02.08. The Sixth Paper
(Sixth Paper, Things to Come, Feb. 1896, 2(8):142-144)) VI. - PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS. When once we have grasped the great secret of God, we have a key to open several other difficult subjects, which have been made difficult and dark through the shutting out of the only light that could explain them.
Many false notions have sprung up, as the necessary consequence of having lost the truth of the Mystery.
(I) WHY WAS THE SECRET KEPT?. But first let us ask, why was the great doctrine of the “Mystery” ever kept secret at all? Why did God hide it in Himself, so that no one could possibly discover it till He chose to reveal it? The reason is clear. Had it not been kept secret, the Jews would have had a reason for their rejection of Christ again in the Acts of the Apostles! They could have pleaded that they were only fulfilling the prophecies, and would have lost at once all their responsibility.
True, the rejection of Christ was foretold, but there was not a word about their rejection of the renewed offer of the King and the Kingdom, which was made authoritatively after the Ascension. In Acts 3:18 (R.V.) the holy spirit, by Peter reminds the nation how “the things which God foreshowed by the mouth of all the prophets that His Christ should suffer, He hath thus fulfilled.” There was an end of the matter, so far as Old Testament prophecies were concerned. Christ had suffered, but now, as to His entering into His glory, and fulfilling all the prophecies concerning that glory which was to follow, - what of these? What hindered their fulfillment? Why should there be delay in their accomplishment? The condition had been laid down in Lev. And Deut. And reiterated all through the Prophets that “Repentance” - that National Repentance must precede National Blessing. The call goes forth therefore in the very next verse (Acts 3:19). “Repent ye, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send the Christ which hath been appointed for you, even Jesus; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began, etc.” (R.V.). The question is, Was this most formal offer merely a mockery? Suppose they had obeyed that call and repented, and turned to the Lord, Would not the times of refreshing have come from His presence? Would He not have sent Jesus Christ? And in that case Would not all that He had spoken by His prophets have been fulfilled? True, Christ had suffered; the Heavens had received Him, but not for ever; only “until” Israel should repent, and turn to the Lord. Can we believe that this offer so formally and solemnly made was unreal? We cannot so believe. Israel was responsible before God for the rejection of that offer; but, had the consequence of their rejection of that offer been previously made known, such responsibility would have been impossible. Therefore was the secret purpose of God hidden in Himself: therefore was it kept secret during times eternal; and not until Israel had definitely refused to repent, and thus, rejected the offer to send Jesus Christ from Heaven, not until then, was the secret of God revealed.
We must never adopt any system of interpretation which would have necessitated that rejection of Christ by Israel. Had the secret been revealed before, they would have been compelled to reject Christ, and they could not have been held responsible for that rejection.
[Note: This would not have affected the fulfillment of the Seventy Weeks of Dan 9:1-27. All would have gone forward; and before the actual “times of refreshing” would have come the “time of Jacob’s trouble”; and before the sending of Jesus Christ would have come the revelation of Antichrist, as there foretold; to say nothing of the shortening of the days provided for in Mat 24:22 and Rom 9:28.] Their present dispersion with all its sufferings, is in consequence of that rejection, and God is righteous in all His acts.
(2) A KEY TO OLD TESTAMENT INTERPRETATION The second consequence which flows from the doctrine of the Mystery is this: Had Israel obeyed the call in Acts 3:19-21, and the Lord Jesus had been sent, there is not a prophecy in the Old Testament or in the Gospels which would not have been fulfilled! This is a great truth and an important principle far-reaching in its results. It tells us that the Gospels are the conclusion of the Old Testament history, and not the commencement of Church teaching; except of course, so far as Christ crucified is the foundation of all blessing, whether for Creation, for Israel, or the Church of God. The Gospels are a record of the rejection of Christ on the part of Israel, and not a record of the foundation of the Church. This exposes the follies of those who seek to apply the Sermon on the Mount to the Church and the world during this present dispensation; and who would build up “the New Theology” on “the teaching of Jesus,” instead of on the teaching peculiar to this dispensation. It reveals to us the mistakes and errors of those who go back to the historic Gospels to preach the “Come- to-Jesus Gospel,” instead of preaching the Gospel from the Pauline Epistles, which are specially given to the Church for Church teaching and Gospel preaching. Those who adopt the former plan are those who generally more or less ignore the latter.
It explains the cause of the difficulties of those who seek to derive from the Acts of the Apostles a system of “Church Government,” while that book records the history of the transitional period between the rejection of Christ by Israel, the rejection of Israel by God, and closes with the solemn recital of Isa 6:9, as to Israel’s judicial blindness, and the great declaration, “Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.”
