The great gift of God made available to the whole world
through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ is great news to fallen mankind
including the redeemed by His blood and filled with the Holy Spirit. We must
often hear this gospel proclaimed, or we may be led by our own remaining
fleshly desires, to try to add something to our adoption as children of God.
But all of the Holy Scriptures proclaim, that this is a gift received by grace
alone, because of faith alone, the great mystery of the ages with God alone as
its author. It is an unconditional promise of God made to His children, being
recreated into the image of His son Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ.
In a similar mysterious way are the pronouncements made
in Ephesians Chapter 3 regarding the nature of the church. But just as with the
gospel, we too often try to make these statements of Paul into conditional
probabilities, in some sense to make the church into a body that functions
according to our dictates and our wisdom. Because this is one of the more
difficult passages of PaulÕs writing, there is all together enough information,
wisdom, and mystery in this chapter to fuel our desire to make things easier
for those who may follow in our steps. Since all translations render
differently some of this complex verbiage, and because I have been trying to
make a conscious effort to keep these messages short and to the point, it would be appropriate to read your particular
version at this time.
This chapter is really a series of statements regarding
the nature of the church, or the body of Christ. Within the body we see the
unification of Jew and Greek, or more broadly Jew and gentile. It speaks of the
mystery of how God has brought this about. It also states that within that
body, God has promised to do great wonders, well beyond our comprehension. In a
sense this mystery of the church combines the Israel of the Old Testament, with
the church into a New Eternal Israel of GodÕs chosen people from every tribe and
nation. Through the doctrine of the everlasting gospel, all diverse peoples are
accepted as family, no matter their cultural or previous religious heritage.
Again, in context, all this is a statement of unconditional fact.
In chapter 4, Paul changes from the unconditional
indicatives to imperative rules or conditional perrhaps optional. Things we
have a say in, and the freedom to accomplish, or to mess up. In this chapter
Paul admonishes us to behave as one body, Òwith all lowliness and gentleness,
with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the
unity of the Spirit of the bond of peace.Ó But praise man for our ingenuity,
for perhaps the greatest divisions in the church today comes from our differing
understanding of the role of the church as the new Israel. But since that is in
the preceding chapter, it is easy to set up an artificial division and
compartmentalize each chapter as standing on its own.
In our ability to analyze Old Testament Israel, we
differentiate between the nation of Israel, many times apostate, and GodÕs
chosen remnant. In the same mode
we New Testament saints speak of the visible and the invisible church. But in
the whole context of GodÕs people and His economy for them, National Israel and
the visible church are essentially synonyms, as is the remnant and the
invisible church. Now all this works rather well until--we get into the
prophetic books of the Bible. Especially those which prophesy toward the end of
time, the end of the age, or the Day of the LORD. At this point all our
wonderful brotherhood and family relations quickly become in many cases vile
almost to the point of obscenity. If not to that extent, at least an anathema
to those who are not part of our group, GodÕs chosen invisible remnant.
Starting from the word of God, I am aware of at least six
methods of interpreting scripture. But relating to the prophetic portion,
essentially they are all variations on a theme. Either you interpret prophesy
spiritually, or you interpret it literally, from these presumptions flow our
eschatology. They are two different paradigms, and in that regard they are
mutually exclusive. I recently spent some time on the internet looking at some
various websites promoting both
covenant theology and dispensationalism. As a general rule, the two different
constructs for each method respectfully.
As best as I care to discern from that search and other
sources, covenant theology divides the Book of Revelation into 7 different
pictures of the church age beginning with ChristÕs ascension and culminating
with the second coming. Seven images of the same period of time. Classical
Dispensationalism divides the whole Bible into seven dispensations, or eras of
Gods dealing with people or peoples. But the major emphasis is the pretribulation
rapture of the (invisible) church to heaven, preceding the great tribulation
period of judgment of the earth. (Daniel 9 and following, and literally and
chronologically JohnÕs Revelation).
Now not being raised in either camp, and consequently
also not changing camps as I began to see weakness in the system I was
indoctrinated into, I would just like to illustrate some significant points as
I see them. 1. Both systems start from different paradigms and therefore draw
different conclusions. 2. Both systems in their classical sense venture far
beyond what the straight forward reading of the Biblical text would justify.
