The Purpose Of the Ages

(At the Nottingham Conference, May, 1894. As published in THINGS TO COME – A Journal of Biblical Literature for August, 1894.)

The one great and blessed feature of these prophetical conferences is that Christ is the center of them, and Christ the object they bring before us. Their great object is to glorify Christ, and that also is the special work of the Holy Ghost. Christ is the living Word, and we assembled here to learn from the written Word. This Word has many different titles, and each title brings with it its own peculiar claim. It is called (James 1:21) "the engrafted Word." What is our responsibility to it as "the engrafted Word?" To receive it with meekness. In Titus 1:9 it is called "the faithful Word," and as the faithful Word we are to hold it fast. "Holding fast to the faithful Word." We dare not hold man's words fast. But, just because this is the faithful Word we may hold it fast. In Philippians 2:16 it is called "the Word of life." As such we are to hold it forth. Then it is "the Word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15.) As such we have a very remarkable duty to it. It does not say hold fast the Word of truth. Every word in this book is carefully weighed, for God means what He says, and He has a meaning for every thing He says. What are we to do with it then as the word of truth? To rightly divide it. The secret of all of our differences is found in the fact that we do not rightly divide the Word. In proportion as we rightly divide it we shall learn, and agree in its truth. "Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." What a precious study this is. The praise of man is our great snare, and the fear of man is another great snare. God deliver us from both. "Study to show thyself approved unto God." Now this Word of truth is occupied with three great subjects. One concerns the Jew, the other concerns the Gentile, and the third concerns the church of God; and every portion of the word concerns one of these three. Unless we rightly divide the word we are apt to commit robbery. There is already a good deal of robbery in the chapter headings. The blessings which God pronounced upon the Jew and Jerusalem have been robbed in many cases, and are given to the church of God; and there is one peculiar thing about this robbery; viz., that the judgments are never stolen in that way. The judgments which God pronounced over the Jews and Jerusalem are all left to them. We shall never commit such robbery if we rightly divide the word, and interpret of the Jews the Scriptures that relate to the Jews.

In the Old Testament the words Judah and Israel are used with definite and peculiar significance. We must not draw the conclusion that we use them with the same significance today. The Gentiles always speak of the whole nation as Jews. We see this all through the Old Testament. It is the term used by outsiders, not by the people of Israel themselves. We do not use the word "Jews" today as equivalent to the kingdom of Judah. Nor is the term so used in the New Testament. In Acts 4 it says "the people of Israel" crucified Christ, not the Jews. The kingdom of Judah contained a large portion of all the tribes of Israel, so that it can be truly said that it was "the people of Israel" that put the Lord Jesus to death.

With regard to the Gentiles, we have carefully to distinguish that which refers to the history of the Gentile nations and the times of the Gentiles.

Then there is a third body as distinguished from both; viz., "the church of God." It does not say the church, but "the church of God." That means God's church, not man's—the church of the living God, which is composed of both Jew and Gentile. The Jew is baptized by the Holy Ghost into the body of Christ, and thus becomes a member of the church of God. He ceases to be a Jew as to his standing, his hopes, and his destiny. The Gentile is baptized by the Holy Ghost into the body of Christ. He becomes a member of the church of God. He ceases to be a Gentile as to his standing, his hopes, and his destiny. So that the question of Anglo-Israelism does not concern us in the least if we belong to the church of God. It does not matter whether we are born Jews or Gentiles. The great question for each of us is, Am I a member of the "church of God"?

This Church of God is the subject of special revelation in the New Testament. There may be references to it in the Old Testament, but it was never revealed there. I want you to turn to three passages. First, in Romans 16:25, 26: "Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began." The word "mystery" is a Greek word which simply means secret. We have adopted the word, and used it as meaning something which cannot be understood. But "the mystery of His will" (Ephesians 1:9) means "the secret purpose of His will." So that the church of God is a secret "which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith." In Colossians 1:26 we read, "even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints." What is it that God would make known? The riches of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. In Ephesians iii. the apostle says, "By revelation He made known unto me the mystery;" that is, the secret. The fifth verse goes on to say, "Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel." This secret was not merely that the Gentiles were to be blessed. That was never any secret, because it was revealed unto Abraham that all the nations (Gentiles) should be blessed through him; but it was this special blessing which is mentioned in Ephesians 2:15, "Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain" (both of the Jew and of the Gentile) "one new man." That is the secret which was never made known in the Old Testament Scriptures; viz., that God was going to save both Jews and Gentiles, and make of the two ONE new body, which he was going to call the church of God.

