Acts: Book of transition As we understand this progression of events, then we can see that the Book of Acts is a book of transition, and that the entire period from the death of Christ to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus in A.D. 70 is a transitional period. Positionally, the old order was done away at the death of Christ, as signified by the tearing of the veil of the temple (Matt. 27:51). Positionally, the new order began with the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell the body of believers as recorded in Acts 2. Positionally, the entire transition took place within the span of those few days. Experientially, however, the transition covered nearly four decades. The transition was extensive. Ethnically, there was a transition from dealing primarily with Jews to dealing with both Jew and Gentile without distinction. There was also a transition in the people with whom God was dealing, from Israel to the church. Likewise, there was a transition in the principle on which God was dealing with men, from Law to grace. There was a transition from the offer to Israel of an earthly Davidic kingdom to the offer to all men of salvation based on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. There was a transition from the prospect of Messiah’s coming to the historical fact that the promised One had come. There was a transition from the promise that the Spirit would be given to the historical fact that the Spirit had come. Again, all these transitions were made positionally in the brief period of time from the death of Christ to the Day of Pentecost. Yet experientially these truths were understood and entered into only over a span of some four decades. The Book of Acts records the positional transition as well as the experiential transition in the development of the theocratic kingdom program. Pentecost, J. D. (1995). Thy Kingdom Come: Tracing God’s Kingdom Program and Covenant Promises throughout History (pp. 266–267). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.