Is the Novel Coronavirus 2019 the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse?

 

Is the Novel Coronavirus 2019 the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse?

I am writing this in April 2020 and from what I see from this vantage point in history it appears that Covid-19 has both the transmission rate and the Case Fatality Rate to potentially kill a large chunk of mankind. If it can kill 25% of the world’s population that would make it a contender for being the Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse – which raises the question “is it?”

Certainly I believe that we are living in the “end times” and thus the period of time in which one might expect the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse to turn up.   

Before discussing things further let’s look at what I mean by the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse. The 4 horsemen of the apocalypse are described in Revelation Chapter 6 verse 1 to Chapter 6 verse 8.

The First Horseman of the Apocalypse is described in Rev 6:2 which in the KJV reads as follows:

And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

The Second Horseman of the Apocalypse is described in Rev 6:4 which in the KJV reads as follows:

And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

The Third Horseman of the Apocalypse is described in Rev 6:5 to 6:6 which in the KJV reads as follows:

And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

(As I understand it, when translated to today’s units this one is talking about needing to do a  day’s labor to earn enough food for a day. In other words there is a shortage of food making it very expensive).

The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse is described in Rev 6:8 which in the KJV reads as follows:

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

(Note that in the NIV the words “and with death” are translated as “and plague”. Is this plague the Coronavirus currently afflicting the world and originating from a beast of the earth, that is a bat?)

I must admit that in the past I expected that the 4 horsemen would occur during the 7 year great tribulation (which culminates in Jesus physically returning to earth to rule for a 1000 years – after which he creates a new heaven and earth).

As I strongly believe (for reasons I won’t go into here) that the church will be raptured before the start of the 7 year great tribulation I did not previously expect to witness any of the horsemen myself.

In hindsight I think that I was wrong to assume that the 4 horseman occur during the 7 year tribulation. I can remember as a teenager my Grandfather (who was a prophet) explaining to me that the chapters in Revelation are not necessarily linear with the events of one chapter always happening after the completion of the events of the preceding chapter. (Just like Genesis chapter 2 doesn’t follow on from the end of chapter 1 but expands upon what happens during chapter 1). I now think that it is possible that the 4 horsemen could occur before the tribulation and some of the horsemen may have already visited us.

If the current coronavirus plague is the fourth horseman that raises the question of where or rather when were the first 3 horsemen?  It is now rather obvious to me that horseman number 2 was World War 1 and World War 2 along with the associated communist takeovers and deaths of millions in China under Mao and in Russia under Stalin.

So then where is horseman number 1? I think you could make the case that horseman number 1 was when Europe (mainly Britain) took over and ruled the rest of the world. If that doesn’t count as conquering by a crown I don’t know what does. At one point in time North and South America and China and India and Australia and Africa and the Middle East and most of Asia were ruled by European monarchs (mainly Britain).  So yeah I think that would count as horseman number 1.

So then where is horseman number 3? You know what, I can’t find it. If the world wars were horseman 2 then we haven’t seen horseman 3 yet (the great depression happened before WW2 so that can’t have been it).

So I conclude that the current Coronavirus plague is not horseman number 4 because we have not seen horseman number 3 yet. If Covid-19 is part of a horseman then it would have to be horseman number 3. Could Covid-19 be horseman 3? - why yes I think it could.

If Covid-19 is a horseman then its initial damage will be economic rather than raw death count (because it would be horseman 3 not 4), and actually I think we are seeing that. While the Case Fatality Rate due to Covid-19 for places like Italy is quite high, that is probably due to a lot more Italians actually having the disease than officially counted. When all is said and done the CFR for Covid-19 will probably only be a few percent, which while very much higher than the common flu (0.1%) is still not something will kill 25% of mankind (yet).

I have been watching various videos showing that for some time now the world has been setting itself up for a great depression in various ways with bubbles of everything blowing up (real-estate bubbles, share market bubbles, bond bubbles etc, helped along by governments money printing not prepared to let economic cycles reset and debt to clear). The coronavirus (or rather the reactions of government to it) have put millions of people out of work and that is a shot gun full of pins to pop the various bubbles. The point is there are many secular authors who see us entering into a great depression now (triggered by Covid-19).

Now on top of the economic damage done by coronavirus to fragile food production and supply lines it is interesting that there have been reports of massive plagues of crop destroying locusts in Africa the Middle East and Asia. Here is an example of one report:

https://interestingengineering.com/plague-like-locust-swarms-sweep-saudia-arabia-east-africa-asia

As well as destroying current crops these locusts will likely breed leading to even larger future locust plagues. The point is for various reasons we do look like we could well be heading into food shortages and thus the arrival of the third horseman.

Now Coronavirus could also mutate into a more deadly version and then become horseman number 4 as well. In fact there is evidence that the second time around coronavirus is more deadly with the body’s immune system over reacting and killing itself in a cytokine storm (this also makes vaccines impossible which was why a successful vaccine was never developed for the closely related SARS virus). Just as with the Spanish flu the second wave was the most deadly, future waves of the coronavirus may be more deadly.

I conclude that the current coronavirus may well be part of the third horseman of the Apocalypse and is probably laying the ground work for the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse as well. Time will tell. I don’t have any current foreknowledge of what will happen, I am just comparing bible prophecy to what I see and seeing a possible interesting match coming up.

I pray to God that this is not what I suspect and that this is not the third or fourth horseman of the Apocalypse. Maybe if enough Christians pray (we are the salt of the earth) judgement can be averted for now?

 

 

 

 

America can be found in bible prophecy

I used to believe that the United States of America is not to be found anywhere in the bible and I used to tell that to people at a prophecy forum I used to post in. It didn’t particularly worry me that I couldn’t find America in bible prophecy (except maybe as Babylon) as there are many other nations also not specifically mentioned in the bible. For example my own nation of Australia is not specifically mentioned in the bible as far as I know. Many nations come and go without getting a specific mention in the bible.

Today however I am 100% convinced that the USA is the subject of prophecy found in the bible. In particular I believe that Isaiah 18 is a prophecy specifically about the USA.

I will make a case below as to why I believe that Isaiah 18 is talking about the USA. Now my interpretation of Isaiah 18 is not the only one that fits the words of the prophecy. The words themselves have multiple possible meanings. If you don’t agree with me then you don’t agree. I can’t present a water tight analytical case that proves that my interpretation must be the correct one.

(It’s not really “my” interpretation as many other people have come to exactly the same conclusion and written about it before me).

I guess to a certain extent my belief that my interpretation of Isaiah 18 is the correct one is based on my own intuition. I would go further than calling it just intuition though and believe that it is an intuition inspired by God, I guess I am claiming a certain level of divine revelation in knowing that Isaiah 18 is a prophecy specifically to the United States of America.

Now the funny thing is that while I am 100% certain that Isaiah 18 is specifically about the USA I am not exactly sure what the prophecy actually is. That is I am not entirely sure exactly what is prophesied is going to happen to the USA in Isaiah 18 though I can analytically draw some general conclusions from the scripture.

I’m not a “KJV only” sort of guy (the original scriptures weren’t written in King James English) but I’ll quote from it as my English source, though I am more interested in what the original Hebrew words say.

I’ll also give the disclaimer that I have no training in Hebrew but only know what I read from the dictionary.

So let’s start then. The first verse in Isaiah 18 (KJV) reads “Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: ”

Now let’s read it again this time in Hebrew “הֹוי אֶרֶץ צִלְצַל כְּנָפָיִם אֲשֶׁר מֵעֵבֶר לְנַֽהֲרֵי־כֽוּשׁ׃”

And if like me you don’t speak Hebrew let’s read it again with an English alphabet and with the dictionary (Strong’s) of what the words mean using Blue Letter Bible translation (https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/isa/18/1/t_conc_697001): “Howy (Woe) 'erets (land) tsĕlatsal (whirring/buzzing) kanaph (wings) `eber (beyond) nahar (river/s) Kuwsh (land of descendants of Cush i.e. land of African’s)”

Let’s look at the word צְלָצַל /tsĕlatsal (Strong’s number h6767). The KJV has translated this word as “shadowing” but according to the dictionary (Strong’s) its more common meaning is whirring/buzzing.

According to https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/isa/18/1/t_conc_697001 the meaning of tsĕlatsal (H6750) is “a clatter, i.e. (abstractly) whirring (of wings); (concretely) a cricket; also a harpoon (as rattling), a cymbal (as clanging):—cymbal, locust, shadowing, spear”.