Again, we have to divide the truth as to times and seasons, for in this third chapter of Ephesians he goes on to speak (in the 10th verse), "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church" (i.e. by means of the Church) "the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose (i.e. "the purpose of the ages," R.V. margin) which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord."

When we speak of God's purposes we speak of something totally different to man's purposes, because in Isaiah 55 we learned that Jehovah said, "My ways are not your ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts." Whenever we hear of God's purposes or thoughts or ways, we have something totally different from man's thoughts and man's ways. This is specially so with regard to the future. Of course, this is the reason why the world does not love such Conferences as these; at any rate, the worldly church does not, because we are writing folly on their purposes. They are looking for the improvement of the world, expecting it to get better and better; but, understanding God's purposes, we know it will get worse and worse. The professing Church promises the world that by social improvement and education and progress it is going to get better, and it proposes to bring in the millennium by these means, but it is to be a millennium without Christ. They are so accustomed to boast of their arts and science, and the spread of what they speak of as "religion," that the very proposition that the modern church is to grow morally worse, and that all the claims of the world are going to end in disaster, provokes determined opposition both from the religious world and from the worldly church. Therefore our testimony involves so much of condemnation and rebuke, and suggests such tremendous failure that this proud, boasting, ungodly, God-denying, and God-defying age will not tolerate it or us for a moment.

And yet we read that this present age is an "evil" one. It is from this very evil age that the Son of God has redeemed us. "He gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from the present evil world, according to the will of God our Father." It is remarkable how the will of God comes out. It is the will of God which is the source of our salvation. So also in Romans 12 we are exhorted not to be conformed to this world (That is the sort of nonconformity that we want!); but "be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." The princes of this world, and wisdom of this world, and the god of this world are all evil, and therefore we look for a different age. In Ephesians 2:7 we read, "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ." In chapter 3:10 we read, "To the intent that now [in the present age] unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by means of the church the manifold wisdom of God." That is to say, God is using the Church of God now, i.e. the body of Christ, to make known to these principalities and powers in heavenly places—whoever and whatever they may be—in order to unfold to them His own "manifold wisdom."

In His dealings all through these ages He has not been trying experiments with man, but He has been unfolding His manifold wisdom, demonstrating to these principalities and powers certain great, wonderful, and important truths, and the great truth is this, that apart from Christ there is nothing; without His almighty, sustaining power no created being can stand, whether Angels or men. What God has been demonstrating from the beginning and through these ages is that the will of man has always been contrary to the will of God.

Look at our first parents. No created beings could have had better opportunities or more favorable conditions than they had. They had the garden of the Lord for their home, the image of God for their likeness, the Lord God Himself for their counselor, the tree of life as the symbol and pledge of immortality. The trial they had was the least possible trial, and the reward the greatest that can be conceived. How did the trial terminate? In manifesting that the will of man was contrary to the will of God, and yet men think that, with a fallen nature and without such wonderful advantages, they are going to do what our first parents failed to do. That conflict ended in the choice of evil, and to their being cast out from that garden; while those who were born in their own likeness ended in that universal apostasy which brought on the judgment of the flood.

After the flood God committed all power in the earth to man. In Genesis 9, 10, 11 you have the formation and division of nations, and on the first opportunity they manifested the fact that their will was contrary to God's will. He had given one command—to scatter themselves abroad in the earth, they declared they would do the opposite and continued together. This exercise of their free will ended in another judgment.

Then God takes out one man (Abraham), and of him He makes a great and wonderful nation. He gave them privileges such as no nation ever had before. A divine ritual was given them, and yet it was from the beginning and all through to the end, "We will not." When the Son of God Himself came they said, "We will not have this man to reign over us." And remember that it was the religious part of the nation that said that, not the rabble. It was the religious people that put the Lord Jesus Christ to death. That tells you how much religion is worth without Christ! Hence you find Israel today without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without a land, without a home.

And now God has chosen another man, the "Second Man," "the Lord from heaven." In Christ He is making another nation; He is taking out, not a nation as He did with Abraham, but a people from amongst Jews and Gentiles, and giving them what none else ever had. In Christ these shall stand, in Christ these are safe; they can never perish, and they can never be lost. Only in Christ can they stand, and, quickened in Christ, they will presently be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, so to be for ever with the Lord.

