Miscellaneous
Writings Vol. Two
HOPE OF THE MORNING STAR
2. THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE NEW;
ISRAEL AND THE CHURCH;
AND THE RELATION OF PROPHECY TO EACH
OF fundamental importance to the discussion before us is
the consideration of the distinctive difference between the Old Testament and
the New, and as connected with this, of the unique character of the Church of
Christ. And this will be found to involve a special relation in which it stands
to prophecy. These are indeed matters which have been often taken up, and it
would seem as if apology were due for taking them up again. The necessity for
doing so could not perhaps be shown more plainly than in the following
quotation from one who takes the opposite position to that for which we are
contending here; and for this purpose I introduce it in this place. The writer
says:- "It is a pleasure to quote the following admirable words from Dr.
Gebhardt, to confirm what we have stated, that this term 'end' is applied to
the present age: 'Christianity is nothing and will be nothing else than the
fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, or the realization of the eschatology of
the Old Testament prophets, throughout the whole New Testament time, until the
Lord comes - and even on to the final glorification of the world.' Prof. Volck
is more definite and to our purpose: 'Since the ascension of Christ we stand in
the last days until the Lord comes.' With still greater definiteness, Dr
Hobart, another profound student of prophecy, says: 'The whole of the New
Testament times is called by the apostles, and by the Lord Himself, the 'end.'
It is expressly stated that at His first advent Christ appeared at the end of
all preceding ages - an 'end' to be closed up by His second advent. In this
sense our whole Age in the New Testament is conceived of as the end of all the
ages that went before."
One can hardly imagine that the words we have
emphasized here can be intended by the writer or taken by him who puts his seal
so strongly upon them, in the full sense which they would bear for the ordinary
reader. "Christianity nothing else than the fulfilment of Old Testament
prophecy"! All the New Testament, therefore, so far as relating to this, adding
nothing even to the Old! Can that be intended? All the mysteries "hidden from
ages and generations" and "now made manifest to the saints" blotted out by one
stroke of the pen; and the deed applauded by one who would join the apostle in
saying, "Let a man so account of us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the
mysteries of God"! No: we must refuse to believe that this can be really meant
in its entirety either by Dr. Gebhardt or the one from whom we quote
him.
But that the writer does diminish greatly the character of these
mysteries will be evident by another quotation :- "There is no foundation
whatever for the assumption that 'the Church which is His Body' is to be made
up of the believers between Pentecost and the Parousia. A new body was not
formed on the day of Pentecost. The fact that all Old Testament saints had
divine life through faith in Christ made them members of His Body. The special
revelation given to Paul,-' the mystery' revealed through him - was that
believers from amongst the Gentiles, without taking a place in subordination to
the Jews, as they will do in the Millennial Age to come, are now, in this Age,
heirs to the inheritance, members of the body, and partakers of the promise
given through Abraham to the sons of Israel. This is the new thing - Israel set
aside from national supremacy during the present gospel period, and all nations
evangelized in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the next Age these national
distinctions will again be resumed."
Thus we see that the questions
connected together at the beginning of this paper are in fact in intimate
relation to one another, and that the old contentions still have to be
maintained. We may well begin with asking ourselves, Is it the fact that this
equality of Gentiles with Jews in the things noted,- things which all believers
in Israel already possessed - is the "new thing," the "mystery revealed through
Paul?" If so, there must be, it is plain, a large measure of truth in Dr.
Gebhardt's assertion that we are living only in the last days of the Old
Testament prophets; with this reserve, that Gentiles have a co-equal place with
Jews which the prophets did not contemplate. Are we prepared to accept this as
the fact?
The three things belonging to the mystery of Christ revealed
to Paul which are referred to, are better stated in the original Greek of Eph.
iii. 4-6 than in the common or revised translations. There is indeed a
difficulty in putting it into English that is not awkward or else periphrastic.
The most literal would read, "that the Gentiles should be joint-heirs, and a
joint-body, and joint-partakers of His promise in Christ through the Gospel."
It is strange enough that in the reference just made (though it is true it is
not given as a quotation) the last important words should be omitted, and the
"promise given through Abraham to the Sons of Israel" should be substituted
for- "His promise in Christ through the gospel." No doubt it may be said the
promise was always in Christ, and the gospel is the same gospel. Indeed, the
last is said, (p. 90;) though proofs of the opposite have been often given, Why
should they be disregarded?
The Lord had been preaching the gospel
(Matt. iv. 23; Mark i. 14) from the beginning of His ministry; yet it was only
at the time when, being rejected, He charged them that they should tell no man
that He was the Christ; that Jesus "began to show unto His disciples that He
must go unto Jerusalem and be killed, and be raised again the third
day"
(Matt. xvi. 20, 21). Now Paul tells the Corinthians (i Cor. xv.)
that precisely that was the gospel he had preached to them, which they had
received, and in which they stood, that "Christ died for our sins according to
the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again." Yet the Lord
had not even to His disciples mentioned this before; and when He did, "Peter
took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord: this shall
not be to Thee."
