In
each of God's ages and dispensations there has been truth generated
from God that was peculiar and particular to that age or dispensation to which
it pertained. By that we mean that in each age God
made known a truth which related directly to the calling that then stood before
God. It has ever been the responsibility of God's people in each age and
dispensation to distinguish Present Truth. By so doing they acknowledge what God
has spoken directly to them. God deals on the principle of faith. That is to
say, God speaks, and man's responsibility in any age has been that of believing
that which comes from God. To believe the report that
comes from God is faith. Romans 10:17 says. "So then faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing
(cometh) by the Word of God," i.e. faith cometh by what we hear through the
Word of God. Faith believes all that comes from God. But the
FAITHFUL
distinguish that which relates directly to them and are obedient. In all the
ages the requirement was for each saint to believe the report that came from
God.
In some ages God
spoke directly to man, such as Cain and Abel, Enoch and Noah and etc. What He
spoke to each was not the same. What God spoke to Cain and Abel was not what He
spoke to Enoch. What He spoke to Enoch was not what He spoke to Noah. What He
spoke to Noah was not what He later spoke to Abraham. Jehovah did not tell Noah
to get up and get out of his own country and go into another. Nor did He tell
Abraham to build an ark. Each one who heard a report from God was to believe the
report.
God Spoke By The
Prophets
In other ages God spoke
to man by the mouth of the prophets (Hebrews 1:1).
Those who lived in Israel when God spoke
to "the fathers by the prophets" were required to believe not only
Present Truth as spoken by the prophets, but they
were required to believe all truth that had been put In writing. (i.e. the Old
Testament)
God Spoke By His Son
In yet another age (the last of
Israel's days) God spoke to the Hebrews by His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews
1:2). Those who lived and heard the words which the Lord Jesus spoke as the Son
was Present Truth at the time. Those who lived and heard the words at the
time the Lord Jesus spoke them had a greater responsibility than did the saints
that preceded them. They had to believe all that had been recorded in the
Word of God, that is, what God had spoken directly to individual men as recorded
in Scripture, what God had spoken to the fathers of Israel by the prophets, and
they most assuredly had to believe THE LATEST REPORT which came from God. That
being the words the Lord Jesus Christ spoke. The generation alive at the time of
Christ had to believe Present Truth in order to become a partaker of the coming
Kingdom. After the Lord Jesus was rejected by Israel as their King, the Lord in
resurrection sent out those who "heard him."
God Spoke By The
Apostles
They went out with an
amnesty to Israel. If Israel would repent for having crucified their Messiah,
God would send back the Crucified One and He would sit on the Throne of David
and the Kingdom would be restored to Israel. Those who had heard the Son
(Hebrews 2:3) were the twelve apostles. They were to preach and teach those
things that the Lord had begun to speak. Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and
James were also given the responsibility to put down the things in writing that
the Holy Ghost told them to write. What they spoke was God's word for that day
and age; that was Present Truth at that time.
Present Truth Divides
Present Truth has
always been the dividing line among God's people. In each age God has had those
who believed "unto eternal life" but rejected the latest report from
God. Many saints fail to believe the latest revelation from God. They only
believe that which relates to "salvation," they fail to go and grow
from "faith to faith" (Romans 1:17). Consequently, they cannot please
God because it is required of stewards that they be found fully believing all
that God has revealed (I Corinthians 5:2).
The Apostle Peter urged
his readers to be established in Present Truth when he said in 2 Peter 1:12,
"Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance
of these things, though ye know them, and be
established in the PRESENT TRUTH." Notice his emphasis on the believer
knowing and being established in PRESENT TRUTH. The good minister of Jesus
Christ is to put the believer in remembrance of present truth, and to establish
the saint in truth for today so that they might be rooted and grounded in it.
Many of those that were possessors of eternal life in Israel failed to be
established in Present Truth, many failed to see Present Truth, consequently,
they would miss the Kingdom. In plainer words those who failed to believe the
Kingdom message would not be made a partaker of it. Thereby they would not be
admitted into the kingdom when it is established. Remember, the Lord rewards
according to faith. The Gospel of the Kingdom was preached and those who
believed the message that the King would return and the Kingdom would be set up
were assured that they would live with Christ in the promised Kingdom. Those who
did not believe the report from God regarding the Kingdom would miss it when it
was set up. They might have been redeemed and would enjoy eternal life on the
new earth but they very definitely will miss the Kingdom.
God Tests Man By Giving Him Something To Believe
God has always tested man by giving him
something to believe. Most Christians think God would have them
DO SOMETHING,
but that is not the case. He would have them to believe something. Whenever God
made known additional truth. He tested man to see whether or not man would
believe the latest report from Him. Man generally failed to believe God's latest
revelation.
When John the Baptist came
preaching REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND those who believed were
believing PRESENT TRUTH. After that when the Lord Jesus said
REPENT FOR THE
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND. that too was PRESENT TRUTH. The Lord told the
disciples to pray,
"OUR FATHER
WHICH ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE THY NAME. THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE IN
EARTH. AS IT IS IN HEAVEN."
This prayer was appropriate for
the time that was then present (i.e. when the Lord instructed them). It related
to the fact that the Kingdom was at hand.
Even after Israel rejected and
crucified their King, the King was raised from the dead and Peter announced to
the multitude that despite the fact that they (Israel) had taken and "by
wicked hands have crucified and slain" their King that if they would
"REPENT...AND
BE CONVERTED. THAT THEIR SINS MAY BE BLOTTED OUT. . .THE TIMES OF REFRESHING
WOULD COME FROM THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD: AND GOD WOULD SEND JESUS CHRIST...
