PAUL:
APOSTLE TO THE GENTILES
PAUL:
APOSTLE TO THE GENTILES!
JAN LILLEBY
Just think about it – all the time from when God called and elected Abraham, up until He sent Moses to free the Hebrews in Egypt, and the following forty years in the Sinai wilderness. Think about…what?
Think about how God – during all that time – a span of around some 640 years, plus the time from Moses’ death until Christ – 1407 years, plus the time passing as described in Book of Acts, around 34 years (28-62 CE)….He did not send anyone to bring a salvation-message (gospel if you like) out to us Gentiles.
God dealt only with Israel the entire time described. Including also a minority of casual proselytes. Israel had proselytes among them the entire time, but that never meant the Law of Moses was preached out into other nations than Israel.
God did not send Moses out to any Gentiles after having given him the commandments on Mt. Horeb. Moses did not go preaching ‘The good news’ of the commandments to other than the Hebrews tent-camping on the plains of Sinai. These commandments and ordinances are mentioned by Paul as ‘The ministry of death’ – so actually there was no ‘good news’ connected to it (2 Cor. 3:7).
Maybe someone among you readers needs a little help to comprehend this fact.
You see, the Law of Moses, from the day it was established it not only was a Law telling Israel what they should observe, and what they were not permitted by God to do and so forth. No, the Law actually created a ‘Wall of Partition’ between us Gentiles (Greek: Ethnos, meaning nations, peoples in the world) and Israel. Thus Israel by that ‘wall’ created by the Law, was therefore also at enmity with the world outside. The Law actually expressed – “Keep Out – Only Israelites are permitted here!”
This is a non-negotiable Biblical and historical fact.
Paul brought this fact into the light by writing, Eph. 2:14, 15, (AMP Bible) -
“For He Himself are our peace and our bond of unity. He who made both groups—[Jews and Gentiles]—into one body and broke down the barrier, the dividing wall [of spiritual antagonism between us], 15: by abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the hostility caused by the Law with its commandments contained in ordinances [which He satisfied]; so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thereby establishing peace.”
Can you imagine if Moses had left the camp one day, and rode into Egypt or Canaan or any other nation at that time, presenting his God given Law, shouted and hollered…Hey there! All you heathens and Gentiles…Hear the Word of the Lord, Jehovah the Creator of heaven and earth!! Behold, from this day on you must stop eating pork meat, and meat of ducks…because this is unclean food in the eyes of God! And also you must keep the Sabbath or else you shall die! And other typical ‘You cannot’ and ‘You must’ commandments from the Law ?
You get the picture?
By this, Moses would have caused his own death: Israel was in enmity with the world! This enmity was CAUSED BY THE LAW, says Paul.
What if Jesus had done this?
Can you imagine Jesus riding out to the lands outside of Israel in the Empire, shouting: Hello everybody! I am the God sent Messiah King of Israel, and I can save your souls eternally if you only will believe on Me!!
They would see Him as a regular Jew or Israelite, a person under that Law of Moses…an enemy. Because Jesus and His apostles all lived and ministered under the Law. Jesus was circumcised as an infant according to the Law of Moses (Luke 2:21).
Jesus Himself said of His ministry, Mat. 15:24 (AMP Bible) –
He answered, “I was commissioned by God and sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
The ‘Wall of Partition’ existed in all the timeline of Jesus and His apostles as described in the four Gospels and Book of Acts.
But after Acts – namely found in Ephesians 2:14, 15, written in 63 CE, we find a sensation: The Law of Moses was no more! It was blotted out, abolished, littered, destroyed, and thrown into the garbage-grinder.
It happened (like Paul wrote) as Jesus died on the cross. This was in 28 CE, but God kept this a hidden secret in all the years from 28 to 62 CE.
Image: Moses smashing the tablets as he was infuriated over the peoples’ idolatry. They would not follow God or Moses. This incident was a prophetic foreshadowing of Jesus, letting the Law become crucified with Him on the cross. Jesus died because the Jewish people would not listen to God, as He sent them His Son, the Messiah! Those who think that the Law was not abolished (as Paul wrote in Eph. 2:14, 15) must re-think this. When the Lawmaker himself, Moses, in his time abolished it by smashing these tablets, then we know for sure that Jesus, Who is above Moses in power, abolished it. (Ex. 32:19).
Paul was told directly by Jesus in divine vision that this was so. Paul explains this in Eph. 3:1-9 and there is no doubt that Jesus revealed this to Paul directly.
The Law was intact in Acts period, and it is proven solidly by giving us incidents in which we, by reading Acts, find that the believers KEPT THE LAW of Moses in those same years, 28-62. Not even Peter or John had any knowledge of the Law having been abolished and crucified with Jesus already in the Passover 28 CE!