Doubtless for us there is "one gospel, the only gospel
": in that we shall all agree. If any man preach a "different gospel," as the
apostle wrote to the Galatians, it is "not another": for there is no other.
Doubtless, also, in type and prophecy Christ's death had been foretold, and the
glories that should follow; yet, speaking of this very thing, the same apostle
tells us, to whom at first it had been so strange and so unwelcome, that "of
this salvation the prophets enquired and searched diligently," and to them "it
was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did minister the
things." To us indeed they minister these things now; but how has this ministry
been made available to us? The apostle tells us: They are "reported unto you by
them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven."
This gospel, then, which is our gospel, has indeed its roots
in the Old Testament, and to us ministers its blessings. For all that, it was
not the gospel of the prophets' days, though faith might and did realize the
goodness of the Lord at all times. Now that it has come, it necessarily stands
out as if there were no other; and so the apostle says of Israel, "As
concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake"- for the Gentiles (Rom.
xi. 28). They are treated as enemies,- as having accepted the responsibility of
that death which they inflicted, and which the gospel proclaims. Nationally,
they are thus enemies; and not until the gospel ceases to go forth, will Israel
come to salvation. For, as the prophet is witness, it is when "darkness shall
cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, that the Lord shall arise upon
"Israel," and His glory shall be seen upon" her (Isa. lx. 2). The light of the
gospel must have gone from the earth for such gross darkness to exist.
Thus "His promise in Christ through the gospel" would by no means be that to
the sons of Israel, but Paul the apostle to the Gentiles it is who claims it in
some special sense as his: "my gospel." And it has been long since pointed out
that no other besides Paul gives us the doctrine of justification, or the full
development of the place in Christ. The promise here spoken of is the blessing
flowing out of this, and (although it be .true that "if ye be Christ's ye are
Abraham's seed,") goes far beyond anything promised to the sons of Israel. It
must do so, inasmuch as the place itself is entirely unknown in the Old
Testament.
Then as to joint-heirship, with whom are we joint-heirs? No
one can have a doubt, who goes to the New Testament for an answer; none can
have the least knowledge, who goes to the Old. Abraham was "heir of the world,"
but is that our measure? No, we are "joint-heirs with Christ;" and it is Paul
again who declares this to us (Rom. viii. 17). Had the "sons of Israel" ever
such an assurance? No, in no wise: we are here again not introduced as Gentiles
into Israel's blessing, but, whether Jew or Gentile, into what is immeasurably
higher.
Lastly, the "joint-body" is, as we are well aware, the "body of
Christ." Scripture, and indeed the apostle Paul again, declares that the Church
is Christ's Body, and that by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jews or Gentiles" (i Cor. xii. 13). Thus, while it is true that
"all Old Testament saints had divine life through faith in Christ," we may not
say, unless in the teeth of Scripture, that this "made them members of His
Body": for only the baptism of the Spirit does this. And again, though our
author says that "a new body was not formed on the day of Pentecost," yet the
Lord Himself tells His disciples that they would be baptized of the Holy Ghost
then. What then are we to make of this positive assertion?
If, then, a
new body was formed at Pentecost, it was certainly a body unknown to the Old
Testament Scriptures, which has nothing of the "sons of Israel," even those
converted to God, being the Body of Christ. The only passage for it that has
been produced, so far as I am aware, is Isa. xxvi. 19, which reads with the
omission of the words supplied by the translators, "Thy dead men shall live; my
dead body, they shall arise." The word used here has no plural, but is joined
to a plural verb, and is therefore in the revised version, as by Delitzsch and
others, taken as a plural, "my dead bodies." Here all semblance of application
to what is before us is lost. But if even the singular were to be preserved,
and Jehovah really calls dead Israel "My corpse," when He brings her out of her
grave, we may well wonder at the boldness that would apply such a term to the
Body of Christ; especially when the whole claim of Israel to be this is to be
founded upon it. It is hardly worth while to discuss it further.
But
the Church of Christ, as indwelt of the Spirit, is also the "House" and "Temple
of God"; and here again is what Israel never was, nor any part of Israel.
While, if Israel was indeed the Bride of Jehovah, and is to be again married to
Him after her long divorcement, as Hosea declares (ii. i6, 19, 20), the similar
relationship of the Church to Christ in no wise can make them identical (Eph.
v. 32). The latter is part of the "mystery" of the Church; the former, a
well-known truth of the Old Testament.
The Church is heavenly; Israel,
earthly. If they are identical, then the Church and Israel have no separate
interests, and there is accomplished, though in a different way, the same gross
confusion as long prevailed, and still prevails very much, among
post-millennialists. With them Israel's promises were made over to the Church;
in this the Church would be merged in Israel.