So the key idea behind tsĕlatsal is vibration. It can refer to a spear because a spear can make a vibrating sound as it whirs through the air. It can refer to a locust because a locust make a vibrating sound.

According to Blue letter bible the KJV bible itself translates tsĕlatsal as cymbal (3x), locust (1x), spear (1x), shadowing (1x).

The bottom line is that the KJV translation of tsĕlatsal as “shadowing” is due to the translator’s idea of what the whole passage is about and not forced by the word itself. The word itself really refers to vibration. It is not clear why the KJV translator thought “shadowing” was a good way to translate this word (though as they lived long before the invention of aero-planes they can be forgiven for having a limited understanding of the passage).

The other word to take note of is the word Kuwsh (כּוּשׁ) meaning a descendent of Cush (one of Noah’s sons) or the land of Cush’s descendent. The KJV has translated this as Ethiopia (which is no doubt correct) but as the biblical world view is that all people of African descent are descended from Cush I would argue (as I know others do – I don’t think it is controversial) that Cush can also refer to all of Africa not just Ethiopia.

I therefor believe that a perfectly legitimate alternative translation of Isaiah 18 (alternative compared to the KJV) is “Woe to the land of whirring/buzzing wings beyond the rivers of Africa”.

I note that the NIV translates Isaiah 18 as “Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush”

So the NIV has gone with “Whirring wings” as I have but has changed “beyond the rivers” to “along the rivers”. So the NIV has translated `eber as “along” whereas the KJV has translated it as “beyond”. There is often not an exact one to one translation between English and Hebrew or Greek which is why the NIV and KJV can translate the same Hebrew word with different English words. In this case though I think the KJV is closer to the original Hebrew for `eber than the NIV.

I see from the dictionary (https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H5676&t=KJV)) that `eber means “region beyond or across, side, opposite side” and is translated by KJV as beyond 21 times.

So if you go with the most common meanings of the words (for all the words) Isaiah 18:1 should be translated as I have done as “Woe to the land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Cush (Africa)”.

When I saw what the Isaiah 18:1 scripture actually says when translated properly (along with Isaiah 18:2) that is when I became convinced that it was talking about the USA.

Although I cannot prove it and this is just my words not scripture I believe that the term “buzzing wings” refers to aircraft wings with propellers on them (though even the sound of a jet engine probably aligns with the idea of tsĕlatsal – not that they had jets back in the day).

So basically the land which is the subject of this prophecy is a land of aircraft. Is the USA a land of aircraft? I would argue that it is.

If you look at a map of the world’s flight paths the only land area that can challenge the USA for density of aircraft movements is Europe. However as Europe is several different nations not just one nation like the USA no single nation has the same level of aircraft movements today as the USA. We also note that powered (buzzing wing) flight was invented in the USA and that despite the loss of much of its manufacturing industry the US aircraft manufacturing both civil and military is still going strong and dominates the world. (Europe has Airbus but again that is distributed over several nations). No other nation fits the description of “land of whirring/buzzing wings” as much as the US does.

I’ll also mention that the word אוֹי/howy that is translated as “woe” in Isaiah 18:1 can also be translated as “Ah”, “Ho” and “Oh” – though by far its most common translation is “Alas” (see Blue Letter Bible).

Now let’s look at the next verse which is Isaiah 18:2 (KJV) “which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.”

Now let’s look at 18:2 with just a straight dictionary word for word translation:

“shalach (sends) tsiyr (envoy/messenger/ ambassador) yam (sea) kĕliy (vessel/thing/object/weapon/armour) gome' (papyrus/bulrushes) paniym (before/face/presence/open/upon/from/before the face) mayim (waters) yalak (go/come/depart/carry/bring) qal (swift/light/ fleet) mal'ak (angel/messenger/ambassadors) gowy (nation/people) mashak (drawn out/scattered/tall) mowrat (scoured/ smooth/ peeled) `am (nation/people) yare' (terrible/awe/feared/honored/respected) halĕah (beyond/further/yonder) gowy (nation/people) qav-qav (mighty) mĕbuwcah (downtreading/ subjugation) 'erets (land) nahar (rivers) baza' (divide)

With each word having so many options there are so many ways this could be translated (though the gist would be similar). I won’t explain all my reasoning here (or we will be here all day) but suffice to say I believe that a possible way verse 18:2 could be translated is “which sends ambassadors by sea in craft of papyrus over the waters going swiftly; messengers of a nation spread out and peeled (of its trees); a nation feared and respected far and wide; a nation mighty and dominating; a land divided by rivers”.

Note that in my translation the messengers in this verse are all the same messengers from the same nation – whereas in the KJV translation there are two completely different nations and in the NIV translation there are 2 completely different sets of messengers.

In the KJV translation the nation of buzzing (or shadowing) wings that will experience woe sends messengers to a completely different nation which is a nation spread out and feared far and wide (which one is judged?). In the NIV translation the nation of verse 2 is the same as the nation of verse 1 but the messengers of verse 1 are “from” the nation to experience woe and are a different set of messengers to those in verse 2 who are going “to” the nation feared far and wide which is also the nation to experience woe.

In my translation of 18:1,2 there is only one nation and one set of messengers. I believe that the NIV and KJV have both erred in their translator’s choice of punctuation. The original biblical Hebrew does not contain punctuation. Also unlike modern Hebrew biblical Hebrew does not contain tense (no difference between “go”, “going” and “gone” – or as far as the Hebrew word yalak is concerned between “go” and “come”). I believe that my different punctuation and use of the word “going” instead of “go” is therefore a legitimate translation based purely on the words. I also believe it is the correct translation. I certainly believe my translation makes more sense.

I also think that the craft of papyrus over the waters going swiftly are likely aircraft albeit modern airliners use carbon fiber not papyrus (but papyrus being thin, light and carbon based is a good way to say carbon fiber millennia before it comes into existence). But I only mention that as a point of interest, my interpretation that the verse is talking about the US does not rely on that interpretation.

Irrespective of whether there are one or two sets of messengers doesn’t really affect my interpretation that the nation is the USA as it’s the latter bit of the verse that I rely on to identify the USA as the subject of the prophecy.

While I’m on the topic I’ll also add that given the possible meanings of the words I see another possible interpretation for the first bit of the verse as being “which sends government (military) representatives by sea in armed craft of thin skinned material over the waters going very fast;” But again my identification of the nation as being the US does not rely on that interpretation being true.

It is the latter bit of verse Isaiah 18:2 which I use to identify America. While the NIV translates mashak (מָשַׁךְ) as tall people and mowrat (מוֹרָט) as a smooth (clean shaven) people I believe this is an incorrect interpretation. Rather than the people being tall I believe that the verse is saying that the nation (the land not the individual people) is spread out (large like the USA). Similarly in this verse I believe that mowrat does not mean that the people are all shaved of their hair but that the land is shaved “peeled” of its forests, the trees having been felled to make way for farm land. The USA is a large spread out nation and it is a nation which was once covered in trees (apart from the desert bits) but is now covered in farmland instead. So this description fits the USA well.

Comparing the KJV translation, the NIV translation and my translation of Isaiah 18:1 to 2 side by side:

KJV translation of 18:1,2 “Woe to the land shadowing with wings, which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia: That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters, saying, Go, ye swift messengers, to a nation scattered and peeled, to a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden down, whose land the rivers have spoiled!”

NIV translation of 18:1,2 “Woe to the land of whirring wings along the rivers of Cush, which sends envoys by sea in papyrus boats over the water. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers.”

My translation of 18:1,2 “Woe to the land of whirring wings beyond the rivers of Cush (Africa) which sends ambassadors by sea in craft of papyrus over the waters going swiftly; messengers of a nation spread out and peeled; a nation feared and respected far and wide; a nation mighty and dominating; a land divided by rivers.”

As stated earlier if the KJV translation is correct then the nation of buzzing (or shadowing) wings that are to experience “woe” in verse one are a different nation to the scattered and peeled nation of the later part of verse 2 and are in fact sending messengers to that second nation – which doesn’t really hang together well with the rest of the passage. Also note that the KJV inserts the word “saying” which absolutely does not appear in the original.

I think the NIV translation hangs together better but the second set of messengers appear out of nowhere and aren’t heard from again and don’t really do anything. I think that it is more probable that there is only one set of messengers and that the messengers of verse 2 are just a continuation of talking about the messengers of verse 1, I think that makes more sense. It also makes sense that the light skinned craft that is going swiftly (over the ocean) is an aeroplane (something not known in King James time).

