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The Mystery of the Gospel.
by G.J.P. Translated from Dutch  Preface
 About the « mystery of the gospel » and what is associated with it, is uncertainty for many, doubt for others. Still others are fighting some things like the out-resurrection. All this is not inexplicable. The more spiritual a matter is, the more difficult it is to see. In this writing we want to discuss some points about which difficulty has arisen or that are being challenged. They are the following:1° What is the mystery.2° What does the over-heavenly mean.3° Who are « we » and « ye » of Eph. 1 — 3.4° When does the take up occur.5° What is being conformed to His death.6° Whereto the hunting of Paul.7° What is the spiritual background.8° The 3 spheres.Consider this writing as a supplement and extension of the series: « Foursome to the Mystery » I — IV. We can not give anyone the calling to God's own purpose and mercy, but we try to clarify the doctrine concerning the Body of Christ and to remove as many obstacles as possible. Whoever really sees the mystery can not get rid of it, whoever does not see it can not get it by diligent study.What we already in Part I N° 1 of the Dutch magazine « Uit de Schriften » (Out of the Scriptures) appears to come true: Many stand against or oppose the mystery. There is no other way. In this writing we want to show the opinion of the opponents and, by refuting them, try to overcome the difficulties for others. Paul asked for the intercession to obtain an opening to reveal the mystery of the gospel. How much more is that necessary for us who wish to be his followers. Where there is an opportunity for us to speak of it, we hope to do so in such terms that the exalted calling of God, who comes to us in the mystery, may be clearly exposed, so that one may come to full knowledge of the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ.I.
What is the Mystery. ↑ Body or Fellow-Body? About the question: What is the Mystery, there doesn't exist a corresponding opinion. There is twofold opinion. According to us, she is this: the Church that is His (Christ) Body has only begun to be formed after Paul received the revelation from it in Rome. According to another controversial direction, she is something else. This one teaches this: « The mystery of all ages is, according to Eph. 3:5 and 6, that the Gentiles are fellow-inheritors and fellow-body and fellow-partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel of which Paul has become a servant. This is the mystery. That is so obvious that nothing else can be read in it. Anyone who wants to read from this, that the Church that is the Body, is the mystery, fantasizes something. In Eph. 1:22 and 23 that mystery is not called a mystery. Moreover, the Church that is the Body is not distinguished from another church that is not His Body, but the Church of God. Paul speaks in verse 22 of the church and says of this church in verse 23 that it is His Body. Exactly so he says in 1 Tim. 3:15 of the Church of the living God, that it is a pillar and solidity of truth, and the House of God. Shall we now learn that Paul in Tim. still talks about another church that is a pillar? It is the same church, changed in character to which each time different names are given to express its relationship to God and to Christ ». Further one says:« The revelation given to us in Ephesians that was hidden in God did not concern the existence of the Body of Christ, but the being together in that church of Jew and Gentile. So far the Gentiles in the Church shared the spiritual goods of the Jerusalem saints (Romans 15:26 and 27). Now in the church that distinction of Jew and Gentile ceased and they were fellow-heirs fellow-body, fellow-partaker. This is the revelation that was hidden in God. And so, where that revelation is not about the existence of the Body of Christ, the Body of Corinth can well be the Body of Ephesians ».What we have to answer to this? This: One does not read. Eph. 3:5 and 6 does not speak of a fellow-heirs (better: owners), fellow-body and fellow-partakers with the Jews. but: of His promise in Christ through the gospel of which Paul has become a servant. This means that everything else that is supplied is canceled. It is believed that the mystery is that the Gentiles are put on par with the Jew. One wants to prove the backwardness that has been called between the Jew and the Gentiles in the Acts time by saying that the Gentiles may not enter the temple. Here, Trofimus is referred to (Acts 21). In the mystery this becomes then lifted. We can not say otherwise that this is a poor mystery. Has that been hidden in God? If so, then God has not seen mankind before the times of ages, but then already Jew and Gentile, a division in Jew and Gentile, whereby the Jew, because Christ would be circumcised and salvation is from the Jews, obtained the primacy. That should lead to a shared humanity at the consummation, because if the Jew already had a priority in God's counsel then, he will keep it and there will be no full reconciliation. We will consider this.Jewish priority in God? Eph. 3:9 expressly states that the dispensation of the mystery has been hidden in God from the aions. If the dispensation of the mystery has a content, that the Gentile is put on a par with the Jew, it means that God saw Jew and Gentile before the aions and not undivided humanity. Where everything was created in Christ, Col. 1:16 (source text) this means that at that time there was already « Jew » and « Greek » in Christ. But Paul already says in Gal. 3:28 that in Christ is neither Jew nor Greek. Therefore, the dispensation of the mystery can not imply that in Christ in which there is no Jew nor Greek, the Jew has priority and the Gentile comes second. If this lies in Christ, then this will not be lifted up in the dispensation of the mystery either, because then everything else in Him may be lifted up, as well. The dispensation of the mystery was hidden in God. Its content is not, that the Gentile comes on one level with the Jew. Why this must now be hidden in God is not to see and does not make sense. It is already refuted by Rom. 4. Paul asks how Abraham is justified: as circumcision, so as a « Jew » or uncircumcision, as « Gentile ».Not as a Jew but as a « Greek », that is, uncircumcised. He is the father of all in the foreskin who believe and of all in the Circumcision, provided they have faith, not of the Circumcision, but of Abraham in the foreskin, v. 11, 12. In Rom. 4 the Jewish priority is removed with a pen stroke. How then would it be a mystery in God, that Jew and Gentile would be put on a line if this was already foreshadowed in Scripture?According to an American opponent, the Jew has priority in Christ, because He was a Jew in the flesh. We must stand up strongly against this. If the Jew has priority in Christ, then this has always been there, then there is God's acceptance of persons, then the cross is thwarted. For the cross settles with the flesh and all fleshly distinctions. Christ is made to sin. With that, His being Jewish ended in the flesh. At His resurrection He is the new man in which is neither Jew nor Greek, no man or woman, no servant or free. In Christ, no nationality has any priority or backwardness. In the resurrected Christ the new Man stands there and to Him the new man is created in the believer.The spiritual goods of Pentecost. According to the opponents, « the Gentiles have been made partakers of the spiritual goods of Jerusalem's church » This is based on Rom. 15:26 and 27. We read there that the Gentiles had become part of the spiritual goods of the saints who are at Jerusalem. We agree with this. The question is, what is meant by these spiritual goods. They are not the spiritual gifts for us, for the Gentiles did not receive these through the Jerusalem apostles, like the Samaritans (Acts 8), but through Paul from the Spirit, Gal. 3:2, 5. The Corinthians had all the gifts, 1 Cor. 1:4 — 7, but only Paul and Silas had worked in Corinth. Neither can the spiritual goods be the possession of the land of Canaan, for the heathen could also be heir, simply by being circumcised and serving the Lord as God in faith. Our opponents will not claim that being heir with Christ for the Gentiles, is that they will all live in glory in Palestine once? The spiritual part must be something else.What the spiritual goods are has to be made up from Rom. 11. It is being grafted on the tame olive tree. This image is often misunderstood. It is not the place here to elaborate on it. We only note that the olive oil served to burn in the candlestick in the holy place. In our view, being grafted on the olive tree means: taking part in the enlightenment God gave in His Scriptures. None of the Gentiles had the revelation of God. See Psa. 147:19, 20. By appointing Paul as the apostle of the Gentiles, they became heirs to the spiritual goods, that is, the enlightenment in the Scriptures. Above all they got part in the redemption in Christ.Where the Gentiles became part of the spiritual goods, there was therefore no spiritual difference. This is what the opponents agree. Only, they say, that there was an outer lag. Jerusalem's saints were allowed to approach God in the temple, not the Gentiles. They lay such an emphasis on this, as if this were a great loss to the Gentiles. We can not see this and do not believe that it was this, because the Gentile of faith did not travel to Jerusalem to serve God there, so he did not feel a backwardness, especially where he could rely on Paul's word, that in Christ already the differences were lost. So if the fellow-body is to mean that the priority is no longer valid, this is not a great revelation. To which still comes, Paul received this revelation when the temple was still standing, so, when the external discernment was still in force. In appearance everything remained the same, inwardly there was no difference. What then with the new revelation of the fellow-body?An appeal to Eph. 1:19-22 does not fly, because this part has to be explained from chapter 4. In it Paul says that God gave apostles and prophets for the reordering of the saints, for the building up of the body of Christ, v. 12. First the reordering is mentioned, that is to say the revealing of the Mystery to the saints and their transfer in the new sphere; then the building up of the Body of Christ. This first started then, Eph. 1 must be explained from Eph. 4 and not with the preconceived idea that the Body of Christ was already there at that time. Ephesians is a completely new sphere with a separate service.The promise in Christ. We believe that the matter is different. Our opponents do not read. It says in Eph. 3:5 and 6 plainly, that the Gentiles are fellow-owners, fellow-body and fellow-partakers of His (Greek: the) promise in Christ. It does not say that the Gentiles are put on one line, not even that the Gentiles become fellow-body. It says that the two become one. Both are made one, Eph. 2:14. The opponents say that there was already a body, but that the members were of unequal rank. Paul says that the two were reconciled in one body, Eph. 2:16. If there was already one body, how can the Gentiles be made fellow-body? When husband and wife are married, they are one flesh. The woman can not become fellow-flesh of the man, she is. Similarly, the man with respect to the woman. But before they get married, the two, husband and wife, still have to become one flesh. Therefore, if the Gentiles were already members of the one body that the opponents assume to exist, before God revealed Paul the great mystery, then there is no need for a fellow-body, for the Greek word « sun » in the KJV translated by « fellow » or « of the same » does not mean: to put on one line, but « together ». If a fellow-body is formed, it is of two, so the Body does not exist. If the Gentiles were already sharing the spiritual goods, there would be no more need for fellow-heirs, nor would they be fellow-partakers. Then that is already there. And if it is not there, then they have not been partakers of the spiritual goods, nor did they belong to the one Body. This inference can not be avoided. « Together » does not mean: to make of equal rank, but gives a union, a going together.All these difficulties lapse, if you read and say: Not the Gentiles get together, etc. with the Jew, but both, Jew and Gentile, become fellow-heirs, fellow-body and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ through the gospel of which Paul was solely the minister. It is therefore the promise in Christ. This is given to Him before the aions, for the mystery is kept hidden in God, that is, outside of the aions, so it was already there before the aions. And then God did not consider Christ as a Jew, because otherwise He could not make the Gentiles into a fellow-body, but God saw Christ as the Image of God, Col. 1:16. And to this height He leads in the dispensation of the mystery now also Jew and Gentile, by making both of them fellow-body with Christ, in one Body reconciled to Himself.The promise in Christ must be distinguished from the promises in Abraham. These we find in Gen. 12:1 — 3; 15:5, 18; 17:3 — 8; 22:17, 18. These were no mysteries. The Gentile could be blessed with the believer Abraham, Gal. 3:9, Rom. 4:11 — 13, 16. But neither Jew nor Gentile could be blessed with all spiritual blessings in the over-heavenly in Christ, Eph. 1:3 before God had revealed this mystery. And then He formed the fellow-body, not by putting the Gentiles beside the Jew, but by making the promise known to both and reconciling both in one Body, Eph. 2:16. That is the mystery. Not being the fellow-body of the Gentile with the Jew, but both with Christ in a new sphere. Not from being a participant of the Gentile with the Jew — that was the first already according to Rom. 15:26 and 27 — but participant with the promise in Christ.The church in Corinth. In Corinth the church that is Body of Christ already existed, say the opponents. That was nothing new. We want to assume that. We may certainly ask whether it can be proven that the Gentiles were here subordinate to the Jews. After all, this is the theory. What now learns 1. Cor. 12:11? That the Spirit distributed, not according to whether one was Jew or Gentile, giving the Jew the priority, but according to His will. Nor does it say that the Gentile members were the lesser members, less honored, v. 23. And if this were all the Gentile members, it still says that God gave those who lacked honor more abundantly. What is left this way of the subordination of the Gentiles? Jews and Greeks were, according to 1 Cor. 12:13 baptized into one body. Thus, the fellow-partaker of a higher good. The Gentiles were not baptized into the « Jewish » Body, but both were baptized into a new Body. That is the Church of God, 1 Cor. 10:32. God set the members in this as He wished, v. 18. So not according to the order of the Jewish law, where the Gentiles were subordinate to the Jews. Otherwise there would certainly have been discord. God placed so that there was no discord, v. 25. The members had to have equal care for each other. Nowhere does 1 Cor. 12 teach, or any other part of Paul's Epistles, that the Gentiles stood subordinate to the Jews in the Church of God. The only difference is that Paul first went to the Jews. Then to the Gentiles. But this is not to say, that the first were taken up spiritually or the last ones were subordinated and that a separate revelation — a great mystery by all means — had to come to lift this difference.For us the church of God is a different church than the church that is His — Christ's — Body. Both Jew and Gentile are reconciled to God in one Body, Eph. 2:16. This is evident from the different hopes that exist. If the Church that is Christ's Body is already with Christ, the Church of God is still on earth. We will return to this, but only now note that 1 Thess. 4 and 1 Cor. 1:15 is not the hope of the Body of Christ for us. The opponents say that it says nowhere that they are two. We answer that there is no indication that they are one, but that everywhere there is a difference. Where God is distinguished from Christ, the Church of God is distinct from the Body of Christ. The Church of God passes for us in the House of God of 1 Tim. 3. We thus admit that there is a transition, but there is also a new beginning. The Church of God passes into the dispensation of faith, so without signs, gifts and powers, but Christ also forms a new whole, His Body, the addition of Himself Who fulfills all in all. The « all » constitute the families of the heavens and the earth, Eph. 3:15.The great mystery. With Ephesians something new begins. Ephesians is not a transition. It's a new starting point. Certainly, from the Church of God, « Jew » and « Greek » could pass to the Body of Christ if they followed Paul, like the Philippians, but not without the new calling coming to them. Paul's first ministry is the basis, but not the sphere of Ephesians. The great mystery is to be the union with Christ. This was a mystery hidden in God outside the aions. We do not find any trace of it in Scripture anywhere. Not even in Paul's earlier revelation. In Corinth we do not read that Christ is the Head of the Church. In Eph. 1:22, 23 He is given to a Head above all things to the Church that is His Body. This gives a new term. The opponents say: that is the same as the Church of God. We believe that Ephesians must not be explained with Corinth, but first with Ephesians itself. Ephesians forms a rounded whole, which must first of all explain itself. Furthermore, not Corinth but Colossians gives further comment. The Church that is His Body is connected with the promise given in Christ and concerns the untraceable riches of Christ. Not from the Gentiles, as people make it almost. The great mystery is about sitting with Christ on God's Right Hand above everything else. The promise in Christ for this is found in Psa. 110: Sit on My right hand. The great mystery is that God gives this now to the Church that is His (Christ's) Body.According to our opponents, God leads into a new dispensation and the Body of Corinth passes into the Church that is Christ's Body. According to us, that dispensation is kept hidden in God, and there is no transition, but we are faced with something new, Eph. 3:9. What was hidden in God does not give a transition, but calls for something new. Paul therefore also speaks of the prize of the calling of God above (not high) in Christ Jesus, Phil. 3:14.When the Church of God is purely by transition of dispensation joining the the Body of Christ, only a different phase occurs, the hope remains unaffected. That is according to our opponents. The hope of 1 Thess. 4 will also continue today. We are of the opinion that this is not the case at all and will, as stated above, further prove this. Here we merely point out that 1 Thess. 4, nor 1 Cor. 15, nor any other Letter from Paul written before the great Mystery teaches that one can be put with Christ at God's right hand, as we find it in Eph. 2:5, 6. Therefore, there is something new. Those who hold on to the former hope also differ from us. All these differences can be traced back to the question: Does the dispensation of Mystery provide something new? Is this a completely new perspective with its own sphere, vocation and end goal, or is it a transitory phase? Does it concern the Gentiles with the Jews, or is it Gentile and Jew in relation to the position in Christ? Whoever accepts the first, draws it down to the human, in stead of lifting it up to Christ, at God's right hand.Proof in Ephesians and Colossians. Further evidence gives Ephesians and Colossians. First Eph. 3 Paul says that he has become a servant of the promise in Christ. And by means of the the gospel. If that Body was already there, then Paul was already a servant of that Body. He says, however, that he has been given the grace to proclaim something among the Gentiles. What was that? That they are a fellow-body with the Jews? No, something else; namely the untraceable riches of Christ. Hitherto Paul had not proclaimed it, even though there was a Body, namely. that of 1 Cor. 12. So there is a new message. Not that the Gentiles are now of equal rank, but that there is something untraceable in Christ. Of this, Paul is the only recipient.Col. 1 works this out in more detail. Paul has become a servant, and suffers for the Church of Christ who is His Body, 1:23, 24. Is he a servant of that by means of his previous ministry? No, he is it pursuant to the dispensation God has given him to fulfill the Word of God, to bring it to perfection, v. 25. This concerns the mystery that has been hidden in God for aions and generations. Now it has been revealed, made known, to His saints. Not to the Jewish believers, but to the saints. What concerns them? The riches of glory among the Gentiles, Christ, the hope of glory, v. 27. The goal is to come to the full knowledge of the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ, 2:2.The mystery concerns Christ. Not the gentile. It is Christ in glory. He is the hope of glory. It concerns to love Christ in incorruption, Eph. 6:24. Not as returning to taking up, but as the Incorruptible. And the way to come into this sphere. A new calling from God had to go for this. Those who responded to it, could pass into the dispensation of the mystery, whoever did not, stood in the previous dispensation and had a chance of being cut off from the Olive Tree, that is, to lose all light. He did not came to the untraceable riches of Christ.With Ephesians — Colossians starts something new, namely the full atonement of Jew and Gentile in one Body with God, Eph. 2:16. This is much more than aligning « both » with each other, and transferring them into another dispensation.II.
