Evidently Chafer believes that the "gospel of the kingdom" was no longer being preached on the day of Pentecost despite the fact that he himself says that the Apostles had received forty days of instruction concerning the kingdom of God. According to Chafer the "gospel" mentioned in the following verse is not the "gospel of the kingdom":

"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mk.16:15-16).

Just a few days before the crucifixion the Lord Jesus told His Apostles that "this gospel of the kingdom" will be preached in all the world:

"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Mt.24:14).

Then on the day of Pentecost the Apostle Peter told the Jews that if they would repent then the Father would send back the Son to usher in the "times of refreshing":

"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, that the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ" (Acts 3:19-20).

In The Bible Knowledge Commentary (An Exposition of the Scriptures by Dallas Seminary Faculty) Stanley D. Toussaint offers the following comments on Acts 3:19-20: "Peter's exhoration, as in his Pentecost sermon (2:38), was to repent. Was Peter saying here that if Israel repented, God's kingdom would have come to earth? This must be answered in the affirmative for several reasons..." (Walvoord & Zuck, The Bible Knowledge Commentary; New Testament, p.361).

Another Acts 2 dispensationalist, Miles Stanford, wrote that "Peter preached the Kingdom, the Lordship and Messiahship of Christ (Acts 2 and 3), but not Christ as Head of the Body, the Church. Peter's distinct line [of preaching] was the Kingdom. It was the keys of the kingdom that the Lord gave him in Matthew 16:19, and it is the kingdom theme that he follows in his ministry in Acts" (Stanford, Authoritive Voices From the First Century).

Is it not plain that the preaching of the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost is in regard to the "kingdom"? The "gospel of the kingdom" was indeed being preached on that day. However, Chafer denies the obvious and asserts that the Lord Jesus assigned the Apostles "the immediate ministry of the new gospel age" despite the fact that he himself recognizes the difference between the gospel preached by the Lord's disciples and the Pauline Gospel of Grace.

If we are to believe Chafer's ideas then the Twelve were wandering around in the dark for many years and it was not until the first Church Council that they finally understood the minstry that the Lord Jesus had previously given them. Chafer says that "it was not until Peter by divine compulsion had first preached the Gospel to Gentiles in Cornelius' house, and Paul and Barnabas had returned to Jerusalem reporting the same out flowing salvation to Gentiles as had been given to Jews that they were able to grasp the meaning of the new age. This new light came in connection with the deliberations of the first church council, called by the mother church at Jerusalem, and recorded in Acts 15:13-18" [emphasis added] (Chafer, The Church Which is His Body).