Satan

Ag

eachings of Scripture in regard to the conditions and relationships of the world at the present time. Even the revision did not greatly relieve this confusion beyond the addition of some helpful marginal renderings. It would seem,

least four widely differing ideas in the original. So that, if the truth contained in this important body of Scripture is to be understood, the student must not only know the various meanings which are expressed by the one word, but als

original is a few times translated); or it may refer to the things created: the earth, its inhabitants, or their institut

of them is not fanciful: but is rather the only adequate foundation for any true knowledge of the Bible.

prophets which have been since the age began" (Lu. 1:70). The same period is referred to by Peter in Acts 3:21: "Whom the heavens must receive until the restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all

; and will continue until He comes again. The duration of this age is suggested by the communion table, which, being peculiar to this age, will continu

shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world (age)?" (Matt. 24:3). "The field is the world (men); the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world (age); and the reapers are the angels" (Matt. 13:38, 39). "And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (age)" (Matt. 28:20). "For the children of this world (age) are in their generation wiser than the children of lig

ddress and prayer, this age is assumed by many, without question, to be the

bjection and adjustment, or be banished forever. This final victory is described in I Cor. 15:24, 25: "Then cometh the end, when He (Christ) shall have delivered up t

ystery-age, which had been kept secret in the councils of God, and which was more perfectly revealed to Paul, the first messenger to the Gentiles. Of this revelation of a hitherto unknown age, Paul writes in Eph. 3:1-11: "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heir

blish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according

them for His own Person (Acts 15:14); and these people, who are the real Church, were to be built together upon a rock (Matt. 16:18); their glorious salvation and final heavenly perfection were to rest only on His perfect and fini

God (Acts 15:18) and is parenthetical in the history of the Jew. It is a

His people, the Jews, and that the Gentiles are their rightful successors and the recipients of the blessings of t

es by a relationship of Spirit regeneration, which is the present answer of God to all true Abrahamic faith (Rom. 4:1-5). The earthly people found their origin in the physical fatherhood of Abraham: while the heavenly people find theirs in the shed blood of Christ. One had an earthly history from Abraham to their dispe

(else all Scripture language fails): to the other, He is the glorious Head of the Body, and coming Bridegroom. One of these lines of seed are the favo

there must be at least two separate ages for the acc

cription of the present age and that which will follow is found. The passage is here given: "And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, afte

e end of those days, "Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom unto Israel?" (Acts 1:6) and they had full warrant from the prophets to expect that great event when their Messiah came. They had not, however, grasped the

order, which is clearly separated from the former age by the return of Christ. This same order of events is also carefully maintained wherever these events are referred to in Scripture, and any confusion of the order is a positive violence to the truth. The revealed consummation of this Gentile age is always the return of Christ, who comes first to receive His own; and then to render judgment upon all the nations and to bind the enemy and place him in the

he true Church (as that word signifies), which is made up of all the saved ones who have been saved since the Day of Pentecost, at which time the Spirit

s is a necessary conclusion in view of the presence of sin and failure in the world. But the setting up of the

ipitated by a shattering blow from a Stone, "cut out without hands." By the same inspired interpretation, the "Stone" becomes both a symbol of superhuman power, being "cut out without hands;" and a type of Christ, the Ancient of Days, in His coming to the earth as a resistless Monarch; banishing all rule and authority. A portion of the whole passage reads thus: "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without

estructive blow, and at the time when it has become fully developed. The blow is struck on the part of the image which is last formed. The great image is thus instantly and violently broke

rt of heaven to the other; Satan is violently seized and cast into prison; and a nation is born at once. The second Psalm connects the kingly reign of Christ-the time when He is set upon the holy hill of Zion-with the time when He shall claim the nations of the earth and "break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces as a potter's vessel." Also in Matt. 25:31, "when He sits on the throne of His glory" the "blessed

nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee" (Zech. 2:10, 11). "Thus saith the Lord of hosts; in those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you" (Zech. 8:23). "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed. And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them" (Isa. 65:17-21). "Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert" (Isa. 35:5, 6). "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God and they shal

rist is enthroned, yet not one trace of this glorious tr