21
Throughout the Acts of the Apostles and the epistles of the period, the Jew is "first" (see Rom. 1:16). The
Kingdom of Israel is ever before the mind (see Acts 1:6); when the apostle Paul reached Rome, he did not visit the
Church so far as we are told, but sent for the elders of the Jews. After an all-day Conference, the people of Israel
were solemnly dismissed by the quotation of Isaiah 6:9,10, and, for the first time since the call of Abraham, the
salvation of God was sent to the Gentiles without reference to the people of Israel.
Upon examining the epistles written by Paul during his imprisonment (that is, after the change of dispensation
had been made) we discover that the people of Israel, the fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, are all conspicuous by
their absence. We have crossed the English Channel as it were, and have left a "Kingdom" for a "Republic".
The second feature we have indicated on the diagram is the presence of miraculous gifts. The apostle - who
worked miracles during the Acts of the Apostles - sent Timothy a prescription for his "often infirmities" in the
dispensation that followed, and many are the wrecks that have resulted from the attempt to live as though the
miraculous gifts of the Acts period were today still the rule and not the exception.
When we cross the Channel and step onto the shores of France, we find ourselves at once surrounded with a set
of circumstances that differ from those obtaining in our own country. If we should be so foolish as to persist in
ignoring, for example, the change in money, we should put ourselves and others to a great amount of trouble, and
soon find life impossible; while if we were so foolish as to attempt to ignore the change from "keep to the left" to
"keep to the right", we should probably pay for our foolishness with our lives, and most certainly endanger the lives
of others.
Lastly, what is "hoped for" is a good index to a calling. The reader will remember the phrase "the hope of your
calling". The epistle to the Romans was the last to be written before the Acts came to a close, and whatever was the
hope of the Church then will represent what was its hope right through the period:
"There shall be a root of Jesse, and He that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in Him shall the Gentiles trust
(hope R.V.). Now the God of (that) hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing" (Rom. 15:12,13).
The apostle refers to Isaiah 11, which speaks of the millennial reign of Christ, when the wolf shall dwell with the
lamb, and when the Lord will set his hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people Israel. This is in
line with the statement of the apostle in Acts 26 and 28:
"The hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving
God day and night, hope to come" (Acts 26:6,7).
"For the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain" (Acts 28:20).
In the prison epistles of Paul, Israel has gone, and with Israel the hope connected with that nation. In its place is
"the hope that is laid up in heaven", "which was preached unto every creature under heaven" (see Col. 1:5,23,27;
3:4).
Those possessing the true Berean spirit (Acts 17:11) will not be misled nor overawed by those who use
arguments similar to those mentioned at the commencement of this leaflet, but will desire, at any cost, to know what
is their calling, so that they may enter into their possessions, and walk worthy of their vocation.
No. 7
Dispensational truth and common sense.
Quite a number of earnest believers object most strongly to any attempt rightly to divide the Word of
truth, out of a mistaken idea that such "division" is an unsanctified attack upon the unity of the faith, robs
the child of God of his portion in the Lord, and generally plays into the hands of the enemy. Yet, if one