Comments Regarding Post-Acts 2 Dispensationalism

Editor's Comments: With the advent of the Internet and as Miles Stanford's writings became more available among a broader Christian audience, an odd phenomena occurred.  Various individuals who deny that the Church began at Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2, and who claim a later date for its advent, have attempted to promulgate as fact (a lie) that Miles Stanford believed views commonly associated with ultra or hyper-dispensationalism.  In their desperation to garner credibility, they claim he shared their views regarding the Body of Christ and seek to make him "one of their own."  They've even gone so far as to hijack the label, Pauline dispensationalist/ism, and appropriate it to their movement.  You know who you are!  Further, there are also those among the Traditional and Progressive dispensational views who find it both easy and expedient to push author Miles Stanford in that direction as well.  You know who you are as well!  See Dispensational Theologians.

The publication of these comments is not an invitation to debate the merits of the Acts 2 position vs. Acts 9/13/28 views, an exercise the latter can't seem to live without.  My experience over the past 15 years has shown me that individuals committed to the post-Acts 2 positions are seldom willing to consider the possibility of error, despite the fact that their movements suffer from contentious strife and internal divisions.  Based on 40+ years of research, the non-Pauline emphasis found in Traditional circles and the distorted views of post-Acts 2 groups can be traced to a common root—C. I. Scofield's theological synthesis of Isaac Watts's covenant/age-ism views together with John Nelson Darby's dispensational views.  Scofield's system of "dispensational age-ism" causes various problems.  For a comprehensive explanation, obtain and read: Dispensational Truth, Vol. 1, Roy A. Huebner, Bible Truth Publishers and/or his smaller publication, J. N. Darby's Teaching Regarding Dispensations, Ages, Administrations and the Two Parenthesis.  These are technical works for mature, studious Christians only.  Recommendation of Mr. Huebner's publications is not meant as an endorsement for all his views.    

The following are excerpts from various polemic papers written by Miles Stanford on the subject.

Comments by Miles J. Stanford

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF FOUR POSITIONS: We refer to scriptural dispensationalism which shows the Church beginning at Acts 2, not the moderate ultradispensationalism of Acts 9 (C.E. Baker), or Acts 13 (C.R. Stam), or the extreme ultradispensationalism of Acts 28 (E.W. Bullinger). 

CHURCH ERROR -- There is a movement extant which claims that the church did not begin at Pentecost.  Some in this group insist that it began with Paul at his conversion (Acts 9); another segment says that the church began when Paul was sent to the Gentiles (Acts 13); still another faction maintains that it began near the end of Paul's ministry (Acts 28).  This movement teaches that since the early converts were exclusively Jews, they comprised a Jewish, or kingdom church.  But the Word of God plainly refutes this.

CHURCH TRUTH -- 1) The Lord Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, "is the head of the body, the church" (Col. 1:18).  2) At Pentecost the risen Last Adam sent His Spirit to indwell permanently and to seal forever, all who believe.  "Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence."  "In whom...ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise" (Acts 1:5; Eph. 1:13).  3) At Pentecost the Holy Spirit baptized all who believed, into the Last Adam, into the one body.  "For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.  For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into on Spirit" (1 Cor. 12:12,13).

The Head began to form His body at Pentecost.  "And (God) hath put all things under his (Christ's) feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body" (Eph. 1:22,23).  And from Pentecost on, "the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved" (Acts 2:47).

There is only one church, and that is the body of the Last Adam.  "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women."  "And may people were added unto the Lord" (Acts 5:14; 11:24).  Note that the Word says they were "added unto the Lord," not just added to the company of believers, nor even to the church alone, but they were added to the Lord.  That is only possible by the baptism of the Spirit, and that occurred at Pentecost, prior to Paul's conversion.  [For an in-depth treatment of the true baptism of the Holy Spirit, see Chapter 2 of THE LINE DRAWN.]

Paul himself testifies that the church existed before his conversion, as he wrote to the Galatians, "For ye have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it."  And to the Corinthians he wrote, "For I am the least of the apostles, that am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God" (Gal. 1:13; 1 Cor. 15:9).

NO JEWS ALLOWED! -- Those who speak of a [exclusive] "Jewish church" are talking of something that never existed.  When a Jew or a Gentile becomes a branch in the true Vine*, a part of the church, a member of the body of Christ, he is no longer a Jew or a Gentile; he is a [born-again] Christian.  "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.  There is nether Jew nor Greek...for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:27,28).

There are many born-again Jews today who call themselves "Messianic Jews," or "completed Jews."  Impossible.  What these dear folks to not seem to understand is that if they have been born-again, they are no longer Jews in the first Adam, but Christians in the Last Adam.  The death of the Lord Jesus separated them from the first Adam, and His resurrection made them totally new creations in the Last Adam (2 cor. 5:17).

WHOLISTIC BIBLE -- Those who reject Pentecost as the birth of the church are wrongly dividing the Word of truth.  They maintain that small portions of the New Testament [last 27 books of the Bible] are for the believer, and relegate the remainder to the Jews.  But this cannot be, since "all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Tim. 3:16,17).  [Should this statement be interpreted to mean that every book of the Bible is equally applicable to Christians?  Of course not!  But even we, the body of Christ, can still learn invaluable truth from writings which were written by God and communicated to different audiences than ourselves.]

The burden of this paper is to guide you into the whole Bible for your wholeness, while revealing the differentiation necessary for your spiritual growth.  It must be 'delineation without decimation'--all of the Bible for all of the believer.  Excerpted from: Differentiation, Spiritual Sharing Service #12.

* The organic oneness first illustrated in John's Gospel (e.g., John 10:10; 15, and 20:22) foreshadowed the union which followed the baptism at Pentecost, and was a unique (complementary) event among Christ's disciples prior to the advent of the church at Pentecost.

ANTI-"ULTRA" -- Before going further, be assured that the dispensational aspects of the Word presented here are simply normal, clear-cut, Pauline teaching.  We have always been opposed to all so-called “ultra,” or “extreme” Dispensationalism.  We insist that the Church was born on the day of Pentecost; we insist upon the privilege and responsibility of the Lord’s Supper; we insist upon believers’ baptism by immersion.  We have been associated with the Bible Church movement for over half a century; we are just seeking to give God’s revelation to Paul its proper place and nothing more—there is no more!"  Excerpted from: Chapter 1, Pauline Dispensationalism, Miles J. Stanford, 1993.