Then Israel will follow in virtue of the unconditional covenant which Jehovah made with them. The new covenant will then be made [Jeremiah 31; Hebrews 8], and then it will be seen how Israel will stand only by the almighty power. Not only will a new heart be given them, but their old heart will be taken away (Ezekiel 36:26), and then Israel too shall stand.

For a thousand years the nations will walk in the light of "Israel, my glory." And after the thousand years what about the nations? They have not got a new heart. Will they stand? They will have had great privileges and blessings during those thousand years. Will these do anything for them apart from Christ? The close of the thousand years finds them in rebellion against God. They gather themselves together (as you read in Revelation 20) to battle, "and they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the Camp of the Saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them." That is to be the end of the will of man. And now God is using this mystical body of Christ, this church of the living God, to demonstrate and show forth to the principalities and powers in heavenly places His manifold wisdom, showing that without His life none can live, and without His power none can stand.

The question is asked, "Who shall be with Christ were He is? Who shall enter into His glory?" The answer is demonstrated, "Those whom thou hast given Me," "I have prayed for them." "I have kept them." The gift of the Father, and the work of the Spirit, and the intercession of Christ is the three-fold cord which can never be broken. These are "in Christ" now, and this alone will ensure their being with Christ when He fulfills His promise, and descends into the air to receive them to Himself. Yes, His free grace has given them a new will, a will to love Him and honor Him and obey Him. Hence they find that to be their greatest pleasure which once was their greatest abhorrence. What wonderful grace! So precious are they to the Son that He left heavens glories to die for them, to endure the cross, to ascend to heaven and intercede for them, and to come again to receive them unto Himself. The world thinks nothing of them, but He accumulates words to show how precious they are in His sight:-they are His jewels, His flock, His body, His temple, His ALL.

Think of this coming One now seated at God's right hand, and henceforth expecting, and learn how we are like our blessed Master, seated, resting in His own precious, finished, perfect work. And we are expecting too. He is "expecting" the time when He will come and receive us, and we are expecting the time when He will come forth, and we shall be caught up to be for ever with the Lord. We have learned from the frailty of our nature that we cannot stand upright apart from Him, and we are testifying against the evil world which is waxing worse and worse, and for which there is no hope until Christ comes. Oh that we may go from this meeting with our souls stirred up to greater love, to greater zeal and faithfulness in these last evil days, these perilous times, and wait more entirely and unreservedly for God's Son from heaven.

I do a copy paste and then go through and seperate it in to more bite size sections. It is too difficult to read long paragraphs and most here will not do it. They complain about it.
Here it is ... hope you don’t mind. I’ll bump it once or twice too.

Of course this does not change you original posting of the article. So it might not work as the freepers won’t look that far into it.

The Purpose Of the Ages
THINGS TO COME — A Journal of Biblical Literature | August, 1894 | Dr. E. W. Bullinger

Posted on Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:31:05 AM by John Leland 1789

“THE PURPOSE OF THE AGES.” By The Rev. Dr. Bullinger

(At the Nottingham Conference, May, 1894. As published in THINGS TO COME – A Journal of Biblical Literature for August, 1894.)

Christ is the living Word, and we assembled here to learn from the written Word. This Word has many different titles, and each title brings with it its own peculiar claim. It is called (James 1:21) “the engrafted Word.” What is our responsibility to it as “the engrafted Word?” To receive it with meekness.

In Titus 1:9 it is called “the faithful Word,” and as the faithful Word we are to hold it fast. “Holding fast to the faithful Word.” We dare not hold man’s words fast. But, just because this is the faithful Word we may hold it fast.

In Philippians 2:16 it is called “the Word of life.” As such we are to hold it forth. Then it is “the Word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15.) As such we have a very remarkable duty to it. It does not say hold fast the Word of truth. Every word in this book is carefully weighed, for God means what He says, and He has a meaning for every thing He says. What are we to do with it then as the word of truth? To rightly divide it.

The secret of all of our differences is found in the fact that we do not rightly divide the Word. In proportion as we rightly divide it we shall learn, and agree in its truth. “Study to show thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” What a precious study this is. The praise of man is our great snare, and the fear of man is another great snare. God deliver us from both. “Study to show thyself approved unto God.”

