In this period in which we live, God has been dealing in great grace and beseeching men to be reconciled to Him (2 Cor. 5:20). The gospel first went forth from an ascended and glorified Christ to the Jews, or, as John Bunyan called them, "Jerusalem sinners." The message was to begin in the very place where the Lord was crucified. Then the book of The Acts outlines the carrying of the message from Jerusalem and Judea to Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. Acts 1:8 is in substance a table of contents of The Acts of the Apostles

After Stephen's death, the scenes began to change, for Israel had now rejected the gospel sent down from heaven in the power of the Holy Spirit. From place to place through The Acts, the Jews were given the gospel first ("to the Jew first"); but when they rejected it, it was then given to the Gentiles until, at length, in the last chapter, the sentence of judicial blindness, foretold by the prophet Isaiah, was placed upon them, and Paul said to them: "Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it." Acts 28:28.
We are now living in the end of the period of God's special grace to the Gentiles; it is spoken of as "the fullness of the Gentiles" in Rom. 11:25. Their fullness will come in when the Lord calls His Church home to be with Himself. For this blessed moment we wait. God has been visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name (Acts 15:14), but they are a people destined for heaven. We should, however, keep in mind that in the Church of God there has always been a saved remnant of the Jews. At the first (Acts 2) only Jews or Jewish proselytes were brought into the Church; but as the nation rejected grace, the call went wider, and in Acts 10 a Gentile centurion and his family were saved and brought into the Church. Already a man had been saved (chap. 9) who was to be the Lord's special messenger to the Gentiles (see Acts 15).
Strictly speaking, the Church period is not a dispensation in the sense of an administration of God's way on earth, but a gathering out of a people for heaven; however, we shall consider it as a special period of God's ways while He makes known His purposes and plans not only for them, but for the earth. He has treated us in this age as His friends and made His mind known to us (John 15:14). Perhaps we should consider the Church period as merely a long parenthesis in God's ways and dispensations for the earth. When the Church has been translated to heaven, then God's ways (of which Israel will be the center) will again begin to unfold, and a time is to follow, called "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30:7). He (that is, a remnant of Israel) will be saved "out of it," like Noah was saved out of the flood, while the Church has been promised by the Lord that it will be kept out of the hour of it - altogether kept from the time of it (Rev. 3:10), as Enoch was taken away before the flood came. For the "time of Jacob's trouble" will also be "the great tribulation" which "shall come upon all the world."
After the rapture of the Church, apostasy of both Christendom and Judaism will mount up to their peaks to receive the judgments decreed already. The spirit of apostasy has been at work as a mystery since the days of the Apostle, for he speaks of "the mystery of iniquity" (2 Thess. 2:7); and John wrote that there were already many antichrists (1 John 2:18). But the thing, although far advanced, will not be full blown until we are taken from the scene. Then there will be the attempted complete overthrow of all reverence for God, and even the mention of His name. It will be man in daring infidelity who will blaspheme God. Man will be deified, but overthrown in the end. Apostate Christendom and apostate Judaism will perish, while a remnant will be saved.
The increase in numbers and respectability of the false cults, and the shocking infidelity and daring resistance to God and His Word in many places of what was once orthodox Christendom point the way and the trend to the great apostasy. It has been on its way since the days of the apostles, but now has taken over large sections of so-called Christianity. Whenever the moment comes for the home call of the true believers, wickedness will ripen almost over night. There will be no restraining hand of the Spirit of God to hinder its open manifestation. After that, that is, after the great tribulation, and the coming of Christ as "King of kings and Lord of lords" to execute judgment, He will establish His throne on earth in righteousness, and reign for 1000 years. Then, according to Rev. 20, Satan will be loosed out of his prison to test the multitudes of Gentiles who were born during the Millennium. This will be the crowning proof that man, unless born again, is hopelessly bad, even after seeing the wonderful beneficence of God during the Millennium; for they will rise up against Him. At that time God will destroy the rebels, and the present earth and its heaven will be destroyed, and a new heaven and new earth will be formed. In this, righteousness will dwell forever in a state of eternal bliss. But the Church's portion will be to dwell with Christ in heavenly glory forever.