It seems impossible for us to fix the date of the revelation of the Mystery to Paul, or to say in what part of the Acts it should be placed. From 2Co 12:1-7 it would appear that “the abundance of the revelations” was given “fourteen years before.” This was written about A.D. 60, and fourteen years before would bring it to A.D. 46, which would synchronize with the important dispensational chapter, Acts 13:1-52, where we have the solemn epoch-marking words pronounced to the Jews, “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you; but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles” (Acts 13:46). The Gentiles, as such, had been brought in and blessed long before this. But now, a special work connected with the Mystery was about to be commenced, as is clear from Acts 13:1, where “Barnabas and Saul” had been separated by the Holy Spirit Himself (it is God Himself), for the work “whereunto (He says) I have called them” (Acts 13:2).
There can be no doubt that the Acts of the Apostles (as man calls the book) records the transitional history between the rejection of the Kingdom, and the setting up of the Church.
(3) THE TRUE PLACE OF PENTECOST.
[We depart from E. W. Bullinger and of course, of C. W. Welch views, presenting the building up of Biblical evidence, as Bullinger declared: “unless it can be proved to be so from the Word of God”]
We perceive that the Church of the Body of Christ started at Pentecost, as it was the first time in which unconditionally human beings received the gift of holy spirit and evidenced it by speaking in tongues. Since that time different administrations were running in parallel, as Peter and the rest of the Apostles were leaders in the Early Christian Church (being mentioned as the more notable among them, Jacob (James in English, or Santiago (for Saint Jacob) in Spanish), Peter and John), and the book of Revelation, that deals mainly with the happenings of the Jews in future times, says in Rev 21:14 : “And the wall of the city had twelve foundations (the invisible parts of the city, see below), and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” Also, for the Jewish people is written in Romans: “Rom 11:5 : Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.” Those Jewish “remnant” is being totally faithful to the part of the Bible that they accept now (the Old Testament only, as when amongst the Samaritans some were faithful only to the five first books of the Old Testament), and also only by God’s grace is that they are preserved as the real Jewish “root” (not the Khazar ones inhabiting now “Israel” by the “will of men”) which will emerge again in the times written in the Book of Revelation (but by the “will of God”), until then this “Remnant” will fully accept all that is written in the New Testament, specially the parts written “to them” there, as their own “letters”.
Paul and the revelation that he received about the Mystery enlightens even more what had been already received in Pentecost, as we read in Ephesians: “Eph 6:18 : Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;” being that “praying in the spirit” the speaking in tongues that originally was received at Pentecost (as 1Co 14:14-15 clearly explains, and of whom a similar expression is found in Jude 1:20).
Peter quotes and Old Testament prophet (Joel) in the first Sermon to the Church of the Body of Christ, which started only with about 3,000 Jewish. “Acts 2:17 a: And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy”. The promise of the pouring of holy spirit was plainly known since the Old Testament and was clearly emphasized by Jesus Christ before his Ascension unto Heaven. That the Gentiles will be specially blessed was also well known in the Old Testament prophecies, and even the Speaking in Tongues was known as an evidence of holy spirit within the born again believers, being this last an expression well known by Jesus as we see in his teachings to Nicodemus. Regarding the speaking in tongues Paul wrote “1Co 14:21 : In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord” And Jesus Christ boldly expressed it “Mark 16:17 : And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues” So the nine manifestations of holy spirit, from which seven were well known and in use since the beginning for the human beings (as the Old Testament and Jesus Christ show to us), and we can see that were known since the prophets the two new ones that were added starting in the day of Pentecost (Speaking in Tongues and its interpretation). All of this manifestations will be available until the very end, “Rom 11:29 : For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.”
We conclude that the full availability of the nine manifestations of holy spirit for every born again believer was not a part of the Mystery, and that born again believers will re-emerge at the times of Revelation, as Joel prophesied. But since the Jewish Nation rejected to believe after Pentecost, and because of God always giving them an opportunity, the Mystery was fully revealed to Paul, and it is that the Church of the Body of Christ should be integrated by born again Jews and Gentiles equally, until its full completion, being the Head (it is “the brain”) Christ, who knows for sure who are and who are not the genuine members of His Body, and who is in real charge (no matter what the human leadership may say) and who keeps in touch with each one of them for His wise purposes, this was not even known for the angels of God, and now even they are learning of it from us, their masters, as they are at our service. As we have read before, according to Bullinger’s research, that the Mystery will end with the taking up of the members of the Body of Christ before the beginning of the awful day of the Lord, as the next scriptures clearly declare it: “1Th 1:10 : And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come,” “2Th 2:1 : Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him,” “1Th 4:16 : For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 1Th 4:17 : Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1Th 4:18 : Wherefore comfort one another with these words,” “1Co 15:53 : For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
Pentecost thus is shown to have been started a new administration of the Grace of God, the Church of the Body of Christ and at the same time to have started the times of the end for the Nation of Israel, which rejected again the offer.