THE FULNESS (4)
[p. 197] THE FULNESS (4)
Galatians 4: 4 - 7; Ephesians 1: 9, 10; Romans 11: 12, 25
JT Our first consideration will be in Galatians and Ephesians, the idea of fulness of time; then in Romans the fulness of Israel and the fulness of the nations, all these references being inclusive of the dispensational side of the truth.
The passage in Galatians says, “when the fulness of the time was come”. We have in the earlier verses the idea of the period fixed by the father. That is an allusion to what any father may order in regard to his children, “As long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from a bondman, though he be lord of all; but he is under guardians and stewards until the period fixed by the father. So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the principles of the world; but when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son”. That alludes to the time fixed by God dispensationally for the introduction of sonship, the minor period, the period of tutorship, having continued up to Christ. The fulness of time involved not only so many years, but also certain developments in God’s ways educationally. In that period the children were in bondage and were under worldly principles, not worldly principles in the sense in which we ordinarily speak, evil principles, but principles that fitted in with this world, that were recognisable by the natural man as he was, by the nations, but now, the fulness of the time having come, we have other principles. We have been released from that bondage through redemption, and sonship is entered into as something received: “that we might receive sonship”.
JD With reference to what you have spoken of as educational, do you think the Spirit of God in Jude speaking of “Enoch, the seventh from Adam” would introduce the thought of the periods of the [p. 198] servants in whom the mind of God has been set forth before?
JT That is right. From the time that sin came in, God began on that principle, working out things in periods, so the seventh from Adam would suggest a principle, seven being the working out of a thing spiritually. What began in Adam is worked out spiritually in Enoch; that is, he pleased God. Genesis 5 is what we might call the life line, but chapter 4 is man’s will in Cain; chapter 5 is recovery from that in Seth, so that the line is through Adam, Seth and so on. In Enoch we have the seventh. The divine thought is worked out in him in that he walked with God, and was not, for God took him, and before He took him Enoch had the testimony that he pleased God. That is to say, in one man anyway, there is evidence of what God is doing.
JD In connection with that, in Hebrews it says, “Enoch was translated that he should not see death”. Do you think in the ways of God, it would permit us to look for men who should not see death? They are brought up to that point.
JT Yes, I think it foreshadows christianity. Cain is like the Jew. Those of us who move about the world see it as a distinctive mark of Cain on the Jew, and chapter 4 shows that it comes back to confession of having slain a man, even a young man to his hurt, but over against that we have in chapter 5 the re-establishment of the divine thought in Christ risen, typified in Seth. Eve says, Jehovah has given me one instead of Abel whom Cain slew. It is a distinct understanding of what the Jew did to Christ. Seth is Christ as the man appointed. That is the meaning of his name, and he would be Christ as He is now, and then we have the thought introduced of what man is. We have this word brought in, I think for the first time, in the name given to Seth’s son, Enosh, a dying creature. That is, death has passed [p. 199] upon all men. He was born to die. That is the acknowledgment evidently of faith. Then men began to call on the name of Jehovah; then chapter 5 brings out a new standard, the history of Adam is through Seth and they lived long, but they all died. But there is one who does not; although death is so pronounced, one man is immune and does not see it; he is translated because he pleased God. I think it foreshadows the present time, that no person’s death is so stressed as the spiritual man’s. I suppose death was stressed in no man outside of Christ, so much as in Paul. He stresses it as in himself, and I believe that is what is going on, what God is doing in enabling men, the saints, to rightly gauge death and have the sentence of it in themselves. Paul says, “We ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves”, and “I am crucified with Christ”, which is the strongest thought of death. He accepted it himself. “But in that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me”, Galatians 2: 20. I believe that is Genesis 5, and is expressed in Enoch the seventh, full spiritual development in the saints, so that we have the idea there in the spiritual thought of seven. Then we have Noah inaugurating a new world here through the flood. Then we have Abraham. Here the line begins. So that there are fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and from David to the carrying away of Babylon is fourteen generations, and from the carrying away of Babylon to Christ, fourteen generations, and there is a working out of this in the periods, and it is on those lines we may reach an understanding as to what the fulness of times means; that is, when Christ is brought in. “God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship”.
