Most Mid Acts Dispensationalists say water baptism has no place in the age of grace. When did the dispensation of grace begin? Mid Acts Dispensationalists (MAD for short) answer this question with either Acts 9 or Acts 13. The MAD position is Paul got saved, preached only grace according to the revelation of the mystery, and never entertained the idea that Israel could still believe and receive the kingdom after Acts 9 or 13. So the question is, how could Paul continue to practice a water baptism for the remission of sins under a grace gospel according to the revelation of the mystery? The correct answer is he could not.
Mid Acts Dispensationalists, in order to get consistent, must either admit Paul practiced a symbolic water baptism under the dispensation of grace or they can change their position on when the dispensation of grace starts. The MAD would have to move the start of "grace" from Acts 9 or 13 to some chapter in Acts after Paul's last recorded water baptism. The earliest start time would be Acts 19 or 20.
I can think of two other options for the MAD. Number one, reject the MAD position altogether and become an Acts 28 Dispensationalist like E W Bullinger did. This allows all water baptisms in Acts to be Kingdom related and not Dispensation of Grace related. The only other choice I see is teach that during the entire book of Acts God allowed an overlap of the Kingdom Program in which Israel could still repent and receive the Kingdom while many believed Paul's grace gospel and became part of the "fellowship of the mystery."
There are only a handful of people who believe in the overlap but it would seem that its the only acceptable way to describe Paul. Dr White and his followers are the only ones that I know of who adhere to this understanding. I am blessed to be numbered among them!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteI second the comment above, how could there be so few that believe in a overlap. I have lost friends over this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading my blog. I hate that you have lost friends over this issue. There are so few that rightly divide that it is unfortunate that "grace" people split over such things.
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