I am not persuaded of a case for mid-Acts dispensarionalism, MM. Can you persuade me.
I have a simpler approach. I look at the scriptures for what they say. Some people allegoricalize the scriptures to death, which helps them to make it say whatever they want the various passages to say. Others go only to the literal, which makes it impossible to apply them in some instances to any meaningful understanding. There's a healthy balance the Lord gives to us through His indwelling Spirit to know and understand the difference in between.
Simply put, Jesus said this to His disciples:
Matthew 24:13-14
13 But
he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And
this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
Now, replacement theology wagoneers have their take on that, while others who believe the rapture will transpire with the Church suffering some, half, most or all of the tribulation, which also makes no sense and creates more problems than they answer. So, when I read scripture with an open heart to the Lord's leading, I see this as a contrast to the Kingdom Gospel:
1 Corinthians 15:1-8
1 Moreover, brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
2
By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that
Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
4 And that
he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.
8 And
last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.
So, there's the Mystery, the very Gospel Paul was given to preach unto the Gentiles. To try and blend the Kingdom Gospel into Paul's Gospel to the Gentiles, and one is essentially accusing Paul of not having preached ALL the Gospel of Grace; having left out all the works-based elements of repentance, water baptism, et al. That would make Paul guilty of the sin of omission, of which I have no reason to believe he is guilty. There are Paul-haters all around, especially among the Feminism Theology gangs.
Romans 2:16 In the day when
God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
Romans 16:25 Now to him that is of power
to stablish you according to my gospel, and
the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was
kept secret since the world began,
2 Timothy 2:8 Remember that
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:
So, either Paul was an egotistical maniac, suffering from a depth of narcissism not seen in any but the most wicked in scripture, or he was chosen by Yahshuah as the one through whom the mystery of the Gospel of Grace would be revealed.
1 Corinthians 2:7-8
7 But
we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, [even]
the hidden [wisdom], which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which
none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known [it], they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Therein is the reason it remained hidden, even from the original twelve...until Paul. Had they known that the crucifixion and the fall of the Jews into rejection would have led to the Gospel of Grace coming into being for the Gentiles, Satan would never have pushed for that crucifixion. He already had the Gentiles slated for Hell, and the outcome of the revealing of that mystery pointed to Gospel reality that ripped the souls of many billions of Gentiles from the kingdom of Satan. Brilliant plan and strategy, but there are those all around who reject that brilliance, wanting to enslave their fellow man with the mixture of truths, not all of which are TO us today.
THAT is rightly dividing the word of truth.
One either accepts it or rejects it. Some even resort to ad hominem and antagonism rather than to study to show themselves approved. They vomit scriptures with utter incoherence and disregard for the needed order of magnitude that points to the assurances we have in Christ through the power of His Blood. They swing about with utter abandon to what may be gleaned from scripture through systematic study. They pride themselves on the idea that mankind has the power to nullify the salvation assured by the Blood of Christ and the sealing of Holy Spirit. Man likes to think that he can grease the hands of Holy Spirit to that He cannot hold anyone to the assurance of the salvation through the Blood of Christ. To them, the Blood of Christ is too weak to have held anyone, even though none of them can point to them ever having lost THEIR salvation, and how that can happen. They certainly dare not point out anyone else who allegedly lost THEIR salvation, so that discussion is meaningless in the end.
So, it makes no never mind to me what others choose to believe, because we are ALL going to be held to account for what we chose to believe. We ALL have the freedom to believe lies and deceptions originating from socially engineered theologies of Westernized Christianity. The cacophony drone of voices yammering for attention, I've lost interest in trying to convince everyone, for most will believe what they want to believe, regardless of what scripture actually say.
Paul taught that mankind is justified by faith, James taught, before Paul's ministry began, that mankind is justified by works. They can't BOTH be true, but the masses sit back in their haunches, blissfully basking in the dim light of inconsistent contradictions in their own beliefs because of them trying blend truth together that were addressed to different groups of people at different times; never meant to be blended together into each other to corrupt what Paul taught of the things He was personally instructed by Christ Jesus that were not revealed to the original twelve.
Why Paul and not the others? Heck, I don't know, but we do know that the miraculous powers the original twelve worked among the people had already dwindled down to no miracles at all by the time Paul's ministry started in full force with His Gospel...the Gospel of the original twelve, but Paul's Gospel entrusted to him alone until the other twelve were fully cognizant of that Gospel that was never known before throughout all of time before.
MM