.WHOM THE HEAVEN MUST RECEIVE UNTIL THE RESTITUTION OF ALL THINGS."
This restoration of the Kingdom
to Israel was offered to Israel all through the Book of Acts. The Apostle Paul
had a ministry as the apostle to the Gentiles during this same period. His
ministry was very broad and complex even as admitted by Peter himself in 2 Peter
3:15-16.
"And
account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as out beloved
brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some
things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest,
as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction."
Paul's Acts ministry was "hard to
be understood" by the unlearned. While he explained many deep truths he
also had the job of winning the Gentiles to Christ in an effort to provoke
Israel to jealousy that they might "emulate" the Gentiles' faith and
be saved (see Romans 11:11-25).
Even though Paul developed in
his Acts epistles a great many things which had not hitherto been explained, his
ministry was still centered around Israel's hope (see Acts 28:20 and Romans
15:12: Acts 26:5-7, 22 and etc.). God's kingdom purposes were still Present
Truth, and it persisted from Pentecost to Acts 28:28. However in Acts 28:17-28
we learn that Paul met with the Roman Jews, reasoned with them out of the OT
concerning Jesus as their Messiah-King. Their response was one of not believing
Present Truth. Thus God pronounced national and total blindness upon Israel. The
salvation of God that had been of the Jews was taken from them and given over to
the Gentiles. The Kingdom purposes ended abruptly with the close of the Book of
Acts.
Thus all Truth that had been preached
and written down during the course of time that ran from Acts 2 to Acts 28 was set aside. The Scripture that was written during that
dispensation became Truth of a past and by-gone age. We will set forth below as
best we can the chronological order of the Books of the Acts period. Now the
Acts period ran from A.D. 29 to A.D. 63.
Book
Date of Writing
Mathew
41
A.D.
Mark
and Revelation
43
A.D.
James
45
A.D.
Jude
46
A.D.
Galatians,
Hebrews, and John
52
A.D.
1
and 2 Thessalonians
53
A.D.
1
and 2, and 3 John
55
A.D.
1
and 2 Corinthians
57
A.D.
Luke
and Romans
58
A.D.
1
and 2 Peter
60
A.D.
Acts
28:28
63
A.D.
This chronology is basically the
work of Oscar M. Baker. We believe he has come closer to the dates of the
writings than anyone thus far. Each of the books written above needs to be read
in the light of the time they were written. Failure to do so creates confusion
and contradiction. These should be read in the light that Israel stood before
God as a nation, and as long as Israel stood before God nationally. His purposes
were centered in and around the nation Israel and all of the attendant blessings
that were to accompany the national revival were in view.
The epistles of
Paul during this time should be read recognizing the fact that what he wrote
were "none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say
should come" (Acts 26:22). All truth connected with that dispensation
(Acts 2-28) is to be left behind. Only the truth that is RESTATED in a
subsequent revelation is to be recognized as TRUTH FOR TODAY.
So the Apostle Paul finds himself no
longer "bound for Israel's hope" (Acts 28:20) but rather he finds that
he is a "prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles" (Ephesians 3:1).
After Israel's blindness he learns that his bonds are not for Israel but they
are for the purpose of him being an ambassador in bonds to make known the
Mystery (Ephesians 6:19-20). Paul's testimony as a free man and as a prisoner
bound for Israel's hope ends.A
new ministry begins and he makes known God's secret purpose for this age - the Dispensation of The Grace of God. The Lord
Jesus Christ makes known to Paul the Prisoner by means of a special revelation,
the "unsearchable" riches of Christ," which is Gentile-ward
(Ephesians 3:1-13).
Present Truth is now found in
that cluster of epistles written by the Apostle Paul after the dispensational
crisis occurred in Acts 28:28. Present Truth concerns itself with the Church which is His body, the
fullness of Him that filleth all in all, heavenly places, all spiritual
blessings, the right hand of the Father, accepted in the Beloved, ascended
together with Him, seated together with Him and etc. We are not attempting to
explain Present Truth, but hope only to point the reader to
THE TESTIMONY OF THE
LORD'S PRISONER (2 Timothy 1:8). for it is there that
PRESENT TRUTH is to be
found today
The epistles written after
Israel's blindness are below, and are the "testimony of the Lord's prisoner
Ephesians
Philippians
Colossians
Philemon
1 and 2 Timothy
Titus
The Bible record shows that
Present Truth has never been popular, nor well received by the majority of
established orthodoxy. Present Truth in each age has been the subject of
scorn and ridicule as well as hatred. Notice the reaction to Present Truth
when Jehudi read it into the ears of the king in Jeremiah 36:23. After Present
Truth was read, not all of it of course only three or four pages, the king took
his penknife and cut it up in pieces and cast it into the fire. Jeremiah wrote
Present Truth in his day and he was considered a know-it-all, a crackpot, a
schiz-matic, and an upsetteler of folks. Present Truth has a way of doing that.
The same God
who spoke directly to individual men at one time, who spoke ' 'unto the fathers
by the prophets." who spoke to Israel by His Son and by those who had heard
the Son, now speaks to us today. As in the days of old, who hears God speak?
Very few. One time the voice of God came from heaven (John 12), and the people
that stood by and heard it said that it thundered; others said an angel spake.
Only a few recognize the voice of God as He speaks today. God speaks today
through the writings of Paul, the prisoner. Present Truth - Peter says that he
would not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of it. We too would put
you in remembrance of Present Truth and pray that you might be established in
it.
