Paul’s reversionism

Paul has just come out of reversionism, he is a supergrace believer, and he is now pressing toward the next objective which is ultra-supergrace.

1. It was the will of God that Paul’s third missionary journey should go west into Spain. Romans 15:24 — Paul was in Ephesus and he knew that he should have gone to Spain, that it was the Lord’s will. In 15:25 he states what is not the Lord’s will — “I am going to Jerusalem.” The only problem with what Paul states in 15:28 is that the Lord did not include Jerusalem it in Paul’s agenda for the third missionary journey. That was Paul’s idea, not the Lord’s. Three passages demonstrate that it was the Lord’s will for Paul’s third missionary journey to go west to Spain, not east to Jerusalem: Romans 15:24,25,28.

2. After Paul’s visit to Ephesus and the riot of the silversmiths’ union Paul was headed west, in the right direction. He was still in compliance with his orders in Acts 20. But in verse 1 the riot shook him up. He wasn’t hurt in the riot but it did cause something to happen. It was in the pastor’s conference at a seaport 36 miles from Ephesus that Paul told them of his determination to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost — Acts 20:16.

3. Paul was warned not to go to Jerusalem by the Holy Spirit — Acts 21:4-9, the first warning; 21:10-13, the second warning. God the Holy Spirit used people who warned Paul.

4. Paul is now in reversionism, he disobeyed completely — Acts 21:14-17.

5. When Paul arrived in Jerusalem — Acts 21 — he was now in full emotional reversionism and therefore he was susceptible to whatever the inclination of the geographical area was — Judaism. It is a form of reversionistic legalism. The church in Jerusalem was so infected that it had lost its leadership in the Christian world, it was now low in reversionism. The unbelievers were in a massive form of Judaism that would end up in the fifth cycle of discipline in 40 years. When Paul went in to meet with the pastors of Jerusalem he takes some bad advice from the leaders of the Jerusalem church — Acts 21:20,24. No Bible teacher ever has to compromise in order to gain a hearing for the teaching of doctrine. Paul is the greatest Bible teacher in all of history. Therefore when Paul goes into a town he doesn’t have to get into some kind of legalistic activity in order to attract a crowd. No one ever has to stoop and compromise the Word of God and set up a system of rapport. The Word of God has to stand on its own. Positive volition will come under the hearing of the Word of God regardless of any other factor involved. The Word of God stands on its own merits, it doesn’t need any public relations fronting, any system of hypocrisy to get a hearing. Paul got into the compromise of legalism — Acts 21:26.

6. This was the beginning of Paul’s discipline. In Acts 21:27-32, one week later Paul went back in order to complete the function of his vow in the temple. He was spotted by the Judaisers from Asia, from south Galatia, the very people who stoned him to death at Lystra. They immediately aroused the people.

7. It became obvious that Paul was not safe and that the first time he left the custody of the Roman military he would be assassinated. He was escorted to Caesarea where he was for two years. This was the time of his reversion recovery.

8. His imprisonment at Rome. Paul spent two years there and during those two years he put down all of the supergrace doctrine that is now contained in the prison epistles. Paul wrote Philippians at this time. He is in supergrace but he has not yet attained ultra-supergrace — Philippians 3:12-19.