When did the body of Christ begin—at Pentecost or later?
The body of Christ did not necessarily begin at Pentecost, because Pentecost was a Jewish holiday with a Jewish message. It began later, when the gospel of grace went to Jew and Gentile, especially at Antioch, as Paul preached salvation by faith alone and believers were baptized by the Holy Spirit into that body.
Les explains that the body of Christ came on the scene in the New Testament sometime after Pentecost. He acknowledges many disagree, but he is convinced it did not necessarily begin at Pentecost because Pentecost was strictly a Jewish holiday with a Jewish message. He points to the gospel going out to Jew and Gentile, especially at Antioch, where Acts chapter 11 says believers were first called Christians. That was not the Jewish believers at Jerusalem in previous years, but Gentiles coming in by faith in the gospel of the grace of God. Les places the beginning of the body of Christ where Paul begins preaching Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, by faith and faith alone, without the law; as men and women believed, the Holy Spirit baptized or placed them into the body of Christ.