Quite apart from the revealed will of God as recorded of earlier ages, the Bible sets forth at length three distinct and complete divine rulings which govern human action.
None of these rulings are addressed to the angels or to the Gentiles as such. Two are addressed to Israel -- one in the age that is past, known as the Mosaic Law,
and the other the setting forth of the terms of admission into, and the required conduct in, the Messianic kingdom when that kingdom is set up in the earth.
The third is addressed to Christians and provides divine direction in this age for the heavenly people who are already perfected, with respect to standing, in Christ Jesus.
Since the Bible is God's one book for all the ages, it should be no more difficult to recognize its reference to future ages than to recognize its reference to completed past
ages. These three rules of life do present widely different economies. This is evident both from their distinctive characteristics as set forth in the Word of God and from the
very nature of the case. Concerning the nature of the case, it may be said that the divine administration in the earth could not be the same after the death of Christ,
after His resurrection, after His ascension and the inauguration of His present ministry, after the advent of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and after the ad
interim disannulling of Judaism, as it was before those events. Nor could the divine administration be the same after the removal of the Church from the earth,
after the regathering of Israel and the restoration of Judaism, after the judgment of the nations, after the binding of Satan, and after the seating of Christ at His second
advent on David's throne to rule over the whole earth, as it is now before those events occur.
Since the faith of some cannot be extended to the point of visualizing unfulfilled prophecy into reality, it might be the part of wisdom to restrict this argument to the first
group of events, namely, those which form a cleavage between the past age and the present age. Because of the fact that these events are now history
(though at one time they were predictive prophecy) their reality is hardly disputed even by the unregenerate man. Nevertheless the second group of events,
which separate the present age from the age to come, are the keys to the understanding of God's kingdom purposes in the earth, and without these keys the casual reader is left
with little else to do other than to fall in with the Romish fiction of a world-conquering church under a supposed supremacy of an irresistible kingdom of God on the earth.
No doubt will be raised by any intelligent Christian concerning the truth that it is within the range of divine power to transform society in this age, or at any other time.
The question is really one of whether world-transformation is the divine purpose for this age; and until the one who believes that this is the divine purpose has made a reasonable
exposition and disposition in harmony with his views of the vast body of Scripture that discloses the confusion and wickedness with which this age is said to end,
there is little to be gained by accusing those who believe God's present purposes to be the outcalling of the Church of "dishonoring the Spirit of God," or of
"minimizing the value of the cross." Especially is such a charge without force when it is known that those so accused believe that all of God's triumph in this and every age
will be only by virtue of that cross.
The Mosaic system was designed to govern Israel in the land and was an ad interim form of divine government between that gracious administration, described in Exodus 19:4,
and the coming of Christ (John 1:17; Rom. 4:9-16; Gal. 3:19-25). It was in three parts, namely, (a) "the commandments," which governed Israel's moral life (Ex. 20:1-17);
(b) "the judgments," which governed Israel's civic life (Ex. 21:1-24:11); and (c) "the ordinances," which governed Israel's religious life (Ex. 24:12-31:18).
These provisions were holy, just, and good (Rom. 7:12, 14), but they carried a penalty (Deut. 28:58-62) and, because they were not kept by Israel, they became a "ministration of death"
(Rom. 7:10; 2 Cor. 3:7). The law was not of faith, but of works (Gal. 3:12). It was ordained unto life (Rom. 7:10), but because of the weakness of the flesh of those to
whom it made its appeal (Rom. 8:3), there was, as a practical result, no law given which could give life (Gal. 3:21). The law did, however, serve as the _paidagogos, or child-conductor,
to lead to Christ -- both immediately, as Christ was foreshadowed in the sacrifices, and dispensationally, as described in Galatians 3:23-25. Though almost every intrinsic value contained
in the law system is carried forward and incorporated into the present grace system, it still remains true that the law as an ad interim system did come to its end and a new divine
economy superseded it. No more decisive language could be employed on this point than is used in John 1:17; Romans 6:14; 7:2-6; 10:4; 2 Corinthians 3:6-13; Galatians 3:23-25; 5:18.
These Scriptures should not be slighted, as they too often are, by those who would impose the law system upon the heavenly people. It is useless to claim that it was the judgments and
ordinances that were done away and that the commandments abide, since it is that which was "written and engraven in stones" which is said to have been "done away" and "abolished"
(2 Cor. 3:11, 13). Nor is the situation relieved for those who claim that the law has ceased as a means of justification; for it was never that, nor could it be (Gal. 3:11).
