In the first part of this series the above question was answered by simply saying: When Jesus said they would and declared through the Apostle Paul the essential condition that must be met for them to cease (Romans 11:25). That is that the “fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25).

Just as importantly, the Lord also mandated exactly when the “The Times of the Gentiles” would begin by stating in Luke 21-20-24 that…

…when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation (Daniel 9:2, 26) is nigh … ands they (the Jews) shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations and; and Jerusalem shall be TRODDEN DOWN OF THE GENTILES  until the TIMES OF THE GENTILES ARE FULFILLED.

Despite these clear declarations of the Lord Jesus, theologians have made their own wildly different speculations about when the “times of the Gentiles” begin and end. Some say they started with the first captivity of Israel by the Babylonians in the 600s BC. Others say the “times of the Gentiles” have yet to begin and will last only three and a half years when they do (Revelation 11:2).

But what did JESUS SAY? Simply put, He said the “times of the Gentiles” would BEGIN when Jerusalem was besieged, overrun and the Jewish people who did not escape were slain or dispersed as slaves. History records this dreadful massacre took place in 70AD when a Roman army under Prince Titus destroyed the city. So, the “times of the Gentiles” started then.

As to when they will END the Lord speaking through the Apostle Paul in Romans 11:25 firmly declares that:

…blindness in part has happened to Israel until the FULNESS OF THE GENTILES BE COME IN.

Then and only then will “all Israel be saved.” True, Israel was once the nation chosen above all others by God but now is judged by Him to be blind and is set aside. Thus, Israel is not now saved as a nation nor is it part of God’s present purpose in extending grace to all men (Acts 28:28 and Ephesians 3:9)). It is only as individuals, whether Jew or Gentiles, that persons are saved today.

So, in our time the Lord Jesus decrees that mankind should live under Gentile administration until He says otherwise. Today He is the “Gentile Saviour” administering a Gentile gospel to mankind (Jews not excluded) under a new dispensation, that of the grace of God (Ephesians 3:1-5), given to the Apostle specifically “for you Gentiles”.

Doubtless it will come as a shock to most Christians to learn that it is AS A GENTILE that the Lord Jesus is ministering GRACE to mankind today. Yet that is the truth this writer stumbled upon 15 years ago. So much so he wrote and published a ground-breaking book entitled “The Gentile Jesus.”

This book voiced the conviction that it was as both a Gentile and a Jew that the Lord Jesus died on the cross to pay for all the world’s sin. However, it also asserted that it is as a Gentile that the Lord now ministers mercy and grace to those He chose (before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Scripture proof upcoming shortly.

This, of course, is highly controversial. A large part of Christianity still believes and states in their humanly devised church creeds that God is still saving people under his covenant with Israel.

But that is not so. We are now living in the dispensation of the grace of God and the mystery (Ephesians 3:1-5) and these verses make clear that this dispensation was NOT “ín other ages made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit” (see verse 5).

This means that today believers can only be saved by a means of grace unknown to anybody until the risen, glorified Lord Jesus revealed it to the “Apostle to the Gentiles” Paul when he was in prison in Rome (Ephesians 3:3,8).

Importantly, it is as “the prisoner of Jesus Christ FOR YOU GENTILES” (Ephesians 3:1) that Paul asserts (Ephesians 3:7) that he was “made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power”:

Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the GENTILES the unsearchable riches of Christ and make ALL MEN (i.e. GENTILES) see the fellowship (i.e. dispensation)  of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Christ Jesus (Ephesians 3:8-9).

Thus, it is indelibly and unalterably true, that God’s ministry of grace today is through Paul and TOWARD YOU GENTILES (Ephesians 3:2). It is not through Israel, nor through the Apostle Peter, the Lords other apostles to the circumcision (Galatians 2:7-8), nor by what Peter and others (at that time including Paul) preached during the Acts period. Accordingly, no believer today is “grafted” into Israel’s olive tree; nor do they need to get water baptised for God Himself has already quickened them (Ephesians 2: 1) and baptised them (Colossians 2:12).

It needs to be clearly said that while the Lord Jesus came in person as a Jewish Messiah to the Jews and later still as a Jew “spoke to them first”, after his ascension (Acts 3:26), today He speaks to Gentiles, indeed to all men, as a GENTILE. How could He do otherwise, seeing we live in “the time of the Gentiles” and He is acting in grace, and only grace, in this new dispensation which is “TOWARD YOU GENTILES”.

As “The Gentile Jesus” explains the Son of God Jesus did not die just as a Jewish person on the cross. He also became a Gentile while suffering for our sin. An excerpt from this book says:

Now it is no mistake that 1 Corinthians 15:45 describes the Lord as “the last Adam” , for since He is the “seed of the woman” (Genesis 3:15) he carried the genes of all humanity within Himself when He went to the cross. According to Arthur Custance [Custance Arthur C.., The Virgin Birth and the Incarnation), Zondervan 1977, page 189ff. Used by permission, Zondervan Corporation] the Lord’s body formed in Mary’s virgin womb was a true replica of the genome of the pre-fall Adam, the “son of God”.

It is also true that God sent forth his Son “made in the likeness of human flesh and for sin” (Romans 8:3). So, in two ways, one at his conception, the other at the cross, we have been made one flesh with Him. Thus, truly Jesus carried the entire human gene code, including our Gentile genes, within Himself when He died on the cross.

And this is how our Lord acquired his GENTILITY, that is his Gentile nature. Of course, it was a secret long hid in God until He revealed it to the Apostle Paul. But today as the “last Adam” the Gentile Jesus has been glorified with “a name above every name” and exalted with “a name above every name, and exalted in heavenly places “far above all principality and power and might , and every name that is named and dominion” (Ephesians 1:20-21 so that everybody can know.

How glad we should be that “if we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him” (2 Timothy 2:12) who is the Lord of all glory and Lord of all grace “in his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).

Much more should be said because today in the age of God’s free and unstinted grace we as Gentiles are only quickened to know Him by God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our salvation is by a Gentile gospel, and we have a Gentile, not Jewish, faith, hope and calling (Ephesians 4:4-7). But that will have to await a third study in this series.

Meanwhile should you wish to learn more from the book “The Gentile Jesus” the author will forward a copy of this important 270-page volume for free anywhere in the world if you pay the postage. For further details and to order contact him at

                johndaldworth42@gmail.com