The over-heavenly. ↑ Over- or on-heavenly. The opponents have further objections to our translation of: the over-heavenly. According to them, this should be: on-heavenly. They say: « The Greek word is epouranios, an adjective formed of « epi » , meaning « on » and « ouranos », meaning « heaven ». epouranios means: on-heavenly. Likewise, epigeios formed from « epi » — op — and « ge » that is earth. This word occurs seven times in Scripture and is always translated by « earthly ». See Joh. 3:12, 1 Cor. 15:40, 2 Cor. 5:1, Php. 2:10, 3:19, Jas. 3:15. If someone wants to translate « epouranios » by over-heavenly then he has to translate « epigeios » by over-earthly and thus in 2 Cor. 5:1 for example read: If our over-earthly house of this tabernacle is broken. Of course, it is the house that is on earth. But epi means therefore « on » and not « over ». Therefore, epouranios must be translated by « on-heavenly » with the intention of: what is on the heavens. That it says « on » the heavens and not « in the heavens » directs our eyes on the celestial bodies and not on the empty space. In the following texts the words epigeios and epouranios coexist: Joh. 3:12, 1 Cor. 15:40 (twice), Php. 2:10. Whoever reads these texts, sees that they contrast earth and heaven, but not earth and over-heavenly. When we think of heavens above the heavens, then it says in Php. 2:10, that the inhabitants of the heavens, that is, the Body of Corinth, will not bow the knee in the name of Jesus ». Thus about one of the spokesmen. We want to see things under consideration and write all the texts first. John 3:12 « if the earthly (epigeios) things I said to you, and ye do not believe, how, if I shall say to you the heavenly (epouranios) things, will ye believe? ».1 Cor. 15:40 « There are also celestial (epouranios) bodies, and bodies terrestrial (epigeios): but the glory of the celestial (epouranios) is one, and the glory of the terrestrial (epigeios) is another ».2 Cor. 5:10 « For we know that if our earthly (epigeios) house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens ».Php. 2:10 « That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven (epouranios), and things in earth (epigeios), and things under the earth ».Php. 3:19 « Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things (epigeios) ».Jas. 3:15 « This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly (epigeios), sensual, devilish ».Epigeios is on-earthly, but when we see the earth as a sphere, it is also over-earthly, that is, over the entire surface of the earth. Man also lives both on the earth as over the earth. Whoever makes this above the earth does not understand language. Nevertheless, man rises above the earth in his upright position. On earth is opposite of in the earth. If we put a cloth folded on a table, that cloth is on that table, is « on-tabled ». If we spread it over it, it is over the table, it is « over-tabled ». Our head is on our body, but also goes above the body. Epigeios therefore also means good on-earth as well as over-earth, which does not mean to say: floating above the earth and yet can mean: elevating itself above the surface of the earth.Epi. Before we now deal with over-heavenly, we give a few texts, in which « epi » does not mean « on ». Acts 6:3 « ... whom we may appoint over (epi) this business ».Rom. 9:5 « ... who is over (epi) all, God blessed for ever. Amen »1 Cor. 6:1 « ... and not before (epi) the saints? »1 Tim. 5:19 « Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before (epi) two or three witnesses ».Mat. 1:11 « ... about (epi) the time they were carried away to Babylon ».1 Pet. 1:20 « ... but was manifest in (epi) these last times for you ... ».Luke 1:33 « and he shall reign over (epi) the house of Jacob ... »Heb. 2:7 « ... and didst set him over (epi) the works of Thy hands ».Those who examine these texts see that one should not say to doctrinaire that « epi » means « on ». God is not God « on » all but above all. « For » the saints does not mean « on » the saints. Etc. One will object: You must take epigios against epouranios. All right, but then one does not have to translate epi by « on », but can also be « over ». Man does not only walk on earth on his feet, but lives (spread) over the earth. With that all we do not want to be stuck on the « over ».Epouranios. The word « epouranios » occurs except in the named texts also in: 1 Cor. 15:48 « as is the earthy (this does not say epigeios, but choikos), such are also the earthy (ehoikoi); and as is the heavenly (epouranios), such are also the heavenly (epouranios) ».1 Cor. 15:49 « and, according as we did bear the image of the earthy (choikos), we shall bear also the image of the heavenly (epouranios) ».Heb. 3:1 « Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly (epouranios) calling ... »Heb. 6:4 « ... having tasted also of the heavenly (epouranios) gift ... ».Heb. 9:23 « ... and the heavenly (epouranios) things themselves with better sacrifices than these ».Heb. 11:16 « But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly (epouranios) ... »Heb. 12:22 « ... the heavenly (epouranios) Jerusalem ... »In all these texts the word « heavenly » in Greek is a form of epouranios.Then one finds 5 times the term: en tois epouraniois, the dative case plural of (h)o epouranios. The texts with this can only be found in Ephesians:Eph. 1:3 « Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places (en tois epouraniois) in Christ ».Eph. 1:20 « ... and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places (en tois epouraniois) ».Eph. 2:6 « ... and made us sit together in heavenly places (en tois epouraniois) in Christ Jesus ».Eph. 3:10 « To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places (en tois epouraniois) might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God ».Eph. 6:12 « ... against spiritual wickedness in high places (en tois epouraniois) ».The meaning of it. We want to verify one and the other. First Hebrews. The over-heavenly gift of Heb. 6:4 was tasted here on earth. The over-heavenly fatherland of 11:16 is not on one of the heavenly bodies (planets), but Canaan with the New Jerusalem. The heavenly Jerusalem is not the Jerusalem on one of the planets, but it is for the earth, Rev. 21. Thus, in three of the Hebrews' texts, we find that over-heavenly is something that is not on the heavenly bodies but on the earth. The word « over-heavenly » indicates the origin here, not the place itself. All those things mentioned are from the over-heavenly sphere and intended for here. We believe that where we want to declare Hebrews with Hebrews, the other texts also indicate the origin, that the over-heavenly calling of 3:1 is the calling from the over-heavenly, the example and the shadow of the over-heavenly things which has in the over-heavenly its origin, 8:3, that the over-heavenly things to be purified by better sacrifice are also those which have their origin in the over-heavenly, 9:23. Hence Hebrews indicates the origin, not the place. So, in our research, Hebrew can be left aside.In 1 Cor. 15:48, 49 stands for earthly not epigeios, but choikos or a form thereof, which means: clay, of earthly substance. The over-heavenly, Christ, is not Him Who is on any celestial body or enthroned on several celestial bodies, or goes from celestial body to celestial body — who would dare to claim this? — but He who has passed through all the heavens, Heb. 4:14 has become higher than the heavens, Heb. 7:26, ascended above all the heavens, Eph. 4:10. Over-heavenly can not mean here: on a celestial body, e.g. the sun or some other star, but must have a different meaning.Although we first want to develop this further below, it is necessary to take a step forward and point out that, where Christ is not on a planet or star, the term on-heavenly might give too narrow a thought. We want to replace him with the other who, in connection with Scripture and in connection with the construction of the universe, seems better to us, namely, over-heavenly. By this we mean the whole sphere that lies about (over) the heavens of the O.T.. Where the universe seems to be a closed area, about a flattened sphere, the sphere that the Scriptures, among others, indicates here is over all the heavens. We therefore call it the over-heavenly. Thus Christ is the Over-heavenly, He is higher than the heavens, Heb. 7:26. We now go through the further texts and put there: in the over-heavenly 1.In Ephesians, as already mentioned above, there occurs five times the term: en tois epouraniois. One can always take that as the dative case plural and translate: in the over-heavenly. People check this out. According to Eph. 1: God blesses Christ in the over-heavenly (KJV in heaven). According to 1:20 Christ is put at God's right hand in the over-heavenly (KJV: heaven). There God sets also the Body, 2:6. Through the Church (which is His Body) something must be made known to the authorities and powers in the over-heavenly 3:10 (KJV: heaven). Also in 6:12 there is talk of the over-heavenly. Here put the KJV: high places. The translators did not dare to put: heaven, like in the other texts. These are the texts with: in the over-heavenly. We also mention that the word « over-heavenly » also occurs in 2 Tim. 4:18, where Paul speaks of being preserved unto His (God's) over-heavenly kingdom.With this we have given all texts with the term in the over-heavenly (spheres). We now want to try to find out from the Scriptures what the over-heavenly are and not to give an opinion, which on the N.T. derivation seems to be well-founded, but does not take into account the O.T. directions of Scripture. The whole Scripture has to come into its own, both here and elsewhere.Explained from the O.T.. According to Gen: 1:1 God created the heavens and the earth. Thus the Hebrew. The KJV puts here: heaven, which can not be called correct. We want to express in 
the plural, the form that the word has, also the plural idea. The O.T. learns even more. Seven times there is mentioning of: the heaven of heavens. See the texts here: Deu. 10:14 « Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD'S thy God ... ».1 Kings 8:27 « But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee ... »2 Chron. 2:6 and 6:18 as 1 Kings 8:27.Neh. 9:6 « ... thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host ... »Psa. 68:33 « To him that rideth upon the heavens of heavens ... »Psa. 148:4 « Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens ».One sees how Scripture distinguishes between the heavens and the heaven of heavens. This is the third heaven of 2 Cor. 12:2. Viewed from the earth, the heaven of heavens is the atmosphere over and above that of the heavens, like the holy of holies lies behind and beyond, but therefore was not yet separate from the holy.The O.T. learns us even more:Psa. 8:1 « O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens ».Psa. 113:4 « The LORD is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens ».Psa. 57:5 « Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens ... »Psa. 148:4 « Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens ».113:6 « He is humbling Himself to look On the heavens and on the earth ». (YLT)You can now see how we, when we are examining the O.T. scriptures, find a guideline. Gen. 1:1 thus becomes a partial, limited revelation. Later more is revealed. God created the heavens, that is, the sky and star-heavens. The fowl fly on the earth on the face of the expanse of the heavens, Gen. 1:20, that is the sky, and God set sun, moon, and stars in the expanse of the heavens, Gen. 1:17, that's the star heaven. These are then the two heavens of Gen. 1:1. Above it is the heaven of heavens. If it says that God was able to exalt himself above the heavens, this is an indication of Christ's ascension above the heavens. Psa. 148 speaks of waters above the heavens, thus also giving a third sphere.Outside over the heavens. What is now: « in the over-heavenly »? This is for sure above all the heavens of Gen. 1:1, the air and star heaven. But also above the heaven of heavens, the third heaven. And for these reasons: 1. Of Christ it says that He ascended « far above », Greek: over above all the heavens. He therefore also passed through the third heaven, the heaven of heavens. Already Solomon says that this can not contain the Lord, 1 Kings 8:27.2. God is said to dwell in the inaccessible light, 1 Tim. 6:16. There must then be the place of His right hand, and where Christ is seated there, this is above the third heaven that can not contain God.3. In Psa. 148 is spoken of the waters that are above the heavens. That is in the third heaven. That is also a created sphere. God, however, goes beyond all off creation. That is why the over-heavenly is still above that, the inaccessible light.Where Scripture speaks of the over-heavenly, here there are still « regions » to be distinguished. The highest « place » is that of God's right hand. That is why Eph. 1:20 says, that Christ is set at His right hand in the over-heavenly (spheres).The present knowledge that one has of the universe teaches that it is a great but not endlessly endless space that is still expanding in a seemingly empty space. The whole is a « growing body ». So there is an sphere where the stars can move to. This is then the third heaven, around and above the heavens. But this can not be the inaccessible light, for the stars move to it. That is why we believe that the over-heavenly is even higher. Christ has gone through all the heavens, became higher than the heavens and is set in the over-heavenly, over above all the heavens.What « over above » means, Scripture teaches us from another text. Heb. 9:5 speaks of the cherubs who were over above the ark. Here is the same preposition that in Eph. 4:10 is translated by « far above ». The cherubs formed a whole with the mercy seat, Ex. 25:18, 19 but they also went above it. They were « arks ». Seen from the whole, but « over above » the ark, the box, taken on its own. They were further on the ark but also over the ark. So now also with the heavens. They include all the heavens, lie, if we may say so, over it, but where they indicate an atmosphere, they are also above it. So they are over above.The Scripture speaks in Heb. 9:1 of « the worldly sanctuary ». This means that the tabernacle (and the temple) represent the universe, the cosmos. If we accept this, we can get even more light in this. It is known that the tabernacle consisted of Forecourt, Holy and Holy of Holies. Around it was the camp. If we transfer one and the other now, we find:Outside the camp — the Hades under the Earth.The camp — the Earth.The Forecourt — Air Heaven.The Holy — Star heaven.The Holy of Holies — the heaven heavens, the third heaven.What else do we find now. That above the ark was the cloud and fire column, the Shekhinah, sign of Divine Presence. This is symbol of the over-heavenly. It rested on the cherubim and there God spoke with Moses, Exo. 25:21, 22, but she was also over the tabernacle, Ex. 40:34-38. It is seen that the symbolism also teaches us in this.O.T. symbolism. We will put forward some opposing texts. Eph. 6:9 and Col. 4:1 say that the Lord is in heavens, Col. 1:5, that the hope is set in the heavens, Pil. 3:20, that one must expect Him from the citizenship in the heavens (original text), Heb. 8:1, that He sits at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, while Heb. 9:24 says that He entered into heaven now to appear before God. We accept this as God's Words but note that one can not oppose the other, otherwise Scripture would go against Scripture. That there is a Lord in the heavens does not exclude that He has gone through the heavens. It only means that He is not on earth without further place-marking. Here, heavens is a general term. As we say, our Queen lives in the Netherlands and not in Dutch East Indies without giving up exactly Her residence, so also here. In Heb. 9:24 is specifically meant the third heaven. Like the O.T. high priest Ex. 28:35, entering into the holy of holies, Christ appeared in heaven, the third heaven. That is before God. But where there was no seat in the holy of holies, and Christ is seated, it follows that there must be a higher sphere, the place of His right hand. There was a separate place in the holy of holies where the Lord appeared, from between the cherubim, Ex. 25:22. So now there is a separate sphere, the inaccessible light, where God sits and Christ has been set once. That is not to