MDF There is a great change from previous dispensations to the present when God is coming out in the fulness of His love.
JT Sonship is a thing to be received; “that we might receive sonship”. It is a great principle brought in in Christ in the fulness of times. You will notice how much is to be received. Paul speaks in the Scriptures about what is received. One could cite many instances of that, but this is one of the most interesting, that we might receive the thing.
WB In Acts 1 it is said, “Lord, is it at this time that thou restorest the kingdom to Israel?” and the Lord says, “It is not yours to know times or seasons, which the Father has placed in his own authority”. I find it difficult to understand that.
JT It is important to understand it. The Lord says, it is not for you to know times or seasons; that is, what should follow prophetically. The Lord is not alluding to what we are speaking of now, the fulness of time, the full result of the past dispensation, in alluding to that, for this is within the range of believers’ knowledge. It is not historical. In Galatians as was said, it is historical. The fulness of time had come and God has sent forth His Son that we might receive sonship. That is a historical fact, that those living in Paul’s time, believers, might receive the thing that was there. It is there, that we might receive sonship. Any believer could take that in. It is a matter of light and “because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. That is the consciousness of it. What the Lord alluded to there, as in Thessalonians, in saying that we do not know the times or seasons, shows clearly that it is not for anyone to prophesy as to when the Lord may come, or what may happen in the world. Men have gone the length of asserting the Lord will come at a certain date and have prepared for it. It is all futile [p. 201] because the Lord Himself said expressly that that day no one knows, not even Himself. One of the most remarkable things, that the Son did not know. He says not, I do not know, but the Son does not know. The Father has reserved that. Our period is one of faith and hope that He will come, but when no one can say.
WGH The fulness here in Galatians refers to time. The Son coming in would be the climax of that.
JT That is right. The time of minority was when the people of God were in the nursery, as it were, but now they are brought, so to speak, into fulness of liberty in the house. That is the idea. Still we have in 1 Corinthians “the ends of the ages”, the dispensations; they culminate in the assembly. Paul says, “Upon whom the ends of the ages are come”. Everything culminates in the assembly, all is worked out there, because it is so furnished and fitted with intelligence and wisdom in the Spirit that everything is intelligible in the assembly.
JD Do you think that would be involved in the mystery in Colossians 2, “in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge”? Would that take in the ways and thoughts of God, all gathered up and placed in the assembly?
JT I think so. Matthew speaks of one “who brings out of his treasure things new and old”, Matthew 13: 52. All these are in the mystery.
HG-h You are suggesting that all hinges on the assembly getting her place.
JT It is where it is owned, and Christ has His place. We have the solution of things and everything is clear.
ADS In Galatians it says the fulness of the time, but in Ephesians it says the fulness of times.
JT I think Galatians had more in view the actual Jewish economy in the idea of time, the [p. 202] period fixed of the father. Pending the time fixed by the father the children were in bondage, the allusion being to what was set up at Sinai, but Ephesians would contemplate all he is speaking of, the time of administration, heading up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. It is the millennium here in mind. God had determined this in His counsels and His will, that everything should be headed up in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth, and that would be the fulness of times. The millennium is the fulness of times publicly in that sense. Christianity comes in at the fulness of time alluded to in Galatians 4.
JD Would it be right to say that we are in the period of sonship?
JT Yes, we are, that is exactly so. The two times are distinct. In Galatians, I believe, it is christianity following the period before when the children were in the nursery; this was from Sinai and on, but Ephesians contemplates times, which I believe began with Adam, foreshadowing different things as regards heading up all things, the administrative side. The millennium is great, you might call it the seventh day of time. There can be no doubt that the number of years from Adam to the millennium is generally predicated in the Authorised Version. The Septuagint is different. The period, I believe, is 6,000 years, but that is not important to think of. It is a question of what is in the mind of God in these times. He has been foreshadowing in everything He has done the climax of all things being headed up in a Man. It is called the mystery of His will. It is one of the mysteries of the Scriptures.