Irrespective of who is right about the word “go” (I think I am) it is clear to me that the land of “buzzing wings”, the land that is “spread out” and “divided by rivers”, and the “mighty nation feared far and wide” is the USA. Last I checked the USA spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined.

I note that the KJV translator of Isaiah 18:1,2 has had no problem with inserting the word “saying” into the verse even though it has no analogous word in the original Hebrew (in order to improve readability). I also note that the NIV has no problem inserting a word that has no correspondence at all to the original scripture namely the word “skinned”. If I took the same level of liberty and was prepared to rearrange and insert words to make it clear what I think the verse is saying I would write the verse as “Ho, land of buzzing aircraft beyond the sea of Africa which sends government representatives by sea and in fast aircraft over the seas; government representatives of a nation spread out and cleared of its trees; a nation feared and respected far and wide; a nation mighty and dominating; a nation divided by rivers.”

To me Isaiah verses 18:1, 2 clearly identifies that this prophecy is meant for the USA.

Having established who the prophesy is about we now look at the rest of Isaiah 18 to see what the prophecy is about.

Isaiah 18:3 (KJV) All you people of the world, you who live on the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it, and when a trumpet sounds, you will hear it.

Isaiah 18:4 (KJV) This is what the LORD says to me: “I will remain quiet and will look on from my dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

Isaiah 18:5 (KJV) For, before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, he will cut off the shoots with pruning knives, and cut down and take away the spreading branches.

Isaiah 18:6 (KJV) They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey and to the wild animals; the birds will feed on them all summer, the wild animals all winter.

Isaiah 18:7 (KJV) At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD Almighty from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people feared far and wide, an aggressive nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers— the gifts will be brought to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD Almighty.

This is straightforward enough that I don’t think we need to go into the original Hebrew again, though I would of course retranslate 18:7 in a similar vein to 18:1,2.

The prophecy appears to involve some level of death and destruction for America. Though I have known people claim that 18:5,6 is not symbolic but a literal prophecy that American wild animals are going to be well fed on literal farm produce. That is there will be a bumper crop one year and as a result wild animals will be well fed. I don’t think that is what is being prophesied here. But I am not sure what is being prophesied (only who is being prophesied about).

My own take on this is that it is a prophecy of judgment on the USA which will involve large scale death and destruction and that is what verses 18:5,6 are talking about.

However there are 2 reasons why I believe that this is not a total destruction of America.

The first reason I believe that this does not involve the total destruction of the USA is that in Isaiah 18:5 the shoots are cut off with pruning knives. That is the whole plant is not cut down but rather it is pruned. The thing about pruning is that it is something you do to a plant not to kill it but to make it healthier and bigger and better in the long run. In the short term you injure the plant and do damage to it, you destroy part of it, you destroy the unwanted parts but in the long run the plant recovers and is healthier and more fruitful in the long run as a result of having been pruned.

Is the chapter talking about a major war or a major military strike on home soil or a world war or a civil war or perhaps a major natural disaster? I have absolutely no idea. The US has already had a major civil war and 2 world wars of course but they didn’t end with the fulfillment of verse Isaiah 18:7 so I don’t believe this prophecy has already been fulfilled by them.

The second reason that I don’t believe that Isaiah is talking about the total destruction of America is that verse 18:7 implies that at the end of this judgement the nation which is the subject of this prophecy is still around (and during the millennium) bringing tribute to Jesus when he is reigning in Jerusalem. (If the US is bringing gifts to the Lord at Mount Zion we are in the millennium with Jesus physically having returned to earth and reigning in Jerusalem).

We also note that at the end of the prophecy not only is the judged nation now bringing gifts to the Lord in Israel during the millennium but the nation has retained (or re-acquired) its status as a large nation respected far and wide.

Actually given that the prophecy ends with the survivors bringing tribute to the Lord as he physically reigns from Jerusalem during the Millennium – the judgement event would likely be the Great Tribulation.

Introduction to Christianity

The previous posts at this blog assume that the reader is already familiar with the basics of the Christian faith. The purpose of this post is to describe the basics of the Christian faith to someone who is as yet completely unfamiliar with them. As well as specifying what I believe I will also describe the variations of the Christian faith that other people believe (e.g. Catholic versus Protestant). In particular this is written for my friend Michael who noting that the Christian faith is important to a lot of people would like to know more about what it is that Christians believe (if only to understand the people in the world in which he lives in better). I am joyed to have this opportunity to share my faith with Michael and hope I do a good job.

Where to start?

I'll start by saying that Christians believe in God. God is a being who created the world. The Christian God is different to the Buddhist and Hindu belief about God in that Christians believe that God is separate from his creation. To some people the fact that God and his creation are separate is obvious but to many people particular from an Eastern (i.e. Buddhist or Hindu etc) background God and his creation are believed to be the same thing. That is Christianity along with Judaism and Islam is monotheist (there is only one God and he is separate to his creation) whereas Buddhism and Hinduism are Pantheistic (they believe that all is god).

Another way that the Christian belief about God differs from the pantheistic belief is that Christians believe that God is conscious and has a personality. That is God is a "Being" not a force or a phenomenon.

Having established that Christians are monotheists we will now look at how us Christians understand God differently to the 2 other monotheistic faiths of Judaism and Islam.

The main difference between the Christian and Jewish God and the Islamic god is that Jews and Christians believe that God is moral whereas Muslims believe that God is amoral. (I am not an expert in religions other than Christianity so only communicating things as I understand them).

Muslims believe that to say that God must be good is to limit his power and thus do not say that God must be "good" only that he is all powerful. As a Christian I would describe the god that the Muslims believe in as capricious.

Jews and Christians on the other hand believe that God is and must be morally good. That is we believe that it is very important to God that He is morally good not just all powerful. A lot of people will then ask how an all-powerful God who is also all good can allow bad things to happen in this world (note that this is not a question Muslims need to ask). Many people have rejected belief in the Christian God on the basis that they don't think that an all-powerful God who is also all good would allow evil to happen in the world. That is a difficult question to answer but as Christians we have faith that despite the evil we see in the world God is both all-powerful and all good. We attribute the evil in the world to man’s free will (natural evil e.g. people dying in a cyclone or earth quake we attribute to the “fall” – a term I will explain later. Basically had Adam and Eve never sinned God would be able to supernaturally intervene to prevent “natural evil”. When Adam and Evil sinned they gave an authority to the devil over this world that God respects to this day – but will one day remove. Just as the cops often know who the bad guys are but can't just lock them up but must follow due process it seems God too has a legal process to follow before he finally locks up the devil at the end of days - albeit this process is largely mysterious to us).

I’ll further add that like a lot of Christians I believe that God exists outside of time a bit like Einstein’s universe where past, present and future in the universe all exist together and it is just our perspective that changes. So perhaps I should say God “creates” the universe rather than “created” the universe. Some will say that if the universe exists outside of time why do you need a God also existing outside of time to create it. I can explain my answer to that question but it is a topic for another post – though it ultimately comes down to faith to a certain extent (my answers would be along the lines of “design” and my own consciousness and perhaps that an eternally existing God is easier to live with than an eternally existing universe). But I am getting off topic as I am talking about what Christians believe not why they should believe it (though asking why is a good question of course but that is a topic for another post). I fear I may be getting lost in philosophy rather than saying what Christians believe so I will try to stay on track. (Note that we see Jesus claiming to be outside of time when he says in John 8:58 "Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”")

The record of God’s creation of the world is recorded in the first chapter of Genesis at the start of the bible (The bible is divided up into books – written at different times by different authors – and books are subdivided into chapters which are subdivided into verses – the subdivision into chapters and verses is a modern thing which aids with referring to verses to other people). Traditionally Moses is considered the author of Genesis.

Many Christians interpret Genesis as saying that the universe was created in seven 24 hour days and believe this happened on the order of 5 or 6 or 7 thousand years ago. We call them “young earth creationists”. Many other Christians believe that the word for day which is the Hebrew word “Yom” can be legitimately translated as a long time period of indefinite duration and may correspond to many millions of years, we could call them “old earth creationists”. Young earth creationists think old earth creationists are evil heretics but we aren’t we are simply in touch with reality. The topic of this post is not the old earth creationist interpretation of Genesis so I will skip that here. A good website that explains the old earth understanding of creation is here http://www.reasons.org/ (When God said “let there be light” he was talking about the creation of photons in the big bang. The rest of Genesis is described from the point of view of an observer on earth’s surface not out in space).