say, that He is always there as far as space is concerned, but what status, position, concerns. Just as Joseph was once seated on Egypt's throne, but did not sit constantly on the literal seat, Christ is seated at God's right hand without having to stay in the over-heavenly. However, he has obtained a glory that is over above all and all, and is equal to that of the Father. We already said that above the tabernacle was the cloud pillar, the Shekhinah. This was the representation of God's presence. From there God revealed Himself. He was in the Shekhinah; it rested on the cherubs in the holy of holies and was also above the tabernacle. Here too, Scripture teaches us something. This: God can live through creation and yet go above it. He was in and above the tabernacle. Thus Christ can be said to be in the heavens and above the heavens. This then does not mean His locality, but His conditionality. We have this way a Lord in the heavens and above the heavens. Just as Israel had a Lord who dwelt in the Shekhinah but which the heaven of heavens could not contain.Seen in this way, there is no contradiction between texts such as « Father in Heavens » and « Above the heavens », « citizenship in the heavens » and « being set above all things ». The general indication is to think not terrestrial, the special to indicate the special sublimity.We therefore believe that the over-heavenly are above creation and do not indicate the heavenly bodies; that Christ concerning His position, is above all; concerning the sphere this is in a special sense at God's right hand, in a general sense it can also be said: in the heavens. The O.T. symbolism provides many useful indications that are lost sight of. Christ is elevated to His Being and to His merit above creation.All knee will bend. Now our opponents have an objection namely that Php. 2:10 says that all knee shall bow to Jesus, and those of them that are in the on-heavenly, which are on the earth, which are under the earth. Those who inhabit the heavens, the Body of Corinth, therefore fall outside, they say, they are only the knees of the on-heavenly, of the on-earthly and of the subterranean ones. We note that this literally seems to be correct, but gives proof of superficial thinking about the dispensations. After all, 2 Cor. 5 says that the House is only aionic in the heavens and can be later on earth, like the New Jerusalem which is still above, Gal. 4:26 but once on earth. The heavenly of the coming aion may have become the « earthly » of later. Looking at the dispensations, there is no objection to the solution, for Paul does not say when all the knee will bow to Him. Furthermore, the name Jesus points out that we should think more about the sphere on earth. With this comes another thing: For us Paul means something else than people and but the over-heavenly evil authorities and powers of Eph. 6:12, the devil thrown upon the earth and his angels, the dead supernatural sons of God coming from the earth of Psa. 82:6, 7, the wicked sons of God from Gen. 6 who have been thrown into the tartarus. Verse 10 indicates a separate group. In Jesus' name, the knee of these three groups will bend. Verse 11 can then indicate a wider circle: All tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. In any case, nothing forces us to learn, that we definitely need to search the bodies of Ephesians, Corinth and other people here. We believe that they just fall outside, because they already bow the knee for Him. The Body of Ephesians that sits on the throne then does not need to do this anymore. The Body of Corinth probably does not. They already confess here that Christ is the Lord. That is why we are looking for other groups. In any case, this can not be put forward as proof that Christ would not have gone through the heavens, which Scripture says, that He would not have ascended above all the heavens, like Eph. 4 learns. The heaven of heavens, that is, the third heaven, can not contain Him, according to Solomon, He enthrones in the inaccessible light of God.The Over-heavenly. Who wants to learn that epouranios means: on-heavenly, must also learn, that Christ is now on one of the heavenly bodies, for He is called the over-heavenly and where He has a body, He is physically not omnipresent. This also teaches us that Christ's prayer: Father, glorify Me with the glory that I had with You before the world was, Job. 17:5, has not been answered, for the third heaven is also a part of creation. If Christ is not now elevated above creation according to His Being, then He is a creature and not God in Being. But then also falls the reconciliation, because God can only solve the problem of sin through His Image, because His right and His love get into conflict without it. For us, Christ is now the on-heavenly in another sense. He does not dwell on any of the celestial bodies or alternately exchanges Jupiter with Neptune, with Uranus, with Mars, etc., or with the Orion with the Seven Constellation, etc. He is in essence God's Image, returned to the inaccessible light that once belonged to being the image of God, is now above all power and government and dominion and all name in this aion and in the future Eph. 1:21 He is above all the heavens, Eph. 4:10. Thank God for the glorification of His Image.The Corinth group can carry the image of the on-heavenly. She can come to the third heaven. Paul has been the forerunner of this, 2 Cor. 12. Already speaking of the third heaven had to make the opponents think, what that is. That is heaven over the heavens. Christ will certainly not be on one of the celestial bodies.Head above all things. There is more, however. The opponents do not see that they are walking in a vicious circle. At first they deny that Ephesians opens a whole new sphere with a new Body, which rises from the Head above all things. Then they press the former dispensation into the new one and transfer everything that was not hidden in God to the present, then they blame us that we do not read well, to finally take Christ down to the old creation and give Him a place outside the inaccessible light, outside the glory that He had before the world was. Finally they come back to the fact that He is on-heavenly. They forget Gen. 3 and 2 Cor. 12. Paul has been raised in paradise to the third heaven. Gene. 3 teaches that there is still more than paradise and that third heaven. There are also the cherubim who are carriers of Deity, Ezek. 1:26. In Eph. 1 and 2 Paul teaches something more than in 2 Cor. 12. In 2 Cor. 12 he is in paradise. In Ephesians he sits with Christ on the throne of God. The Body is also put on God's Right Hand. If the opponents can prove that Eph. 1 and 2 are aligned with 2 Cor. 12 and if there is only a transition, then we will change our opinion on the dispensation of the mystery. But if it is certain that it has never been revealed that in addition to and after Christ any man, be it Jew or Gentile, may take place without a new calling of God, the prize of the high calling of God, Php. 3:14, and that this is not simply to the alignment of the Gentiles with the Jew, it is to be understood that the dispensation of the mystery is more than the raising up in the third heaven, that there is something higher.We conclude this part and sincerely believe that Christ passed through all the heavens, because in the third heaven there was no seat for Him, nor was there a seat for the high priest in the holy of holies, and the type teaches that he can not sit there. The seat of Christ is above the cherubim, that is above all that is created. That is where the Body is put. This requires a separate calling. Only those who follow Paul in his ministry for the dispensation of the mystery, who are chosen by God for it, are now prepared. We will not act on what will be later. In His way of being, Christ is exalted above all creation and inhabits with God an inaccessible light. Whoever can not confess this, in any case, do not diminish His honor, and let this point rest, do not in any case incur as a opposer of those who teach Him to be above all things. To the scriptures. The « in the over-heavenly places » means that He can descend, as God descended to Moses in the holy of holies, Exo. 25:22, but does not say that He does not go up and climb up to God's right hand in the inaccessible light. And there the Body is also prepared a place.III.
Who are the « we » of Ephesians 1 — 3. ↑ « We » and « ye ». Where it is believed that the « Body of Corinth » passes into the « Body of Ephesians », in which the Gentiles are aligned with the Jews and the inheritance of the latter is moved to heaven — as if Christ is sitting there as a Jew — one also comes to a peculiar statement by Eph. 1 — 3 concerning the « we » and the « ye ». The « we » are said to be the Jews, the « ye » the Gentiles. This is based mainly on Eph. 2:11 « ... that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh ... » and 2:13 « ... ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh ... ». We want to recalculate this and make the test on the sum. To this end we will add the word « Jews » everywhere where « we » or « us » and everywhere where « you » and « ye » state Gentiles and see what conclusions this leads to. If they are tenable, then the « Body of Ephesians » is now the fellow-body of Jew and Gentile, if not, then Jew and Gentile are now fellow-body with Christ and the mystery is something entirely new. New commentary on Ephesians. Let's start: « Grace be to you (Gentiles), and peace, from God our (the Jews)Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our (Jews) Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us (Jews) with all spiritual blessings in the on-heavenly (this is according to the opponents on celestial bodies) in Christ: According as he hath chosen us (Jews) in him ... that we (Jews) should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us (Jews) unto sonship (source text) ... wherein he hath made us (Jews) accepted in the beloved. In whom we (Jews) have redemption through his blood ... Having made known unto us (Jews) the mystery of his will ... we (Jews) have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will: That we (Jews) should be to the praise of his glory, who have a before hope in Christ (source text) ... In whom ye (Gentiles) also trusted, after that ye (Gentiles) heard the word of truth, the gospel of your (Gentiles) salvation: in whom also after when you (Gentiles) believe (source text), ye (Gentiles) were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. Which is a pledge of our (Jews) inheritance ... Wherefore I also, after I heard of your (Gentiles) faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, Cease not to give thanks for you (Gentiles), making mention of you (Gentiles) in my prayers; That ... the Father of glory, may give unto you (Gentiles) the spirit of wisdom ... That ye (Gentiles) may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints Even you (Gentiles) being dead by your (Gentiles) trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye (Gentiles) walked ... Among whom also we (Jews) all had our conversation ... But God ... Even when we (Jews) were dead in sins, hath quickened us (Jews) together with Christ, (by grace ye (Gentiles) are saved;) And hath raised us (Jews) up together, and made us sit together in the over-heavenly in Christ Jesus ... For we (Jews) are his workmanship ... Wherefore remember, that ye (Gentiles) being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye (Gentiles) were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise ... But now in Christ Jesus ye (Gentiles) who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our (Jews) peace, who hath made both one ... And came and preached peace to you (Gentiles) which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we (Jews) both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye (Gentiles) are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation ... In whom ye (Gentiles) also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.... If ye (Gentiles) have heard of the dispensation of the grace ... That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and fellowbody, and fellowpartakers of his promise in Christ ... Unto me ... is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the untraceable riches of Christ;Wherefore I desire that ye (Gentiles) faint not at my tribulations for you ..................... May be able to comprehend with all saints (Jews). I therefore ... that ye (Gentiles) walk worthy ... Endeavouring to keep ... even as ye (Gentiles) are called in one hope of your (Gentiles) calling ... But unto every one of us (Jews) is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ ... Till we (Jews) all come in the unity of the faith ... That we be no more children.This I say therefore ... that ye (Gentiles) henceforth walk not as Gentiles walk ... But ye (Gentiles) have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye (Gentiles) have heard ... the truth is in Jesus »The inconsistency. So far the conversion in the scale of the opponents. The reader can now continue this himself. We now look at the above a little further. Do you believe that Paul has with the « we » and « us » the Jews in mind and with the « you » the Gentiles? If so, then one must also believe that God is first and foremost their Father, v. 2 that God chose the Jews in Christ in him, v. 4, that is to say, before the casting down of the world, when there was no Jew yet, that He looks upon Christ as a Jew and blesses Him with all spiritual blessings, v. 3, that He predestined the Jews in His blessing, v. 4 — 14. But this is contradicted by Rom. 2:29, in which God is also called the God of the Gentiles just as well, according to Gal. 3:5 which states that in Christ — and about Him it is in Eph. 1 especially — is neither Circumcision, nor Uncircumcision has any power, by Acts 15:11, in which Peter says that he believes to be saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus in such a way as « they », so not « they » as « we » (Jews) and further by the whole Pauline ministry who supports on the justification by faith without the law and without circumcision. We explain the « we » and « you » differently. The « we » must not be explained by the preconceived idea that the Gentiles in Ephesians are drawn in line with the Jew, but by v. 1 of Ephesians: Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. (In Ephesus is missing in the oldest manuscripts. « Ephesians » was a general writing.) The place name, the address, was left open and filled in later when sent to a certain congregation). The « we » are the saints and believers. These may in turn become « you », not seen from the standpoint of Jewish priority, but seen from the point of view of Paul. Not as a Jew, but as a writer. The « ye » is therefore not opposed to the « we », but to the « I ». The « we » encloses the « I » and the « you » and is not opposed to the « you ». The « we » is not opposed to the « you » but summarizes the « me » and « you ». Thus read, everything becomes clear. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is their all God and Father. He chose them, Paul and the readers (who at least listen to him) to be chosen in Christ. Not as a Jew or as a Gentile, but as a group from humanity for the casting down of the world. He has ordained them to set in the son's position. In the Roman letter he already writes that they — and these were Jews and Gentiles — had received the Spirit of « adoption as children », Greek: setting in sonship, 8:15. Similarly in Gal. 4:5. And these were mainly Gentiles. Rom. 8:15 and Gal. 4:5 therefore the opinion, that in Eph. 1:4 Jews would be meant is overthrown. The « adoption of children (sons) » concerned all those who were saints and believers, provided that they were crucified with Christ, died and rose, were in Christ, Rom. 6:8. They were graced in the Beloved, they had redemption in His blood, now the new mystery was made known to them, a new inheritance was secured to them, they had to be at the prize of His mercy. Etc. Paul does not exclude, but with his « we » and « us » includes. If he then continues to address a certain group from them, e.g. the congregation at Ephesus, Laodicea, Philippi, etc. then it is of course « you » v. 13. This then concerns a new to be won group, a part that now belongs for the first time, for whom the mystery is explained, that they may be given illumined eyes. Paul therefore says in v. 18 not: and what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Jews, but in the saints. The « we » are therefore not the Jews, but the « saints ». We could continue like this with the next chapter, but leave something to the readers too. For the sake of completeness, we point out once again that the Jew is not put into the heaven in Christ as a Jew, 2:6, but that the « us » here is the group of saints and believers and the « you » that part of the group to whom the new tidings come. One watched the alternation of the « us » and « ye » in v. 8 and 10.Distinguished « ye's ». But, does not the « ye » in 2:11 mean the Gentiles? That is undeniable, given the addition: « being in time past Gentiles ». Greek has: « Therefore, remember, that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh ... » That does not mean, however, that for « ye » must always be read « Gentiles ». Then Paul should not have written in 3:6: that the Gentiles ... etc., but: that « you » ... would be fellowheirs. That with the « you » it must be verified what is meant by it, and everything can't just be equated, that, in other words, the articulation and distinction is much finer than one indicates by bluntly claiming that « you » means Gentiles, at least in chapter. 