This thou knowest, that all they are in Asia be TURNED AWAY from ME, of whom are Phygellus and Hermogones (2 Timothy 1:15).

Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, And the things thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou unto faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also (2 Timothy 2:2).

There is one question God repeatedly asks down all the pages of human history. It is: Will you also TURN away?

You see, Adam and Eve “TURNED away” in the Garden of Eden when Eve fell for Satan’s lie and Adam followed her in eating the forbidden fruit. Cain also TURNED away from the Lord when his offering was rejected and filled with anger went on to slay his brother Abel.

Some 1600 years later a world population of many millions “TURNED away” from the offer of salvation proclaimed by the pre-Flood prophets of God and, consequently, were drowned in Noah’s Flood.

And the list goes on. When God sent his Son Jesus as Messiah to Israel crowds were amazed at the miracles He performed, But when challenged to accept Him in person as “the true bread sent down from heaven” to give them life (John 6:47-48) his disciples said, “This is a hard saying, who can hear it?”

And many of his disciples TURNED away and “walked no more with Him” (John 6:66). Then in some of the most poignant words he spoke Jesus asks the twelve disciples, “WILL YE ALSO GO AWAY?”. Thankfully, eleven of them didn’t go away then. But, other than John, they all TURNED away when He was crucified.

Of course, Israel’s leaders also TURNED away from Him when they persuaded Pilate to crucify Him. And though they were offered free pardon after this act of murder, they still “TURNED away” from the Spirit He poured out at Pentecost to show He had risen and would forgive them.

It’s sad to learn that even the Jews who did believe Jesus had risen later rejected the Apostle Paul’s “saved by grace” gospel message and TURNED back to the law. Thus, we read in Acts 21:20 that James, head of the Jerusalem Church at the time, tells Paul:

Thou seest brother how many thousands of Jews there are which believe and they are all zealous of the LAW.

James then urges Paul to take part in an Old Testament temple sacrifice to show that you “also walk orderly and keep the law” (vss. 22-24). Clearly, the Jerusalem Church had TURNED back to law keeping as the means of salvation.

 How it must grieve the heart of God that persistently all down the ages the people He calls sooner or later TURN away from Him, the one who blesses them. Israel repeatedly “TURNED back” and the Lord just as repeatedly sought them out and brought them back.

Each time He did so it was with a fresh revelation of the truth of who He is as the great Creator and Saviour and Redeemer God of mankind. For wayward Israelites that revelation came in the person of Jesus who walked among them as their Messiah. And He continued to be with them as the Spirit, the Comforter in the Acts period.

But bar a small remnant, Israel continued to TURN away from the Lord. The small remnant was the “little flock” of the gospels that Jesus spoke of, that with the addition of specially called out, Gentiles became the “Church of God” of the Acts period.   

The Lord persisted in calling back Israelites to Himself until the end of Acts. Then it seems their period of probation (40 years from the time of Jesus’ ministry) ran out. Consequently, in Acts 28:28 Israel as a nation is judicially set aside as wilfully “blind and deaf” and the Lord announces through Paul that “salvation is now sent to the Gentiles”.

Later we find that even the now blessed and called out Gentiles TURN away from the further truth revealed by the Lord through the Apostle Paul, who by now is the “prisoner of Jesus Christ” in Rome. Thus, in Ephesians 3:1-5 the apostle plaintively asks them:

If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is give me to you-ward (i.e. to the Gentiles). How that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery… which in other ages was not made unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy prophets and apostles by the Spirit.

Then in 2 Timothy 1:15 Paul laments to Timothy: “This thou knowest: all they which are in Asia be TURNED AWAY FROM ME.”

What had happened? Answer: God in his ongoing plan of redemption of mankind had brought in a new age, the age of grace and unveiling of the mystery that man’s ultimate salvation lies in being made a permanent part of the very nature and being of Jesus Christ Himself (Ephesians 5:30, 1:22,23).

And this was and is to be accomplished through belief in his WORD, the written scriptures. That is how God speaks to those He quickens to hear Him today. And his word of grace is now just as powerful as it was when He spoke in the six days of creation as recorded in the Genesis account. Back then the earth and man were created by the words of his mouth.

Fast forward to around 60 AD and God spoke again, this time to a prisoner in Rome, the Apostle Paul. To Paul it was revealed that God was speaking into being a whole new creation. He did so through the proclamation of a whole new dispensation, a new age, a fresh step in God’s dealings with man.

What’s more the Lord now in heaven after his resurrection and ascension in heaven gave “some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers” to guide those called and converted in the Acts period into this new body of truth. In Ephesians 4:11-12 these men, who laboured only in their lifetimes, are thus called the “ascension gift ministries”.

Their mission was to “perfect” the saints of the Acts period “body of Christ” by bringing them into God’s latest truth. That truth is that He has already fully completed our salvation as explained in the “gospel of the grace of God”. Accordingly, this new era created by the Lord is announced in a hugely changed gospel message.

For example, now, rather than a church ruled by a hierarchy of apostles and prophets, the “church which is his body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23) will grow not by the humanly elevated leadership of men but by the ministry of each and every member (see Ephesians 4:12-14).

Yet, as Jesus, when on earth, warned would be, ALL those that Paul had seen converted to faith in Christ in Asia now TURNED AWAY from the glorious benefits of this new salvation.

And the sad truth is that the vast majority of those who name the name of Christ are still TURNED AWAY from it today. Which is why Paul calls unto them:

Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead (spiritually speaking) and Christ shall give thee light (Ephesians 5:14).

John Dudley Aldworth