The heavenly people, by the very exalted character of their salvation being "made" to stand in all the perfection of Christ (Rom. 3:22; 5:1; 8:1; 10:4; 2 Cor. 5:21; Gal. 3:22; Eph. 1:6),
have no burden laid upon them of establishing personal merit before God since they are perfected forever in Christ (Heb. 10:9-14); but they do have the new responsibility of "walking worthy"
of their high calling (Rom. 12:1-2; Eph. 4:1-3; Col. 3:1-3). No system of merit, such as was the law, could possibly be applied to a people who by riches of divine grace have attained to a
perfect standing, even every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1:3; Col. 2:10). It is to be expected that the injunctions addressed to a perfected heavenly people will be as exalted
as heaven itself, and they are (cf. John 13:34; Rom. 6:11-13; 2 Cor. 10:3-5; Gal. 5:16; Eph. 4:30; 5:18). Similarly, as these requirements are superhuman and yet the doing of them is most
essential, God has provided that each individual thus saved shall be indwelt by the Holy Spirit to the end that he may, by dependence on the Spirit and by the power of the Spirit, live a
supernatural, Godhonoring life -- not, indeed, to be accepted, but because he is accepted. Those who would intrude the Mosaic system of merit into this heaven-high divine administration of
superabounding grace either have no conception of the character of that merit which the law required, or are lacking in the comprehension of the glories of divine grace.
The third administration which is contained in the Bible is that which is designed to govern the earthly people in relation to their coming earthly kingdom. It is explicit, also,
with regard to the requirements that are to be imposed upon those who enter that kingdom. This body of Scripture is found in the Old Testament portions which anticipate the Messianic
kingdom and in large portions of the Synoptic Gospels. The essential elements of a grace administration -- faith as the sole basis of acceptance with God, unmerited acceptance through a
perfect standing in Christ, the present possession of eternal life, an absolute security from all condemnation, and the enabling power of the indwelling Spirit -- are not found in the kingdom
administration. On the other hand, it is declared to be the fulfilling of "the law and the prophets" (Matt. 5:17-18; 7:12), and is seen to be an extension of the Mosaic Law into realms of
merit-seeking which blast and wither as the Mosaic system could never do (Matt. 5:20-48). These kingdom injunctions, though suited to the conditions that will then obtain, could perfect no
one as men in Christ are now perfected, nor are they adapted as a rule of life for those already complete in Christ Jesus.
These systems do set up conflicting and opposing principles; but since these difficulties appear only when an attempt is made to coalesce systems, elements, and principles which God has separated,
the conflicts really do not exist at all outside these unwarranted unifying efforts; in fact they rather demonstrate the necessity of a due recognition of all God's different and distinct
administrations. The true unity of the Scriptures is not discovered when one blindly seeks to fuse these opposing principles into one system, but rather it is found when God's plain
differentiations are observed. The dispensationalist does not create these differences as he is sometimes accused of doing. The conflicting principles, in the text of Scripture,
are observable to all who penetrate deep enough to recognize the essential features of divine administration. Instead of creating the problems, the dispensationalist is the one who has a
solution for them. If the ideals of an earthly people for long life in the land which God gave unto them (Ex. 20:12; Ps. 37:3, 11, 34; Matt. 5:5) do not articulate with the ideals of a
heavenly people who in respect to the earth are "strangers and pilgrims" and who are enjoined to be looking for and loving the imminent appearing of Christ, the problem is easily solved by
the one whose system of interpretation is proved rather than distressed by such distinctions. A plan of interpretation -- which, in defense of an ideal unity of the Bible, contends for a single
divine purpose, ignores drastic contradictions, and is sustained only by occasional or accidental similarities -- is doomed to confusion when confronted with the many problems which such a system
imposes on the text of Scripture, which problems are recognized by the dispensationalist only as he observes them in the system which creates them.
All Scripture is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness" (2 Tim. 3:16), but all Scripture is not of primary application to a particular person or
class of persons which the Bible designates as such. All Scripture is not of the angels, nor is it of the Gentiles. In like manner, all Scripture is not addressed to the Jew, nor is it all addressed
to the Christian. These are obvious truths and the dispensationalist's plan of interpretation is none other than an attempt to be consistent in following these distinctions in the primary application
of Scripture as far as, and no further than, the Bible carries them. However, all Scripture is profitable, that is, it has its moral, spiritual, or secondary application. To illustrate this:
Much valuable truth may be gained from the great body of Scripture bearing on the Jewish Sabbath, but if that body of Scripture has a primary application to the Church, then the Church has no
Biblical ground for the observance of the first day of the week (which she certainly has) and she could offer no excuse for her disobedience, and her individual members, like all Sabbath-breakers,
should be stoned to death (Num. 15:32-36). In like manner, if all Scripture is of primary application to believers of this age then they are in danger of hell fire (Matt. 5:29-30),
of unspeakable plagues, diseases, and sicknesses, and by reason of these to become few in number (Deut. 28:58-62), and to have the blood of lost souls required at their hands (Ezek. 3:17-18).
Moral and spiritual lessons are to be drawn from God's dealing with Israelites, quite apart from the necessity being imposed upon Christians to comply with all that a primary application of the
Scriptures specifically addressed to Israel would demand. Of the believer of this age it is said that "he ... shall not come into condemnation" (John 5:24), and
"there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1, A.R.V.). These latter promises are disannulled by diametrically opposite declarations if all Scripture applies
primarily to the Christian. Arminianism is the legitimate expression of this confusion and the would-be Calvinist who ignores the plain distinction of the Bible has no defense against Arminian claims.
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by Lewis Sperry Chafer
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