1 — 3 (thus not in 4 — 6?), and another line needs to be found, also proves 5:22, 25, 6:1, 4, 5, 9. Here we find the same construction as in 2:11:, « You women », « you men », « you children », « you servants », « you gentlemen ». « The » always stands as in 2:11, so: the Gentiles, the women, the men, the children, the 28 slaves, the lords. Eph. 2:11 therefore reads: Therefore remember ye the Gentiles in the flesh that was called foreskin on the part of them that are called circumcision in the flesh done by hands. Whoever reads this text attentively, will see that Paul does not say; that they were so called by « us », by him and the Jews who followed him, but by those who were called the Circumcision. He therefore distinguishes himself from that Circumcision and thus points out three groups: the Circumcision, the Uncircumcision and the « us ». But then the « we » and « us » can not be the Jews, the Circumcision as such, but is something else. For us; those who followed Paul.Who are the « we » and « you ». The « we » and the « you » are not Jews and Gentiles, but the whole group as such and the spoken to part. This is evident from the practical advice in chapter. 4 — 6. We also have that variety. Does one dare to insist that the « we » and « us » also refer to Jews, the « you » and « ye » Gentiles? If so, then the greatest incongruity arises. And if not, why is one so inconsistent that one does apply this in chapter 1 — 3 and scare back for chapter 4 — 6? If the rule only applies in 1 — 3 and not in 4 — 6, it does not fit and proves that one has a preconceived opinion. This will be shipwrecked on the rock of reality. Another text for application. 5:30 « For we — are that only the Jews? — are members of His Body ». 5:33 « ... let every one of you in particular ... » are these Gentiles only? 6:12 « For we wrestle not against », etc. are these the Jews? 6:21 « But that ye also may know », etc. Is this only the Gentiles? Let people be sober and not fanatically trotting through on something that is untenable. Let people distinguish. If the « ye » of Eph. 1 — 3 always denotes the Gentiles, why not the « ye » of Eph. 4 — 6. One should not use arbitrary measure.We conclude. The « we » in Ephesians are not the Jews or Jewish believers as such, but include the whole group of saints and believers who receive and accept Paul's new revelation and with whom Paul identifies himself as e.g. in 1 Thess. 5:8, 1 Cor. 2:12, 16; 9:25, 12:13 et al. The « you » is the group to whom the letter is addressed and is to be seen from Paul, the writer's point of view. The addressing « you Gentiles » does not mean to say that the « you » in Ephesians always means « Gentiles » nor should you deduce from the « you women », « you men » etc., that « you » are always women or appoint men; it is just a way of addressing. In chapter 2 is mention of the Gentile state, viewed spiritually and historically, but can not be deduced, that « you » always mean Gentiles as such, for then only the Jewish believers would be raised and fellow-set in the over-heavenly places in Christ, and not the Gentiles too. Then only the Gentiles would be saved by grace and not also the believers of the Jews, and only these would be of His making and would have been created to do good works. This is already being erased by 2 Cor. 5, in which it is taught that who is in Christ is a new creation. And as such Paul speaks to them. That he reminds them of the Gentiles proves, moreover, that a new dispensation has been entered, that Acts 28:28 states: « Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it ». The « thou » in Ephesians must be interpreted distinctly and not just applied superficially on the Gentiles.IV.
When does the taking up take place. ↑ Out of the wrath. According to the one opponent, the taking up can take place at any time, according to the other, it precedes the revelation at least seven years in advance. We may certainly ask, where Scripture says, that the taking up takes place seven years before the revelation of Christ. We will discuss the issue regarding the taking up again. We mainly write down what we have already written about this. 1° The Thessalonians group is delivered out of the wrath to come, 1 Thess. 1:10: « And to expect his Son out of heaven, whom he raised out of the dead, Jesus, who redeems us (not from the coming wrath) ». We have the word « out [of] » three times in the source text. Christ comes out of the heavens, so is in it; He was raised out of the dead, lay between them once, Psa. 16:10, Acts 2:27; He delivers out of the wrath to come, so that group is in it. To be delivered out of the wrath one must first be in it. This does not necessarily mean that that wrath is now affecting them. God can certainly keep them in it. Just as Israel remained free of most plagues in Egypt, this group will be preserved in the wrath. A traveling party that, being warned of an approaching thunderstorm, postpones its journey and stays home, is preserved from that storm, a shepherd who is on the field with his flock and about whom the storm breaks, can be kept out of it.To skip the consistency of 1 Thess. 1:10, one has come up with the idea, to explain it with Rev. 3:10: « I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world » One gets also stuck with this. And this is why: a). The hour of temptation is not the wrath to come; it is, among other things, wondering behind the Beast, Rev. 13:3, and the worship of it, v. 8. b). One must not explain 1 Thess. with the Revelation because they are different groups. If one identifies them, one comes to the Calvinistic point of view, that there is only one church from the foundation of the world. c). One forgets to explain 1 Thess. 1:10 with the remainder of 1 — 2 Thess.One further brings to proof that « out » in 1 Thess. 1:10 does not mean « out » in other texts. So e.g. 2 Tim. 4:17: « ... I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion ». Paul was not in the mouth of the lion, they say, so he could not be delivered from it. Let us see. Paul has the eye here on his « first defence », v. 16. He had not been in a literal lion's mouth and had never even been in danger of coming in a literal lion's mouth as he was a Roman citizen. « Mouth of the lion » can not therefore be taken literally, it is a figure of speech. One can assume that he wants to designate Nero by « lion ». Paul was in his power, and in danger to die. However, the expression can be taken more generally for a great danger. This is what Psa. 22:21 says: « Save me from the lion's mouth ». However, Paul was literally in that danger and was literally released out of it. « Mouth of the lion » can be a figure, not « out », which one must take literally. Our opponents are turning it around: lion's mouth would be literal, but « out » would say something else. One understands how much weaker Paul's expression would be, if one were to read here, that he was only delivered from a danger. That does not adequately express him being, in this threatening, surrounding danger.Just as the danger, the lion's mouth, was there when Paul wrote, the wrath of 1 Thess. 1:10 will be there once. Just as Paul was in that danger and was saved out of it, some will be in that wrath and will be saved out of it. 2 Tim. 4:17 thus proves the exact opposite of what one wants to prove.Furthermore, John 17:15 as proof: « I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil ». They are not in the Evil, they say. We believe that, where the whole world lies in the Evil (Greek: the wicked), 1 John 5:19 this is just a proof of what we say and John 17:15 can not be used as proof to the contrary. The world is in the evil. One can also translate: in the wicked. All believers are in his sphere. God does not take them away from that, John 17:15. So they are in it. How were they kept out now? Thus: « He that is begotten (born) of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not », 1 John 5:18. He is therefore in the wicked, i.e. in his sphere of power, (see Eph. 2:3), but is kept out of it. So now also with the wrath to come. One enters it, but is saved in it and released. Also the proof with John 17:15 fails, because 1 John 5:18 and 19 give another solution. The whole world lies in the wicked, yet one can keep oneself out of it.Thus the counter evidence does not seem to make any sense. Rather, they confirm our opinion. We note further that 1 Thess 1:10 first of all must be explained with 1 Thess. 1:10, and if « out » really means twice « out », it will not mean the third time, « from » or « before » but also « out », i.e. out the middle of.At Michaels standing up. 2° The taking up first takes place when the Lord comes with Michael. 1 Thess. 4:16 says clearly: « For the Lord Himself will come down with (Greek: in) a shout, with (in) the voice of the archangel and with (in) the trumpet of God ... ». The archangel is Michael, Jude 9. According to Dan. 12:1, Michael stands up only when it will be such a time of distress as has not been since there was a nation; so in the great tribulation for Israel. How can one separate the taking up from the great tribulation when Michael — who can not be separated from the taking up — first stands up in the great tribulation? That is the time when the political Antichrist, the Beast, has moved to the Graceful Land, and the tents of his palace (that is, palatial tents) stand between the seas on the glorious holy mountain, the Temple Mount. There is no taking up for us in the Scriptures outside of Michael. Nor is there a double coming, one for inclusion of the « Church », one for Israel. Michael is connected to Israel. The taking up of 1 Thess. 4 and the coming of Christ for Israel are on one line. They are two phases of one parousia. Here too, a new interpretation has been drawn up. It is said: it does not say: with the voice of the Archangels, but: with archangel-like voice, that is, with the voice as from an archangel. Not the Archangel Michael will allow himself to grow and Christ will not come with him, but Christ Himself will make His voice sound and it will sound like it was from an archangel. If that is the case, men must be consistent. Then it also doesn't say, that Christ will come with the trumpet Gods (same composition), but: with the trumpet of a God. And in v. 16 not that Paul says something in the word of the Lord, but in the word of a Lord. Everywhere the article has been omitted. Thus it says: in word Lord, in voice of Archangel, in trumpet God. If « the voice archangel » means: the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God means the trumpet of a God (god) and the word of a Lord (lord?). This is the necessary consequence. But if « word of Lord » means « the word of the Lord » and « the trumpet of God » « the trumpet of (the well-known) God », « the voice of archangel » is also « the voice of the (i.e. of the well-known) Archangel ». And this is then Michael. So nothing is confirmed with his argument. However, already assumed that it should say: with an archangel-like voice (the new translation of one of the opponents has: the voice of the Archangel), then the corresponding objections to the all-time-possible taking up we're giving here are here not disproved. This is confirmed by the ordinary translation. Christ comes in the sphere of the Archangel, in that of the trumpet Gods, that is, when they will sound.In the day of the Lord. 3° Paul writes to the Thessalonians about the day of the Lord, 1 Thess. 5:2, 2 Thess. 2:2, souce text. If this group had nothing to do with that, why did they need teaching, about the being present of the day of the Lord. The Thessalonians thought that that day was already there, proof that they counted on living during that day. In 2 Thess. 2:2 it says: as if the day of the Lord were present (source text). Paul now says that that day does not come before the Antichrist is revealed. But that believers of that group will experience the day of the Lord, 1 Thess. 5:4: « But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief ». Paul does not say: You will not live during that day, but: That day you will not overtake you as a thief, proof that they will experience that day, because otherwise he could not say this. When we say to someone: Be careful of burglars this night, you will live that night, just one will watch out. They also had to watch out: « Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober », v. 6. So one can sleep like the others about whom the day of the Lord comes, proof that one is there when that day comes, so is not taken up. At the coming with the angels. 4° That group will be oppressed and not be taken away before the great tribulation. Proof: 2 Thess. 1:7: « And to you who are troubled rest (Greek: relaxation) with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels ». So the relaxation comes first when the Lord comes with His angels. Is that only for inclusion of that group? No, because v. 8 says: « In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God ». These are the followers of the Beast, 2 Thess. 2:4. Rev. 13:15 — 18. The taking up therefore takes place when the Lord comes with a flaming fire to do vengeance. The Scriptures do not know anything about a taking up long before that day. When does the Lord not come His angels now? That teaches us Mat. 24:29 — 31 « Immediately after the tribulation of those days », that is, after the great tribulation, see Mat. 24:21. Only then He sends His angels, v. 31. There is no mention of a double coming, first with, then without angels. When He comes with Michael, and that is once, He also comes with His angels. The Lord can therefore neither return at any time to take up the « church », nor seven years before the end time.In the last trump. 5° The taking up and change takes place in the last trump. 1 Cor. 15:51, 52 reads in the original text: « Behold, brethren, I tell you a mystery: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in a point of time, in a moment, in (same word as, the two other « in's ») the last trump ». What is the last trump? If we declare Scripture with Scripture and not with the Roman army trumpets as they do, the last trump is the seventh of the Revelation. This does not resound before the second half of Daniels 70th year week has started. The change and the taking up take place in the last trump. « But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall have been finished », the concealment of God shall then cease, that is, it runs out in the revelation. And we find this in 2 Thess. 1:16, 17. So the taking up does not take place before the great tribulation, nor 7 years before the end, but at the end. What takes place « in » certain year, can just as well take place at the end of this year. One can clearly see from this that the inclusion of the Thessalonian group should not be put before, but certainly in and at the end of the great tribulation. This omits the opinion that it can take place at any time or 7 or 3½ years before the revelation of Christ. And also the opinion that this is the before hope of Eph. 1:12, original text (we who have a before hope in Christ). Thus there is no before hope and the taking up remains closely linked to the hope of Israel.V.
