many miracles of `healing' wrought by the Lord to bring Israel to repentance (see Matt. 11) the close association of

these different elements of witness and Israel's failure to understand and perceive becomes the more tragic.

The repentance, the conversion, the healing of Israel, was the threefold goal of the ministry both of our Lord

during His earthly life and of the apostles after His ascension. That goal has never been completely set aside.

Temporarily, Israel are not God's people, but at last `All Israel shall be saved'; they shall look upon Him Whom

they pierced and mourn for Him, and at this repentance their conversion will become a fact, and the time of

restitution will have come. But that day is `not yet'. A new dispensation has taken the place of that which obtained

through the Acts which, it is important to remember, covered the period of the early epistles of Paul, and that new

dispensation is ushered in by the epoch-making words: `The salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and they will

hear it' (Acts 28:28).

Since the days of Abraham there is no record of any Gentile being `saved' independently of Israel! We say

advisedly `There is no record'. We do not limit the Holy One of Israel, but we are rightly and necessarily limited by

the written word. The apostle in Galatians 1:8 made a staggering statement. Having made it he still seemed to fear

that it would not be taken literally, so he repeated it; `As we said before, so say I now again' (Gal. 1:9). We have

just made the statement, `Since the days of Abraham there is no record of any Gentile being saved independently of

Israel' and lest the reader should miss the challenge to orthodoxy that such a statement makes, we ask for one

reference from the Old Testament or the New Testament to disprove it. If it cannot be disproved, then we must

perforce acknowledge the great change indicated in Acts 28:28.

In Acts 13, at the commencement of his separate ministry, the apostle introduced the great doctrine of

justification by faith, without works of law, with the words, `Be it known unto you therefore' (Acts 13:38). At the

commencement of his new and separate ministry (that of the mystery) he introduced the key thought once again with

the self-same words, `Be it known therefore unto you' (Acts 28:28, exactly the same Greek as in Acts 13:38). In

Acts 13, moreover, we have a warning, `Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the

prophets' (Acts 13:40). In Acts 28:23-27 that warning is fulfilled.

On the ground that Paul had earlier announced that he was turning away from the Jews to the Gentiles, there are

some who refuse to admit that Acts 28:28 marks a dispensational crisis. Before Acts 28:28 can be proved to be THE

CRISIS, the passages which record this turning to the Gentiles must therefore be considered. After Paul had spoken

in the synagogue at Antioch, the Gentiles who were attached desired that they might hear the message the following

Sabbath. This however provoked the envy of the Jews, and they spoke against the testimony of Paul and Barnabas,

who then boldly 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).

But this was merely a local action, as is proved by continuing our reading until we come to the words, `And it

came to pass in Iconium, that they went both together into the synagogue of the Jews', (Acts 14:1). Again, the Jews

assaulted the apostles and, again, they turned to the Gentiles, for in Lystra his hearers were idolaters. Here also the

nature of their action was as local as at Antioch. When the apostle returned to Antioch in Syria, he did not report the

setting aside of the Jew and the introduction of a new dispensation for the Gentile, but `rehearsed all that God had

done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles' (Acts 14:27). This is the inspired

interpretation of Acts 13 and 14.

A perusal of Acts 15 will clearly show the relative ascendency in the church at that time of the Jew over the

Gentile, and in Acts 16, while neither synagogue nor Jew is mentioned, the fact that Paul and his companion joined

the women gathered together on the Sabbath day for prayer is proof enough that those women were Jewesses. In

Acts 17, `Paul, as his manner was', went into the synagogue. How could Luke say that, if Paul had turned to the

Gentiles? Even at Athens, it is the Jews in the synagogue who are mentioned before the philosophers (Acts

17:17,18), and upon his arrival at Corinth, Paul went at once to the Jewish quarter and found a certain Jew, and once

again we read: `He reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks' (Acts 18:4).

But here, too, the Jews resented the teaching of the apostle, calling forth his condemnation in the words, `Your blood

be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles' (Acts 18:6).