What is the traditional teaching about Acts 2 and the Gentile Body of Christ?
Traditional teaching holds that Acts chapter 2 is the birth of the Church, the Body of Christ, and the beginning of the Gentile Body of Christ. This view is held by roughly 90–95% of Christendom, though the speaker notes that much of the chapter's language and Jewish setting does not fit Church doctrine.
Les explains that he knows what traditional teaching is: 90–95% of Christendom treats Acts 2 as the birth of the Church, the Body of Christ, and the beginning of the Gentile Body of Christ. He says he taught it that way for so long but was always uncomfortable because so many things did not fit and much of the language does not correlate with what we understand as Church doctrines. He points to Pentecost as a Jewish holiday, with a Jewish crowd, a Jewish speaker, and Peter's plain-English address to "ye men of Israel," which does not include Gentiles. These were Jews at a Jewish feast day in the temple area, not a Gentile meeting.