Before moving on we first need to explain the concept of sin. Most human beings are born with an innate sense of right and wrong so I probably don’t need to harp on this too much. The term “sin” simply refers to the “wrong” in the term “right and wrong”. That is “sin” is that which is morally wrong. If you murder someone or steal something or commit adultery (cheat on or with someone) then you are sinning. There are numerous other ways to sin. To sin is basically to do evil to another person or to do evil to God.

Another topic I should broach to put the rest of this post in context is the concept of heaven and hell. Christianity, Judaism and Islam all believe in the concept of heaven and hell. That is the 3 Abrahamic faiths all believe that the soul (and with it a person’s consciousness) all survive death and spend eternity in either a place of punishment or a place of reward (not all Christians believe hell is eternal but most do and all believe that heaven is eternal). Where the faiths differ is in their beliefs about how one avoids hell and instead goes to heaven after death.

Not all religions believe in a heaven and hell, some for example Buddhism and Hinduism believe in reincarnation (and eventual nirvana) in this world.

The answer to the question how does one avoid hell and go to heaven after one dies differs slightly between Catholics and Protestants and also among Protestants. We will get to the answer later in this post. The take home point is that Christians of all persuasions believe that God is intimately concerned with the good and evil everyone does in this life and holds everyone accountable for the morality of their actions. Some people believe that God created the universe but then watches it unwind from far of not concerned with what individuals do. Us Christians believe that God does care about the morality of what we do and that after death we will all have to give an account of our life to him. So while God does not always intervene to stop evil in this life he will eventually judge all evil that is committed in this life.

Christians differ over what they believe hell involves. Believing in eternal punishment is hard for many people. Some people believe that hell is a place where the wicked are actively punished (the bible does seem to indicate that) others that it is simply the suffering that results from being separated from God (the source of all good) for eternity. Whether the fires of hell are symbolic of suffering or literal it is clear that it is not a place where you want to end up after death. What heaven consists of is also mysterious but its clear that it is a place where you do want to end up after death. To go to heaven is to spend eternity in God’s presence and to go to hell is to spend eternity separated from God. God cannot stand evil and basically we Christians believe that heaven will be populated with people who are free from sin.

At this point you might be thinking – “I got it - the good people go to haven the bad ones go to hell so try to do more good than bad and you might make it into heaven”. Actually a lot of people do believe that – including people of the Jewish faith - but according to the Christian bible it is not actually how it works. You see the problem is that according to the bible everyone is a bad person and everyone is too sinful to go to heaven and everyone deserves to go to hell. But God has a plan to get people into heaven anyway which we’ll get to later in this post.

Jesus’ sermon on the mount goes beyond the ten commandments and points out that not sinning does not just mean not sleeping with another man’s wife but not even thinking about sleeping with another man’s wife, it means not just not murdering but not even wanting to murder. A standard none of us can keep of course. But God has a solution which we will get to later.

Another theological point I should point out is that another difference between Jews, Muslims and Christians is that whereas Jews and Muslims believe that “God is one” Christians believe that God consists of 3 persons (each with their own “will”) but who are all the same being we call God. Strictly speaking our Christian belief is illogical but we believe it anyway. The concept of God being 3 persons but also only one Being is named the “Trinity”. Us Christians believe that the 3 persons who make up the Godhead are God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God the Son is another name for Jesus Christ who was born around 2,000 or so years ago. The Muslims believe that us Christians are pantheists who believe in 3 Gods but we do not regard ourselves as pantheists who believe in 3 Gods but rather we are monotheists who believe in only one God.

Sorry if this is getting a bit disjointed and if I jump from point to point but I will also point out that the bible is subdivided into an Old Testament section and a New Testament section. The first set of books which are called the “Old Testament” are books written before Jesus Christ was born. The Old Testament books of the Christian bible are totally identical to the Jewish bible (except some books are in a different order).

The New Testament books are books written about what happened immediately prior to the birth of Jesus and what happened after the birth of Jesus. There is about a 400 year gap between the Old and New Testament books (where God stopped talking to Israel). The Old Testament books of the bible basically record God’s dealing with the nation of Israel (Jews are from the tribe of Judah of the nation of Israel).

Christians believe that the way to go to be “right with God” (to be in Gods good books so to speak) was to be a Jew up until the time of Jesus birth. Where Jews and Christians differ is that they disagree on who Jesus was/is. Us Christians believe that Jesus is God himself born into human flesh. Religious Jews don’t believe that - though Jews are waiting for a “Messiah” promised in the Old Testament books. Christians believe that Jesus is the “Messiah” promised to the Jews in the Old Testament (Jews are still waiting for someone else to be their Messiah).

Now we get to the central point or rather the central Person of the bible namely Jesus Christ. “Jesus” is his name “Christ” is his title (“Christ” means “messiah” which means the One God promised to the Jews in the Old Testament). Actually when he was on earth Jesus’ name was actually pronounced Yeshua. “Jesus” is an Anglo-Saxon way of saying the name Yeshua. Or rather “Jesus” is the Anlgo-Saxon (or at least Germanic) way of saying “Iesous” and “Ieusos” is the Greek way of saying the Hebrew (Jewish) name Yeshua (also spelt Jeshua, or Joshua). We trust that God knows you mean “Yeshua” when you pray to “Jesus”.

The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are recorded in the New Testament in the books Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. These are known as the 4 gospels (“gospel” means good news) i.e. the gospel of Mathew, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of Luke and the gospel of John. Mathew, Mark and John are eyewitness accounts from men who were Jesus disciples whereas Luke’s gospel is written from other sources (Luke not being an eye witness himself).

Christians believe that as recorded in the 4 gospels Jesus was born from a virgin named Mary (actually Mary is an Anglo-Saxon or at least Germanic way of saying her Jewish name which was actually Miriam). Christians believe that as recorded in the gospels Jesus had no human father but that rather his father is God himself – God the father. Christians believe that Jesus is 100% human but also 100% God. Incidentally you’ll note that in the gospels Jesus often refers to himself by the title “Son of Man” (apparently Jesus thought that his distinguishing feature was that he was human). Jesus is also referred to by the title “only begotten Son of God”. All Christians regard themselves as sons of God but the title “only begotten” refers to the fact that Jesus is the only Son with God as his biological Father.

Christians believe that Jesus lived a totally sinless perfect life. And now I will get to the crux of the matter. Christians believe that God the Father allowed Jesus to be executed by being crucified on a cross by Roman soldiers (at the Jewish leader’s request). Christians believe that God the Father accepts the death of Jesus his Son as sufficient punishment and payment of the penalty for all the sins that we have ever committed or will ever commit. We believe that no one needs to go to hell to be punished for their sins committed in this life because God the Father has executed and punished Jesus in our place for the sins that we have committed. That might not make sense to you but the main thing is it makes sense to God.

Christians believe that because Jesus is human he is related to each one of us biologically and as a member of the family he has the right to swap places with us to take our deserved punishment. Because he is not only (biologically) related to us but He is also sinless and didn’t deserve to be punished he could swap places with us and receive our punishment instead of ourselves. Because he is God himself (and so worth infinitely more than any man) his death is not only sufficient to pay the penalty deserved by just one or two men (or women) but sufficient to pay the penalty for all the billions of men and women who have ever lived or will ever live. That is essentially the “gospel message”.

While I am on the gospel message I should also include the fact that Jesus did not stay dead but rose bodily from the grave and was seen by numerous people before ascending to heaven. Jesus then sent God the Holy Spirit to dwell within us until he bodily returns again one day.

You will note however that while Jesus died to save everyone (from hell) not everyone actually is saved. Some people believe everyone is saved no matter what but it is clear from the bible that this is not the case. So the question is what distinguishes the “saved” people from the “unsaved” people. This is where you will get different answers from different denominations of Christianity. All Christians both Catholic and Protestant agree with the gospel message in the above paragraph – that Jesus death on the cross is what means we can be saved. The main divide between Catholics and Protestants (everyone who is Christian but not Catholic) is that Catholics believe that good works are still required for salvation whereas Protestants believe that we are saved not by doing good works but only by having faith in Jesus and what he has achieved by dying on the cross for us (and rising from the dead again).

While we are on the topic another divide between Catholic and Protestant is that Protestants believe that the bible is the sole authority on church doctrine (e.g. how to be saved) whereas Catholics believe that tradition such as pronouncements from the pope hold equal authority to the bible. Another difference is that Catholics pray to Mary and other saints but Protestants pray only to God (Jesus or God the Father).