Paul went to the Synagogues (on the Sabbath) in the diaspora on regular basis, he kept the feasts, he had Timothy circumcised, he – at arrival in Jerusalem in 58 CE, went through the cleansing of the Jewish Nazirite by shaving his head and offering doves in the temple. He also wrote explicitly in Rom. 3:31 that the believers at this time still kept the Law, (AMP Bible) –
“Do we then nullify the Law by this faith [making the Law of no effect, overthrowing it]? Certainly not! On the contrary, we confirm and establish and uphold the Law [since it convicts us all of sin, pointing to the need for salvation]” Romans was written in 56-57 CE as Paul stayed in Ephesus.
If Jesus had not let the Law of Moses be crucified with Him, then He could not have created the Church, the ‘One New Man’ – the Body of Christ.
As long as the Law was intact (28-62 CE the time of Acts) there was no Church body, the ‘One New Man’ – it would only be the Jewish Acts Body, with its signs, miracles, tongues, prophecy, healings, and all what took place at that time. Peter raising Tabitha from the dead, Acts 9:36-43, - and Paul likewise bringing Euthycus back to life after he fell from the third floor hitting the hard brick street below, Acts 20:7-12. Or what of Paul casting out the demon of a fortune-telling woman, Acts 16:16-18…? Such things have not been seen on earth ever since. Miracles cannot be found after Acts 28 and Paul’s healing of the sick at Malta.
THE CHURCH BORN AT PENTECOST ACTS 2?
It is said in Christendom that the Church was born at Pentecost in Acts 2.
This is not possible.
I just showed you by exact Bible quotes above, how God kept the abolishment of the Law hidden from all, so that the entire time of Acts period was an era that only concerned the Kingdom-believers in Israel, including a minority of proselytes. The preaching was under the Law and assisted by the added New Covenant in the blood of Jesus. If Jewish believers failed and sinned, the Law could not pass any sentences of punishments, but their sins were forgiven by that New Covenant (Heb. 9:15; Acts 13:38, 39) – AMP Bible -
“For this reason He is the Mediator and Negotiator of a new covenant [that is, an entirely new agreement uniting God and man], so that those who have been called [by God] may receive [the fulfillment of] the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has taken place [as the payment] which redeems them from the sins committed under the obsolete first covenant.”
“So let it be clearly known by you, brothers, that through Him forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you; 39: and through Him everyone who believes [who acknowledges Jesus as Lord and Savior and follows Him] is justified and declared free of guilt from all things, from which you could not be justified and freed of guilt through the Law of Moses.”
.Even if Jesus let the Law of Moses be crucified with Him, God kept it hidden…and thus this action of God had not been applied in the entire time of Acts. The Church thus did not exist at all in Acts period. It came into existence the very day that Paul had his revelation of the Mystery, as we see in Eph. 3:1-9 – and the abolishing of the Law thus were made effective.
The Church was (not born) – created out of the two – Jew and Gentiles – being made into ‘One New Man’! This is a non-negotiable fact, and it is a historical fact. The Church thus came forth in 63 CE as Paul announced his revelation in the epistle to the Ephesians.
It must have struck like a bomb in Jewish circles…the thought of the Law of Moses having been littered/blotted out/abolished!!
AT PENTECOST WE FIND NO ‘ONE NEW MAN’ AT ALL
What we find is old prophesies fulfilled, and not a new dispensation.
Peter quoting Joel’s prophecy on the signs etcetera, but no mention at all of any church in which Jew and Gentiles were made into one body, thus creating peace.
Pentecost was God’s ‘Kick-Off’ for the twelve apostles to Israel, to have them clothed in power from on high by the Holy Spirit, like Jesus had promised these twelve (Acts 1: 4, 5 ) – AMP Bible -
“While being together and eating with them, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Of which,” He said, “you have heard Me speak. 5: For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized and empowered and united with the Holy Spirit, not long from now.”
The dispensation of the Church, the ‘One New Man’ - did not come on the spiritual scene before Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles sent his free Grace Gospel out via his helpers, as he himself sat jailed in Rome in his second jailing.
Since then we find that the Law of Moses must have been the basics for all doctrine of faith in Acts era, we learn that God gave His miracles, healings, signs, wonders, casting out of demons, raising of dead persons, etcetera, only to believers such as those, and never to the Gentile world.
Reading Ephesians and Colossians reveals to us that there are no such power-gifts given the Church, the ‘One New Man’.
We have only one great sign: We are promised the heaven up above heaven as hope of salvation, and not the earthly Kingdom of God, like the 12 apostles and their believers had (Col. 3:1-4).
Eph. 4:30 points us to a certain day, coming right up ahead, AMP Bible –
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [but seek to please Him], by whom you were sealed and marked [branded as God’s own] for the day of redemption [the final deliverance from the consequences of sin].”