What is: Becoming equal to his death. ↑ The teaching of the opponents. The opponents also turn against the out-resurrection. They say: « In 2 Tim. 4:8 does not state that Paul has won the prize and has achieved it to be conformed to Christ's death. He does not receive the crown of righteousness that he has been given a few days after his death, but he receives him in that day, together with all who love His appearance. The day that they all receive the crown has not yet come, so Paul is still waiting for it. Paul is still dead. And then it is a crown for all who loved Christ's appearance. It does not say that it is a crown for whom are conformed to His death. If a text contradicts the doctrine of personal resurrection, then it is 2 Tim. 4:6 — 8. Being disbanded (depart) is being released from the dead. But if we believe what the Scriptures say, that the dead do not know anything at all, then it makes no difference to our consciousness whether we are released after three days or after three years or after three thousand years. For our consciousness the glory follows at the moment of death. Did the Scripture teach those constant personal resurrections, we would accept them. But the Scripture says: the Firstfruit Christ, then those who are Christ's at His coming, 1 Cor. 15:23. Or does Christ mean the mystical Christ, Christ and His Body there? But then also v. 17, 18, 19, 20 are read: Christ and His Body and also in v. 3 that Christ and His Body died for our sins. Scripture nowhere says that there are other resurrections between the Firstfruit and those of Him.All these teachings are coming from, that Php. 3:10 and 11 are pulled out of context. Php. 3:4 — 11 is a sentence. In v. 4 — 6, Paul sums up what was his gain as an Israelite, indeed was gain, for the inheritance of the earth had been promised to him. But all of that Paul has deemed damage to what was hold before him. Then he would not only have the resurrection, no, he sums up everything that would become to him, if he released the law of justice and assumed the right to believe: he would win Christ, be found righteous in Him, know Him, know the power of His resurrection, to know the fellowship of His sufferings, to be conformed to His death, to come to the resurrection, so not to sleep until the resurrection of the righteous or to the judgment of the white throne, but to the resurrection of 1 Cor. 15 and 1 Thess. 4. Paul has focused on all that. He hunts all that, not just the resurrection. To know Christ, he also hunts. Not to earn anything with it. Earning he did, 4 — 16. But from 8 — 11 it is all grace. Paul teaches us that in the Rome letter. However, anyone who gives Romans to others can not understand Philippians ».General objections. So far an opponent. We also want to see these things by themselves and see what Php. 3:10 and 12 mean. However, some general remarks have to be made beforehand. 1° The opponents walk around again in the circle of their captivity. We learn that the Body is a distinct sphere in a new dispensation. They believe that 1 Cor. 15 is the last revelation in this and we challenge them from their point of view as they had to do this from ours. They think that there is a transition from dispensation; we believe that God is starting something entirely new, for which a separate calling is needed. When Paul wrote 1 Cor. 15, the dispensation of the mystery had not yet been revealed to him, so that he could not yet write that between the Firstfruit and that of Christ were still others who would be members of Christ's body and would come to something higher. Nor as in the O.T. or in the Gospels it is taught that there are several orders in the resurrection, nor is before Eph.-Col.-Php. taught that there is an out-resurrection. The Church theology combats, for example, that there is space of 1000 years between the first and second resurrection, because they are not in the O.T. and does not find it in the Gospels, although it was later revealed. So our opponents fight us with arguments from an earlier dispensation, while we learn that a later detailed revelation follows. Because of this, the combat by our opponents is as little effective as that of the Church theology is against the so-called Chiliasm.2° The opponents must be careful with what has or has not been revealed in Scripture. Nowhere does Scripture say that the taking up is 7 years before the Second Coming. Yet many of them believe and learn that. Nowhere does it say there is a resurrection from second death. Yet many of them are passionate defenders. Nowhere does the Scripture teach with so many words that the Temple of Ezekiel will be taken away. Nor does Scripture, in literal terms, teach that Revelation is especially for Israel. If one goes pure, one can derive some things from the context and from the other. Paul did that because of the fact that Christ was the Messiah, Acts 9:22. A new translation, still of an opponent, sets here: distracting from. You can distract things from Scripture. Christ did that with respect to the resurrection against the Sadducee, Mat. 22:32, Luke 20:37.3° The taking up is called an out-resurrection. As if 1 Thes. 4 can be disconnected from Christ's return. We have shown in the foregoing that the taking up takes place when Christ appears with His angels, that is right at the end of the 70th year week. These are facts, not conclusions. They are therefore irrevocably fixed. So if that is the out-resurrection, we do not see that Paul has desired something great, for the resurrection and change of the Thessalonian group takes place shortly before the resurrection « at the last day ».4° The opponents speak of it, as if we are giving Romans to others and we are keeping Philippians for ourselves. We give Romans as well to others as we give the O.T. to others and keep Romans to ourselves as well as we keep the O.T. to ourselves. Who sees that there is a way of salvation, know that regeneration is necessary for us (this is also denied by the opponents) and the justification and reconciliation of Romans. These are large main stations on the way of salvation. But both must be passed to Eph.-Col.-Php. to come there. The whole Scripture is for us, but not about us. Romans does not indicate the position, it is not the spiritual good, from the believers of our dispensation, because then we should still be grafted on the olive tree and have to stand in the New Covenant. However, this is not the case. We admit that Romans is necessary to come to being in Christ, to come to the atonement. But Ephesians reaches higher. Anyone who wants to seek the end in Romans does not come to perfection in the spirit.Furthermore one speaks of earning something and thinks that the prize of God's calling is a merit. Even assuming it is this, why does Paul hunts for it. The out-resurrection is not to earn anything, but presses forward to the mark. Those who hunt for the out-resurrection to earn, have their wages gone. But whoever hunts to God's glorification and therefore tests what pleases the Lord can certainly count on God's help.5° We conclude these general remarks that our opponents expose themselves to the human, but not to the Divine. We agree with them that it does not matter to us whether we are in the grave for three days, three years or three thousand years. But, does not this matter to God? « God is not the God of the dead, but of the living » Should God then wait to be praised by the Church. Does one think about it, that the out-resurrection is for the glorification of God? Should God wait 19 or 20 centuries before He takes up someone and He has been forced by Israel's hardening to miss His honor. Is there only a Head without a Body in heaven? Does the Body become mechanical that is, at once, brought together to the Head by a group resurrection? Or is it Member for Member added to the Head? And is this the most to God's honor. Whoever speaks of earning, does not understand that it is not about earning something, but about winning Christ, (Php. 3:8), not to thereby obtain anything from Him, but to be found in Him with all His righteousness, not to place ourselves a step or sport higher, but to get to know Him, the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering. Not to obtain the righteousness through the faith that Abraham practiced (for its content does not go beyond the New Jerusalem, that is, does not go beyond the aions of creation), but for that very righteousness that Christ has acquired through His faith. And that faith of Christ not only had that of Abraham to its content, but reached far beyond: it also included that He could not be hold by death, but that He would be glorified shortly after His death and placed at God's Right Hand. We must now also obtain that faith content. That can not be out and about merit, but must be to win Him. Is it now egoism if we want to win Him in all His fullness? It is not about earning anything, it is about Christ. It is not about whether we lie in the grave long or short, it is about the glorification of God. Because of the fact that the Church already makes known the manifold wisdom of God to the powers in the over-heavenly, Eph. 3:10. How can this be « now » if it can only be done by Paul after 1900 and more years?For us, Php. 3 teaches something deeper than what one makes of it. Paul does not hunt for the « out » resurrection of 1 Thess. 4, because he already had that. He is referring to something else. We want to verify that now.A spiritual experience? Becoming conformed to Christ's death is, according to the opponents, a spiritual experience that Paul wants to have. According to them, it is to die and be buried with Christ, dying to sin. Only in this way he could get to the « out » resurrection of 1 Thess. 4. We want to consider what the words of Php. 3 mean and then see what he says in 2 Tim. 4: « Dying » and « death » are in the N.T. two different words, as is in our language. Dying is not death. The actual dying is followed by death, it is the result of dying. Now Paul does not say that one must be conform to Christ's dying but to His death.Those who mean that being conformed to Christ's death is dying to sin with Him, rely on Rom. 6:2. But this verse does not say that Paul desires to die to sin, but: « we, that are dead to sin ». If he now in Php. 3 once more goes to die to sin, how is that to be reconciled? Here is something else to add regarding a comment from the opponents, that we left with the general objections.According to them, Paul wants to let go of justification by law to come to justification by faith. But already in Gal. 2:20 he says that he was crucified with Christ, and in 2:19 that he died to the law through the law. Is not locked up in this, that he already then, so long before he wrote Php. 3, waived from the justification by law. He does not say in Php. 3:7: « what is gain », but « were », since this was already in the past; not: « I count loss », but: « I counted loss ». The Greek has here definitely the past tense and the perfect present tense. Thus it's a fact that is already behind him.If in this context one refers to Rom. 6:5: « For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death ... », and says that Php. 3:10 is not actual death but a spiritual experience, then one first of all forgets that Paul has Rom. 6 behind him. He had already become planted together with Him, had already died to the law. That follows necessarily from Rom. 6:4: walk in newness of life. The old man in Paul had already been crucified. For if this were not the case, how could Paul write that they should serve the Lord and set themselves and their members as risen from the dead? No death before dying, but no new creation before death. So if Paul in Php. 3:10 still must die spiritually, then he was not even a new creature. Then he would still live in sin, Rom. 6:2. No, he was already spiritually buried with Christ and also resurrected, Rom. 6:9. This regarding the spiritual condition of Paul.Objections. There are however other objections. First it says in Php. 3:10 « conformed » in Rom. 6 « likeness ». This is not the same. We want to check something about that. Greek has two words in this respect: equal, and similar, have a kind of correspondence, some resemblance, but no full equality. Rom. 6:5 (original text) now says: « For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection » Christ had no sinful flesh, had only some correspondence with the sinful flesh of men. In Heb. 2:17 states that in all things He must become like the brethren. Here too no full equality is expressed, but only certain similarity. He who dies spiritually with Christ has some correspondence with His death. No more. For he is a sinner and Christ is made to be sin.In Php. 3 is not the word « equality ». The adjective we find in 2:6, it says that Christ thought it not robbery to be equal with God. In Php. 3 it says « similarity ». We also want to verify this.In the N.T. there are two basic words. They are morphe and schema, form and shape. Schema refers to the external, looks at the external form, morphe to the internal composition or mode of existence. In Php. 2:6 and 7 we find morphe, which is translated here by: form. Christ was in the form of God, that is, in the mode of God; He then accepted the mode of service once, that is to say, he became a servant. In Php. 3:10, the word « summorphos » — « conformable » literally means « fellow shaped », i.e. to have the same mode of existence. This word also occurs in Rom. 8:29: « To be conformed to the image of His Son ». Paul wishes to be conformed to His death. If this means that he wants to see some correspondence in his spiritual life as Christ had in His death, then he should have used another word here. However, he places: summorphos, that is, « equal shaped » at His death. (Not at His dying). I.e. Paul wishes to lie down as Christ lay down in death. Whoever claims that Paul wants to be conformed to Christ's death, makes Christ a sinner, for then this would have to have died to sin just as much as Paul wanted to be. Christ was made sin, Paul was a sinner. That is why being conformed to His death — not to mention that it does not say: at His dying — never means: to die to sin, for in that Christ is as far from Paul as God is from sin. Christ did not die as a sinner, so Paul, the most outstanding of sinners, can not therefore be conformed to Christ dying.So we found in Php. 3 two things. 1° that Paul had long abandoned his gains and now no longer needs to let go of what was profit, he he already counted it loss; 2° that being conformed to His death can not mean just as Christ die of sin for a) Paul was already this; b) Christ died in a unique way of sin, because He was not a sinner and neither Paul nor anyone else can be conformed to it, that is, die in the same way as He did. Here it is to be added that, if Paul had meant to say something about his life experience, he had used a different word, namely that of 1 Cor. 15:31: I die daily. However, he speaks of Christ's death, not of His dying. He wants to be conformed to that death. Not to his dying. He can only have some agreement with that. It follows necessarily from this that Php. 3 must be explained differently. We are going to do that now.Conformed to Christ's death. Paul wants to be conformed to Christ's death. We already said that here it says « summorphos ». We will return to the morphe here. Morphe is beyond sensory perception. Conformity is not a physical form, it is the inner condition that is connected to some form, external form or schema, but still distinguishes it. We will express this in more detail. Water is a compound of 2 parts hydrogen, and 1 part oxygen. The chemical term for it is H20. H20 can now be in solid state (ice) or in liquid (water) or in gaseous (vapor). These are the three « shapes » in which it occurs. The ice can be divided into chunks, the water poured in all kinds of shapes, the water vapor can spread. These are the « forms » of this substance. Morphe is a certain mode of existence, the schema a certain external form.In living nature one finds an example in caterpillar, pupa and butterfly. These are certain ways of existence. Purely these images of course do not automatically apply, they have some similarity.To be conformed to His death must not be explained outside the words of Php. 2. Christ was once in the shape, the morphe of God. That was when He was Firstborn of creation and thus for His incarnation. Then He took the form of a slave, he had emptied himself within, had become from Lord serving man. He came to fulfill His Father's will. Then He died and His Soul came into the Hades, Acts 2:27, 31. Now He got the mode of existence as it is in death. This is unknowable to us but is undergone by death. What does Paul see now? That this way of existence in Christ's death lasted only briefly. And what he did not want in 2 Cor, he wants that now. Then he did not want to be undressed, but to stay alive and be clothed upon. Now he wishes to be disbanded (depart) and to be with Christ. With this he wants to be conformed to His death.Being conformed to his dead is not the outer form. Then one should lie down like a crucified person in the grave. Then the burnt martyrs could not be conformed to His death. Then even Paul would not have become it, because according to tradition he is decapitated. Paul could not hunt for this, because he could not be crucified as a Roman citizen. He must therefore mean something else. Nor is it to die of sin, for he already spoke of that in Rom. 6. It is lying in death, as Christ has lied in it, in that mode of existence, that He soon arose again. That is why Paul wished to know the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. That suffering does not concern the persecution, because he had already had a generous share of it, 2 Cor. 11. That, too, is something else. Both are closely related to the faith of Christ. To know the fellowship of His sufferings is to see the full meaning of Christ's suffering and to experience something of it. So this is an experience that Paul desires. This leads to the out-resurrection that is out of the dead.The opponents see in this the resurrection (and taking up) of 1 Thess. 4. They confuse Php. 3 with the better resurrection. Paul says that being with Christ is by far the best. Therefore not resting 1900 years in the grave. Being disbanded and being with Christ is coming to the out-resurrection for us. Paul does not declare what he will choose from death and life. Thus the source text of Php. 1:22 (KJV: wot knot). By these two he was held (KJV: strait, it is: being pressed), having a desire for a third something, namely, to be disbanded and to be with Christ. How to get there? By the out-resurrection. Paul is now hunting, that is the prize of the calling of God.Is Paul still dead? Has Paul already come to this? No, the opponents say, Paul is still dead. That does not bother him, they say, because he has won the prize and he will not miss it anyway. He only has to wait for the others. They will then one day receive the crown of righteousness. Let us see what Paul in 2 Tim. 4:6 — 8 says:
A1 with his « I » stands opposite to A2 with his « me » and his « all »; B1 with the « the time of my departure » versus B2 with are « in that day »; C stands alone. Also here the opponents read something different then we do. If Paul says that the time of his departure is at hand and we do not believe in the doctrine of the immortal, on living soul, this can not mean that Paul is in the grave for 1900 and more years. The opponents admit, that to be disbanded (depart), is the disbandment from the grave. One of two therefore: Paul was mistaken, because that time was not at hand, or he is disbanded. There is no other solution if one does not want to lapse into Church theology of the ascending soul at death. But if Paul is disbanded, then he has also received the crown, and then stands « the time of my departure » opposite to the « in that day ».But they say: the others also get the crown. This is not, in our opinion, what it says. Paul does not say that all receive the price on the day of his disbandment, but: « Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing ».We must distinguish between two things here: 1° the time of Paul's disbandment. That is « that day »; 2° the all who also receive the crown. That is not in « his » day. So we read it this way: The righteous Judge gave Paul in that day, namely when it was the time of his disbandment, the crown and gave it to all who loved His appearance. When? On the day of their disbandment.All members of the body do not die at the same time. Nor is the time of their disbandment the same. They do not therefore all have to be crowned in one day. The « day » does not refer to all their coronation, but to Paul's coronation.According to Heb. 2:9 Jesus is crowned with glory and honor. That was personal. For us also the members of the body are all personally crowned, successively and on the day of their disbandment, that is on the day they rise from the grave and ascend at God's right hand. They do not need to rest in the grave as the Head didn't until the end of this aion, they have a out-resurrection out of the dead and are crowned personally as was the Head.VI.
