Soon after the stoning of Stephen Paul was saved. Later Paul wrote explaining of what has happened to the Nation Israel.

Romans 11:11 I say then, Have they [Israel] stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their [Israel’s] fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
Romans 11:12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
Romans 11:15 For if the casting away of them [Israel] be the reconciling of the world [with its Gentiles], what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?”

Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery [secret], lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, UNTIL the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

Notice in verse 15 that the casting away of Israel is only temporary. If the casting away of Israel brought about the offer of reconciliation to the world through Christ’s sacrifice, then just imagine what the receiving of them later shall be. This will be nothing less than life from the dead, which is the long-awaited resurrection of Israel’s “little flock” (Luke 12:32) saints at the Second Coming “day of Christ”! This brings to mind Ezekiel 37:12, when God told Israel, “Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.”

Now look at Romans 11:25-27, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery [former secret], lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that Blindness In Part Is Happened To Israel, Until The Fulness Of The Gentiles Be Come In. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob [Israel]: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

Notice today’s blindness upon Israel is only temporary, “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in…” This means that the Kingdom they waited for, the kingdom about which Christ preached while He was here on Earth, was put on hold “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in…” But, as Paul wrote in Romans 11:29, God’s promises to Israel shall be fulfilled. Why? Because “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance [unchangeable].” There are no take-backs when it comes to God’s promises toward Israel.

Paul says in Romans 11:26, “And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob [Israel]: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”

So today, we of the Gentile “body of Christ” are living during a temporary interruption of Israel’s prophetic program for Israel, a period of God’s pure grace. All those great promises made by the Lord to His people Israel about His kingdom were simply ‘put on hold.’

Today, we live in the “But Now” that came after “the fall of Israel.”

After Pentecost, in Acts 9, the Lord did something that had never been prophesied. Instead of unleashing His vengeance and wrath upon the world, He reached down in pure grace and saved the man [Saul, Paulus] who at that time was leading the rebellion of the nation of Israel against God. God saved His greatest enemy, a man named Saul, who would later become the Apostle Paul, and “the Apostle to the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13). Paul, the enemy, who was “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious” (1 Tim. 1:13) and who called himself the “chief” of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15), was saved by the exceeding abundant grace of God and sent to the Gentiles with a gospel message that had never been revealed before.

Paul writes: “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery [secret plan]…” (Eph. 3:1-3). The Lord Jesus Christ had a “mystery [a secret]” and He revealed this new message about this new “dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph. 3:2) to this new Apostle, Paul. Paul reveals all this in his letters to us concerning whole new victory program that works by God’s grace through Christ’s all-sufficient work on the cross for all men, both Jew and Gentile alike [Gal 3:28].

This program for us today is entirely different from Israel’s kingdom program that was taught and proclaimed before Paul. In Romans 3:21-22, Paul writes,

“BUT NOW the righteousness of God Without The Law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto ALL And Upon All Them That Believe: for there is no difference.” This is pure grace!

In Romans 7:6, he writes, “BUT NOW we are delivered from the law...” In Ephesians 2:13, he writes, “BUT NOW in Christ Jesus ye [Gentiles] who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”

Consider that what Peter taught at Pentecost in Acts 3:21 were the things, “which God hath SPOKEN by the Mouth Of All His Holy Prophets Since The World Began” (< Not A Secret)

BUT NOW, by contrast, Paul taught “the revelation of the mystery [secret plan of God], which was KEPT SECRET since the world began.” (Rom. 16:25).

Many Christians mistakenly say; ‘All the Bible is written to us. It’s all about us, and there is only one gospel throughout all of Scripture.” Oh really?

But Paul highlights Two Different Gospels in Gal. 2:7 KJV. (Not the same in the NIV or NASB, et al.)

“the Gospel Of The Uncircumcision was committed unto me [Paul], as the Gospel Of The Circumcision was unto Peter.” - How are we to reconcile these Two Quite Different Gospels?

Jesus had said; “GO NOT into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: BUT GO RATHER to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.”

Ask yourself, is this the practice of churches today? Do we avoid preaching to the Gentiles like Jesus said?

• Do we seriously preach to Jews only that the kingdom is “at hand”?
• And are we really able to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead?

When was the last time you saw someone raised from the dead?

Paul preached ‘this gospel by which we are saved.’

1 Cor. 15:1-4 “I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved… how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day.”

Christ told the Gentile woman in Matt. 15:24 “I am not sent but [except] unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel [only].” By contrast Paul told us in Romans 10:12 that ‘there is no difference between Jew and Greek.’

• Under the so-called “Great Commission,” Peter and the 12 were told, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, [water] baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost…”
• But by contrast, Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 1:17 that “Christ sent me not to baptize.” Do you think Peter and the 12 could say that? They were specifically told TO Baptize “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Let me ask another question: how many different baptisms are there in Scripture? Matthew 3:11 showcases three baptisms. Jesus was to baptize Israel with the baptism by water, Spirit, and fire.

So what did Paul mean when he wrote in Eph. 4:5 that there is only “One Lord, one faith, One Baptism?” Doesn’t that mean ONE? ‘One’ cannot mean or however many baptisms you think exists. Paul doesn’t say ‘one primary baptism.’ He doesn’t give us an umbrella theory. Paul said by inspiration of the Spirit that there is only “one baptism.” This one baptism is the baptism of the Spirit that takes place the moment we believe?

1Cor 12:13 “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body [Christ’s body], whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

Rom. 6:3 “Know ye not, that so many of us as were Baptized Into Jesus Christ were Baptized Into His Death?” (NOT baptized in water)