Originally published in "The Lord's Coming Herald & Wesleyan Bible Prophecy Advocate," Fall Edition 2005
The Gospel Paul Preached
"Paul. . . preaching the kingdom of God" (Acts 28:30-31). Now, we might earnestly enquire, what were those things concerning the kingdom of God that Paul preached? They may be summarized briefly as follows.
1. He proclaimed its arrival. It was the same message that John the Baptist and Jesus Himself had heralded from the beginning: "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (Mk. 1:15). Jesus had instructed his disciples to "go and preach the kingdom of God" (Lk. 9:2,60). "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" (Matt. 24:14). Paul did that faithfully wherever he went (Acts 14:22; 19:8; 20:25; 28:23). He knew nothing of the false "postponement of the kingdom" theory taught by modern dispensational premillennialism. Instead, he proclaimed what the New Testament uniformly teaches, namely that the Messiah established His kingdom of redemption on earth at the time of His first advent. Like it or not. friends, those who postpone the kingdom till after the second coming are false prophets; they do not preach the same message proclaimed by Paul.
2. He promoted its agenda. Paul understood the kingdom of God to be "righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost" (Rom. 14:17)--an inward spiritual renovation of soul, or moral transformation of the inner man, into the likeness of God in righteousness and true holiness. Paul taught an agenda following an analogy that was exactly in keeping with what Jesus had said that the kingdom of heaven would be like (Matt. 13:24-52). He taught nothing of some future political and/ or military ascendancy and/or aggrandizement for racial Jews as would appease his Christ-rejecting countrymen's unregenerate carnal conceptions of Old Testament messianic prophecy. Instead, Paul openly disavowed all such pride and self-righteousness, based on race connections, as only like so much manure (Phil. 3:4-8)—worthless, and without merit in the eyes of a loving Heavenly Father, who is now calling all wayward sinners of the human family home.
3. Finally, he pressed its access. Paul understood that all true believers in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, were now,
in this present life, translated into the kingdom of Messiah (Col. 1:13), and
that they, and they alone, would be assured of a home in heaven at death, a
crown of righteousness when Christ returns (II Tim. 4:8, 18).
Devotees of the modern religious cult of false doctrine
called dispensational premillennialism, friends, do not preach the same gospel
as did the great apostles to the Gentiles. Their divergence from the gospel of Paul lies in this: while he preached the kingdom of the Messiah as a present reality, they are postponing the kingdom for the duration of this present age. Paul's gospel was one of realized messianism. Their gospel one of messsianism held in abeyance until some fancied post-second coming millennial era when Jesus comes to set their truncated understanding of his kingdom up.
If you are presently snared in the ideological delusions of modern dispensational premillennialism's church age parenthesis and postponement of the kingdom, the good news is that you can be delivered. All you have to do is to be open-minded, get over your carnal pride and ignorant prejudice, and be willing to study and learn.
Jesus said you had to be humble, open-minded, and teachable in order to be a Christian (Matt. 18:3). Are you? And if not, why not?
Related Article Links
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The Kingdom Of God In The Book Of Acts