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THE PLEROMA -
OR THE "FULLNESS"
Part 1
CHART
To the reader of The Berean Expositor, the principle of Right Division needs
neither introduction nor commendation. Its recognition underlies every article
that has been printed in its pages, and determines both the Gospel we preach,
the Church to which we belong, and the hope that is before us. Dispensational
Truth is not confined to one aspect or phase of the Divine purpose, for every
dealing of God with man, whether under law or grace, whether with saint or
sinner has its own dispensational colouring which is inherent in its teaching
and is in nowise accidental. Much has yet to be written and presented along
these suggestive and attractive lines of study, but the particular application
of this principle now before us, focuses the reader's attention upon one fact,
namely, that while in the mind of God the whole purpose of the ages is seen as
one and its end assured, in the outworking of that purpose, the fact that moral
creatures are involved, creatures that can, and alas do, exercise their liberty
to disobey as well as to obey the revealed will of God; this fact has had an
effect upon the manifest unfolding of the purpose of the ages. This is seen as a
series of "gaps" and "postponements" which are filled by new
phases and aspects of the purpose until at length He Who was once
"All" in a universe that mechanically and unconsciously obeyed, will
at length be "All in all" in a universe of willing and intelligent
creatures, whose standing will not be that of Creation and Nature, but in
Redemption and Grace.
Here we can do little else than indicate the presence of these "gaps",
and consider the terms that are employed in the Hebrew of the O.T. and the Greek
of the N.T. and of the LXX. The well-known example of the Saviour's recognition
of a "gap" in the prophecy of Isaiah sixty-one must be repeated for
the sake of completeness and for the value of its endorsement. We learn from the
fourth chapter of Luke's Gospel, that the Lord attended the service in the
synagogue at Nazareth, and, apparently, after the reading of the law by the
official, He stood up "for to read" the Haphthorah, or the recognized
portion from the Prophets that was appointed for the day. He found the place,
and commenced to read Isaiah sixty-one. Now it is laid down by Maimonides that
"He that reads in the prophets, was to read at least one and twenty
verses" but he allowed that if "the sense" was finished in less,
then the reader was under no necessity to read so many. Even so it must have
caused a deal of surprise to the congregation that gathered for Christ to read
what is one verse in our Bible, and one sentence of the second verse, shut the
book and sit down. He did so because "the sense" was indeed finished
in "less than twenty-one verses". He was about to focus attention upon
one aspect of His Work, and said
Genesis 1:1 which is followed by the "rent" of
Genesis 1:2. This we denominate "The Beginning" and conclude with
"The End" of 1 Corinthians 15:24-28. The New Heavens and Earth, with
its Paradise restored, relates, not to "The Beginning'", but to the
subsequent creation of Adam and the Heavens and Earth of the six days. By
observing the parallel between the words of Ephesians 1: 4 and 2 Timothy 1: 9 we
are able to show that the ages commence with the reconstruction of the earth in
Genesis 1: 3. What follows is a series of "fillings" in the person of
men like Adam, Noah, Abraham or Nebuchadnezzar with the economies associated
with them, but all such are provisional, they are failing and typical only, and
for this reason we call them but "fillings". They but carry the
unfolding purpose on to "the fullness of time" when "The Seed
should come to Whom the promises were made", in Whom alone all the
"Fullness" dwells. Adam was but a "filling", he was not
"the fullness", that title belongs only to the Lord .Jesus Christ
Himself.
The only company of the redeemed who are themselves called "the
Fullness" is the Church of the Mystery, the church of "heavenly
places", the church which is now closely associated with the seated Christ.
Two words, found in Matthew 9:16 must ever be kept together in the course of
this study, they are the words "fullness" and the "fuller".
We shall see presently that God is preparing during the ages, as it were, a
piece of "fulled" cloth, so that at last there may be a perfected
universe, the "rent" of Genesis 1: 2 healed, and "God all in
all". Fulling involves several processes, most of them drastic and
rigorous.
"Clooth that cometh fro the wevying is nought comely to were til it be
fulled under foot" (Piers Plowman).
Nitre, soap, and the teasle, scouring and bleaching at length make the shrunken
cloth "as white as snow" (Mark 9:3). We can say therefore concerning
the fulfilment of the purpose of the ages "No FULLNESS without FULLING".
We do most earnestly desire that consummation when the Son of God shall deliver
up to the Father a perfected kingdom, with every vestige of the "rent"
of Genesis 1:2 gone. We do most ardently desire to be found, in that day, as
part of that blessed pleroma or fullness, but we remind ourselves that every
thread that goes to make that "filling" will have passed through the
Fuller's hands; "fulled under foot" must precede being "far above
all".