From where and where to the hunt of Paul. ↑ Canaan or the Heavens. The opponents say that it was the expectation of the Jew to inherit the land of Canaan. The Gentile did not have that expectation. They could only participate in Israel's expectation by the Pentecostal dispensation and were then still strangers and aliens. Through the revelation of Ephesians — Colossians the Jew gets a different expectation, an inheritance in the heavens and the Gentile is put on a par with him and is now in the spirit also part of it. Apart from the fact that we do not see the body together with the « Jew », but with the Head, there is an incorrect understanding of the O.T. revelation. It is so completely made Jewish, while another, higher line in the background can also be observed.Genesis can be divided into 12 parts. Eleven of them speak of « generations ». There are the generations of Adam, Noah, sons of Noah, Terah, Shem, Ishmael, Isaac, Esau, the sons of Esau of Jacob. Gen. 2:4 speaks of the generations of the heavens and the earth. We then find that from 2:4 — 4:26. What is now being described in it? The history of Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel. Yet Scripture sees in this the generations of the heavens. How is this possible. By counting Abel as the first of a higher group that is being worked out in Hebrews. We first find Abel and his faith there. Then follows Enoch, then Noah; Abraham and others. We know from Enoch that he was « taken away », Greek: Transferred. Generally it is understood to mean that he is taken up in the heavens. We certainly know this from Elijah. They (or at least the latter) are type of a higher group, the generations of the heavens. Abel, Enoch, and Naoch belong to the Pre-Israelite dispensation when the Jew did not yet have Canaan as an inheritance. We can certainly ask the opponents whether they will also inherit the land of Canaan.There is more to say. Of all the faith heroes in Heb. 11, it clearly states that they have not received the promise. The promise can not be the land of Canaan, for many of them have lived in it, so it has been obtained. We name the Israelites of v. 31 and 32, Rahab, Gideon, Barah, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the Prophets. However, the letter writer says. « And these all ... received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect », v. 39, 40. How can that be the promise to inherit the land of Canaan?The better that God has provided is the heavenly homeland, 11:16. This comes first when the heavenly Jerusalem comes down. It is known that in both texts stands: over-heavenly, that is, prepared from the over-heavenly. For so long they have a house, aionic in the heavens, for until then the New Jerusalem is still up, Gal. 4:26. One sees that there must be something higher, for the earthly Canaan was possessed by many. However, not the « promise », i.e. the heir of the world (cosmos). And the world here includes the heavens and the earth.The house in the heavens. There is more evidence. In John 14:1 — 3, the Lord says that He is going to prepare a place and when He returns (so not at death as many believe) He will take them to Himself so that they may be where He is. In John 17 He says that He gave them the glory that the Father has given Him, 17:22. That is a glory to the world, v. 5. Is that the glory of the possession to own the land Canaan? Or is this something higher? Paul spoke in 2 Cor. 5 of a House, aionic in the heavens. So even before the revelation of the Ephesian mystery, « the Jew » and the « Greek » had a House in the heavens. Is this the land of Canaan? And if this House was now not exclusively for the Gentiles but just as well for the Jew, how can one say, 1° that the Gentile was first aligned with the Jew in Ephesians, 2°, that there is no higher line in O. and NT, seen to Enoch, Elijah, John 14 and 2 Cor. 5. One loses sight of the fact that there are already two kinds generations in the O.T., that of the earth and that of the heavens, Eph. 3:15.God said to Abraham, « So shall your seed be », as the stars of heaven, Gen. 15:5. The opponents say: that means: so much in number. This does the source text not allow there, the word « so » does indeed indicate the state, the condition, not first the number, because in other places it appears in the sentence: Thus, says the Lord. Does one also want to read there: So much does the Lord say?Abram had two sorts of seed. As the dust of the earth, as the stars of heaven. The opponents point out that in Exo. 32:13, Deut. 1:10, 10:22 and 28:62, 1 Chron. 27:23, Neh. 9:23 and Nah. 3:16 speaks of the stars of heaven with regard to Israel, but who gives them the right to say that this is the same as the dust of the earth. Heb. 11:12 says that out of Abraham many were born in multitude as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the seashore. Those are two things, two spheres. If Israel also states that they are stars of heaven, then with them the higher group is indicated, the generation of the heavens. Those « stars of heaven » were then still on earth, but were they destined to obtain an earthly inheritance or just like Elijah, something higher and did they look with their father Abraham to the city that has foundations, the heavenly Jerusalem? Should we not rank them among those who expected a better resurrection? So much is certain that a higher type is drawn to us in Elijah, that in John 14 is already spoken of the Father's house, that Paul in 2 Cor. 5 speaks of the House aionic in the heavens and that is not only given to the Jew, but also to the Gentiles and that He in Rom. 8:29 says that they will be conformed to the image of his Son.Christ says that those who are considered worthy to attain that aion and the resurrection from the dead will be equal to the angels, Luke 20:34, 35. Do they get an earthly inheritance?Pre- and above-Israelite. Here we point at something else. When is Abraham justified, as Jew, i.e. circumcised or as Gentile, that is, uncircumcised? Not as a Jew, not in circumcision, Paul says, but in the uncircumcision, Rom. 4:10. Here, Paul is walking back on a pre-Israelite, a pre-circumcision time. And that is why he, Abraham, is promised not only to be heir of the land, but to be heir of the world, Rom. 4:13. And that « of the world » includes more than just Canaan, it also includes the heavens. The conclusion of all this is that in the O.T. we already see two spheres. These are already mentioned in the first verse, Gen. 1:1, namely heavens and earth. God prepares a generation for each of them, for it is His intention to set man over the works of His hands. Everything is put under his feet, Psa. 8:7. Psa. 8 then describes, in connection with Israel, only the earthly sphere, but Heb. 2:7 extends this further. In the O.T. are these two generations already there. And Israel could already know that there was a higher hope of which it could get part. They could see this in Elijah. Furthermore, it could also be known that the « Gentiles » in this were on one line through Enoch's taking up. All this was known. We at least can know. This is not the mystery and therefore Ephesians is not on that line. If the mystery was, that the Gentile was put on a par with the Jew and both now had an inheritance in the heavens, then one is stuck with the O.T. in which Enoch and Elijah are already included in the heavens. There is already a generation of the heavens. If one learns that the inheritance is now being moved to the heavens, how with those two that characterize something. How then with Melchizedek who is the type of a higher group, when he blesses Abram. How then with the Father's house, that Christ has begun to prepare. How then with the House aionic in the heavens.All this is obviated when we see that there are not two but three spheres, the third heaven and that there is a over-heavenly sphere and there in yet another place: at God's right hand.One does not say that Eph. 6:9 says that there is a Lord in the heavens or that Col. 1:5 says that there is hope which is laid up for you in heaven or that Php. 3:20 speaks of a citizenship that belongs to the heaven. Here, this designation can be considered in a general sense, namely not belonging to the earth or being there. The third heaven also belongs to the heavens. The further indication is omitted here. Amsterdam belongs to the Netherlands, Gelderland belongs to the Netherlands, but Amsterdam is not yet Gelderland.In Abel a Pre- and also Above-Israelite sphere begins, in which is neither « Jew » nor « Greek ». In Abram's blessing in Gen. 12 and 22 we find that in him and his seed all nations will be blessed. Here lies the Above-Israeli line again. Christ draws it through in Luke 20 and John 14. Paul in 2 Cor. 5. It is becoming increasingly clear. In Joseph we find them typed. All this is no secret. This is deeper and is not described in the O.T. nowhere found neither in type nor in shadow, nor in word, nor in prophecy. Paul's hunting, then, does not concern the traceable but the untraceable in Christ's riches.The faith of Christ. The O.T. already gives two spheres. Those who can not see it must accept them in the Gospels (John 14) or deny Israel's restoration. In Paul's first Letters he also talks about it (2 Cor. 5). A higher sphere had already been opened. Did people now think that what Christ already promised the disciples would escape Paul unless he hunted for it? The hunting of Paul is not about giving up the earthly expectation but the « heavenly ». He already had the taking up, according to 1 Thess. 4. He did not have to hunt for it. This is what the opponents say. He hunts for something else, namely to get to know Christ in His faith. He wishes to have the righteousness of God that is through the faith of Christ. And to the faith of Christ also belongs that He could not be kept by death (Acts 2:24), that He would ascend at God's right hand (Psalm 110). The faith of Christ also includes the power of His resurrection, « the exceeding greatness of His power that He (God) wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and put Him on His right hand in the over-heavenly ». We have already seen that this sphere far exceeds that of the heavens, for even the third heaven can not contain God. Neither Christ. Let alone the heavens, where the others are prepared a place.Paul is hunting for something he does not have. That is not experience in his life. Of course he must first have it in the spirit, but that is not the point here. It is about coming to the out-resurrection. That is not the taking up, for he already had that, 1 Thess. 4, 2 Cor. 5, 1 Cor. 15, but something else, something Paul says in Eph. 1:12 « to have a before-hope in Christ », that is, a hope fulfilled before the other expectations of which the Scripture speaks, to obtain their fulfillment. That is why he hunts and leaves everything behind. Paul is hunting, because a new dispensation has been opened with a new hope, a whole new sphere. There is a prize to be won, the out-resurrection. This is the prize of the calling of God.Earn or win. The opponents are afraid that we will come on the line of earning. One should not hunt to earn something with that, they say. We believe that there is also misunderstanding and ignorance in this matter. In « earning » in Scriptural sense, one does not think of a wage that can be obtained for work done, as an employer pays an employee wage. This is not the case in the spiritual. Here it is more a « winning ». Whoever does not distinguish here, confuses the laws with the works of faith. Israel sought to establish its own righteousness by doing the law in order to offer God a receipt as it were, and say: Lord, I have done so much for you. To this is diametrically opposed the work of faith. That doesn't offer anything to God, but sacrifices to God. And that sacrifice, God takes this to give it, often multiplied, back. Is this earning? No, it is only giving God what belongs to Him. And when one does that, God multiplies the gift, after with us, sinners, cleaned them first, give it back enriched from Himself as « wages ».To faith belong works of faith. These are proof that there is a living faith. Abraham is justified in part by his works, Jas. 2:14 — 24. One does not say that this only applies in Israel's sphere, because Paul's Letters also speak of working. Those who do not see a new sphere opened, we refer to Paul's oldest Letters. One can build differently on the Foundation, each work will be revealed, 1 Cor. 3:11 — 15. If Paul willingly proclaims the gospel, he has wages, 1 Cor. 9:17. He wants to achieve an imperishable crown, 1 Cor. 9:24. There is work of faith, 1 Thess. 1:3. For those who see a new sphere opened, there is also a wage in the dispensation of the mystery. There is a reward of the inheritance for serving, Col. 3:24, a crown after a lawful strive 2 Tim. 2:5, to reign after suffering, v. 12, one is prepared unto every good work, v. 21. Anyone who has done good will receive it from the Lord, Eph. 6:8. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, Eph. 2:10, Col. 1:10. We can summarize everything in this one word: the man of God is perfect, equipped for every good work, 2 Tim. 3:17. Again we say, that this should not be for the reward, but to glorify God. Is this not allowed?To win Christ. We will now return to Php. 3. It is said: Paul does not hunt to earn something and means by that: One should not think that Paul, by conforming to Christ's death, earns the out-resurrection. May we ask if it does not state that he wants to win Christ, v. 8 and whether or not to disapprove that. Paul considers everything damage and dung to win Christ. That is then his « wage ». Is it nowadays denied by opponents to get to know Christ deeper and deeper, because it results — and it is a divine consequence, brought about by the Holy Spirit — that one then receives the honor of life in himself? Is it forbidden to wash in faith that one comes to the faith of Christ, that one will rise from the dead, Mark. 9:9, 10? May no effort be made, not to hunt, to rise from the grave before the Lord's return? Should one not walk to being disbanded and being with Him? Is it not allowed to do this, because otherwise it is no longer grace? Whoever learns that, does not understand that there is a way of salvation. He also does not understand that Christ Himself is sanctified by suffering, Heb. 2:10, that by means of death he destroyed the violence of Satan, 2:14 and the members of his body should also come to that. They do not « earn » anything, but glorify God. And that glorification of God « rewards » God by glorifying them.Paul's hunting is working out of what God works in. He writes in Php. 2:12 and 13: « ... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure ». God is something in. Now man has to work that out. With fear and trembling. Hunting is not about earning something, but about achieving something. The hunting is not the will to rest of one's own works to enter into His rest, but it is the conquest of one's own inheritance to which God calls, the struggle against Satan's violence of death. This is not merit but duty. Yet it is paying off a prize. God kept this in front of us. Can one not hunt for it? God rewards His own work. We receive this wage because we have worked out what He has worked in. Work out of your own salvation.If one disables the personality, one lowers God to the Allah of the Mohammedans and comes to a blind fate. Certainly, it is true, people often have to wait long for the Lord. But when He then comes in His grace, it is not to say: And now God has to work out what He worked in. Paul says: Work out of your own salvation. To encourage us to do so, He gives us a prize, for He knows how soon we slow down and how soon we are undergoing the battle. It is also grace to keep a price for what He has already worked on. That way everything stays grace. As good as we are shown to be unfaithful, so well we are also pointed to enduring, 2 Tim. 2:12. Not by mechanical grace that would make us machines, but by the grace acting on the personality one comes to the resurrection. « Work out of your own salvation ».Toward the mark. Paul hunted toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God. Whereto this hunt? Because he saw the new hope in the dispensation of the mystery. The second coming of Christ was humanly seen, « postponed », shifted until Israel converted, Acts 3:19 — 21. God opened a new perspective in the new dispensation. Should he, when he died, wait until the resurrection at the return of the Lord? That was the case in 1. Thess. 4. According to v. 15 the living do not go before the dead, but these not the first. Now Paul sees that there is something higher: To be conformed to Christ's death. Not His dying, not to die of sin, but to lay down in death in the same inner condition as once He lay and from it, to the glory of God, to be resurrected before Christ's return to be set with Him over all things. When he saw this, the desire arose to come to that. Any way, « If I may somehow », that is, in any way whatsoever. What should he do for this? To work? No, to get to know Him — and that in another way than he already knew Him in His revelations and appearances — to get to know Him in His faith and to learn the power of His resurrection. This would lead to community with His suffering. But Paul wishes this wholeheartedly, because all this brings something great: to come to the out-resurrection out the dead. And this is for the glorification of God. It is said: it does not matter whether and how long one is in the grave. It most surely does matter. Not for us, but for God. « The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence », says Psa. 115:17. So when Paul is still dead, He does not praise the Lord. Do people believe that God still left Paul in the Hades, when He could be praised abundantly by Him for something to which He had called man? No, we say. For then Paul also made a mistake when he wrote: The time of my disbandment is at hand. Has « at hand » been waiting for 1900 and more years? Is being disbanded — returning from the grave and the opponents admit that it is this — staying 1900 and more years in it when Paul says that that time is at hand? Not for us. For us, Paul has already glorified the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ for a long, long time, he has already been disbanded and like Christ being put at God's right hand. And that will be after him all who, anyhow, come to the out-resurrection that is out of the dead.Are 1 Thess., 1 Cor. 15 and Php. 3 running parallel? We want to deal in this connection with the question of whether 1 Thess. 1:10, 4:16, 1 Cor. 15:51 does not run parallel with Php. 3:20, 21. 1 Thess. 1:10 speaks of the expectation of His Son from the heavens, 1 Cor. 15:51, 52 of being changed, 1 Thess. 4:16 of descending and Php. 3:20, 21 of the expectation of the Savior and the change of the humiliated body. Apparently this is so. Yet whoever sees the three spheres must conclude that Php. 3 means something else. We admit that it is not so easy to see the difference. Php. 3:20 and 21 must therefore also be kept until the last. Just as you do not have to start with the doctrine of resurrection with Luke 16 and the « over-heavenly » at the N.T., one must in this case start with Php. 3 before the ground lines have been established. Where we did that, now Php. 3 can be discussed. l. Thess. 1:10 speaks of the expectation of His Son from heaven, Php. 3:20 says this: But our citizenship belongs to the heavens, from which (out of what citizenship) we also expect the Savior. There is a distinction here. The Savior is expected to come not just from the heavens, but from a certain sphere in that heavens, namely the citizenship. To understand this, one must know that Philippi was not a city that was counted to Macedonia, but was part of Rome for the Roman state order; it was, as it were, a (distant) district or suburb of Rome. Decisions taken in and for Rome also applied to Philippi (and other places that had this privilege). So the Philippians had nothing to do with Macedonian arrangements, their citizenship was in Rome. Similarly, the Body does not have to deal with the other spheres. Its citizenship is in the heavens. This citizenship in heaven, is for us again the place of God's right hand. From there the Savior is to be expected. 1 Cor. 15:51, 52 and Fil. 3:21 speak of being changed. However, in these texts the same word is not used in Greek. In 1 Cor. 15 is the « allassoo », which simply means « change », in Fil. 3 is the « meta schematizoo », changing in external form and appearance. To this is something else connected: becoming conformed to the body of His glory. « To be conformed » is the verb, of which we Phil. 3:10 the adjective is discussed, it is the same inner way of being. The outer change is only necessary to let break through the inner self.Is this not the same as 1 Cor. 15, will one ask? No, because in 1 Cor. 15 the body of humiliation is not made conformable to the body of Christ's glory. It can be made conformable to that of the angels, Luk. 20:34, 35. But where Christ is exalted above the angels, Heb. 1, the body of His glory is elevated above that also. To this the members of the body are now conformed and made even-formed. Whoever sees the spheres and keeps an eye on the source text, notices the difference.Finally: In Rom. 8:29 it speaks of being conformed to the image of His Son, in Phil. 3 to be conformed to the body of glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the title associated with Christ being God. This also indicates something higher.VII.
