The Strife Part III
How Christianity, from the first century, deviated from the Holy Scriptures by S.V.M. originally written in Dutch in 1931, translated from Dutch by Aristarkos.
III. THE PRESENT DISPENSATION AND THE NEW COVENANT
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SOME DISPENSATIONS. We think we should give a brief overview of some dispensations here, so that the reader is well acquainted with our conception and can always test it against the Scriptures and what we shall further investigate from the first centuries.
We will now briefly indicate the difference between the present dispensation, that of Acts, the one to come, and that of the kingdom.
If we omit the present dispensation, which begins with Paul's imprisonment in Rome, we have a continuous development in the history of Israel. God's people are always in the foreground. What the Hebrew Scriptures e.g. made to expect by the mouth of the prophets, we see gradually fulfilled in the Greek. The latter is not about a « new religion » founded by Christ. The long-awaited Messiah has come, and so Paul says « Christ became a servant of the circumcision for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers » (Rom. 15:8). The Gentiles also shared in the blessings as the Apostle adds, « and that the nations should glorify God for his mercy ». (Rom. 15:9). Both during Acts and immediately before and during the Kingdom, we find the representatives of Israel in the land. They are God's People, faithfully follow the forms of the law (although the believers are not « under » the law) and therefore necessarily have a temple. After the cross, the Christian Israelites still follow those forms, but in a new spirit, not for justification. The offerings are e.g. brought as a remembrance of sins (Heb. 10:3). As long as the Kingdom is not there, it will be heralded by the Apostles and disciples and accompanied by the « powers of the age to come » (Heb. 6:5) , that is of the Kingdom. We further see the nearness of this kingdom from the intercession of angels, the communion of goods, the special spiritual gifts, the immediate judgment (as e.g. for those who sinned like Ananias, Sapphira, Herod and Elymas). We also find water baptism and Israel's invitation to repentance to God, that He might send Christ Jesus. Both during the Acts period and during the Kingdom, the 12 Apostles have their role to play, primarily in relation to Israel.
This very brief overview clearly shows the sharp contrast between those times and the present. Everything that was there then is not there now. Israel is not God's people and not in the land, there is no temple, no powers, no intervention of angels, no communion of goods, no visible unity of believers, no immediate judgment, no fulfillment of prophecy, etc. The limits of our dispensation are sharply drawn; it does not begin at Pentecost, but after Acts. Now we are in the dispensation of the « mystery, » which has been hidden from aions and generations (Col. 1:26).
There is a good distinction between the three spheres of calling, testimony, walk and blessing: the earthly, the heavenly and the over-heavenly. The Church can only be made to begin with Pentecost if one confuses the latter with the heavenly.
Some admit that in Acts the Kingdom was still in sight and would have come had Israel repented. In God's decree, however, the Church would in any case exist, and it is now said that, since Israel did not repent, the Church nevertheless began at Pentecost. This is just a statement with no scriptural basis. It is not the case that, because some who lived at Pentecost would later belong to the Church, this Church therefore already started at Pentecost. Nor is it because God then already purposed to form the Church, for He already had this before the downfall of the world.
Nor is it because when the Lord died on the cross, for whatever rests on the cross does not begin immediately after the cross. Nor is it because anything special happened then in relation to the Church, for all this was the fulfillment of the prophecy in relation to Israel, and therefore there were only Israelites at Pentecost and long after to receive that Pentecostal blessing. Was not Pentecost a high season given to Israel? It is also not because something special was revealed about the Church at that time, because that only happened some thirty years later. Think about it: the Church would have started then, but no one knew about it!