(You would have to have a lot of time and spend a lot of effort to develop such
a system that would fit perfectly within GodÕs perfect number seven.) 3. Both
systems were fully developed and implemented before the foundation of the
present State of Israel in 1948. 4. Finally, each system while it might add
clarification to a particular understanding of the prophetic portions of
scripture, they focus attention upon themselves and away from the point in time
when the redemption and justification of mankind took place on the cross of Calvary.
As I have been ruminating upon this subject for the last
few weeks and reading certain prophetic passages, I have noticed that as
written, God did not put in the original just how to interpret each specific
passage. In our age, when you read a prophetic portion of scripture dealing
with Israel, it could mean the current Nation, perhaps in the Old Testament
context, a religious remnant within, or it could mean the visible, or invisible
church. There is also nowhere in that same text that says that this portion of
scripture must be interpreted spiritually or literally all the time. To do any
of the above functions, brings down the work of Christ accomplished at Calvary
to a level that I can understand and quantify. It takes all the mystery out of
the work of the church and of Israel. It makes GodÕs ways contingent upon our
understanding, or at least that is what we hope, or continues to sell our books
and tapes. Prophesy is verified looking back at its fulfillment not forward
forcing our constructive presuppositions into one ditch or the other. It is
time that Òwith all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with
one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit of the bond of
peace,Ó we see if perhaps some of the unity that Paul discusses in Ephesians
chapter 4, can be again the witness of the Evangelical church in the 21st century,
as it was in the 1st.
Now, all too often the voice of this religious age is to
say that you must choose one camp or the other, or risk being excommunicated
from our remnant, visible, religious circles. I know of some who receive this
message who have moved on from just such a choice. I will just say that during
the preparation and rumination of this message, some of the prophetic portions
I identified with now National Israel, may also find fulfillment literally or
spiritually in the invisible church. If each of us would begin to see similar
changes taking place within our particular assumptions and presumptions, it
could have the effect that Paul was talking about to the Ephesians. In that
context of the full book, that would change the nature of the armor of God
needed for our era, and we could again be content with the armor that Paul
described, for we would not need protection for our back side. Again the
apostle has it right in his conditional construct at the end of that passage
Òand for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel,
for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly,
as I ought to speak.Ó (Ephesians 6:19,20)
It is the mystery of the gospel that unites us, only from that context
should the other mysteries proclaimed in scripture be interpreted, it is the
mystery of the gospel that the martyrs gave their lives, not their eschatology.
In closing, I am reminded of some words of wisdom from
the wife of a pastoral acquaintance: ÒBuild a bridge, and get over it!Ó And as
all great Generals have known from the time of Hannibal till this day, ÒOnce
over it, burn it behind you!Ó
On occasion, I have had these ÒawesomeÓ messages
recommended to others. Such an occurrence occurred this week. Whether that be
true or not, I can not judge, because all that we have is nothing but gifts
from God, some unconditional, some conditional.. The wonderful thing about
using one of His gifts for His purposes, is that He can make it seem as much
more than is really there. However, I do believe that this particular seeds
portion may have a more lasting impact than all the verbiage that all times
precedes it. For this is where this limited natural man comes in contact with
circumstances beyond my ability to orchestrate. And really one of the reasons
that makes me do this every week is so I cannot only report on mountain peaks,
but also the times of valley brush and fording the sloughs of despair. Anything
that I might accomplish is just some conditional gift that God can give to any
of us, as we endeavor to walk with Him.
I was reminded this week that God will only act when we
are beyond our ability to predestine our own circumstances. This truly is the
great weakness of American Evangelicalism. We do everything in our own strength
and intellect and then wonder why God is not blessing our labors as He should.
In that regard, the move to NE Washington is still not progressing as visibly
as I would like to see, my patience as well as others patience with me is
wearing thin, as it is relayed to me. But I do know enough about this move of
the ministry to the Little Dalles and that is, it is much more spiritually
complex than I had first imagined. Sticking my fingers into things I do not
know are specific steps from the Lord, will only frustrate me and others,
beyond that which He is using to show His glory. In that regard continue to
intercede for the move, finances, and people as we relocate to this new
location.