 |
|
|
|
Featured Publication
|
|
Right Division
|
|
 The pamplet Right Division contains two articles, the Dispensational Frontier by Charles Welch, and The More Excellent Way, by Clifford McLain.
These two articles in our humble opinion, demonstrate the principle of “right division” 2 Timothy 2:15.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Dispensational Frontier of Acts 28:23-31
|
|
by Charles H. Welch
|
|
The Three “Sendings” of Acts
|
|
The First Sending. Jerusalem.
|
To Israel Only
|
Acts 3:26
Acts 13;46
|
Unto you first
First - to you
|
|
The Second Sending. Antioch.
|
To Jew and Gentile
|
Acts 13:26
|
To you is the word of this salvation sent.
|
|
The Third Sending
|
To the Gentile only.
|
Acts 28:28
|
The Salvation of God sent unto the Gentiles.
|
|
During Paul's "two whole years" of imprisonment at Rome, he received all that came unto him, preaching and teaching the truth especially designed to fill the great
parenthesis of Israel's blindness. During that imprisonment, he wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon, the comparative study of which, gives us all that Scripture
reveals of the wondrous revelation of the mystery. The Greek verb "to send," employed in Acts 28:28, is apestale and is in the aorist passive tense of apostello, the word that
gives us the substantive, "apostle." It is a sad reflection on human nature, even when it has come under the influence of redeeming love, to note that those who have supported
the translation of the aorist as " timeless,"(and so represented it many times by the word, "is"), suddenly find cause to raise an objection to our teaching, because Acts 28:28
should be translated "was sent." This of course is no new discovery. Readers who use either Rotherham, Darby, Cunnington, Weymouth or Moffatt have been aware of the
fact long before this outcry was made. The correction is also made in the margin of "The
Companion Bible," and so is recognized by all who are labelled, "Bullingerites." (What a
sign of poverty of argument this labelling is. The writer of these lines follows the spirit of Dr. Bullinger most when he differs most from that man of God). Seeing that in 1909 the
editor of The Berean Expositor joined forces with Dr. Bullinger at the commencement of his work on "The Companion Bible", this "discovery" at Acts 28:28 by our critics is
somewhat naive.
The fact that the salvation of God "was sent" could be discovered by any intelligent
reader of the Acts of the Apostles, for in his defence before Agrippa, the Apostle not only says so, but tells when the commission was given to him. The essential feature is,
that while the Apostle knew he was to receive a second commission and a second visit from the Lord, no hint was given him or recorded in the Scriptures until the rejection of
Israel was imminent, and the Mystery ripe for revelation. One has but to read the 20th chapter of the Acts to see that one ministry was ending and another was in prospect.
All the Apostle knew at that juncture was that this new ministry was associated with "prison" and that he would see the face of the Ephesians no more. At Acts 26 he at last
knew what the new commission was and declared before Agrippa that the long promised appearance of the Lord had now taken place.
|
|
|
|
|
|
