01.01.04. The Programme of Redemption

Part I. Chapter IV. THE PROGRAMME OF REDEMPTION.

It is remarkable to observe that the first coun­cil of the Christian Church ever convened should have outlined the whole scheme of redemption from Pentecost to the consummation of the ages. And whatever we may hold as to the binding authority of later councils, we must accept the deliverances of this at Jerusalem as final, since from the testimony of inspired Scripture we know that the Spirit so truly presided and guided in the assembly that in publishing its decisions it was written, “It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us,” (Acts 15:28). Jesus Christ is the Architect of the ages. Not only “all things were made by Him” —all worlds and systems of the material universe—but all the dispensations were planned and predestined by Him: “By whom also He made the ages,” (Hebrews 1:2). His Church was not set upon her course until a complete program of her mission had been placed in her hands, the working-plan by which all her operations were to be directed. “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world,” (Acts 15:18,) is the significant declara­tion which accompanies the publication of this program. And, instead of being day-laborers working in ignorance, God would have us, as laborers together with Him, to understand the entire divine scheme by which our efforts are to be directed, that we may be saved alike from pre­sumption and from despair.

“Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name,” (Acts 15:14). Here is the first act of the great program. Because of the citation from the Old Testament which immediately fol­lows— “And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written: After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down” —it has been inferred that this Gentile outgathering and the tabernacle upbuild­ing mean the same thing; in other words, that the rearing of the tabernacle of David is a figura­tive expression for the building of the Church of Christ. By this superficial though not altogether unnatural explanation of the passage, the whole program has been reduced to a single act, and the inference drawn that the preaching of the gospel in this dispensation is to issue in the con­version of “all the Gentiles.” But it is only necessary to observe three things in order to correct this misapprehension: First, that the citation here made from the closing chapter of the Book of Amos is clearly a predic­tion of the literal restoration of literal Israel, and their reinhabitance of their land; for the words quoted are part of a passage which ends with this decisive language: “And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God,” (Amos 9:15). Observe again that in making this citation the Holy Ghost in­serts the words, not found in the original text, “After this I will return,” and will build again, thus making the restoration of the Davidic tab­ernacle subsequent to the gathering out of the Church from the Gentiles, and connecting it directly with the personal return of the Lord. And, lastly, we are to notice that in announcing this election from among the Gentiles, it is not added, “in this are fulfilled the words of the prophets,” but “with this harmonize—sujwnousin, symphonize—the words of the prophets.” It is but saying that the parts of the great oratorio of redemption perfectly accord, though centuries lie between its different measures; and then, to show us how they accord, the Holy Spirit sounds all the octaves thereof with a single sweep, and lets us listen to their grand unison. This, then, is the program of redemption by which we are to work in evangelizing the world:—

“First, God did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets, as it is written:—

“After this I will return and will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof and I will set it up:

“In order that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom My name is called, saith the Lord who doeth all these things.” The three great stages of redemption are thus outlined in their order. The gathering of the Church is the first act, and this, having begun at Pentecost, is still go­ing on. All the descriptions of it contained in Scripture mark it as elective. From the word of Christ to His first disciples, “I have out-chosen you out of the world,” to the triumph-song of the saved heard by the seer in Patmos, “Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation,” the Bride of Christ is always the Ecclesia, the called out. Nowhere is universal redemption predicted as the result of preaching the Gospel in this dispensation. If in the minds of those who are accustomed to speak of the world’s conversion there is a violent revulsion from this saying, we remind them that we are simply affirming the truth of the doctrine of election, and its applica­tion to this entire age. Most tenderly and rev­erently would we handle this solemn mystery of the Sovereign Will. “Who has not known pas­sion, cross, and travail of death,” says Luther, “cannot treat of this theme without injury to man or enmity to God.” But it is written in Scripture, and the verdict of the ages declares it true. For after eighteen centuries of Christian conquest the vast proportion of the world still “lieth in the Wicked One,” and Christ’s true Church is but a “little flock “in comparison. Only with pathetic sympathy for our fallen race in its ruin and helplessness can we contemplate this fact. And yet we must be reminded that all attempts to violate this decree by making the Church a multitudinous collection, instead of a gracious election, have only issued in apostasy. Sacramentarianism would take the world into the Church by instituting a baptized paganism instead of taking the Church out of the world by preach­ing spiritual regeneration; and behold the result in a half-heathenized Christendom. Latitudina­rianism would make the Church coextensive with the world by preaching the gospel of universal salvation, —all men by nature the sons of God, —and thus, by crowding the Lord’s house with “the children of the Wicked One,” turn it into “the synagogue of Satan.” Though it be in mystery, and sorrow and tears, we had best work on, there­fore, by the divine schedule, preaching the gospel among all nations for a witness that we may gather out for Christ a chosen and sanctified peo­ple, calmly answering those who say that God’s ways are partial with His own words: “When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” And yet, lest we should take too narrow a view of this theme, other considerations should not be overlooked. Christ is called “The Light of the World.” The beams of sunlight both elect and irradiate; taking out here and there from muddy pool or acrid dead sea a pure, crystalline drop and lifting it heavenward; but also lighting and warming all the atmosphere by their radiance. So Christ, preached among the Gentiles, elects from them a holy flock, a regenerate Church; but besides this, He changes the moral climate of the world so that such noxious growths as cannibalism, slavery, polygamy, and infanticide disappear. These two results inevitably attend the proclama­tion of the gospel; regeneration saving some out of the world, and civilization putting something of Christianity into the world: but by neither process as now going on is the millennium des­tined to be ushered in.

