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#41.
The Acts of the Apostles.
pp. 165 - 168
When it is the glad acknowledgment that the Scriptures are "true from the beginning"
and that "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and profitable", it is impossible to
pit one section against another and say "this" is more important than "that". Yet the
reader who most cordially endorses the doctrine of the inspiration of all Scripture would
not hesitate to choose, say, between the prophet Jeremiah and the epistle to the
Ephesians, and if we seek the reason why such a choice is inevitable the answer surely is
that each dispensation has its own peculiar Scriptures, and whereas the believing Israelite
would choose Jeremiah, because it so accurately suited his case and need as an Israelite
who realized his need of a "New Covenant", the Gentile believer to-day who has realized
his need of a calling that fits the period when Israel are reckoned "lo-ammi" and the New
Covenant suspended, would find his case more than met by the glorious revelation of the
epistle to the Ephesians. In this light we can therefore say, that no book of the New
Testament is so important from a dispensational standpoint, as the Acts of the Apostles.
If the believer entertains false views of the day of Pentecost he will find such views will
tinge the whole of his outlook. If he entertains clear and scriptural views both of
Pentecost and the crisis of Acts 28:, it then becomes difficult not to see with
clearness the dispensational place of both sets of Paul's epistles, and the relationship
existing between them.
An exposition of the Acts of the Apostles was commenced in The Berean Expositor
for 1934, and at the time of writing (1944) that study draws to a conclusion. It is now
being prepared in book form and will D.5: be published later. To attempt a summary of
this ten years' study in a few pages would not be profitable, we can only trust that the
earnest student will readily avail himself of the existing volumes and be possessed of all
the structures and explanations that have been offered.
In the series we draw attention to key passages and points of dispensational interest, so
that we may be free to pass on to those remaining books of the New Testament whose
exposition is needed to make this series "Fundamentals of Dispensational Truth"
complete. In the first place, the reader should observe the overlap that is evident in
Acts 1: 1-14. Luke refers to "the former treatise" and Acts 1: 1-14 is largely a resumé of
Luke 24: The "Acts" proper begins with Acts 1: 15.
A | 1: 1-14. The former treatise.
All that Jesus began to do and to teach.
A | 1: 15 - 28: 31. The present treatise.
All that Jesus continued to do and teach,
through the ministries of Peter and Paul.