The Transition in Acts

The Book of Acts is the inspired history of the overlapping of two programs of God with men: (1) the continuation and phasing out of His program with national Israel; and (2) the beginning and early development of His present program of building a spiritual "new man," the church which is Christ's body, of all who believe the gospel of Christ from all nations. The book of Acts records a period of transition from one program to the other.

In the begining of the Acts period, the program and dealing of God with Israel nationally was in the forefront. The church which Christ promised to build (Matthew 16:18) had its beginning with the Holy Spirit's descent as described in Acts 2:1-4 (compare with 1 Corinthians 12:12-13), but the revelation of the church as a separate distinguishable entity, and the establishment of God's order for the worship and walk of its members, had not been distinctly made as yet.

At the end of the Acts period, God was "closing the books," as it were, with Israel nationally, for a period of time which would extend "until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in" (Romans 11:25-27); His church program had been brought to the forefront; and it was time for the full revelation to be given of God's program with men for the duration of Israel's national blindness.

We have shown in the illustration above that certain of Paul's epistles were written during the transitional Acts period, while others were written after that period (for a study on the internal evidence in scripture indicating when each of Paul's epistles was written, request "Paul's Epistles"). God's program with men during the time of Israel's blindness was partially revealed in the books of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. Its complete and final unveiling is found in Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon, all written after the Acts period.