JD In Ephesians 1 it is said that God has “put all things under his feet”, as if He was over the system, but it is also said before, that God’s purpose is to “head up all things in the Christ”.
JT ‘All things being headed up in Christ’ is positional, but I believe involves more than that. Everything is fixed there, but not static, but operative, so that there will be actual administration in the position. The book of Revelation opens up a lot in regard to this.
WGH Here the apostle is seeking to get things out of the Jewish setting; receiving sonship belongs to the assembly.
JT That is right, the previous chapter says, “For ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”. That follows certain statements in regard to time. It says, “For if a law had been given able to quicken, then indeed righteousness were on the principle of law; but the scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise, on the principle of faith of Jesus Christ, should be given to those that believe”. That is an allusion to time. “Guarded under law, shut up to faith which was about to be revealed. So that the law has been our tutor up to Christ, that we might be justified on the principle of faith. But, faith having come”, — that is an allusion to time — “we are no longer under a tutor”, another allusion to time. “There is no Jew nor Greek; there is no bondman nor freeman; there is no male and female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus: but if ye are of Christ, then ye are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise”. These verses show how everything was awaiting the period of faith, so that we are now in the faith period, and being in that period we are all the sons of God, as it says, “by faith in Christ Jesus”. That is how we come into it. It is a period of time that has come according to divine fixity, and every believer today is included in the “sons”. It is a question of receiving it. It is there for you.
LES The spiritual import of the prophetic scriptures would have the present period in view,
[p. 204] whereas the administrative side would have the millennial day in view.
JT That is the way the thing stands. There are many foreshadowings of the faith period and there are the foreshadowings of the administrative period too. We are in the faith period. The millennium would be the sight period, but it will be the period alluded to in Ephesians, where all things in heaven and earth are headed up in Christ. Things will be open then; now it is a time of mystery, the mystery of God’s will.
JD The Lord said, “Abraham exulted in that he should see my day, and he saw and rejoiced”, John 8: 56. He looked forward to a city that has foundations. He will find all realised in that day.
JT I think Abraham rejoicing to “see my day” alludes to his son, the time when Christ is known as Son in the house, but the city is the administrative side.
WB Would you say a word more, “That we might receive”.
JT It is a wonderful suggestion seen in so many settings. Things are all for us to be received. They are there for us, it is a question of receiving them. In John 4 the Lord spoke to the woman about gift, but in John 7 it is what is received. “This he said concerning the Spirit, which they that believed on him were about to receive”. In John 4 it is what is given. The two things stand, the thing that is to be received is on a giving principle.
RB Does this show that all christians, the young included, do not receive an inferior position as children, but sonship, and thus would come into the full privileges of the assembly?
JT That is the intent of it. Public christianity has gone back to the period of law. The apostle says they should not go back to the beggarly elements. These elements in themselves were good,
[p. 205] but they have lost their character in the way they have been held, and the Galatian saints were going back to that. We must remember that here the word ‘children’ refers to the position of a minor, whereas the word ‘children’ applied to the people of God, the family of God as in John, is a dignified title. We can take the place of being children of God, and this refers to all christians. Children of God is our position here below. That is an important distinction to make.
RRT Would this expression, “when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son”, involve the thought that from the very beginning of time God had this moment in view when He would send forth His Son?
JT Quite so. We begin with Seth, he is a type of Christ. Abraham is a type of Christ, then we come down to others such as Isaac, also a type of Christ.
RRT So the expression as he goes on to say, “come of woman, come under law”, would indicate that every one of these great movements of God in creation and in relation to the law, all led up to this moment when Christ would come.
JT Quite so. Faith looked for it. Abraham rejoiced to see Christ’s day. He looked for it and he saw it. He saw it, I apprehend, as in Isaac. He saw the idea. While faith did exist in these men it was not the period of faith. They were still minors as to the apprehension of faith. You hardly ever get the word ‘faith’ in the Old Testament, except in Habakkuk once.
HG-h It suggests that that was not the faith period. Is it because everything has come out in Christ?