Catholics will happily admit that they believe that your own good works are required for salvation as well as Jesus death on the cross. Protestants (i.e. Anglican, Baptist, Uniting church, Presbyterian, Pentecostal etc) will all mostly agree that we are saved by grace alone through faith without good works. The protestant belief can be summed up in the phrase “salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone”. However in practice a lot of protestants while professing to believe in salvation by faith alone (we call this “giving lip service”) in practice end up preaching salvation by works (similar to the Catholic position).

For example some Baptists will say that to be saved as well as needing faith in Jesus you also need to be baptised (immersed in a pool of water). Some Pentecostals will say that to be saved as well as needing faith in Jesus you also need to show that the Holy Spirit dwells within you by showing a miraculous work such as speaking in tongues (a gift of being able to speak in another language you did not learn). Many Christians will say that to be saved you need to have Jesus as your Lord. A common (though misguided) saying is “unless Jesus is Lord of all he is not Lord at all” this is also known as Lordship salvation (which ultimately boils down to “do enough good works to be saved” as if Jesus death on the cross didn’t totally save us but merely lowered the bar a bit). The fact is Jesus is already Lord of all (that’s what it means to be God) we can’t give him that position he already owns it. If we could do enough good works to be saved he wouldn’t have needed to die on the cross for us in the first place.

You may now be asking “exactly what do I need to do to be saved”. There is an easy answer to that question that I will give but first I will lament that fact that its amazing how many Christians (including myself in the past) can’t actually give the correct answer to that question. The first answer to that question I heard as a small child was to pray a prayer asking Jesus to “come into my heart” but that is not a biblically based answer (it refers to Revelation 3:20 but it is actually a misuse of that verse).

Another very common answer to the question what must I do to be saved is to “pray the sinner’s prayer”. At my church most Sundays the unsaved will come down the front and parrot the words that the pastor tells them to say which will be the “sinner’s prayer”.

Don’t get me wrong the “sinner’s prayer” is a great prayer to pray especially if you have just been saved but contrary to very popular Christian belief it is not actually praying the “sinner’s prayer” that saves you – especially if you are merely parroting whatever the minister tells you to say (rather it is the faith that motivates you to pray the prayer that saves you). If you think the sinners prayer saves you point out to me in the bible where it says this is so. The fact is the bible does not contain the “sinner’s prayer” nor does it contain any record of someone being asked to pray the sinners prayer or being saved because they prayed the sinners prayer.

Now if you have just been saved then telling Jesus about this fact i.e. praying the sinners prayer is a very natural thing to be doing but just be aware that no ritual including the “praying the sinners prayer ritual” actually saves you (particularly if you are merely parroting whatever someone else has told you to pray).

The mechanism of salvation which does have a biblical basis because its what the bible actually teaches is simply believing in Jesus and that his death on the cross and resurrection has paid the penalty for all your sins. Jesus who is God has given you his righteousness in exchange for your sins by dying on the cross in your place. If you BELIEVE that then you are already saved. You were saved the moment you believed that.

Note that you cannot choose what to believe. You either believe something or you don’t. If you believe in Jesus (who he is – Lord and Saviour) and that he has died on the cross as payment for your sins then you are saved but that is a belief given to you by God in his grace its not a work you have done. That is you are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

Note that you don’t require faith in your faith but faith in Jesus. There is so much more to talk about but having just covered the gospel message I don’t want to water it down by getting of track on some other tangent so I will finish this post here.

If you have just come to faith in Jesus then you are already saved and so because you are saved (not in order to be saved) it would be odd if you didn’t verbalise and communicate with God about your faith in Him so you should pray the sinner’s prayer. As the sinners prayer is a prayer from your heart not a ritual you do to be saved – exactly what words you pray are up to you not for me to tell you what they are 

PS: As long as we are on the topic of salvation I will also give some versus referring to salvation namely John 3:13-18 "No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

Note that in the above verses Jesus being "lifted up" refers to Jesus being crucified and lifted up on a cross for all to see. (The Old Testament records an incident in the book of Numbers 21:9 in which people were healed by looking at a bronze snake on a stick - this is symbolic of Jesus many centuries later being attributed with our evil and lifted up on a cross to die as punishment).

Here is some more about Jesus from the Old Testament (Jewish bible) written about Jesus around 800 years before Jesus was born. Isiah 53:3-12

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.

By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.

Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

7 works required in the Kingdom Gospel

One of my favorite Mid Acts preachers that I like to listen to on Youtube is Pastor Ron Knight of Northern California Grace Fellowship (http://www.norcalgrace.com/)

Unfortunately like all other Mid Acts teachers he is not Charismatic (i.e. he does not believe supernatural gifts of the spirit such as healing or prophesy are available to us today). If you overlook that flaw he still gives a lot of good teaching.

Here is a link to his talk on the 7 Required Works for the Little Flock (Messianic Jewish Church).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfVKE4p-ZWo

The 7 works he claims will be necessary for salvation for believers during the tribulation (once the time of the Gentiles / age of grace is over) are:

Required works for Israel in the Kingdom Gospel

1) Confess the name of Jesus as the Messiah before men. Luke 12:8-9, Mat 10:32-33

2) Water baptism. Mat 3:11, Jhn 3:5, Mat 28:19

3) Baptised in the Spirit. Mat 3:11, Jhn 3:5, Mat 28:19 (<- this is not a work you do)

4) Baptised by fire (great tribulation). Mat 3:11 (<- this one is open to debate albeit I believe it)

5) Cannot blaspheme the Holy Spirit. Mark 3:29, Mat 12:31

6) Cannot take the mark of the beast. Rev 14:9-10

7) Love your neighbor. James 2:10-18, Mar 12:31 + Mat 7:21**

Personally I would remove number 3 from Pastor Ron Knight's list above as receiving the Holy Spirit is not a work that you do rather the infilling of the Holy Spirit is a gift to you. The Holy Spirit fills believers during the gospel of grace dispensation too. I would replace this point number 3 (in order to keep the number of items at 7) with another work required in the Kingdom Gospel which he did not mention which is forgive your neighbor Mat 6:14-15 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” And similarly Mar 11:26.

To avoid any confusion let me also point out that today all believers are baptized in the Holy Spirit as a sign of their salvation (the baptism in the Spirit is a gift to you not a work you do) 1Co 12:13, Eph 4:5***

** Here I have added Mar 12:31 (love your neighbor is God's law i.e. will) to Mat 7:21 (do God's will to be saved) to conclude "love your neighbor to be saved" is part of Kingdom gospel. However as long as I am mentioning Mat 7:21 I would be remiss if I did not also mention John 6:40 (God's will is that you believe in Jesus).

***The one Baptism is not water baptism unless you wish to claim that you are not baptised in the Holy Spirit. But all believers are baptised in the Holy Spirit as assurance of salvation.



Note: that the standard Mid Acts Dispensational belief is that not only was the Kingdom Gospel (which Jesus and the disciples preached) active up until Jesus died on the cross but it was still active after Jesus resurrection until at least Pentecost and in fact up until Paul's conversion (recorded in Mid Acts) after which it was replaced by Paul’s “my” gospel (communicated to him by the risen Lord Jesus – and also hinted at by Christ before his death John 3:13-18 and at the Last Supper). The Jews final (predestined) rejection of Jesus as the Messiah at the stoning of Stephen was likely the switching point from the Kingdom Gospel to the new gospel of grace that Paul introduced (the same Paul who consented to Stephen’s stoning).

And in fact the Kingdom Gospel will again be active after the rapture of the body of Christ during the 7 year great tribulation. The time of the Gentiles ends at the rapture of the body of Christ whereupon God picks up dealing with Israel again where He left off (at Paul’s conversion and the dispensation of grace) dealing with Israel according to the Kingdom gospel. Jesus will then reign physically from Jerusalem (with the devil locked up) with Israel a nation of priests for 1000 years – after which there will be the great white thrown judgement and then He will create a new heavens and earth.

Note that the purpose of the rapture is not to stop Western Christian’s from suffering – there is still plenty of Christian martyrdom today – just ask Christians in the middle east - rather the purpose of the rapture is to restart the Gospel of the Kingdom in order to fulfill prophecy and make Israel fulfill God’s plans for them (they will get it right – accept Jesus as their Messiah and become a nation of priests ministering to the rest of the world – in the end).



