We return to another bullet list. I believe this quick overview might help those interested in making sense of either seeming contradictions in scripture or who may wonder why they don't see things evident in the lives of some believers in scripture evident in their own lives.
Many local churches (and most denominations) claim they are either an "Acts church" or they believe they are part of the Acts body of believers (they believe was created at Pentecost) and share its hope. Even so-called cessationist groups claim large parts of the Acts age and its epistles for themselves. We will not examine the Acts epistles here (we've done that elsewhere), but this distinction between the Acts and Post-Acts epistles is paramount in understanding seeming difficulties and the calling of the current age. I've included a quick chart and a link to related posts.
Recall there are 21 epistles which fall into three groups of seven:
Acts Age (7) Post-Acts (7) Apostles to the Jews/Dispersion (7) Romans Ephesians 1 Peter Galatians Colossians 2 Peter 1 Corinthians Philippians 1 John 2 Corinthians 1 Timothy 2 John 1 Thessalonians 2 Timothy 3 John 2 Thessalonians Titus Jude Hebrews Philemon James
Related studies:
Acts Age Epistles - Part 1
The Present Age - What is Our Hope and How Do We Live - Part 1
The Present Age - What is Our Hope and How Do We Live - Part 2
Now Jesus Himself began His ministry at about thirty years of age...
-Luke 3:23
He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to other cities also, for this is why I was sent.” And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.
-Luke 4:43-44
These twelve Jesus sent out, and commanded them, saying, “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’
-Matthew 10:5-7
Then Jesus went from there and departed into the regions of Tyre and Sidon. There, a woman of Canaan came out of the same regions and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David. My daughter is severely possessed by a demon.” But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and begged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she cries out after us.” But He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”-Matthew 15:21-24
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had given commandments through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He presented Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, appearing to them for forty days, and speaking concerning the kingdom of God. Being assembled with them, He commanded them, “Do not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, of which you have heard from Me. For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” So when they had come together, they asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
-Acts 1:1-6
The Lord Jesus began his public ministry declaring the Kingdom of God at age 30. He preached that Kingdom to Israel alone and forbade his disciples to preach it to anyone except to Jews. He was crucified and was resurrected out from among the dead at about age 33. Acts 1 immediately follows and records the first 40 days of the Lord's risen ministry was to those disciples about that Kingdom.
Note that in Acts 1 that what the Lord taught (this is the Risen Lord immediately after his triumph over the grave) is not recorded for us. It was specific teaching about the Kingdom to those men. Why? Because had the condition of Israel's repentance been met, the events recorded in the prophets regarding Israel and the covenants and the cleansing and the parousia (Greek, meaning the return of the King among his people) would have come to pass.
“Now brothers [Men of Israel, v.12], I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But what God foretold through all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He thus fulfilled. Therefore repent and be converted, that your sins may be wiped away, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the One who previously was preached to you, Jesus Christ, whom the heavens must receive until the time of restoring what God spoke through all His holy prophets since the world began.
For Moses indeed said to the fathers [cf Rom 9], ‘The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall hear whatever He may say to you. And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly eliminated from the people’ [Deut 18]. “Indeed, all the prophets since Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold these days. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to you first, to bless you in turning every one of you from your iniquities.”
-Acts 3:17-24
Let us turn to the Book of Acts itself and the conditions and teachings and patterns found there.
As we think about the constant drone of being an "Acts church," let's look briefly at how starkly different the Acts age was, not only in practice and instructions, but in its hope. As we read our list below, ask yourself if your pastor is prepared to preach directly from these texts and promises and warnings without spiritualizing or trying to explain away the passage or the book as "transitional" (thus rendering it useless to us on the other side of the supposed transition). These same pastors unironically pull some things from the Acts age as absolutes while dismissing other things as compromises for the assumed transition.
We pause here to note a transition of sorts that we should recognize. There is no more revelation from God. Paul received the final revelation from God and the canon was closed with Second Timothy. That does not mean that all of scripture has been fulfilled. Of course not! There are many prophecies from both the Hebrew and Greek scriptures that still have a fulfillment ahead.