Now this Word of truth is occupied with three great subjects. One concerns the Jew, the other concerns the Gentile, and the third concerns the church of God; and every portion of the word concerns one of these three.

Unless we rightly divide the word we are apt to commit robbery. There is already a good deal of robbery in the chapter headings. The blessings which God pronounced upon the Jew and Jerusalem have been robbed in many cases, and are given to the church of God; and there is one peculiar thing about this robbery; viz., that the judgments are never stolen in that way.

The judgments which God pronounced over the Jews and Jerusalem are all left to them. We shall never commit such robbery if we rightly divide the word, and interpret of the Jews the Scriptures that relate to the Jews.

In the Old Testament the words Judah and Israel are used with definite and peculiar significance. We must not draw the conclusion that we use them with the same significance today.

The Gentiles always speak of the whole nation as Jews. We see this all through the Old Testament. It is the term used by outsiders, not by the people of Israel themselves. We do not use the word “Jews” today as equivalent to the kingdom of Judah. Nor is the term so used in the New Testament. In Acts 4 it says “the people of Israel” crucified Christ, not the Jews.

The kingdom of Judah contained a large portion of all the tribes of Israel, so that it can be truly said that it was “the people of Israel” that put the Lord Jesus to death.

With regard to the Gentiles, we have carefully to distinguish that which refers to the history of the Gentile nations and the times of the Gentiles.

Then there is a third body as distinguished from both; viz., “the church of God.” It does not say the church, but “the church of God.” That means God’s church, not man’s—the church of the living God, which is composed of both Jew and Gentile.

The Jew is baptized by the Holy Ghost into the body of Christ, and thus becomes a member of the church of God. He ceases to be a Jew as to his standing, his hopes, and his destiny. The Gentile is baptized by the Holy Ghost into the body of Christ. He becomes a member of the church of God. He ceases to be a Gentile as to his standing, his hopes, and his destiny.

So that the question of Anglo-Israelism does not concern us in the least if we belong to the church of God. It does not matter whether we are born Jews or Gentiles. The great question for each of us is, Am I a member of the “church of God”?

First, in Romans 16:25, 26: “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began.” The word “mystery” is a Greek word which simply means secret. We have adopted the word, and used it as meaning something which cannot be understood. But “the mystery of His will” (Ephesians 1:9) means “the secret purpose of His will.” So that the church of God is a secret “which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.”

In Colossians 1:26 we read, “even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.” What is it that God would make known? The riches of the glory of this secret among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

In Ephesians iii. the apostle says, “By revelation He made known unto me the mystery;” that is, the secret. The fifth verse goes on to say, “Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel.”

This secret was not merely that the Gentiles were to be blessed. That was never any secret, because it was revealed unto Abraham that all the nations (Gentiles) should be blessed through him; but it was this special blessing which is mentioned in Ephesians 2:15, “Having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain” (both of the Jew and of the Gentile) “one new man.”

That is the secret which was never made known in the Old Testament Scriptures; viz., that God was going to save both Jews and Gentiles, and make of the two ONE new body, which he was going to call the church of God.

Again, we have to divide the truth as to times and seasons, for in this third chapter of Ephesians he goes on to speak (in the 10th verse), “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church” (i.e. by means of the Church) “the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose (i.e. “the purpose of the ages,” R.V. margin) which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

When we speak of God’s purposes we speak of something totally different to man’s purposes, because in Isaiah 55 we learned that Jehovah said, “My ways are not your ways, nor my thoughts your thoughts.” Whenever we hear of God’s purposes or thoughts or ways, we have something totally different from man’s thoughts and man’s ways. This is specially so with regard to the future.

Of course, this is the reason why the world does not love such Conferences as these; at any rate, the worldly church does not, because we are writing folly on their purposes. They are looking for the improvement of the world, expecting it to get better and better; but, understanding God’s purposes, we know it will get worse and worse.

The professing Church promises the world that by social improvement and education and progress it is going to get better, and it proposes to bring in the millennium by these means, but it is to be a millennium without Christ.

They are so accustomed to boast of their arts and science, and the spread of what they speak of as “religion,” that the very proposition that the modern church is to grow morally worse, and that all the claims of the world are going to end in disaster, provokes determined opposition both from the religious world and from the worldly church.