Moreover, let us reflect that an election is never an end in itself; it is rather a means and prepara­tion for some vastly larger accomplishment. The body of the elect is really Christ’s army, gathered by a divine conscription from every kindred and people, that they may attend Him as He goes forth to His final conquest of the world. “And they that are with Him are called and elect and faithful,” (Revelation 17:14). Of this, however, we shall speak later. The second act of the divine program now comes into view. “After this I will return and build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down.” By Christ’s personal coming in glory, the conversion and restoration of Israel are to be accomplished. The reader has only to compare this order with the redemption schedule drawn out in the eleventh of Romans to see how per­fectly they agree. St. Paul, indeed, begins with the Jewish election, as St. James does with the Gentile election. And we must remember that the choosing out that is going on in this dispen­sation touches both: “not out of the Jews only, but also out of the Gentiles” (Romans 9:24). But each apostle takes up the same succession of events; first the Gentile out-gathering, and then the Hebrew regathering. The hardening of the Jews which we now behold is declared by Paul to continue “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved. As it is written: There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (Romans 11:25-26). By the “fulness of the Gentiles “we understand the predestined num­ber, the elect company gathered through the entire period of this dispensation to form the Bride of Christ. 1 When this number shall have been accomplished, then the conversion of Israel will occur and their national restoration to God’s favor. The two parts of the aged Simeon’s proph­ecy are strictly consecutive: “A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel” (Luke 2:31-32). The sun is the light of the earth, overspreading it with his beams and elect­ing and drawing up from it the pure water-drops which form the clouds; but he is the glory of the heavens, being their very central and most illus­trious orb. And so is Christ a light for revelation to the nations, exhibiting God to them in Himself who is “the brightness of His glory and the ex­press image of His person,” in order to win from them a chosen heritage. But He will be the supreme glory of His people Israel, when He shall at last be owned as their Messiah and reign in the midst of them as King.

These two stages of redemption—the Gentile election and the Hebrew restoration— are to be accomplished “in order “to a third, namely, “that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called.” The old priority still holds, so far as worldwide salvation is concerned: “To the Jew first and also to the Gentile.” This order was inverted for a time by the rejection of Christ by His people; but when they shall turn unto Him and find mercy, it will be taken up again. It stands writ­ten in Scripture that “all Israel shall be saved;” and just as plainly, that through that consum­mation “all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called.” Without enlarging upon the thought, what a profound hint of this does Paul give in the words of the same chapter concerning his rejected people: “Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their full­ness.” “For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead?” (Romans 11:12, Romans 11:15) “It is clear,” says Lange, “that the apostle awaits a boundless effect of blessing on the world from the future conversion of Israel.” Then shall the word of Joel concerning the effusion of the Spirit have a complete fulfillment, as it had a partial and pre-figurative accomplishment on the day of Pentecost. For if we turn to the prophet we find it said: “And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none else. And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,” (Joel 2:27-28). And with this agree the words of Isaiah where he predicts the desolation of Zion as continuing “till the Spirit be poured upon us from on high,” (Isaiah 32:15). When the Lord shall shed forth the Holy Ghost abundantly upon His covenant people, through them will come unspeakable blessing to the Gentiles. 2 The modern post-millennial interpretation completely de­ranges the program of prophecy at this point by making redemption terminate with its first scene. “The end of the age,” brought in by the second coming of Christ, misleadingly translated “the end of the world” in our common version, is supposed by many to close the probation of the race, winding up the present earthly scene, and bringing in the final judgment and the eternal state, instead of opening into the triumphs of the age to come. Is it possible that the first Chris­tians could have had this idea? If so, how could they have so ardently desired, and earnestly looked for, the speedy return of the Lord, since His coming would end the work of Gentile in-gathering, while as yet only a handful had been saved? On the contrary, take the words of Peter to the Jewish rejectors of Christ, and observe how clearly they teach the very opposite: “Repent ye therefore and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord; and that he may send the Christ who hath been ap­pointed for you, even Jesus whom the heaven must receive until the times of the restoration of all things,” (Acts 3:9-21, R.V.). Here we have, as constantly throughout Scripture, the repent­ance of Israel directly connected with the return of Christ from heaven, and their conversion and the Lord’s appearing resulting, not in their cut­ting off from the presence of the Lord, but in times of “refreshing from the presence of the Lord;” not in the winding up of all things, but in the “restoration of all things.” Three acts of the divine program appear again in this decla­ration of Peter, the coming of Christ, the con­version of Israel, and universal redemption, —corresponding exactly with those revealed in the texts from James and Paul already considered.