Accompanying this introduction the reader will find a chart which endeavours to
set forth in diagram the way in which the Divine purpose in the Fullness is
accomplished. At either end of the chart stand between the "Beginning"
and the "End" the two creations, the black division that immediately
follows the one representing the condition of Genesis 1: 2 "Without form
and void", and the black division that immediately precedes the
consummation, represents the corresponding state of dissolution foreshadowed in
Isaiah 34: 4 and 2 Peter three -but associated with "the last enemy".
Running along the bottom of the chart is "the deep"; that was the
vehicle of judgment in Genesis 1:2 and which is to pass away at the end, for John says "and there was no more sea" (Rev. 21:1). By comparing
Ephesians 1:4 "Before the foundation of the world" with 2 Timothy
1:8,9 "before the world began (literally, before age times)", we have
the start and the finish of the ages indicated. What follows is a series of
"fillings", "stop-gap"' types and shadows pointing on. The
fullness of time (Gal. 4: 4) did not come until 4,000 years after Adam, and the
fullness of the times (seasons) will not arrive until the day which is about to
dawn ushers in the glory that will be, when all things in heaven and on earth
are gathered together under the Headship of Christ.
As we have seen, it is not until we reach the dispensation of the Mystery, that
we come to a company of the redeemed which constitute a "fullness",
and there we read of the Church which is His Body, "the FULLNESS of Him,
that filleth all in all" (Eph. 1: 23). The Fullness of the Godhead dwells
bodily in Christ, and the heavenly places, far above all, with which both the
seated Christ and His church axe associated, constitute a sphere untouched by
the catastrophe of Genesis 1:2. This does not pass away. The heavenly places
where Christ sits, are far above all heavens (Eph. 4:10) that is, far above the
temporary heaven called "the firmament" which is likened to a spread
out curtain and which can be folded up and put aside. This
"tabernacle" character of the Adamic earth is of extreme importance;
it places the whole purpose of the ages under a redeeming aegis, and the reader
is advised to give the article which deals with this aspect careful attention.
The chart which accompanies this article should be at hand throughout the
series.
To the reader of The Berean Expositor, the principle of Right Division needs
neither introduction nor commendation. Its recognition underlies every article
that has been printed in its pages, and determines both the Gospel we preach,
the Church to which we belong, and the hope that is before us. Dispensational
Truth is not confined to one aspect or phase of the Divine purpose, for every
dealing of God with man, whether under law or grace, whether with saint or
sinner has its own dispensational colouring which is inherent in its teaching
and is in nowise accidental. Much has yet to be written and presented along
these suggestive and attractive lines of study, but the particular application
of this principle now before us, focuses the reader's attention upon one fact,
namely, that while in the mind of God the whole purpose of the ages is seen as
one and its end assured, in the outworking of that purpose, the fact that moral
creatures are involved, creatures that can, and alas do, exercise their liberty
to disobey as well as to obey the revealed will of God; this fact has had an
effect upon the manifest unfolding of the purpose of the ages. This is seen as a
series of "gaps" and "postponements" which are filled by new
phases and aspects of the purpose until at length He Who was once
"All" in a universe that mechanically and unconsciously obeyed, will
at length be "All in all" in a universe of willing and intelligent
creatures, whose standing will not be that of Creation and Nature, but in
Redemption and Grace.
Here we can do little else than indicate the presence of these "gaps",
and consider the terms that are employed in the Hebrew of the O.T. and the Greek
of the N.T. and of the LXX. The well-known example of the Saviour's recognition
of a "gap" in the prophecy of Isaiah sixty-one must be repeated for
the sake of completeness and for the value of its endorsement. We learn from the
fourth chapter of Luke's Gospel, that the Lord attended the service in the
synagogue at Nazareth, and, apparently, after the reading of the law by the
official, He stood up "for to read" the Haphthorah, or the recognized
portion from the Prophets that was appointed for the day. He found the place,
and commenced to read Isaiah sixty-one. Now it is laid down by Maimonides that
"He that reads in the prophets, was to read at least one and twenty
verses" but he allowed that if "the sense" was finished in less,
then the reader was under no necessity to read so many. Even so it must have
caused a deal of surprise to the congregation that gathered for Christ to read
what is one verse in our Bible, and one sentence of the second verse, shut the
book and sit down. He did so because "the sense" was indeed finished
in "less than twenty-one verses". He was about to focus attention upon
one aspect of His Work, and said
"This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21).
The sentence with which the Saviour closed His reading of Isaiah sixty-one was
"to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord". The next sentence,
separated in the A.V. by but a comma read "And the day of vengeance of our
God", yet that comma, represents a gap of at least nineteen hundred years,
for the days of vengeance are not referred to until Luke 21: 22 where the Second
Coming and the end of the age is in view.
The word translated "fulness" is the Greek pleroma, and its first
occurrence in the N.T. places it in contrast with a "rent" or a
"gap". The three references in the Gospels are
"No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is
put m to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse"
(Matt. 9:16).
"No man. also seweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment: else the new
piece that filled it up taketh away from the old, and .the rent is made
worse" (Mark 2:21).