I'll also point out that while I am grateful to be saved by grace and that I don't need to do any works to be saved I have confessed the name of Jesus as my Lord and Saviour before men and will continue to do so, I was water baptised and while I agree that the baptism in the Holy Spirit is the only baptism in this dispensation period I personally don't have a problem with people being water baptised as a sign, I am baptised in the Holy Spirit as a confirmation of my salvation, I trust God to give me strength to overcome any trials I face, I certainly won't be blaspheming the Holy Spirit or taking any marks of any beasts (though I don't expect to be here then) and it is certainly my aim to love my neighbour as myself (again grateful to be saved through faith) and certainly my aim to forgive those who trespass against me (how much more does this apply to us today saved by grace albeit I am grateful that my salvation does not depend on it).

Am I the world’s first Charismatic Mid Acts Dispensationalist?

I have just typed the phrases "Charismatic Mid Acts Dispensationalist", "Charismatic Mid Acts Dispensationalism" and "Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalism" into Google and I get zero hits for any of them. This makes me ask “could I be the world’s first Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist”?

When one considers that obviously the apostle Paul was also a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist the answer to that question would have to be no I am not the world’s first "Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist" rather the apostle Paul was the world’s first “Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist”. Indeed it’s precisely because Paul was a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist that I am one too.

You’ll note that I didn’t call myself a “Pentecostal Mid Acts Dispensationalist” as this would be a contradiction in terms, it would be like calling yourself a “Start of Acts Mid Acts Dispensationalist” which would be contradictory. So to avoid potential confusion I call myself a "charismatic" rather than a pentecostal" but I believe that we have the same gifts of the Spirit made available at Pentecost because believers are still in dwelt by the same Holy Spirit that the apostles recieved at Pentecost.The Holy Spirits power is not limited in any dispensation.

I have not always been a Mid Acts Dispensationalist. In fact despite being nearly 50 years old and having been raised in the church and spent all my life in the church I have only been a Mid Acts Dispensationalist for a year or two.

How can one spend so long listening to Christian sermons yet only after nearly half a century come to an accurate understanding of the basics of the Christian faith? The answer is “because so few pastors/ministers understand it themselves”. If Google internet hits are anything to go by churches that teach Mid Acts Dispensationalism are rare and churches that teach Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalism totally non-existent.

You may say to me “Rodney I know that you are no one special with no particular teaching or leading gift but if you (apparently*) currently have the world’s most accurate theology then should you not be teaching it to everyone else?” If you ask me that I will reply that I am currently writing this post to discuss CMAPD so the job is done. If you didn’t find this post then perhaps you didn’t get the grace to find it (you’ll still be OK though as long as you did get the grace of coming to believe that Jesus who is God shed his blood and died on the cross in your place to pay the penalty for all your sins and in exchange gives you his righteousness so that you stand sinless before God. Jesus the only begotten Son of God rose bodily from the grave and ascended to heaven in his resurrected body and will come back bodily from heaven to reign on the earth. Fortunately you can get the timing on the last bit wrong and still be saved, you can even not be a CMAPD and be saved, a childlike faith in Jesus and his death and resurrection is all you need).

(*I really hate sounding arrogant or boastful but in order to have more accurate theology than me you need to be a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist too. I don’t see any other CMAPDs round about so what else am I to conclude than that I currently have the world’s most accurate theology? I so hope I am wrong about that. I just have to convert one other person to the CMAPD theology and I may no longer have the world’s most accurate theology – assuming I even do now – maybe there are other CMAPDs in hiding?)

I became a CMAPD after trying to resolve my difficulty with the fact that James appears to contradict Paul. I read various explanations on the internet trying to claim that James doesn’t really contradict Paul but none of them were convincing to me. I have a penchant for logic (I need accurate logic to make my living as a computer programmer and I needed it to get the math’s right for my physics PhD thesis – among other things. My world just doesn’t work without logic). Some people can believe things which don’t make logical sense as long as it agrees with their core principals, we might call these people “Feelers”, other people can’t believe something to be true if it isn’t rational (or at least rational that you can’t understand it – like the concept of the Trinity) we might call these people “Rationals”. I am the latter. As a result I just could not live with James and Paul contradicting each other.

Despite my “rational” personality type as a young man I thought I was being virtuous by believing the contradictory theology that we were saved purely by faith alone without works as per Paul but also simultaneously saved by faith plus works as per James. Now I just see that as contradictory and not virtuous to be illogical like that (though I make no apologies for believing that God the Son and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are distinct persons who are all God and that there is only one God i.e. I am a monotheist not a polytheist).

Actually all of us have principles that we’ll stick by no matter how contrary the evidence or illogical sounding (including atheists and evolutionists etc who think of themselves as “science” types). We will all take a position and defend it come what may. The “Rationals” I like to think have a higher standard of ….. (or maybe we are just better at coming up with rational sounding arguments for what we want to believe). Anyway now I have got thoroughly off track. Sorry I’ll return to the theological topic at hand.

Basically I was trying to say that I had a real problem with the fact that James 2:24 (NKJV) says You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only. Whereas in Romans 3:28 Paul says “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.” The rest of Paul’s letters also make it clear that we are justified by grace alone through faith alone without works e.g. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV) “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” So Paul would appear to contradict James teaching.

It’s not just the book of James that appears to teach works for salvation either there are numerous other places in the New Testament where it is implied that works are part of salvation. There are statements by Jesus and the disciples that imply works are part of salvation. For example in Mathew 6:14-15 (NKJV) Jesus says “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Now I would classify forgiving someone as an act you do and hence a “work” which would seem to contradict Paul (or rather it would seem Paul contradicts Jesus). “How do we resolve this?” I wondered.

Another example of people being judged by their works is Mathew 25. For example Jesus himself says in Mathew 25:41-43 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: ‘for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; ‘I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’”

In this Mathew 25 example people are shown being sent to hell not just for sins that they have committed but rather for good works that they have not done (sins of omission rather than sins of commission). This was said by Jesus himself and Jesus cannot have been in error in his theology because Jesus is God himself in the flesh. I wondered how to line this up with Paul’s claim that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone without works having anything to do with it.

Another example that implies that good works are necessary for salvation is Luke 18:18-20 “Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”

In these verses we see that Jesus responds to the question “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” by basically saying keep the commandments (He lists 5 of the 10 commandments). I wondered how to resolve this with Paul’s claim in Romans 3:28 that “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.”

These examples are by no means exhaustive; I could give other versus too that imply that works are necessary for salvation (from hell). Yet the apostle Paul wrote 13 letters which made their way into our New Testament which all consistently drum home the theme that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ and not by how well we obey the law. “Does Paul contradict Jesus, what is going on?” I wondered.

It sounded like there were 2 different gospels in the New Testament books, namely the gospel of salvation (from hell) by grace through faith alone presented in Paul’s 13 letters and faith plus works presented in the rest of the New Testament. Eventually I had to admit to myself that there ARE two different gospels presented in the New Testament.

I found the solution to this apparent contradiction in the theology of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalism (also known as just Mid Acts Dispensationalism – I don’t know any Mid Acts Dispensationalism that isn’t also Pauling Mid Acts Dispensationalism but MAPD is a better acronym than MAD so I’ll use the former acronym).

There is some excellent teaching (much better than I could give) on Mid Acts Dispensationalism around the internet including on Youtube. Unfortunately these MAPD internet sites are also universally not Charismatic which is to say that they teach that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing, prophecy and speaking in tongues are not given to Christians today but were only for the previous dispensation. That is very sad that they fall down like that but otherwise they have some excellent teaching.

My favourite Mid Acts Dispensationalist site is this guy http://doctrine.org/. It is such a shame he is not Charismatic (if he were I would give him the title of the guy with the world’s most accurate theology – though he is also in error in thinking that Paul wrote Hebrews which he didn’t).

I can remember at one of my old churches (Anglican) asking someone the question “how could the gospel that Jesus and the disciples preached before his death and resurrection be that - Jesus had died on the cross to save you from your sins - if Jesus had not yet died on the cross?” At the time I thought I was being facetious by asking the question but it was also a genuine question.