It is not so much about when the Church begins (we are of course speaking of the Church, which is the subject of Paul's prison epistles, Eph., Phil., Col.), as if the circumstances, orders, ceremonies, statutes that were according to God's will during Acts, must also be regarded as binding for the Church of this dispensation. Here we definitely say no. Those who might later become part of the Church did not keep those ordinances as members of the Church, but in connection with their position in that Pentecostal dispensation. Even supposing that they belonged to the Church from Pentecost, yet all this was related to their then known position, not to something they knew nothing about.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE NATIONS. Is the relationship between Israel and the nations the same during the Acts times and today? The above clearly shows that it isn't. Israel is a chosen nation, a royal priesthood, a Holy Nation, a proprietary people (1 Pet. 2:9; Exod. 19:5, 6. See also Isa. 61:6) during Acts and in the future. However, since Israel does not take up its position, but hardens itself more and more, we do not yet see those blessings coming to the nations, which, on the basis of the Abrahamic covenant, will be theirs during the Kingdom. Some of these peoples were « strangers and sojourners » (proselytes) and thus subservient to Israel. They had to follow things (Lev. 17:10-16; Acts 15:29). Together with a part of Israel they formed the earthly group, which is fully developed in the Kingdom. Others of the nations, namely those who had the « election of God » (1 Thess. 1:4) and were « of the faith of Jesus » (Rom. 3:26-30), came into the sphere of Paul's gospel of righteousness where they were on an equal footing with some of Israel. They formed the heavenly group.
In this sphere there is no longer any separation between Israel and the nations and they had already spiritually reached the condition that corresponds to the New heaven and earth (the fifth aion). These are the « stars of heaven » (Gen. 15:4-6), the "sons of the free" (Gal. 4), the « heirs of the world" (Rom. 4:13; Gal. 3:29; 4 :7). They are the « spiritual seed » (Rom. 4:6, 7, 11-22). In that sphere there is « neither Jew nor Greek » (Gal. 3:28) and they have come to the « heavenly Jerusalem » (Heb. 12:22; Gal. 4:21-31).
The Christian Israelites of the earthly group still had to follow the forms of the law and therefore went to the temple (see e.g. Acts 2:46). Even Paul, stooping as it were to the earthly sphere, could say and prove that he « walks in keeping the law himself » (Acts 21:24). Only as far as earthly things were concerned, there was a « middle wall of partition » between Israelites and nations (Eph. 2:14).
In the present dispensation of the mystery there is no separation, neither according to spirit nor according to flesh, but a « Fellow-Body ». This concerns the heavenly atmosphere. Those who are part of it have their position and blessings not by virtue of the Abrahamic covenant, as is the case for the earthly and heavenly groups, but from before the destruction of the world.
THE OLD AND THE NEW COVENANT. Israel (not the nations) was given the law through Moses. They thus had a full set of divine precepts, knew God's will, and were taught (Rom. 2:18) like no other people. That law stopped every mouth (Rom. 3:19), through the law came the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20), the crime abounded (Rom. 5:20; 7:13; Gal. 3:19 ). Now Israel could take one of two attitudes: to try to do God's will in their own strength, or to admit that they could not meet God's requirements on their own. They chose the former and claimed to do anything the Lord said, so took a vow, put themselves under the curse (Gal. 3:10), were in bondage (Gal. 4:3). The old covenant is not to be confused with the LAW. The latter exists independently of the covenant. The old covenant consisted in this, that Israel made a vow to keep the law in their own strength, that they thought they could be righteous by the works of the law (Rom. 10:5). In that case they had fallen from grace (Gal. 5:4).
The New Covenant came to offer Israel the opportunity to be redeemed from the vow. (We see right away that the New Covenant can only concern Israel). Christ had accomplished all to set them free from the curse of the law (Gal. 3:13). They were now ransomed, out of bondage, and could obtain sonship (Gal. 4:3-24). Everyone who believed in the Messiah and died with Him (Rom. 6) was killed to the law, loosed from the law (Rom. 7:4, 6). Christ was thus the « end » of the law (Rom. 10:4). They were New Covenant slaves (2 Cor. 3:6), no longer « under » the Law, but under Grace (Rom. 6:14). They were continually taught that by the works of the law no flesh is justified (Rom. 3:20), that it is by faith apart from these works (Rom. 3:28), that is outside of these works.