"No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old if otherwise, then
both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth
not with the old" (Luke 5 : 36).
"That which is put in to fill up", is the translation of the Greek
pleroma a word of extreme importance in the epistles, and there translated
"fullness". In contrast with this "fullness" is the word
"rent" which in the Greek is schisma. Two words translated
"new" are used. In Matthew 9 : 16, and in Mark 2 : 21 agnaphos not yet
"fulled", or dressed, from grtapheus, a "fuller", and
kainos
which is used in Luke 5: 36, meaning "newly made". In place of
"put unto" or "put upon" used in Matthew 9: 16 and Luke 5:
36 we find the word "to sew on" epirrhapto employed in Mark 2:21. One
other word is suggestive, the word translated "agree" in Luke 5: 36.
It is the Greek sumphoneo. Now as these terms will be referred to in the course
of the following exposition, we will take the present opportunity of enlarging a
little on their meaning and relationship here and so prepare the way.
Pleroma. This word which is derived from pleroo "to fill", occurs
seventeen times in the N.T. Two of these occurrences occur in Matthew and Mark
as we have seen, the remaining fifteen occurrences are found in John's Gospel
and in Paul's epistles. It is noteworthy that the word pleroma,
"fullness" is never used in the epistles of the circumcision. When
Peter referred to the problem of the gap suggested by the words "Where is
the promise of His coming?' he referred his readers to the epistles of Paul who,
said he, deals with this matter of longsuffering and apparent postponement and
speaks of these things (2 Pet. 3: 15,16). The word pleroma is used in the
Septuagint some fifteen times. These we will record for the benefit of the
reader who may not have access to that ancient translation. 1 Chronicles 16: 32
"Let the sea roar and the fullness thereof", so, Psalm 96 : 11; 98 :
7. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof" Psalm 24: 1, and
with slight variations Psalm 50:12, 89:11. In several passages, the fullness or
"all that is therein" is set over against flood or famine, as in
Jeremiah 8 : 16; 47 : 2; Ezekiel 12 : 19; 19 : 7 and 30:12. Some of the words
used in the context of these Septuagint references are too suggestive to be
passed over without comment. Instead of "time of healing" we find
"anxiety", the land "quaking", "deadly serpents"
and a "distressed heart" (Jer. 8 :15-18). Again, in Jeremiah 47 : 2
(29 : 2 in the LXX) we have such words of prophetic and age time importance as
"an overflowing flood", Greek katakluzomai, kataklusmos and variants,
a word used with dispensational significance in 2 Peter 2: S and 3 : 6, and
preserved in the English cataclysm, a word of similar import to that which we
have translated "the overthrow" of the world. The bearing of 2 Peter
three on this gap in the outworking of the purpose of the ages, will be given an
examination in this series. In the context of the word "fullness"
found in Ezekiel 12: 19, we have such words as "scatter" diaspero, a
word used in James 1: 1 and 1 Peter 1: 1 of the "dispersed" or
"scattered" tribes of Israel, also the word "waste", which
calls up such passages of prophetic import as Isaiah 34:10,11 and Jeremiah
4:23-27, where the Hebrew words employed in Genesis 1:2 are repeated. The
pleroma or "fullness" is placed in direct contrast with desolation,
waste, flood, fire and a condition that is "without form and void".
Schisma, the word translated "rent" in Matthew 9:16 is from schizo
which is used of the veil of the Temple and of the rocks that were
"rent" at the time of the Saviour's death and resurrection.
Two words translated "new" have been mentioned. One agnaphos refers to
the work of a "fuller", who smoothes a cloth by carding. The work of a
fuller also includes the washing and scouring process in which fuller's earth or
fuller's soap (Mal. 3:2; Mark 9:3) is employed. A piece of cloth thus treated
loses its original harshness. The whole process of the ages is set forth under
the symbol of the work of a fuller, who by beating and by bleaching :at length
produces a material which is the acme of human attainment, for when the
Scriptures would describe the excellent glory of the Lord, His garments are said
to have been "exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth could white
them" (Mark 9 : 3). So too the effect upon
Israel of the Second Coming is likened to "a refiner's fire and like
fuller's soap" (Mal. 3: 2). It is this "fulled" cloth that makes
the "fullness". The other word translated "new" is kainos
and has the meaning of "fresh as opposed to old", "new, different
from the former", and as a compound, the meaning "to renew". It
is this word that is used when speaking of the New Covenant, the new creation,
the new man, and the new heaven and earth. We shall have to take this into
account when we are developing the meaning and purpose of the Fullness. Job
14:12 reads "Till the heavens be no more" which in the Septuagint
reads "Till the heavens are unsewn". The bearing of this upon the
argument of 2 Peter three, the present firmament and the fullness will appear
more clearly as we proceed.
THE
PLEROMA - Part 2
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