For example in Mathew 4:23 it says “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.” Initially I assumed that the term “gospel of the kingdom” was short for the gospel that Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins but I wondered how this could be since Jesus had not yet died on the cross. The person I asked the question to at my Anglican church was horrified and thought I was being heretical - of course He was preaching that he had died on the cross to save people from their sins (before he died on the cross). To believe otherwise was heresy. In hindsight I see that I was asking exactly the right question – good on you me (it was like when I asked my high school physics teacher why if protons being positively charged they repel each other they stick together in the nucleus – I was told it was an invalid question but it wasn’t invalid it was a question with an important answer – for a physicist. So often the question you are not supposed to ask is actually exactly the question you should be asking).

It turns out that the “gospel of the kingdom” that Jesus and the disciples and John the Baptist were preaching is in in fact a different gospel to Paul’s gospel. People tend to think of Paul’s gospel as “the gospel” when we read the term “gospel” in Mathew, Mark, Luke and John but in fact the gospel that Jesus and the 12 disciples preached was the gospel of the kingdom and it was not identical to Paul’s gospel.

The term “gospel” simply means “good news”. The “gospel of the kingdom” was the gospel preached by Jesus and the disciples specifically to the Jews. Yes that’s right it was a gospel that Jesus was sent to preach to Jews only (Mathew 15:24 “But He answered and said, “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” – the gentile woman only got help when she lowered herself to the status of a dog).

To paraphrase - the gospel of the kingdom was the message to the Jews that their messiah as promised by the Old Testament prophets was finally here. Salvation meant believing in Jesus as the promised messiah. In theory had the Jews collectively believed that Jesus was the promised messiah Jesus would have set up his earthly kingdom at that time and the Jews would have at that time become a nation of priests sent to go out to the world and bring the gentiles to faith in Jesus the Messiah and King. Jesus and the 12 apostles and the authors of the non-Pauline books such as James explain how salvation worked (and will again in the future work) with Jesus physically present on the earth as Israel’s Messiah and King.

Now I say “in theory” because it didn’t (yet) work out that way because it was God’s intention that the dispensation of grace would occur during which time Paul’s gospel of grace is the one in effect.

Our current dispensation during which we are saved purely by grace through faith in Jesus and his atoning death on the cross is called the “time of the Gentiles”. Paul’s 13 epistles describe how this dispensation works. This is the time of the gentiles which Jesus refers to in Luke 21:24 “And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

There are far better presentations on Mid Acts Dispensation theology (with supporting versus) than I am paraphrasing here. I am just talking of the top of my head here. Here are links to some examples – but be warned that they are not charismatic (unfortunately there are not yet any Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist sites about).

http://www.twonewcovenants.com/twogospels/twogospels1.html http://www.understandingyourbible.com/whyconfuse.htm http://doctrine.org/paul-chief-of-sinners/ http://doctrine.org/the-great-prophecies-concerning-the-gentiles-the-jews-and-the-church-of-god/ http://doctrine.org/the-christian-myth/ http://graceambassadors.com/salvation/when-can-works-justify http://graceambassadors.com/midacts/list-twelve-preach-the-cross http://graceambassadors.com/midacts/one-lord-one-faith-three-baptisms http://www.friendshipbiblechurch.com/the-essentials-of-mid-acts-dispensational-theology/ https://www.bereanbiblesociety.org/part-1-the-dispensation-of-grace-mystery-or-prophecy/ http://graceambassadors.com/prophecy/mmlj/reasons-we-ought-not-to-follow-the-%e2%80%9cgreat%e2%80%9d-commission

The dispensation of grace began with Paul’s conversion recorded in mid Acts (i.e. Acts 9).

Most Protestants would agree that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone (or at least give lip service to the idea – many still manage to sneak works in somewhere). Where the Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology differs from the rest of Christendom is that MAPD claims that the 12 apostles did not know or teach that Jesus death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins until Paul revealed that fact to them (a fact that the risen Lord Jesus had revealed to Paul directly – not the disciples).

Most of Christendom thinks that the gospel that the disciples where preaching at Pentecost was Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone without works available because of Jesus sacrificial death that pays the penalty for all our sins. We know what gospel was preached at Pentecost because it is recorded in Acts 2:14-40. The gospel was “..Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” This gospel of repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins is the same gospel John the Baptist, Jesus and the disciples preached before Jesus death too. The gospel of the kingdom as preached by the disciples did not however refer to Jesus death on the cross as payment for our sins (at least not until Paul revealed it to them).

Mathew 3:1-2 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!”

Mathew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Mark 1:14-15 Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

The kingdom of God was at hand because Jesus the king was present. The word used for “repent” is actually the Greek word metanoia which technically means to change your mind (not change your works). Yet read in context we see it also implies changing your actions. For example in Luke 13:2-5 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? “I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.” In these versus the word Metanoia clearly implies repenting in the English sense of the word.

The gospel that Jesus and the disciples preached before his death on the cross and that was preached after his death at Pentecost clearly saved people (from hell). It was the gospel that taught that people would be forgiven from their sins by repenting and being baptised and believing in Jesus.

John 1:12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

John 3:18 He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Mark 16:6 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.

John 3:36 He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

John 8:24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

It is apparent to me that the belief that saved people after Jesus birth and up to and including Pentecost is the belief that Jesus is the promised Messiah and the Only Begotten Son of God. I believe that this is what it means to “believe in Jesus name”. People could see that Jesus existed physically but to be saved they had to believe in who he was which is the Only Begotten Son of God Israel’s Messiah. Baptism which was a Jewish ritual apparently existing before Jesus birth was also apparently important. (It was not until later when Paul revealed it that people not only understood who Jesus was but also what He had done by His death on the cross).

There are no verses in the bible that indicate that the gospel that the disciples taught up to and including at Pentecost (basically up until Paul’s conversion) included the fact that Jesus’ death on the cross paid the penalty for our sins. Yes they believed in forgiveness of sins by believing in Jesus but until Paul revealed it to them (after the risen Lord Jesus revealed it to Paul) they did not understand that the mechanism of forgiveness was by Jesus death on the cross. Note by the way that Jesus had the authority to forgive sins before his death (Mark 2:10-11 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the paralytic, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”)

The disciples were upset about Jesus death on the cross and Jesus going to Jerusalem to die because they did not know what Jesus death on the cross would achieve (even though Jesus had alluded to it in John 3:14-15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (The last supper alluded to it too).

Even after Jesus death on the cross the disciples (until Paul explained it to them) were upset about Jesus death on the cross and saw it as something that the Jews needed to repent off albeit they also saw his resurrection and defeat of death as proof He is God. Acts 2:36-38 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

The Mid Acts Dispensational theology claim is that even at Pentecost the disciples where unaware that Jesus death and resurrection had paid the penalty for our sins thus enabling salvation by grace alone without works. I agree with this claim based on my reading of the scriptures. The even more controversial bit is that Mid Acts Dispensational theology claims that’s the disciple’s gospel of the kingdom (that clearly saved prior to Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone even as late as Pentecost) could in theory have continued to save if the Jews had accepted Jesus as their Messiah even after his death and resurrection - without God instituting Paul’s gospel of grace.

The further claim is that the gospel of the kingdom will - after the “time of the Gentiles” ends with the rapture – again be the active gospel or dispensation. In the 1000 year reign (of Jesus physically present on earth in Jerusalem) after the 7 year tribulation the Jews will go on to be a nation of priests bringing the rest of the world into relationship with God and finally fulfilling the kingdom gospel great commission given in Matthew 28:16-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Understanding that we went from a kingdom gospel to Paul’s gospel of salvation by grace alone is perhaps not that hard to accept. What is perhaps harder to accept is that with the Devil and his angels bound (and unable to tempt anyone) during the millennium and with Jesus physically reigning on earth we will go back again to a kingdom gospel dispensation where James book will be the one you will need to be taking your marching orders from i.e. James 2:24 (NKJV) You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

In fact from numerous verses it would appear that even during the 7 year tribulation of Revelation (which is after the time of the Gentiles ends at the rapture and when the gospel of the kingdom becomes active again) one needs to show ones faith through ones perseverance. Mathew 24:13-14 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come. Also Revelation Chapter 2 numerous verses.

Now we can understand Jesus talking about salvation by works (obeying the commandments) in Luke 18:18-20 by saying that at the time that Jesus said that he had not yet died on the cross (so the Old Testament was still in effect). However that explanation doesn't hold for explaining why Jesus describes people being judged according to their works in Mathew 25:41-43 (what's more being punished for sins of omission not just sins of commission) because this takes place long after Jesus has died on the cross at the end of the age. How do we reconcile this with Paul’s gospel of salvation without works? In the Mid Acts Dispensationalist view we resolve this apparent contradiction because we see that the Kingdom gospel is back in effect, back to being the reigning dispensation after the members of the body of Christ who were saved by grace alone without works are raptured at the start of the tribulation. With the return to the Kingdom gospel Israel then returns to centre stage and fulfills her prophesied role.