Thus the marriage of the
Bride of the Lamb takes place in heaven (Rev. xix.) before Christ descends with
His saints to the judgment of the earth. The Christian book of prophecy,
Revelation, is all through concerned with the connection of the Old Testament
in this respect with the New. Everywhere it adds the heavenly to the earthly
side of the last things; as, conspicuously, in its view of the "thousand years"
in the following chapter. There we have no details of earthly blessing. Neither
Israel nor the Gentiles come into the scene. But what have we? The reign of the
heavenly saints with Christ over the earth,and the defining and limiting the
thousand years themselves, giving them their true relationship to the eternity
which follows. In connection with all this we find a Jerusalem indeed, but it
is the new and heavenly Jerusalem and not the earthly city.
Thus the
Church, spite of denials, begins at Pentecost and is complete when the fulness
of the Gentiles is come in and it is taken up to meet the Lord in the air. That
the Old Testament saints share in heavenly blessing and in the reign with
Christ over the earth has always been maintained; but that does not identify
the one with the other. On the contrary the epistle to the Hebrews clearly
distinguishes between "the church of the first-born ones whose names are
written in heaven," and "the spirits of just men made perfect"- Old Testament
saints, who as a body have been subjected to death (Heb. XII. 23). The Church
here has the same relation to other heavenly saints as Israel upon earth to the
nations there; and this the words describing it point out.
How
impossible, then, that "Christianity" should be "nothing else than the
fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy," when the fact is that it never appears
in Old Testament prophecy! As having place in those mysteries which are
characteristic of the New Testament, and which were "kept secret from the
foundation of the world" (Matt. XI1I. 35; Rom. xvi. 25; Col. i. 26) it lies hid
in a mere gap of time only indicated in connection with the judgment upon
Israel. In the prophecy of the seventy weeks, for instance, it comes in between
the sixty-ninth and seventieth weeks; and the only event marked there is the
destruction of the city and the sanctuary by the Roman people (Dan. ix. 26). In
Micah v. we have what is, no doubt, the fullest statement in this connection,
where Israel's judge, the Bethlehem-born ruler, being smitten by His people,
this is followed by their being given up "until the time when she who travailed
has brought forth: then," it is added, "shall the remnant of His brethren
return unto the children of Israel." Here it is certainly implied that the
brethren of the King had in the meantime been detached from the nation and its
hopes; but what they had turned to in place of these is still not
indicated.
There is another reason for this omission: that with Israel
the hope of the world is for the same time set aside. Israel it is that is to
"blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit" (Isa. xxvii. 6).
Good reason is there, then, why with her setting aside time should make no
progress. Dates are connected with her; the determined times are upon Daniel's
people and the holy city; and the centuries of gathering out a heavenly people
go all uncounted.
A striking proof of this is found in Corinthians (2
Cor. iv. 4); where Satan is called, not the "god of this world," as the common
version has it, but the "god of this age."
Christianity is not reckoned as
an "age," among the world-ages, or assuredly this could not be said. A world
that has cast out Christ, Israel uniting with the Gentiles to do so, may be
still that out of which grace saves, but nothing more. As the Lord said to the
Jews that took Him, "This is your hour and the power of darkness" (Luke xxii.
53), so "the age of this world," as the word really is in Eph. ii. 2, is
"according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience." Satan is the "god of this age."
Hence
"the end of the age "in the divine sense is, as has been already said, the last
week of Daniel's seventy, broken off from the rest, and still to come. And thus
also, Christ's death was for us who stand in this gap "the completion of the
ages" (Heb. ix. 26, Gk.), and upon us "the ends of the ages are come" (i Cor.
ii, Gk.). That does not mean, as Dr. Gebhardt supposes, that we are in the
end-times of Jewish prophets, but the contrary; though the spiritual value of
those ended ages is surely ours.
The reaping of this spiritual value of
the ages past is indeed a thing of the greatest importance to note, for those
who are disposed to even Christianity with any promises through Abraham to the
sons of Israel. According to the apostle some at least of the prime factors of
Israel's history happened to them for types, and are written for our admonition
upon whom the ends of the ages are come." Such words are surely not intended to
make us feel that we occupy but a place in the latter days of the Old Testament
prophets; but rather that all times previous were intended to minister to the
present, as (in some sense) time to eternity; the ages (for us) being completed
when Christ died. We are not in any Jewish "end" at all. And though it is true
that Abraham sought a "better country, that is, a heavenly, yet our portion as
"blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, in Christ Jesus "
(Eph. i. 3) is only in contrast with any promise through Abraham to the sons of
Israel that can possibly be shown. Abraham himself in this relation is the
"heir of the world" (Rom. iv. 13), and the sphere of Israel's blessing is
distinctly defined in the same way: "The heavens are the heavens of the Lord:
the earth has He given to the children of men" (Ps. cxv. x6).
3. THE RESURRECTION OF THE SAINTS AND THE GREAT
TRIBULATION.
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