How clearly it is thus seen that the final re­demption of the world comes at last through the conversion and restoration of Israel, and the glorifying of the Church at our Lord’s return! If it be said that this is a Jewish conception, bor­rowed from the Old Testament, 3 we will answer, “Yes, and reiterated and more explicitly un­folded in the New Testament.” For nowhere is the order of events so distinctly revealed as in the Acts and Epistles.

“Election, partial and opposed to universal redemption,” has been the verdict of thousands who have replied against God, knowing little of the range of His eternal plan. “Election, gra­cious, and preparatory to universal redemption,” is the discovery which a deep pondering of Holy Scripture reveals. The chosen nation, Israel, restored and made glorious on earth, with the Lord dwelling in the midst of her, and the elect Church transfigured with her risen Saviour, —these are His appointed agents, trained by long dis­cipline and trial for bringing all peoples and tribes into obedience to God. As to the Gentile election, so to the Hebrew restoration, objectors may be reconciled when it appears that this, too, is instrumental and preparatory to worldwide salvation. “Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee,” is the summons which the long captive daughter of Zion shall hear, and then the blessed result: “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising,” (Isaiah 60:3). No dream of the world’s conversion, how­ever ardent, can surpass the glowing reality as depicted in the prophecy just quoted, —“The abundance of the sea,” “The forces of the Gen­tiles,” “The inhabitants of the isles,” coming no longer by ones and twos, but in clouds! Only let us observe the order of their coming, —through restored and forgiven Israel, —that we may un­derstand the Messianic prayers which are taught us in the Scripture to be the truest missionary prayers. To plead for the speedy return of the Lord is to plead for the speedy ingathering of the heathen; to pray for the peace of Jerusalem is to pray for the conversion of the Gentiles. How this comes out in the words of the sixty-seventh Psalm! —“God be merciful unto us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us; that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations.” The Jews have been in the shadow of God’s averted countenance ever since they rejected His Anointed, and hid, as it were, their faces from Him. But when they shall re­pent and return to Him, He will turn His face again upon them in blessing. Then will redemp­tion go forth unhindered and without measure upon the Gentiles. 4 “Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God, even our own God, shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him.” Blessed time, when God’s patient seek­ing after the Gentiles shall give place to a uni­versal seeking of the Gentiles after God. “And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying. Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of Hosts. I will go also, yea, many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before the Lord,” (Zechariah 8:21-22). To those, therefore, who would dishearten us by declaring that missions to the heathen are a fail­ure, and that, at the end of nineteen centuries of evangelization by the Church, there are a thou­sand million of earth’s fourteen hundred millions who have not even named the name of Christ, —that “for every additional Christian, we have every year a hundred and eighty additional heathens or Moslems,” —our answer is, An ex­hortation to redoubled diligence in preaching the gospel to every creature, that we may thereby “hasten the day of God;” an invocation, “Even so come Lord Jesus;” and a prayer which we breathe out in the most fitting words of the old English burial service: “That it may please Thee shortly to accomplish the number of Thine elect and to hasten Thy kingdom, that we, with all those that are departed in the true faith of Thy holy name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in Thy eternal and everlasting glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Endnotes:

1 The word plhrwma—fullness—is used to signify a limited fullness as well as an unlimited: it may apply to the contents of the brimming cup dipped from the ocean as well as to all the waters of the ocean. “When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4). Here is meant the completion of a certain preordained period of time. So “the fulness of the Gentiles” we hold to mean the entire number of those to be gathered out of the Gentiles during the age. See use of the word also in Mark 2:21.

2 “A new life in the higher charismatic fullness of the Spirit shall extend from God’s people to the nations of the world com­pared with which the previous life of the nations must be considered dead.” —Auberlen.

3 It is certainly not without significance that the Old Testa­ment throughout binds the fulfillment of the Divine kingdom to the land that was granted to Abraham, not by right of nature, but by grace. The prophets know of no final completion of the Divine promises without the confirmation of this old promise of the eternal possession of the Holy Land.” — Oehler, Old Testa­ment Theology, 1. p. 93.

4 “Those beautiful questioning words of Isaiah about the Gentiles often occur to me: ‘Who are these who fly as doves to their windows?’ —a flock of doves speeding to their home, their ark of refuge. Noah’s one dove, like the solitary Jewish Church, took refuge there from the wild waste of waters; but all kin­dreds, people, tongues, and nations shall fly to their stronghold in later times, their feathers of gold and their wings covered with silver, white and lovely though they have lain among the pots.” — Patience of Hope.