JT It is on that principle. The parables are to hide the truth from the natural mind. Faith discerns it. It requires energy of faith to lay hold of christianity.
John’s gospel stresses faith being for the last day. The disciples believed on Him, and “these things are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name”.
WB In Hebrews 11 it says, “these died in faith”.
JT Yes, it was there but it was not the period of it. The Spirit of God there names the thing that was in them. Hebrews 11 is the great life chapter of the epistle. We are in the realm of life there.
WGH If we are all God’s sons by faith, it would be true that all receive adoption.
JT And additionally, we should receive the Spirit of adoption, “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”. That gives us the consciousness of it. I think teaching is needed in regard to this point. What we have been speaking of this afternoon is for every young christian; it is his inheritance. It is because he is living in this period that sonship is his. It is only a question of taking it in and letting it work out in our conduct and liberty. The matter of being a son is light. It is the mind of God, that period having come. But the crying “Abba, Father”, is by the Spirit of adoption.
WB So that we might receive sonship. The “we” there would include the apostle himself.
JT He would tell you what he went through in Romans 7, and how he came into the thing consciously. He says in Romans 8: 14, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God”. They are marked off in that way.
CSP It would be instruction in this period of tutors and governors.
JT I think so. It is educational. “By law is knowledge of sin” illustrates it. The Old Testament is full of instruction, and it is written for us. It really was written anticipatively for christians. The [p. 207] whole of Scripture is in the setting of faith, but until the time of faith came, they would not understand it.
CSP Would it suggest the futility, of the flesh? It speaks of Abraham having received the covenant of circumcision and thus he begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day (Acts 7: 8).
JT Yes, the Old Testament scriptures were not understood even by the writers themselves. Peter, especially, tells us that they did not understand, but it was revealed to them for their own benefit that things they ministered were not for themselves but for us (1 Peter 1: 12).
RRT Would you say, that there may be in some soul a condition of being “held in bondage” as verse 3 says, or would “because ye are sons” be descriptive of every christian? The Galatians were again under bondage.
JT I think that describes christians generally who are in human organisations. They are under the principles of the world.
RRT Yet it says, “ye are sons”, but in the state of one’s soul, it may not have been apprehended.
JT What is needed is teaching. It says “they shall be all taught of God” (John 6: 45), and a part of that teaching is this epistle, so that if you come in contact with a real christian, even if he be in the Romish or the Anglican system, you can say to him, “Be as I am, for I also am as ye”, Galatians 4: 12. Now we are all sons, we are all sons of God. It is a question of light coming into the soul. I think Galatians is most important at the present time in delivering people from bondage.
JD Would you in the presence of christians be free to present what we have been speaking of this afternoon? The apostle goes on to say, that he might announce Him (God’s Son) as glad tidings among the nations (Galatians 1: 16).
[p. 208] JT Sonship belongs to the gospel. What can be more attractive to a person in whom God is working, than the thought of this glorious family relationship, and that it belongs to all who are in this period fixed by God?
JD That is the wealth of the nations.
JT That is quite so. The setting of this, that we might receive sonship, is initially a Jewish one. Christ came in under the law, came of a woman, that we might receive sonship. It is a Jewish we, I think. It is presented here with the intention that the Jewish believers might be delivered from the bondage in which they were held. Another thing is that in the fulness of time, God sent forth His Son, “come of woman”; it is in humanity here that this is said of Him.
HG-h Why does it bring in the thought, “when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship”. Galatians 4: 5?
