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WHY DIDPETER DOUBTWITHINHIMSELF?
 
Peter was on a housetop praying (Acts 10) when God senthim a vision of a great sheet containing ‘all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creepingthings, and fowls of the air.’ A ‘voice’ commanded Peter to‘Rise,’ and ‘kill and eat;’ but even though Peter was ‘veryhungry,’ he protested, ‘Not so, Lord; for I have never eatenany thing that is common or unclean.’ The voice spoke again,‘What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.’ Thiswas done thrice and the sheet was withdrawn into heaven.The scripture record tells us that ‘Peter doubted in himself what this vision which he had seen should mean.’Peter soon found out that God desired him to go and preachJesus Christ to Cornelius, a Gentile who, although he ‘fearedGod’ and ‘gave much alms to the people [Jews],’ was not asyet even a proselyte – one who is preparing to convert – toJudaism. So, the vision was not about the eating of clean andunclean foods, but about a proper attitude toward Gentiles.Peter obediently went to the house of Cornelius and was asastonished as the other Jewish believers there when the HolySpirit fell on the Gentiles that simply believed his message --without circumcision or even water baptism first.Has it occurred to us to wonder why this would be so? Hadn’tPeter learned at the Lord’s side for over 3 years, beenempowered by the Holy Spirit to prophesy at Pentecost, andhad everything he had learned brought to remembrance?(John 14:26). Hadn’t Jesus made it clear to him that theGospel of the Kingdom was for the Gentiles, too? (John
 
3:16). Wasn’t it a major part of the Great Commission that thenations should be converted? (Matt. 28:19, 20;Mark 16:15). The answer to the above questions is ‘Yes, but...!’ But, Peter and the 11 understood that the Gentiles were not to beconverted until after Israel was! The Lord Jesus Christ cameto fulfill the Hebrew scriptures, and they were full of  prophecies that made this clear. (Isaiah 2:2;60:1-3;Zech. 8:13, 22, 23, etc.). Gentile proselytes taking the necessarysteps to join the Jews’ religion were to be treated preferentially, but Gentiles on the outside of Judaism wouldneed to wait until Israel was redeemed and set as a ‘light’ towhich the nations would be drawn. The Book of Isaiah,chapters42and62, among other passages, seem to point to the Kingdom set up at the Lord’s Second Coming as the timewhen Israel will become the channel of blessing to thenations.Peter was operating by the time schedule laid out by our Lord: Israel first, and then the nations. (Acts 1:8). That’s whythe 12 apostles stayed put in Jerusalem even though persecution scattered their converts. (Acts 8:1). When Peter was told to go preach to some Gentiles, no matter how ‘God-fearing’ they were, he doubted within himself whether thiscould be true because it was completely contrary to hismarching orders! He tried to figure it out immediately after the Gentiles received the Holy Spirit, in Acts 10, by saying,‘Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons; butin every nation he that feareth him, and worketh
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