The spiritual background. ↑ The mystery of the gospel. The Mystery has a deep spiritual background. That is this: She leads from being the son of God to the perfect man. The Rebirth sets in childhood, the New creation, being in Christ, establishing in the Son's position, leading the Mystery to being the man of God, to perfection. This perfection could not be revealed in O.T., because Christ had not yet attained the highest place as a human. He did, by virtue of His Godhead, by being God, but not as the incarnate. The mystery is a Divine necessity. It is for the sake of the Father, that He might reveal all His love and grace and give to His beloved Son a Body that shares with Him in the Father's highest glory. It is for the sake of the Son, that He may also have this reward on His labor, that the once Belittled and the Misunderstood now sees, that His deepest suffering causes the highest grace to spring forth. It is also there for the sake of the Spirit, Who in this dispensation rehearses Christ's work, in a spiritually and richly varied way, and in the heart of the believer, Christ again makes His obeisance.The doctrine of the three spheres is closely related to the glory of God. The O.T. just brings to the sonship typified in the high priest. But nowhere to the perfect man. Then Christ could never have been the completer of faith. The three spheres have their mystical spiritual background, reducing them to two is setting oneself on the O.T. position. Whoever does this, aligns Christ's faith with Abraham's faith. And that can not and shall not and must not. The great contrast between Paul's first and later Letters is therefore short and well expressed in, being blessed with Abraham and being blessed in Christ. See Gal. 3:9 and Eph. 1:3.The O.T. knows the generation of the heavens. So the faith heroes of Heb. 11. Abel and Enoch and Noah do not inherit the Land, but the heavens. The Body is put above that. Just as far as the Head is exalted above the heavens, is the Body equally exalted above it.The Mystery is the extension of Paul's gospel to the uncircumcision. That is why he says that it is through his gospel. But not that there is no more than what he used to learn. Then it was the « adoption of children », the setting in the sonship (Eph 1:5 is a reference to that, that was the situation in Romans) now it is the perfect man of Eph. 4:13. With this a spiritual growth is learned.There is grace and grace. Both are to be distinguished. There is grace to die with Him — that is in Romans. There is also grace to wash up in the new resurrected Man and come to perfection. Undergoing death is grace and receiving the crown is also grace. But that is why all grace is not yet the same grace as one seems to think. Once saved is saved, agree. But it is not primarily about saving, but about the purpose. One is saved not simply to save, but to become great in God. The salvation seems to be regarded only as grace, the Scripture says that Christ — and He did not need to be saved — also increased in grace. So there is grace and grace.The opponents are actually in the New Covenant, because 2 Cor. 3 is also about them, where it is a Letter from Paul to « the » Church. We are not in that dispensation. It is said, however, that we are now in a different dispensation, but where one thinks 2 Cor. 3 (and Gal. 4) as going about them, one doesn't overcomes in essence the O.T. revelation. In the O.T. the taking up is already enclosed. Proof: Elijah's take-away. So whoever thinks that the reception of the Lord in the air is the hope of the Body, has no higher hope than the O.T. gives. The taking up is not a mystery in God (Enoch and Elijah). The mystery of 1 Thess. 4 is that not all fall asleep.The dispensation of Mystery is more than the alignment of Jew and Gentile. She opens a whole new sphere and gives a new hope. The taking up is revealed, at least typed. Not the out-resurrection. This is so much higher than Christ's resurrection out of the dead is higher than the future resurrection of 1 Tess 4. That higher is to multiple glorification of God and of Christ. Whoever believes that the Mystery is the alignment of Circumcision and Uncircumcision, does not exceed the O.T. revelation. But then there can be no question of a mystery in God. The essence of this is that we are placed with Christ at God's Right Hand. Through this the work of the Spirit is brought to completion.The work of the Spirit. Before we conclude a single word about the work of the Spirit. Whoever sees the Mystery will also learn to see the way of salvation. And conversely, who sees it will more easily see the Mystery. Whoever sees both correctly, will understand that the Spirit of God is not just a bare power and also confesses that He does not stand to God as our spirit stands to us. He is a separate independence in God. The opponents deny that pertinent. Because of this many things remain inexplicable. Without Him Christ can not be known in the right way. That Spirit takes out of Christ, He enters into the truth, He glorifies Christ, John 16:13, 14. It is His work in this dispensation to glorify Christ at its highest. That is why He also reveals Him in His incorruptibility, Eph. 6:24.Who confesses the Spirit as sent by the Father Applier and Outworker, can understand why the one is child, the other son, the third is man of God among the believers. If the Spirit was simply a force or influence, it remained unexplained. And if the Spirit was the Father as the opponents actually claim, — because if God's Spirit is in the same relationship to God as our spirit to us, God's Spirit is the same as God, just as our spirit is the same as we are — then the Father has sent the Father! See John 14:16. But Christ says that there is the Father, He and the Spirit, John 14:16. The Spirit is another Comforter. Another means, other of the same kind. The Spirit is of the same Equal-Being. He is an autonomy, gifted with reason, will, wisdom, 1 Cor. 12:11. And that Spirit works in the one childhood, in the other the sonship, in the third the man of God, as He wills. Hence the difference in the groups.The Person of Christ is so rich that the Spirit can take many things out of it and can reflect of His excellence in the believers. The members of the body must pass through all degrees and be filled to the fullness of God and therefore be filled with the Spirit, Eph. 3:19 and 5:18.The Spirit also learns to understand better what mercy is.Grace is not a mechanical thing, but an organic working force that not only creates new conditions, but also carries on and leads from glory to glory on the way of salvation. If one learns to understand that, then one will also hunt for the prize. It is not there to earn anything, but to glorify God. Not to get something, but to give God the opportunity — if we may say so — to step up His mercy to the highest. The resurrection is not « earned », but is necessarily a consequence of the effect of grace that is not restrained by us. We hunt for the prize, that we may obtain more and more knowledge of Christ. The result is that the longer we can no longer be bound by death because we are getting closer to the Prince of Life. Then He also nullifies death for us in the same way as He has done for Him.It is not about earning something. It is about winning Christ. In all His fullness. Experience teaches us that the sun is not at the very peak of its gleam. Similarly in the spiritual life. The Sun of God's righteousness and glory also does not rise in dizzying speed in us, but steadily we can see more of His warmth and radiance as we can bear. The peak is first reached in Ephesus. Only then can Christ be understood in that love that surpasses knowledge and one can be fulfilled to all the fullness of God. But this does require a road with grace milestones. We hope that the opponents and our readers will have passed many.We conclude this point. The Mystery must first of all be understood spiritually as a new dispensation of God's mercy and the attainment of the greatness of His power. It is first of all and above all Divine. One must be filled with all the fullness of God. This is only possible through the work of the Spirit. In the dispensation of Mystery, the Spirit glorifies Christ at the most excellent and puts next to Him at God's Right Hand. First in the spirit. Then God also gives this place in reality by the out-resurrection. He is praised for His fullness of grace that radiates against us here. Him be the honor and also here: O the depth of the riches!VIII.
The 3 spheres. ↑ Resume. We give as a short overview and brief summary our vision with regard to the 3 spheres that we see. First we have the earth. From that earth, Israel will receive « the whole land of Canaan » once. This does not preclude many Gentiles from participating in it and being heirs of the Kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. It does not mean that all the people will have this: God gives them the rest of the earth. Israel and the Gentiles differ, but many from the Gentiles will share in Israel's future blessings without backwardness.We have the heavens in the second sphere with their Father's house. In this a place is prepared for Jew and Gentile who walk in the footsteps of the faith of Abram before he was circumcised. In this, all nationality is lost. This is an supra-national and pre-Israelite sphere in which the Circumcision has no privileges, because the promises date from before the Circumcision. The sphere is for all who are blessed with Abraham, although this does not say that this believer has had no forerunners in the world from Adam to Noah. They can ascend and descend from the heavens and will equal the angels.If these spheres were treated side by side in Scripture, they would not pose any difficulty. Now they are interwoven together in the O.T and God has decided them in a promise. Gen. 12:1 — 3: a great nation, all generations, Abram (be a blessing). In working out this promise God gives priority to Israel. That is why in Acts the « Jew » is first, then the « Greek ». As far as content of the promises is concerned, there is no distinction. In Acts 13 he separates Paul for a special task. With this He opens the second sphere, for Jew and Gentile: to become heir of the world. Meanwhile, the Apostles of the Circumcision are preaching the entrance into the earthly Kingdom. Where Israel had not accepted Christ, it fell behind Paul's seclusion with the Gentiles; these went before them. All, whether Jew or Gentile, who went with Paul, formed a higher group: the Church of God. The Jews here were allowed to follow the law or not, as Paul did to gain, the forms of law were actually lifted up for them, since they belonged to the new creation. For the sake of the weak, they were allowed to maintain the legal forms.Thus a quadruple group was created in the Acts.
