2017.—The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. Eph. 1: 10, 22
By Editor
[We are willing to answer all questions in this department that are practical for the department and that would minister to the general good of our readers, but we answer no questions unless the name and address accompany the question. We do not ask this for publication, nor will it be published unless the inquirer so desires; we ask it, however, as an evidence of good faith, and that we may answer by letter if deemed best. Inquirers will please take notice. There is no departure from the rule. Unsigned questions reach the waste basket by the most direct route.] Will you please explain the meaning of “the dispensation of the fulness of times” in Eph. 1:10, 22? Does that refer to the thousand years of Revelation 20, and will Christ reign upon earth during that time? H. This is a very large question, and we can only reply to it very briefly. A much fuller explanation will be found in “The Great Day of the Lord,” a tract upon this question, which can be obtained at this office, or of your tract society, for five cents. The term as used in Eph. 1:10 looks forward to the great consummation of all things for which Christ died. Ephesians 1 presents the purpose of God before the world was, that purpose as related to Christ and His death, and the work of the Spirit in that purpose; all look forward to that time when all things shall be summed up in Christ. The gathering out of the children of God precedes the one thousand years. During this time, according to Zechariah 6, and First Corinthians 15, Christ reigns as priest upon the Father’s throne. When the work of priesthood is finished, He will take His seat upon His own throne. A paraphrase of 1 Cor. 15: 23-26 will throw light upon this. All our comments are in brackets: “But each in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; then they that are Christ’s, at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He [Christ] shall deliver up the kingdom [where Christ now sits as priest-king, Rev. 3: 21; Heb. 8: 1; Ps. 110: 1] to God, even the Father; when He [the Father, according to His promise in Ps. 110: 1] shall have abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He [Christ] must reign [as priest upon His Father’s throne], till He [the Father] hath put all His [Christ’s] enemies under His [Christ’s] feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.” Christ is now priest upon His Father’s throne. When He rises from His work as priest, that fiat will go forth referred to in Rev. 22: 11. Then the Father will give Him His own kingdom, this earth. The capital city of that kingdom is the New Jerusalem in heaven, and there Christ will begin His reign for a thousand years. During this time the earth lies desolate, enjoying the Sabbath which sinful man refused to give it, for one thousand years. Revelation 20, Isaiah 24. At the end of the thousand years the final acts of the judgment take place. During the thousand years the saints have been with the angel scribes examining the records of the wicked. At the end of the thousand years their sentence is executed, and they die the second death, in the great lake of fire. After this melting of the elements with fervent heat, and the destruction of all the works of sin, God’s power will change the blighted, blasted earth into a glorious new earth, where the saints will reign forever. That will be the dispensation of the fulness of times, when all things are gathered together in Christ Jesus. There is but one true way to study this great subject involving Christ’s priesthood and kingship, and that is from the view-point of the sanctuary. Ignore its teachings, all others are thrown into confusion; follow its teachings, and every doctrine of the Scriptures falls into place and leads us on to the glorious triumph. Would like to have you explain Matt. 5:29, 30. I always thought that any Christian losing arms or limbs in this world would be made perfect in the next. J. E. S. The passage reads as follows: “And if thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body be cast into hell. And if thy right hand causeth thee to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not thy whole body go into hell.” Our correspondent believes rightly; there will be no imperfect people in God’s kingdom, no pain, no sickness, no mutilated bodies. The thought of the passage is this, that absolutely nothing must stand between us and eternal life. Better to lose here the lustful eye which has caused us to stumble than to follow it blindly to destruction; better lose the deft right hand which by its skill would lead us away, than to keep it and perish. The right eye and the right hand are two of the dearest members of the body. The Lord uses these as illustrations of things which are very dear to us in this world. Some are passionately fond of art, others of music, others of some other pursuit. These are as dear as the right hand or the right eye, and yet they are constantly leading away the ones who love them from the simplicity of God’s truth. Better to sacrifice them forever, and go on ignorant of the highest harmony and the highest art than to permit these things to shut us out of the kingdom of God. That is likewise true of the church as it is of the individual. The church may have a person of highest talent in its midst, and yet, if that talent is being used to throw down the church of God, or to turn that church away from the simplicity of the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is better to let that individual go, separating from the church, rather than have the whole body itself destroyed. Our Lord did not mean that we should mutilate ourselves, nor that we should kill recalcitrant church-members, but it does mean that we should separate ourselves from everything that would drag us down. Paul in speaking of the resurrection body in 1 Cor. 15:44, says: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” If at the resurrection, redeemed man becomes a spiritual body, will he not be an immortal spirit in the strict sense of the word? If we are to awake in His likeness, why was Christ, the first-fruits of the resurrection, not also immediately raised a spiritual body, a spirit? See Luke 24:39. These two passages seem to be out of harmony, as also the following: In John 20:17, Jesus said to