JT The apostle is stressing that side of the redemptive work of Christ. He is stressing this point now, because that is where the Galatians were defective. Virtually he says to them, You are sons, why are you going back to the nursery when you have all the liberty of the house? In John 8: 31 - 33, the Lord says to those who believed on Him, “If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. They answered him, We are Abraham’s seed and have never been under bondage to any one; how sayest thou, Ye shall become, free?”. Never in bondage? What a nonsensical thing to say! Never in bondage to anyone? They were then in bondage to the Romans. The Lord would not wound their feelings, but He says, “Every one that practises sin is the bondman of sin”. That is a mild way of dealing [p. 209] with sin, but I believe the Lord is really alluding to human organisations as characterised by sin, and those who serve in that way are bondmen. The clerical system is in bondage to those things. The Lord says, “The bondman abides not in the house for ever”, without saying anything as to the terribleness of sin. The Lord Jesus is just dealing with one thing. The bondman does not abide in the house. Then it says, “If therefore the Son shall set you free, ye shall be really free”. The Son is in the house and He is there for ever, so if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. I believe the application in our time, and the use of the words sin and bondage, refer to those who serve the clerical system. They are in bondage to it and characteristically they do not stay, because a bondman does not stay in the house. Whereas the Son came in, in principle bringing blessing to the family and abiding there. The setting is free. It is but showing us how He Himself is a Son before God, and we are in that relationship through redemption. It is a glorious side of the truth, and I do not know of any side as to which teaching is more needed at the present time.
RRT The present activity on the part of divine Persons is to bring us into this sonship. There is the activity of the Son, and then the activity of the Father in sending out the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. It would indicate the activity on the part of divine Persons to bring us into sonship.
JT That is a good remark. The three divine Persons are engaged in the liberation and blessing of the saints.
RB Do you connect the gift of the Spirit with the thought of sonship?
JT Yes, it is called the Spirit of adoption.
RB The Spirit of Christ was mentioned. Is there any distinction between that and the Holy [p. 210] Spirit?
JT There is a distinction between the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of adoption. It is the same Spirit in each case. The Spirit of Christ is really the Holy Spirit, but too in the sense of family. It is the Spirit of the family and the Spirit of Christ. The Holy Spirit in John 14 is viewed under the title of Comforter. It is that title that makes the personality of the Spirit’s presence here outstanding. In John’s gospel He is viewed as a dove, then as the wind, then as water, then as the Paraclete and Comforter, and then as breath. He is viewed under these terms and the force of all that is to show that the Spirit is substance. His presence is a reality.
LES Do you think Deuteronomy spiritually understood would belong to the period of sonship? It says, “Ye are sons of Jehovah your God”.
JT I think that Deuteronomy is like the fulness of the Mosaic period, because it is Moses himself really as a type of Christ, speaking according to the spirit of the law, not after the letter of the law. Deuteronomy is the fulness of the Mosaic period. In scripture the testimony of God is presented under the numeral three, almost throughout. That is, we have three persons coming to Abraham at Mamre, three periods or dispensations; in Exodus you get three ministers, Moses, Aaron and Miriam. These were the leaders. And so in truth you get that principle of three. Three is full testimony from God. He may give more, but three is ample, but development on our side is under the heading of seven. The subjective side is under the heading of seven. Deuteronomy is the fulness of the ministerial period. In Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers you have law in the letter, that is, the ministerial chapters. Deuteronomy is not that, it is the fulness of things. Moses himself is seen in Deuteronomy as king in Jeshurun, he is regarded with affection among the people. The [p. 211] blessing of Moses is entirely on the divine side, the spiritual side. So you can see how the idea of fulness of the ministerial period came in.
TA Would you say that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, would set forth the three ministers?
JT Three men came to Abraham; you see there the thought of three. Then the thought of father, in Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. That is what characterises christianity. Christianity is not a period of judgment. All judgment is committed into the hands of the Son, so that the present time is characteristically free from judgment. God is not imputing trespasses. There is no testimony of judgment, but it is the throne of grace and that is the Father’s throne, so I believe after you have the three presented to Abraham that you have the idea of father expressed in the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They foreshadow our dispensation in the sense of grace as presented by the Father.
CSP Is that the thought in Ephesians, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?
JT That is right. John stresses it too. Paul says, “To us there is one God, the Father”. When you come to the ministerial side it is Christ, not in Isaac but in Moses and Aaron and Miriam. That is another side, so that we have Him at the right hand of God, carrying on the ministry. I believe that Deuteronomy would suggest the fulness of that, fulness of the ministerial side.
LES Would “Out of Egypt have I called my son” be the full answer to that, the full thought set out in Deuteronomy?
JT Yes, it is touched on.