These last two were one in Christ as Crucified and Risen. In the spirit there was no national separation wall for them, no middle wall of partition anymore, although they had to count for the outside, not with respect to the strong, but with respect to the weak brothers.They knew concerning to the spirit no one to the flesh. Both their hope was the taking up, then the placement in the Father's house, the House aionic in the heavens.If God had not taken Israel out of his national home and the temple had been left standing, this state would have continued to this day. There had been two hopes: one for the earth: the land of Canaan, one for the heavens. The first group would then be in the Rebirth with regarding to the core point in the spirit: to confess Jesus as God's Son, the other would stand in the New creation, the core point in the spirit of this: God in Christ the world with Himself reconciling and making a new creation in Christ. God does something else though; He sets aside Israel. Now He gives something above the already given, a new dispensation with a new sphere.We now have the third sphere of the dissolution of the two-stream by breaking the middle wall of the partition. With this the dispensation of reconciliation could have continued. God does more: He now forms a new group out of those who have come to the atonement in Christ and gives it a different place than the heavens, namely at His right hand. Now God lifts the two hopes and gives a new hope. Now there is one hope. Paul receives this revelation in his imprisonment in Rome. From our exposition it follows that this is not the alignment of Jew and Gentile — that was already done through atonement — but the abolition of the dispensation of reconciliation to the dispensation of the mystery: now God is working the full atonement that is: the reconciliation of being placed in one Body above all things.The question arises: And what about the previous dispensations. The spiritual side of it always applies to God: one must first be born again, then be reconciled to God; the outside of it is discarded. Hence our dispensation is (or must be) characterized by lack of all ceremonies, whether derived from former dispensations or deformed, according to the tradition of the people.The application of the spiritual meaning of the previous dispensations and furthermore the introduction into the final revelation given to Paul is the way of salvation. If it is right, then, like Paul, one must go from glory to glory, from being a child to being a son, from the latter to being a man. Being man is characterized by the hunt for the prize of the calling of God, the out-resurrection, that is, already having been in the grave for a short time, to be able to rise from it to ascend as Christ to God's throne.The ultimate goal of the dispensation of the mystery is not the taking up. This has been postponed, humanly. Preaching the taking up as hope for our dispensation must be considered incorrect and is drifting from the flow. The fact is not denied by us, but the fact as hope for our dispensation. Paul's hunting is precisely the going of 1 Thess. 4 to Php. 3. The taking up takes place at the second coming, the out-resurrection can take place at any time.Only through this view do we believe that the Scripture is fully at its right. This does not happen to any of the others. This is most Scriptural. So not two, but three spheres, no taking up but out-resurrection; not just faith, but distinct faith; not just one or more steps to God, but a passage through main moments into God's full Being; not just grace, but various kinds of grace; not but resurrection, but out-resurrection; not just a look to the Lord of glory, but be filled to all the fullness of God; not just a hope of the Lord, but being led by the Spirit; not just an act of God, but also an elaboration on our part; not just accepting that one is there because Christ is there, but one hunting after the white to the prize of God's calling.So this dispensation is far above all the previous ones. It leads to glorify God most. First, by understanding all this in the spirit through faith. Second, by glorifying God in being incorruptible, by being disbanded and being with Christ. Whoever died with Him will live with Him whoever endures with Him will rule with Him. The latter can begin now, after the out-resurrection, to God's glory.The dispensation of the Mystery concerns especially the work of God's Spirit. He now glorifies Christ by applying all his work and merit and work it out each time individually. Where He does not speak of Himself, He remains more the Hidden One. But all who are led by Him know that He is God working in us and that He is the pledge of our inheritance, that it is He who makes Christ dwell in our hearts and introduces us into the « full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ », Col. 2:2.Finally:The Mystery of the Gospel is not the alignment of Jew and Gentile, but concerns Christ. And not in His second coming or in the taking up, but as hope of glory, Col. 1:27, does not concern the removal of an outward separation, but to make every man perfect in Christ Jesus.Appendix ↑
The two bodies. In response to a few questions asked to us, we will discuss a few things. We first show the opinion of the opponents again. They say this: The « Body of Corinth » is the same as that of Ephesus. There is one Body. There is only transition from dispensation. The same group of Thessalonians — Corinth — Romans is completely transferred in the form of a new dispensation. Languages, gifts of healing, etc. ceased, otherwise everything remained the same. The Church, the Body that was already there, is equipped to be a perfect man; the hope remains the taking up. The mystery does not give new hope. The taking up takes place before the wrath to come, the church does not enter it, but is saved for it. The position of the Body was not exactly indicated in the past; first in Ephesus the indefinite is lifted. In 1 Thess. 4 is only mentioned in the air, from Ephesus it appears that the Church is now set to God's Right Hand. The position is in 1 Thess. 4 just vaguely indicated « in the air » to leave room for the mystery.Those who advocate this, in order to defend this point of view, hold peculiar views. We will indicate some of these.1. They learn that with the house of John 14 — that we hold for the house aionic in the heavens — the temple is meant. That must then be the new temple of Ezekiel 40 — 46. As if the little rooms will provide enough housing for the tens of thousands of Abrahamite believers! How little one reads anyway. In John 14 says the Lord Jesus that He is going to prepare a place. When that place is prepared, He comes again to take His, which He means here, to Him. How can that place be the temple of Ezekiel? This is first built when the Lord Jesus has returned. That place is not prepared at His second coming. Yet He does not come before He has prepared a place. From this it follows that that place can not be the temple that is yet to be built.2. One wants from 1 Thess. 4 read something different than it says. It says that this group is going to meet the Lord. To meet someone is to go back and to return with Him to a certain starting point. Not the one to be met is changing direction, but those who go to meet. In 1. Thess. 4 this is also true. The Lord does not go back to heaven, because He is not going to meet this group, but this Him. The group therefore changes direction and returns to earth. So there is no question of being put to God's right hand. To proof the following.In 1 Thess. 4 it says actually: to meet « in the air ». The term « to meet » is also to be found, twice more in Scripture, namely in Mat. 25:1 and Acts 28:15. The virgins went out to meet the bridegroom. As soon as they had met him, they and not he, changed direction. They returned to the village or the place of exit. — In Acts 28:15 the same. The brothers from Rome went to Appiusmarkt to meet Paul. Not Paul, but they changed direction and returned to Rome. Shall we now forget this teaching of the Scripture in 1 Thess. 4 and say: to meet the Lord does not mean that the group, but that He changes direction? This is for our Scriptural rape. Here too, not He, but the meeting group changes direction and thus returns with Him. This group is not the group of Col. 3. This is revealed with Him, so is already with Christ. The other of 1 Thess. 4 meets Him and is distinguished from this. Just as in the natural the royal procession is distinguished from the honor guard who catches up with it, so the group of Col. 3 is distinguished from that of 1 Thess. 4.The error that one makes when identifying the two Bodies of Corinth and Ephesus is that it is assumed that all of a previous dispensation, as it were, automatically by changing dispensation, pass into the new. But this is contradicted by Scripture. If John the Baptist acts and calls for the new dispensation God opened for Israel to enter, then only a part will be converted and the others will remain behind. At the Pentecostal dispensation the same. There are many who believe, but by no means all, even though they see signs and wonders. And so it was with the transition to our dispensation. Many simply stayed behind. We can submit another proof. Do you believe that all believers from the most conservative Roman Catholic to the most « orthodox » Protestant belong to the Body of Christ? This has to be so, otherwise the entire theory will lapse. After all, if not now all of them belong to the dispensation of the mystery, what the spiritual direction clearly reveals, why then all who first lived in the dispensation reconciliation, but though the dispensation of the mystery entered, did not go into the spirit in it? The whole Church history is evidence that not all have had « one spirit ». It will be noted that if there are two Bodies, there are also two Lords, two Gods and Fathers, etc. (Eph. 4). This seems to be a serious objection that is being held with great emphasis. First of all, we ask: If all who believe now belong to one Body, why is there no unity? Rome wanted to make an outward unity, but it has not yet succeeded. Eph. 4 says that there is one spirit. If all believers belonged to the One Body, why is not there one spirit? Does not this prove that not all belong to the one Body? Paul speaks of one baptism. That must be the baptism of the Spirit. Why do many people still want two baptisms? He also speaks of one hope. Why does one believer hope for the first resurrection, another for the taking up and do we have another hope? Practice refutes the unity, at least does not reveal it.Do we now learn that there are two Bodies. No, in this dispensation only one Body is formed. But — not all believers need to belong to this. Paul gives in Eph. 3:15 clearly that there are also other communities: there is a generation (Greek, Group or family from a Father) of the heavens and the earth. These are two other groups. These do not belong to the Body. The Body is a separate chosen group. Would all believers of this dispensation belong to it, where would the election be? However, not chosen for the Body does not mean, as Calvin taught, rejected from « salvation ».And how with one Lord and one God and Father, one will ask. If there is more than one hope and more than one baptism, etc., then there must also be more than one Lord and more than one God and Father, they say. We respond to this in two ways. First, this: Paul does not speak of what is outside of the Body, but what applies to the Body. He sets the standard for the members of that body, without thereby saying that not all of them are called to do so. Second. Where there is only one God and Father, and also only one true Lord, it is absurd to deduce from that which can be multiple (hope, faith, spirit) that of the Divine Persons also more than One should exist. He has already said before, that from the Father are all the generation in heavens and on earth, 3:15; Here, therefore, he can not learn that there could be another Father for the other groups. That is why one should not ridicule a divine cause here by seemingly logical inferences. What Paul writes, he writes with a view to the Body without denying, that there can be other groups of believers who can stand in a different relationship to God. He recognizes this just in advance, but does not draw the conclusion that there are now also two or more Fathers and Lords, although there is in the distinction of the two « generations » locked up, that their religious content and their hope will differ. The « generation » of the earth, the born again, must have a different hope as that of the heavens. One watches out for vain philosophy in this matter.Finally, a single word on the issue of the Body of Corinth and that of Ephesus. One should not forget that the image of the body is used with a view to unity. The Body is one, 1 Cor. 12:12. God had baptized the Body of Corinth by a Spirit into a unit, v. 13. The Body of Corinth manifested itself through apostles, prophets, teachers, powers, gifts of healing, help, governments, various languages, v. 2 — 8. Where do we find these in the mystical Body of Christ of Ephesus? If only the dispensation had changed, then why is there no continuation of apostles and prophets? To prepare for the body of Ephesus God did give apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers (Eph. 4:11), but that was a transitional state: it was not « perfecting the saints », as KJV says but to « reorder » them. And it would last only until all came to unity of faith, to the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, v. 13, basic text. The unity of the Body of Ephesus thus does not lie in revealing itself in a shared fullness in which each member is only in particular, (the same word as in 1 Corinthians 13:9: in part) but in perfect manhood. Here one arrives at an invisible unit, a hidden thing. No member of the Corinthian body stands alone; first connected with each other they formed a Body. Every member of the Ephesian body can stand alone because it forms a unity in itself (although it looks with pleasure to those who walk the same).In the over-heavenly. It is further taught that Scripture knows nothing of the over-heavenly. As proof one gives Heb. 9:23 and 24: Christ goes into heaven to cleanse the heavenly things. So these things are heavenly things in heaven and they are not mentioned above. How Scripture researchers can claim more than once things that are completely wrong, without any further thought, is a mystery, but unfortunately often a fact. Heb. 9:23 and 24 do not speak of over-heavenly things that are in heaven. We already pointed out that the word « over-heavenly » in Heb. occurs 6 times (see page 15) and that it means: prepared from the over-heavenly. Thus, Hebrews proves laterally right that there are glories. Heb. 9:23 says that the things of the heavens are purified by better sacrifices themselves. We note that in Greek there is no word « things ». Wherever the KJV has this, the Greek has a neuter plural form, which often summarizes groups of persons or beings (See, for example, Col. 1:16). In Heb. 9:23, it relates to the spheres to be cleansed and to the persons who are placed therein. The O.T. high priest cleansed the tabernacle (and temple) by blood, but also made atonement by blood for himself and his house (Lev.16). Christ's blood cleanses the spheres and those who have to serve in them. Both are called together: the supernatural « things », because they are prepared from the over-heavenly. Scripture teaches that Christ has passed through all the heavens. On the basis of this text one could draw the conclusion that He did not appear in heaven, because when one goes through all the rooms of a building, one goes out of it again. Christ would not have appeared in heaven in this way. The Scripture maintains both. He has appeared in heaven and He has gone through all the heavens. One thing and another can be solved by speaking with the Scripture of: in the over-heavenly, where one can supplement: regions, spheres or the like. In Hebrews this is called: heaven.At that day. The term « at that day » of 2 Tim. 4 is still held by the combatants for the day in which the congregation as a whole will obtain the crown. The Scripture can decide this again. The term « that day » is found once more in 2 Thess. 1:10. This verse is the last of a part that begins with v. 6. See the structure here:
It says: « When the Lord shall be revealed », as opposed to « in that day ». « That day » is therefore « When the Lord shall be revealed ». Anyone who quietly reads and ponderes the connection, will have to acknowledge this. This gives us the key for 2 Tim. 4:6 — 8. We already gave the structure of this earlier in this book. In 2 Tess. 1 was « in that day » opposite to « When the Lord shall be revealed », here is « in that day » opposite to « the time of my disbandment (departure) ». In 2 Thess. 1 that day is the revelation of the Lord Jesus, in 2 Tim. 4 that day is the time of Paul's disbandment. We do not automatically say that these two days fall together, but only try to prove that, as in 2 Thess. I « that day » is determined by the foregoing, this also takes place with « that day » in 2 Tim. 4. God thus clearly indicates the means to arrive at certainty: Where now « that day » of 2 Tim. 4 is the time of Paul's disbandment and this then was near, he can no longer rest in the grave. From this it follows that the Body is not generated in its entirety simultaneously, but each of the members receives the crown in the day of its disbandment.The new hope. There might be more to mention. We do not do that. We only point to this. He who learns the taking up must learn the unity of the believers of Thess.-Cor.-Romans with that of Eph.-Col. There is no other way. Whoever does not accept the taking up as hope for this dispensation must learn the twofold, because if this dispensation is closed (or already before), then will that of Thess.-Cor. find its continuation. Everything now depends on the question: Has not only the dispensation changed but has also a new hope arrived. In other words, because of Israel's sin, grace has become more abundant. By that sin God has been forced to postpone the resurrection from the dead until the coming of the Lord for the taking up, and so now no one is « in heaven ». Or does Paul's word mean: « the time of my disbandment is imminent » in 2 Tim. 4 that he came to the out-resurrection of Php. 3 what he was hunting for? And this out-resurrection is to be disbanded, that is, to be released from the grave and to be with Christ. The point now is whether God, through Israel's setting aside, has completely dominated Satan and is already taking his spoils from head to head in those who are coming to the out-resurrection. For us the latter is the case. It is about God's honor and already now He receives the praise for the excellent greatness of His grace in and through those who have become conformed to Christ's death and were disbanded with Paul. So, but also only like this, is the dispensation of the mystery one that surpasses all of the foregoing. The same excellent greatness of His power that God has worked in, in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, also works in those who come to the out-resurrection, Eph. 1:19, 20.Paul prays that the Father of glory may give that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. That is not to see that the Gentiles were now aligned with the Jew, for it says: that you may know what the hope is of His calling and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, v. 17, 18. This is something very different from this equation. It is to get to know that eminent greatness of his strength. He raised Christ from the dead. It also deals once with the conquering Members of His Body. How would they rest in the grave for 19 or more centuries! This is not possible, otherwise it is not the excellent greatness of His power. It is this for those who believe with us, that God again and again, in spite of Satan, opens the grave of one who has finished the course, and does not let him be kept by death, but « disbands » him.How glorious it must be when the Lord Jesus once stands there personally at our grave as He did at Lazarus' grave, but now in glory, if He then calls us to come out the way He did Lazarus, if we may see an unprecedented glory and be personally presented with Him at the place of God's Right Hand. This is how we understand Php. 3:20 and 21. Christ descends again and again for each of the overcomers from the citizenship in heaven, that is, from the over-heavenly, raises up, makes alive, changes and ascends to the highest place of honor. He is not bound to wait for ages because He has subjected all things to Himself completely. (Php 3:21). We believe that in this dispensation He makes it appear again and again through the out-resurrection. By this one is led to the Father of glory, and by work of the Spirit who has taken the highest from the Son, which He can give, is completed for that group. It can not be higher, but it also exceeds all knowledge. Praised be the Divine Being for so much salvation.
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