In other words the people being judged in Mathew 25 are the survivors of the 7 year great tribulation – these are the people present when Jesus returns to earth - and they are being judged on how well they treated Jesus’ brethren – the Jews – during the great tribulation (under the Kingdom gospel). Mathew 25:41 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Mathew 25:45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’

The bottom line is that if you miss the rapture because you did not believe in Jesus at the time then as well as avoiding taking the mark of the beast and likely dying a painful death you will also want to find a Jew to serve. Sorry but God is a Zionist. (Many Christians die painful deaths today and in the past before the tribulation too of course and will be richly rewarded for it but they are saved by grace only).

If you do find a Jew to serve and you both survive the tribulation (and you are both believers) perhaps he will take you with him to Jerusalem (where Jesus is reigning). Zechariah 8:23 Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.” ’ 

Note however that in the current dispensation Jews and Greeks are equal. Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Sorry to jump about a bit and change topic but as long as I am discussing Mid Acts Dispensational theology let me also point out some other things that are part of discussing Mid Acts Dispensational theology.

Mid Acts Dispensational theology teaches that Paul was the first sinner saved by grace alone. This is shown in 1 Timothy 1:15 which is often mistranslated as Paul being the worst of sinners.

1 Timothy 1:15 (NKJV) This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

1 Timothy 1:15 (NIV) Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

While Paul’s mass murdering of Christians was pretty bad he is not likely to be the worst sinner who ever lived (he was a well meaning mass murderer of Christians). The level of badness of Paul’s sin is not actually the point at issue in this verse. The word that has been miss-translated as “worst” in the NIV is actually the Greek word πρῶτος which is pronounced prōtos (it’s where the word “prototype” comes from). The meaning of the word is actually “first in time or place or first in rank”. In this verse Paul actually means that he is the “first in time” not “first in rank”. In particular Paul is referring to the fact that he is the first sinner saved by grace alone (not the worst sinner ever).

Another doctrine of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology is that while all scripture is written for us not all scripture is written to us. For example the 10 commandments in the Old Testament are valuable and tell me what holy living looks like but I also understand them in the light that I am saved from my inability to live up to the law by God’s grace thanks to Jesus death on the cross. Most Christians would agree on the point. What is more controversial in the MAPD position is that the scriptures that we take our marching orders from today (that are instructive not just informative) are all of Paul’s 13 epistles from Romans to Philemon. Hebrews to Revelation are written to Jews living in the Kingdom dispensation that will become the active dispensation yet again when Jesus returns to earth after the rapture of the body of Christ. The kingdom dispensation was also the dispensation that applied during Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. That is Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are Old Testament books.

As long as we are on the topic of Mid Acts Pauline Dispensational theology I should also give some verses that point out that Paul claimed the gospel of grace was his gospel not a gospel that he learned from someone else such as the disciples (rather he learned it directly from the risen Lord Jesus Christ).

Rom 2:16 This will take place on the day when God judges people's secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.

Rom 16:25 Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past,

2 Timothy 2:8 Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,

1 Corinthians 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it.

Also check out http://graceambassadors.com/mystery/paul/pauls-my-gospel

Paul tells us that he did not learn his gospel from the disciples when he says Galation 2:6-7 But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me. But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

Anyway there are a lot of resources on the web to teach the tenants of Mid Acts Dispensationalism. The actual purpose of this post which I haven’t touched on yet is to point out where all the other Mid Acts Dispensationalist websites go wrong and that is that I have yet to see one which teaches that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing, words of knowledge, prophecy and speaking in tongues are available to believers today in this current dispensation of grace.

I think this is because the Mid Acts Dispensationalist theology is a very rational theology and so attracts very rational people. Rational people tend to have a problem believing in miracles (not all but many). I won’t write a treatise on why I think that is so here. The result is that Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalists tend not to believe that the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit such as healing and prophecy and speaking in tongues are available to believers today (I assume they still believe in the fruit of the Spirit such as love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness and faithfulness).

It’s such a shame that people who get so much right theologically have to fall down at this point.

The scriptural case for the doctrine that the “sign” gifts of the Spirit are no longer available today in this dispensation is very week at best and is in any case down right wrong. The belief that the sign gifts of the Spirit are no longer available today is wide spread in Christendom not just among the MAPD community.

The best scriptures that those opposing belief in the sign gifts can come up with to make their case that I have seen (and it is very week) is 1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

That verse is all they have and it doesn’t even mean what they claim it does. What 1 Corinthians 13:8 tells us is that one day the “sign” gifts (or supernatural gifts) of the Holy Spirit of prophecy, speaking in tongues and words of knowledge will cease. It does not say anything about when they will cease. There is absolutely nothing about 1 Corinthians 13:8 to indicate that the sign gifts will end as soon as Paul is converted and starts preaching his gospel of salvation by grace. The “unbiased” common sense reading of this scripture is that one day in the far future probably when these gifts are no longer required they will cease. When are these particular gifts no longer required? Answer: when Jesus has returned to earth and fulfilled all prophecy (locked the Devil and his angels up for 1,000 years) and Jesus is physically reigning on the earth. The purpose of this verse is to indicate how important love is not to give a timetable for when the sign gifts will end. The verse does not say when the gifts will end only that one day they will end. Common sense tells us they won’t be needed when Jesus returns but the bible doesn’t say when they are due to be removed. It would be odd if Jesus filled us all with the Holy Spirit but chose to limit the Spirit’s work by not letting Him heal people or give words of knowledge or prophecy. Of course He hasn’t done that and all the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit are still available to us today.

Also note that Paul did not write any Epistles until after he presented his gospel to the apostles in Acts 15 and Peter confirmed that Paul’s gospel was the gospel that now saved. Acts 15:11 But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.

Note that Peter had been given the authority to make such a pronouncement by Jesus. Mathew 16:18-19 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

The point is that Paul wrote all his letters after the dispensation of grace had begun (that is standard MAPD belief). Now as Paul’s letter to the Corinthians tells us that the gifts will cease one day in the future it implies that at the time that Paul wrote Corinthians the sign gifts of the spirit had not yet ceased. Paul says that they will cease not that they have already ceased. Yet when Paul wrote Corinthians we were already fully in the dispensation of grace as declared by Peter in Acts 15:11. This fact refutes the claim that the sign gifts ceased as soon as the grace dispensation began. Again in Corinthians chapter 14 we see that the gifts of tongues and prophecy are still very much alive and well in the dispensation of grace. Paul says in Corinthians 14:5 I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may receive edification.

Again note that Paul wrote Corinthians after the dispensation of grace had begun so that you can not say that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit don’t apply to the current dispensation of grace and only applied in the kingdom dispensation.

Standard MAPD doctrine states that in the current dispensation of grace the body of believers is known as the “Body of Christ” (not the bride of Christ – the Bride of Christ is Israel). That is if you see Paul talking about the “Body of Christ” you know he is talking about believers in the current dispensation of grace. So keeping that in mind lets read 1 Corinthians 12:7-13 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

Do these verses not sound like Paul is talking about the “Body of Christ” where Jews and Greeks, slaves and free are the same, where there is just one baptism as per the current dispensation? Do these verses not explicitly state that said body of Christ has the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit? How willfully blind do you have to be to declare that the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues are not available to the body of Christ today?

Paul’s gospel that we are saved by grace made available to us by Jesus death on the cross for us is the gospel that is preached in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians it is not the gospel of the kingdom. You cannot seriously claim that at the time Paul wrote Corinthians he was not yet saved by grace or not yet preaching the gospel of grace, you cannot claim that at the time Paul wrote Corinthians we were not yet living in the dispensation of grace. Yet Paul clearly tells us that the gifts of healing, prophecy and tongues are available to believers at the time that he is writing Corinthians.

That is why I am a Charismatic Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist not just a Mid Acts Pauline Dispensationalist.

(PS: In Pharaoh’s court magicians could fake some of Moses’ gifts but that did not mean that Moses gifts were not the real thing. Just like the discovery of a fake Noah’s ark does not mean that there was never a real Noah’s ark. Today some people are false prophets but that does not mean all prophecy is false. Some words of knowledge can be faked but that does not mean there are no genuine words of knowledge. Some people are fake and fraudulent healers but that does not mean there is no real gift of healing today).