When did God turn from Israel to the Gentiles?
God turned from Israel to the Gentiles immediately after Israel rejected and crucified their Messiah, through the Apostle Paul. This transition began at Paul’s Damascus road conversion, when the Lord sent him far hence to the Gentiles, not to Jerusalem to check with Peter and the twelve.
Les teaches that Israel rejected it and crucified their Messiah, so God immediately turned through the Apostle Paul to the heathen or Gentile. In Galatians 1:11, Paul gives the real basis of this after Acts chapter 9, some 28–29 years after Pentecost: the gospel he preached was not after man, neither received of man nor taught it, but by revelation of Jesus Christ. At Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus, the Lord said He would send him far hence to the Gentiles. Paul did not immediately return to Jerusalem to check in with Peter and the twelve; instead the Lord sent him the opposite direction into Sinai and Arabia, evidently for three years, revealing things never hinted in Scripture. Les emphasizes that all through the Old Testament, the Gospels, and the early book of Acts, the term “the Body of Christ” never appears until Paul.
More Questions
When did God begin a different program that included Gentiles?
From Abraham in Genesis 12 until Acts 9, God's program was 'Jew only' with a few exceptions, and then in Acts chapter 9 God began to do something different.
When did God's program change from Jew only to also including Gentiles, and what was the program before that?
The recognition of two distinct gospels was a fork in the road: from Abraham in Genesis 12 onward God's program had been Jew only with a few exceptions, and then suddenly in Acts chapter 9 God says He is going to do something different.