy"
"Went out from us," that is, doctrinally. Doubtless then, as now, the deniers of the Son (1Jo_2:22); (1Jo_2:23) still called themselves Christians.

A striking illustration of all apostasy. With his entire departure from the revealed will of God concerning worship and priesthood, there is yet an exaltation of false priesthood. Saying, "Blessed be thou of Jehovah," Micah's mother makes an idol; and Micah expects the blessing of Jehovah because he has linked his idolatry to the ancient levitical order.

(Heb_6:4-8) presents the case of Jewish professed believers who halt short of faith in Christ after advancing to the very threshold of salvation, even "going along with" the Holy Spirit in His work of enlightenment and conviction. (Joh_16:8-10). It is not said that they had faith. This supposed person is like the spies at Kadesh-barnea (Deu_1:19-26) who saw the land and had the very fruit of it in their hands, and yet turned back.

Apostasy, Summary:

Apostasy, "falling away," is the act of professed Christians who deliberately reject revealed truth

(1) as to the deity of Jesus Christ, and

(2) redemption through His atoning and redeeming sacrifice (1Jo_4:1-3); (Phi_3:18); (2Pe_2:1). Apostasy differs from error concerning truth, which may be the result of ignorance (Act_19:1-6) or heresy, which may be due to the sphere of Satan (2Ti_2:25); (2Ti_2:26) both of which may consist with true faith.

The apostate is perfectly described in (2Ti_4:3); (2Ti_4:4). Apostates depart from the faith, but not from the outward profession of Christianity (2Ti_3:5). Apostate teachers are described in; (2Ti_4:3); (2Pe_2:1-19); (Jud_1:4); (Jud_1:8); (Jud_1:11-13); (Jud_1:16).

Apostasy in the church, as in Israel (Isa_1:5); (Isa_1:6); (Isa_5:5-7) is irremediable, and awaits judgment; (2Th_2:10-12); (2Pe_2:17); (2Pe_2:21); (Jud_1:11-15); (Rev_3:14-16).

(See Scofield) - (2Ti_3:1); (2Ti_3:1-8);

and the resultant apocalyptic judgments.

(3) Grace has a twofold manifestation: in salvation (Rom_3:24) and in the walk and service of the saved (Rom_6:15).