Mary, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father,” and yet John 20:27 states that He permitted Thomas to touch Him. Did He make any other ascension after the resurrection except that spoken of in Luke 24:51? E. F. D. First, it is impossible for us to tell the difference between the physical substance of spiritual bodies and spirits, between immortal man and angels; yet the Bible seems to make a distinction. This inability of all to understand these things is indicated in First Corinthians 15. Each seed has a body of its own, all flesh is not the same flesh, there are celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; all these things differ as one star differs from another in glory. The “spirit” referred to by the disciples in Luke 24: 39 was their own superstitious idea evidently of a ghost. Some of those things taught by the traditions of their childhood still held with them, and according to their own conception no spirit such as that had flesh and bones such as Jesus had. We have no reason to suppose otherwise from the Scriptures than that He would bear the body in which He was raised to all eternity, and we shall be in His likeness. Doubtless He also was raised immortal, but the glory of immortality was veiled because the mortal eyes of His disciples could not look upon it. What is spiritual is not necessarily not substantial. The natural body is a dying body; that which is spiritual may be altogether more substantial than that which is natural.6Secondly, we must understand that immediately after His resurrection, immediately after His speaking with Mary, Jesus ascended to the Father, and was accepted of Him; His offering was accepted, His atonement was accepted for fallen man. His words to Thomas would indicate that this was so. We will find many things in scripture in this way. The Lord does not satisfy our curiosity, but He gives us His word and we may know that the word is true. Later we will see the harmony of it and the beauty. Can a Christian go to a social held in a church without helping to make the house of prayer a "den of thieves"? Is it not contrary to Adventist principles? I. This would depend on the character of the social. We could understand how people could meet together in the house of God in a social way and still honor the Master. If "social" is used to mean a gathering for all kinds of games, entertainment, etc., for the purpose of raising money for the house of the Lord, it would seem as the devoted Christian could have no part in it. The real question is, Is it in harmony with the principles of Christianity? The only true Adventist principles there are are the true Christian Biblical principles that should guide all Christians. Adventists should have no other. If we were to define principles by Adventist principles, it would be what the Adventists themselves hold, and would be only a human standard. The principles which ought to guide us are the principles of Christianity. If our presence at such a gathering as that leads souls to Christ and away from the follies of the world, we may be needed there as missionaries; if we are there to take part in the foolishness and revelry and song and utterly false ways of raising money for Christ, we would much better be absent and serving the Master in some other way. Of course, as to "the den of thieves," that might be too broad a term to use of all such gatherings as that; if carried to the extent that the temple was used in the days of our Lord, the same principles would apply now as then. The courts of God's house should never be used for unholy and sinful practises of any kind, and no cause connected with the Lord's work ever demands any such plans of raising means. The Greek word is ktisis. It is translated building, creation, ordinance. It really means creation here, and is so translated in the American Standard Revised Version, "for the earnest expectation of the creation," that is, God's whole creation. That creation has been marred and pained on account of sin. All the perversions of physical law have come on account of sin, and the apostle represents all this as the expectation of the time when the sons of God shall be revealed, for the 21st verse tells us that creation itself "shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God." Then the 22nd verse: "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." God's creation is one, just the same as the human body is one. When one member of the body suffers, other parts suffer with it; when one member of God's great creation suffers, all the others suffer with it; and that suffering will go on until the time that sin is forever banished, and God's children are redeemed, and then will come the liberty of the glory of the children of God. Sometimes people say to us, "I don't like to hear that only the Adventists, and perhaps a few others, will be saved." What shall we reply to such a remark? H. I think we could say first of all that we do not know one who is teaching any such doctrine as that. I am sure that no truly well-informed Seventh-day Adventist teaches any such thing. We do not know who will be saved and who will not. We do know, however, what characters will be saved. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved, for whosoever believeth in Him shall have eternal life. John 3: 16. But true faith implies an obedient heart. The Scriptures declare: "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro thruout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. 16: 9. Doubtless there will be many in the kingdom of God whom we did not expect to see there; many will not be there whom we expected to see; because judgment will be by His word and according to the light we have received. It is not for us to say whether one has rejected light to condemn him, or one has accepted enough light to save him. God has not placed that in man's power. All that we can do is to preach His word, speak His truth, and let that accomplish the bidding of the Master. No man will be saved because he is called by the name of Adventist or Methodist or Baptist or Roman Catholic; neither do these names necessarily imply that any one will be lost. There is no salvation in mere words or forms; there is salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of His word, and whosoever he may be, if that truth is transmuted in his life, he shall live. Rev. 22: 14; 14: 12.