But, though the first covenant was ended and the second concluded, the law stood. The Lord Jesus Himself said, « For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. » (Matt. 5:18, 19). The Lord Himself, the Apostles and disciples (from Israel) followed the law, only the human statutes they did not observe. The Israelites were to do the weightier things of the law (judgment, mercy, faith, i.e. the spirit of the law), but not neglect the other things (the ceremonies, the outward) (Matt. 23:23). That exterior had no power or value in itself, but it must be the sign of what was in the heart. The law was thus maintained throughout the Acts period. But those who believed in Christ served in newness of spirit (Rom. 7:6; 2 Cor. 3:6), delighted in the law of God after the inward man (Rom. 7:22), those who spirit, fulfilled the justice (that is, the just requirements) of the law (Rom, 8:4). They were partakers of the New Covenant, which permitted them to fulfill the law, because they no longer depended on their own strength; the law was fulfilled in them. They thought no more that the works justified them, but being justified, they could do the works. When they were « in the flesh, » the lusts of sin, which are by the law, worked in their members, but now that they were dead to the law that is being free, no longer in bondage or « under » the law, they serve in newness of spirit.
Those forms had no power in themselves for them, but were only a representation, a shadow of the true. By all enlightened believers, b. v. the sacrifices both before the law and during the two covenants (therefore also in the kingdom) regarded as pointing to reality, to the sacrifice of Christ. The circumcision of the flesh (Ezek. 44:9; Gen. 17:13), the sacrifices (Ezek. 40-45), yes, the whole law would endure until the new heaven and earth (Matt. 5:18, 19). But the Old Covenant was only for a relatively short time, until the New Covenant was made (Matt. 26:28). And that New Covenant is made with Israel. Is anything clearer than Jer. 31:31?
« Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more »
Read carefully these words spoken by the Lord, and believe him. The Old Covenant replaces the New and both concern Israel, although the nations also share in the blessings that flow from the New Covenant.
After the end of Acts, however, everything changes: God's People are set aside for a while. There is no covenant, no law, no forms for the members of the Church of the Mystery, even if they are of Israel.
The sketch can clearly represent all this.
The members of the Church are part of a « fellow-Body », of which Christ is the Head. If that reality is not skewed by a mixing with the position of other groups of believers, one sees that there is a communion with Christ here which was never given to Christian Israelites as such, nor to Christians of the Gentiles as such. Acts is a forerunner of the Kingdom and in none of these times is there a unity, a being placed above all in Christ, as the Church is. Between God and His People there may be a covenant, there may be priests and a temple, as even during the Kingdom, but with the Fellow-Body, of which Paul speaks, there can be no covenant, nor any other thing, which characterizes imperfect communion. After the age to come, the communion between God and the believers will already be closer and there will no longer be a temple (Rev. 21:22). But it is only after the last aion that God will be « all in all » (1 Cor. 15:28). The Church is already a foretaste of that perfect condition, and during the aions to come God will also show the exceeding riches of His grace by pointing to it (Eph 2:7). To the members of the Church, Christ is all (Col. 3:11), and they have only to think of the things above (Col. 3:2).
Also a high priest is only needed where a perfect reconciliation has not yet been made. The members of the Church may still need a high priest according to their walk, but not according to their position.
That there were already groups in communion with God during Acts is not denied. It is denied, that this fellowship was as complete as it was after Acts 28. Only then was it made known by Paul. There are steps in community, as in everything.
So the members of the Body are neither under the O.C. nor under the N.C. They have a position and blessings quite independent of Abraham and Israel, and a covenant could only detract from their fellowship with God. Paul therefore never speaks again about the N.C. after Acts.