The transition we do recognize is a transition from the leadership of the chosen apostle to the Gentiles, the one to whom the final revelation and the Mystery of the current age was revealed (Paul) into the post-apostolic age we are currently in.
This is not an exhaustive list, just some nuggets to think about as your pastor takes you to the Book of Acts and tells you that you are in the same calling and church. (Obviously some things Paul or the Apostles did that we cannot do have no spiritual application. Paul claiming his roman citizenship, for example. We obviously do not claim such a legal privilege, but we can easily ignore such things as they have no connection whatsoever to the faith and acts of obedience in the Book.)
- The Lord did not reveal the details of the Kingdom "in Israel" to us (Acts 1)
- No one sees flames above his head when receiving the Spirit (Acts 2)
- We do not have all things in common (Acts 2)
- There were no Gentiles at Pentecost (Acts 2)
- Do we tell people to get baptized to receive the Holy Spirit? (Acts 2, compare Acts 10)
- We do not promise the return of Christ if Israel repents (Acts 3)
- We do not heal the lame (Acts 3)
- We do not sell all we have and live communally (Acts 4)
- No one drops dead from lying or holding back promised proceeds (Acts 5)
- Angels don't open jail cells and give us instructions (Acts 5)
- We don't listen to any Sanhedrin at all about anything (Acts 5)
- We do not perform signs and wonders (Acts 5)
- We don't refer to "our father Abraham" when speaking to Jews (Acts 7)
- Jacob's sons [12 tribes] are not "our fathers" (Acts 7)
- The Egyptians did not deal deceitfully with our fathers (Acts 7)
- No one receives a new nature by the laying on of anyone's hands (Acts 8)
- The Spirit takes no one away (Acts 8)
- God is not speaking and assigning specific commissions (Acts 9)
- God does not have those commissioned specifically to Jew or to Gentile (Acts 9, Gal 2)
- We don't raise the paralyzed (Acts 9)
- Gentiles do not have to wait to be part of the current calling (Acts 10)
- The Holy Spirit does not fall before or after baptism (Acts 10, compare Acts 2)
- No one is commissioned to Jews only (Acts 11)
- Angels do not release us from prison (Acts 12)
- Paul knew Israel was still Israel (Acts 13)
- Paul identifies with Israel as having common fathers (Acts 13)
- Paul speaks of Christ as the Savior for Israel (Acts 13)
- John the Baptist's ministry of the Kingdom was to Israel alone (Acts 13)
- We don't heal the cripples (Acts 14)
- We don't preach many afflictions to enter the kingdom (Acts 14)
- We don't have different rules for Jews and Gentiles (Acts 15)
- We don't teach Jews to be cicrumcized (Acts 15)
- We don't place Gentiles living among believing Jews under the conditions of Leviticus (Acts 15)
- We don't cast out spirits of divination (Acts 16)
- We don't promise anyone if he believes he and his while house will be recused (Acts 16)
- It is not our practice to go to Jews [still separate from Gentiles] first (Acts 17)
- We don't go to Jerusalem to keep the Feasts of the Law (Acts 18)
- We do not lay hands to commit the Holy Spirit (Acts 19)
- We do not speak in tongues or prophesy (Acts 19)
- Declaring the whole counsel of God meant the Hebrew canon alone (Acts 20)
- The Holy Spirit is not giving new revelation to us (Acts 21)
- We do not take vows or shave our heads (Acts 21)
- We do not assure Jews we are keeping the Law and teaching circumcision (Acts 21)
- We do not refer to "the God of our fathers" (Acts 22)
- We do not refer to the Law in our defense (Acts 23)
- The Lord does not stand before any of us with specific instructions (Acts 23)
- We do not bring alms and offerings to the nation Israel (Acts 24)
- We do not purify ourselves according to the Law to observe the feasts (Acts 24)
- We are not judged for nor do we preach the hope in the promises God made to Israel's fathers (Acts 26)
- We do not preach only what Moses and the Prophets said would come (Acts 26)
- We do not observe nor make plans based on the Day or Atonement (Acts 27)
- We cannot claim miraculous rescue from the Lord for ourselves and others (Acts 27)
- We do not get bitten by poisonous snakes to no effect (Acts 28)
- We don't tell Jews we are still observing all Mosaic customs (Acts 28)
- We do not suffer for the hope of Israel (Acts 28)
These are just some things pulled from the Book of Acts itself, We have not included the Acts age epistles. We have looked at those and linked some of those studies above. This was a time when the kingdom was "at hand" and both the time to "restore the Kingdom in Israel" (Acts 1) and the "restoration of all things" (Acts 3) and the return of the Lord in the clouds to take his place on David's throne were the expectations.