Therefore our testimony involves so much of condemnation and rebuke, and suggests such tremendous failure that this proud, boasting, ungodly, God-denying, and God-defying age will not tolerate it or us for a moment.

And yet we read that this present age is an “evil” one. It is from this very evil age that the Son of God has redeemed us. “He gave Himself for us, that He might deliver us from the present evil world, according to the will of God our Father.” It is remarkable how the will of God comes out. It is the will of God which is the source of our salvation.

So also in Romans 12 we are exhorted not to be conformed to this world (That is the sort of nonconformity that we want!); but “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” The princes of this world, and wisdom of this world, and the god of this world are all evil, and therefore we look for a different age.

In Ephesians 2:7 we read, “That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ.” In chapter 3:10 we read, “To the intent that now [in the present age] unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by means of the church the manifold wisdom of God.”

That is to say, God is using the Church of God now, i.e. the body of Christ, to make known to these principalities and powers in heavenly places—whoever and whatever they may be—in order to unfold to them His own “manifold wisdom.”

The trial they had was the least possible trial, and the reward the greatest that can be conceived. How did the trial terminate? In manifesting that the will of man was contrary to the will of God, and yet men think that, with a fallen nature and without such wonderful advantages, they are going to do what our first parents failed to do.

That conflict ended in the choice of evil, and to their being cast out from that garden; while those who were born in their own likeness ended in that universal apostasy which brought on the judgment of the flood.

After the flood God committed all power in the earth to man. In Genesis 9, 10, 11 you have the formation and division of nations, and on the first opportunity they manifested the fact that their will was contrary to God’s will. He had given one command—to scatter themselves abroad in the earth, they declared they would do the opposite and continued together. This exercise of their free will ended in another judgment.

It was the religious people that put the Lord Jesus Christ to death. That tells you how much religion is worth without Christ! Hence you find Israel today without a king, without a prince, without a sacrifice, without a land, without a home.

And now God has chosen another man, the “Second Man,” “the Lord from heaven.” In Christ He is making another nation; He is taking out, not a nation as He did with Abraham, but a people from amongst Jews and Gentiles, and giving them what none else ever had. In Christ these shall stand, in Christ these are safe; they can never perish, and they can never be lost. Only in Christ can they stand, and, quickened in Christ, they will presently be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, so to be for ever with the Lord.

For a thousand years the nations will walk in the light of “Israel, my glory.” And after the thousand years what about the nations? They have not got a new heart. Will they stand? They will have had great privileges and blessings during those thousand years. Will these do anything for them apart from Christ?

The close of the thousand years finds them in rebellion against God. They gather themselves together (as you read in Revelation 20) to battle, “and they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the Camp of the Saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.” That is to be the end of the will of man. And now God is using this mystical body of Christ, this church of the living God, to demonstrate and show forth to the principalities and powers in heavenly places His manifold wisdom, showing that without His life none can live, and without His power none can stand.

The question is asked, “Who shall be with Christ were He is? Who shall enter into His glory?” The answer is demonstrated, “Those whom thou hast given Me,” “I have prayed for them.” “I have kept them.” The gift of the Father, and the work of the Spirit, and the intercession of Christ is the three-fold cord which can never be broken.

These are “in Christ” now, and this alone will ensure their being with Christ when He fulfills His promise, and descends into the air to receive them to Himself. Yes, His free grace has given them a new will, a will to love Him and honor Him and obey Him. Hence they find that to be their greatest pleasure which once was their greatest abhorrence. What wonderful grace!

So precious are they to the Son that He left heavens glories to die for them, to endure the cross, to ascend to heaven and intercede for them, and to come again to receive them unto Himself. The world thinks nothing of them, but He accumulates words to show how precious they are in His sight:-they are His jewels, His flock, His body, His temple, His ALL.

Think of this coming One now seated at God’s right hand, and henceforth expecting, and learn how we are like our blessed Master, seated, resting in His own precious, finished, perfect work. And we are expecting too. He is “expecting” the time when He will come and receive us, and we are expecting the time when He will come forth, and we shall be caught up to be for ever with the Lord.

We have learned from the frailty of our nature that we cannot stand upright apart from Him, and we are testifying against the evil world which is waxing worse and worse, and for which there is no hope until Christ comes. Oh that we may go from this meeting with our souls stirred up to greater love, to greater zeal and faithfulness in these last evil days, these perilous times, and wait more entirely and unreservedly for God’s Son from heaven.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.