THE HOPE OF ISRAEL - The Preterist Archive

The Hope of Israel: What Is It? 213
fact that the Jerusalem conference had to do wholly
and solely with "the conversion of the Gentiles" (v. 3) ,
which was not only a new thing, but to the Jewish
disciples was a most astonishing thing, a thing for
which they were, in fact, wholly unprepared.
Peter was the first to speak. He related how God
had instructed him to go to the house of Cornelius,
where a company of Gentiles was awaiting him, and
what had taken place there. Then Barnabas and Paul
addressed the conference, "declaring what miracles
and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by
them" (v. 12). And finally James addressed the assemblage,
saying:
"Simeon hath declared how God at the first (i. e. for the first
time) did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for
His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is
written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle
of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the
ruins thereof, and will set it up That the residue of men might
:
seek after the Lord, and all the Gentles upon whom My Name is
called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things. Known unto
God are all His works from the beginnng of the world" (w.
14:18).
According to the writer's understanding of the passage,
the era contemplated by the words, "After this
I will return," is this present Gospel dispensation,
whereof the conversion of Gentiles is the conspicuous
feature (the "mystery," Eph. 3:3-6); and that "the
tabernacle of David" is a prophetic symbol of that
"spiritual house," into which converted Gentiles,
along with converted Jews, "as living stones," are being
builded together, upon Christ, the "sure Foundation,"
"for an habitation of God through the Spirit"
(Matt. 16:18; Eph. 2:20-22; I Pet. 2:5, 6; Isa. 28:
16).