FOLLOWING THE LAW DURING ACTS. Now let us examine in particular the question: Did the Christian Jews, who belonged to the earthly group, follow the law during the Acts period, and was it according to God's will? We want to deal with this in more detail, because the importance of this question is huge. First of all, we read of the going of the Apostles and Christian-Jews to the temple and the synagogue (Acts 5:20; 13:14). We read of their fasting (Acts 13:2), of the circumcision of Timothy (Acts 16:3), etc.
We also see how Peter considers Cornelius about 10 years after Pentecost. Hand. 10 shows. us how necessary it was to send him a sight, repeated thrice, and a further command through an angel, to persuade him to go to Cornelius. He said (Acts 10:28):
« Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean »
On the other hand, it is clear that if the Church had begun at Pentecost and the law was no longer to be kept, Peter would have been the first to open his arms to a "godly" man like Cornelius.
Acts 15 is an indication that circumcision was then (i.e. some 20 years after Pentecost) practiced by all Christian Israelites, including the Apostles. From verse 3 we hear of the conversion of the Gentiles (nations). This was made known by Paul and Barnabas at Jerusalem (verse 4). However, some believing (i.e. Christian) Pharisees claimed that they should be circumcised and commanded to keep the law of Moses. So this concerns the nations and not Israel. The question was: Should those believers be incorporated into Israel as « foreigners » by circumcision? Of course that was not necessary. James quotes Amos 9:11, 12, a text that speaks of the restoration of Israel and of the blessings that will then come to the nations. These would be blessed as nations, not as joined to Israel. This text, far from saying anything about the non-observance of the law by the Christian Jews, affirms that they still practiced circumcision, for would this proposal have caused so much contention and commotion if the Jews themselves were no longer to be circumcised? No, wouldn't it, then the matter would be very simple, then the nations certainly wouldn't have to. Some thirty years after Pentecost we see that Paul still goes to the temple to sacrifice (Acts 21:21-26). This fact must not be invalidated by saying that it is simply an application of 1 Cor. 9:20. Surely this was not merely a matter of avoiding anything that might repulse the Jews, but he wished to prove publicly that what was said of him, namely, that the Jews should no longer be circumcised and should no longer follow the manner of the law was a lie. He wanted to show clearly that he himself followed the law when he moved in the sphere of earthly vocation. James and the elders invited him to do this. If it were not according to God's will that the Christian-Jews of the earthly sphere follow the ceremonies of the law, could Paul act thus? He himself returns to this matter (Acts 24:17-19) and also says in Acts. 25:8: « I have sinned neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar. » We now wish to examine some texts which, on a superficial reading, might lead to the opinion that the law was then done away, and that Paul also taught that the forms were now to be followed no more. Let us first look at Rom. 3:21, 28. « Without the law ». Since we claim that light can be obtained from the Greek text even without knowledge of the Greek, we want to show that here. In the Concordance we find that "without" is here the translation of « chooris », and from other texts where this word appears, we see that the meaning is « except », « apart », « outside ». this is how we read e.g. in Matt. 14:21: « without the wives and children », that is not to say that they are not there, but that they are reckoned separately. « Without » is also sometimes the translation of « aneu », which e.g. in 1 Pet. 4:9 and really means « Without ». From the foregoing we conclude that Rom. 3:21, 28 does not say that the law should no longer be followed, but only that the righteousness of God was revealed apart from the law that is apart from the law, and further, that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law, apart from those works. And that was just something that had to be demonstrated, because the New Covenant was now concluded. In the same chapter we read that Paul says that therefore they do not abolish the law (Rom. 3:21), but establish it or « establish » it, as Rom. 14:4 displays the Greek. One sees the great difference with Eph. 2:15, where the law is « done away ». Now Rom. 6:14. It says here: “we are not UNDER the law”. Rom. 7:4 adds that we are dead to the law. The meaning of Rom. 6:14 depends entirely on the word « under ». It expresses complete slavery here. Such a meaning is also found e.g. in Mt. 8:9 « under power »; Rom. 7:14 « under sin« ; 1 Tim. 6:1 « under the yoke« . That's what Gal. 3:10 tells us too, they put themselves « under the curse » and Gal. 4:3: in bondage « under the rudiments ». In that state one is, if one wants to be justified by the works of the law, then one has fallen from grace. However, it is quite possible to the « right of the law » that is to satisfy the just requirements of the law, without therefore expecting justification therefrom. Now those who leaned upon faith for justification were delivered from curse and bondage (Gal. 3:13), no longer UNDER the law, but under grace, and now delighting in the law (Rom. 7:22), they served in newness of spirit. They were no longer slaves, but were given sonship (Gal. 4:3-5). After Israel was no longer « under » the law, it was still « in » the law, i.e. in the sphere of the law, thus speaks Rom. 3:19 of the law in general, and then use in Greek not « under » but « in ». All the children of Israel who are « in » the law, therefore, are not necessarily « under » the law, that's how it makes i.e. also a big difference whether one is « in » his work, or « under » it. The latter is a wrong condition.