I realize that many of points noted are explained by believers either simply cultural accommodation or singular to Apostolic callings. On the latter, I hope we can then agree that there are no apostles today as we see none of these things in any single believer. Certainly no one is writing any inspired texts. We note again, the canon was closed with Paul.
I now rejoice in sufferings for your sakes, and I contribute my share to what is lacking among the tribulations of Christ, in my flesh, for the sake of his body, which is the church, of which I have become a minister, according to the dispensation of God which was given to me for you, to fill the word of God – the mystery which was hidden away from the ages and from the generations, but now has been made manifest to his saints, to whom God wished to make known what the richness is of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we proclaim, admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, in order that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus, for which I also labor, striving according to his invigoration which invigorates me with power.
-Colossians 1:24-29 (Far Above All)
But if we fully embrace both the common explanations, we have rendered the book (and the epistles) as almost meaningless. You may have noted that the Book of Colossians is from Paul's Post-Acts ministry and is one of the seven books written for the current age.
The excuse of all things being either transitional or of local custom or pertaining only the apostles is essentially the entirety of the Book of Acts as we seek to find ourselves in it today. And while we may conveniently (as I would frame it) chalk up all of the references to Israel, the fathers, and observances of the Law and Feasts to simply "accommodation," such accommodation today would be considered today by believers as heresy and even a denial of the faith.
"For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God [the priesthood], and the promises; of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen."
-Romans 9 (during the Acts Age)
Paul, near the end of the Acts in Acts 28, is still calling Jews his "brothers" and is still preaching "the hope of Israel" to Jews first. While in chains for the hope of Israel in Acts 28, when he reveals the glorious hope and unsearchable riches of the current age, he declares he is in chains for hope of us Gentiles (which would be all men when the middle wall of partition fell).
After three days Paul called the leaders of the Jews together. When they had assembled, he said to them, “Brothers, having done nothing contrary to our people or the customs of our fathers, I was delivered as a prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the Romans. When they had examined me, they were determined to release me, because there was no charge against me deserving death. But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar, not that I had any charge to bring against my nation. For this reason I have asked to see you and speak with you, because I am bound with this chain for the hope of Israel.”
-Acts 28:17-19
Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” in the flesh by human hands, were at that time apart from Christ, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace, who has made both groups one and has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of the commandments contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile both to God into one body through the cross, thereby slaying the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.-Ephesians 2:11-18
Separating Jews and Gentiles; teaching Jews to circumcize and observe the Law; putting Gentile believers under Levitical restraints; going to Jews first in any city or town with a synagogue; speaking of the hope of Israel; promising the return of the Lord, etc. These would all mark one as a loony at best and as a dangerous cultist at worst today, but all were the practices and the patterns and the teachings of the Book of Acts.
So where does this leave us? It is my opinion that while most of professing Christendom tries to find itself in the Book of Acts, most of what it finds there (a) it does not practice (b) it does not experience (c) it condemns as error either then or today. They have rendered the book useless as they claim it is their Magna Carta.
As for us, we endeavor to walk, not in another's calling and hope, but in our own. For this is how we will be judged.
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, exhort you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you were called.
-Ephesians 4:1