Rom. 10:4 seems at first sight to be an insurmountable difficulty for us. « For the end of the law is Christ. » For some this text alone is sufficient to firmly believe that the law was then done away. We must use the sword of the Spirit here and check sound words. Because everything depends on the meaning of the word « end ». Consulting the Concordance, we find that two words are translated « end ». Usually « telos » is used in Greek. If we read texts like Matt. 26:58 and Rom. 6:21, we see that the meaning of this word is more to attain an end or to point to a consequence than to suspend anything. If Rom. 10:4 necessarily means that the law no longer exists, then Jas. 5:11 says that the Lord is no more! The other Gr. word is « peras », as in Heb. 6:16 « an end of all contradiction ». So that is the cessation of the contradiction. It is clear that through the use of « telos » in Rom. 10:4, it is meant that in Christ the law had come to an end, and not that it had ceased.
So we come to Gal. 4:9, 10. Paul reproaches them for serving « weak and poor principles » and keeping « days and months, and times and years. » The word serve expresses: to serve as a slave. Paul says, then, that they should not serve as a slave to outward things, which in themselves are weak and poor principles, i.e. as « under » the law. He does not say that they should no longer perform those forms in a new spirit. He was falsely accused of this (Acts 21). Later there will come a time, namely in the last aion, when also for Israel those weak principles will completely fall away.
As for now, the word translated « maintain" is always used in a pejorative sense, so for example Mark. 3:2 (observe); Hand. 9:24 (kept). The meaning is: to draw all attention to something. The outside was not the most special thing, but the inside was, that's what all the prophets already said in the O.T.
In Gal. 5:1-11 Paul speaks of bondage. Those who were circumcised, thinking that they could be justified by the law (verse 4), had fallen from grace. That circumcision in itself has no power (verse 6); so he does not preach circumcision to them.
In Gal. 6:13 we see no difficulty. Those who were circumcised did not themselves keep all the law, though they should keep it. No man could keep the whole law in his own strength.
Heb. 7.18 speaks of the « abolition of the previous commandment ». That is the O.T., or if one likes the law, regarded as a commandment. However, there is no complete abolition of the law itself, at least not at that time for the earthly group of Israel.
Finally one would quote Heb. 10:18: « Now where there is forgiveness of the same, there is no more offering for sin. » A real sacrifice, that of Christ, is no more. That has happened forever. But that is why there may still be a ceremony in remembrance of that offering. Just as the sacrifices before Christ pointed to the cross, the sacrifices after Christ can also point back to the cross, also we have in Ezek. 40-45 an accurate description of all the forms, including the sacrifices, that will be in use for converted Israel during the kingdom. This includes the circumcision of the flesh (Ezek. 44:9), for it was the sign of an « eternal » covenant (i.e. a covenant pertaining to that aion. Gen. 17:13).
We think thus, that the Scriptures plainly show us that the ceremonies of the law during the Acts period must be followed by the Christian Jews of the earthly calling, and might be followed by those of the heavenly calling.
Aristarkos