ADS In regard to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, I think we understand a little of what is set forth in Moses and Aaron, but what feature is set forth in connection with [p. 212] Miriam?
JT I mention it because they are placed together in Micah 6: 4, “And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron and Miriam”, a remarkable thing. I believe that Miriam is the subjective side of it. All the way through the ministerial books there is that thought, something for God. Generally speaking, there were times in the wilderness when there was something for God, so Numbers says, “What hath God wrought!”. God has accomplished something during those periods in spite of the general state. Miriam is that side, because in the first song she appears, she is said to be prophetess, the sister of Aaron, linking up with the two great ministers, and she has part in the song. It is almost a repetition of what Moses said, but still it is what Miriam said, and the women of Israel followed her. There was something for God.
HG-h Do the scriptures read this afternoon, follow in the order in which they were read?
JT The idea of time is very important in the setting in which we have considered it, and opens the way for the fulness of Israel and the fulness of the nations. The fulness of Israel will be when they are gathered up by Christ, and reinstated in their own land (Psalm 144). What a wonderful time! The apostle says, “If their fall be the world’s wealth, and their loss the wealth of the nations, how much rather their fulness?” Romans 11: 12. Their fulness in the millennium, meaning that the working out of all God’s thoughts in them, will mean more wealth than we have now. “How much rather their fulness?” Then the nations in verse 25, “I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, of this mystery, that ye may not be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the nations be come in”. That is what is going on now. That is to say, God established the nations, at least He formed human races and nations at Babel, but [p. 213] He set the bounds of their dwellings really to present the gospel to them. Genesis 11 has in mind that the gospel is to be presented to nations in time, so the Scriptures preach the gospel to Abraham, a remarkable thing. “In thee all the nations shall be blessed”. That was in prospect. The fulness of that is in mind here. In christianity, in all this wonderful period of the gospel, is the fulness of the nations. God has worked out all things in time.
GC The fulness of the nations is different from the fulness of time.
JT Yes, and fulness is in persons. It is the outcome. It was the whole development from Babel to this dispensation. What a wonderful result God will get through the gospel! The promise was to Abraham in regard to the nations. He would regard them, although he had a special blessing in regard to his own family. Jehovah says of him, “He is a prophet, and will pray for thee”, and he did. That is our position now. The world is in reconciliation and our position is to pray for the nations, for kings and for all men.
JD The apostle says the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the nations, announced the glad tidings to Abraham, saying, “In thee all the nations shall be blessed”. Abraham had the day of sonship in mind.
JT He had the thought that there would be the fulness of the nations, so that when the king of Sodom says, ‘You take the goods, I will take the persons’, he says, ‘Oh no!’. What God gets out of the nations is persons, so Paul speaks of offering them: “that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable”.
JLF Paul laboured to that end, that he might present every man [p. 214] perfect.
JT Quite so, and that there should be an offering up of the nations, offering up to God. In fact, all fulness must be for God.
LES How far would you say the thought of nations extended? Is there a difference between nations and people? We speak of the heathen.
JT It would be a question of the context in which the word is used. People would refer to different stocks, as we call them, as the Japhethites. The race was divided up into three heads, Shem, Ham and Japheth, but with many subdivisions as the outcome of climatic and moral conditions, such as negroes, Indians, Chinese, Maoris and a host of others. God, I am sure, had followed up every link and has all before Him, so that He intends that the whole race of men should be blessed. The Son of man is Christ in relation to the whole race of men. The gospel is to all men. In traversing the world, one sees the lowest type of man, but they have a claim on God. One has met them, some christians, and they can claim sonship; so can the negro and all other races. It is a wonderful time, and it is important to make clear that it is a question of the time.
JGB “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings”.
JT To all creation. The world there is the moral system. There is a difference if you preach to men in a wicked city, or if you look at them abstractly as God’s creatures. The gospel is preached to all creation.
TA Do you make a distinction between the gospel of the grace of God and of the kingdom?
JT Yes, there are about thirteen designations of the gospel in the New Testament, each having its own significance.
HG-h In “having made known ... the mystery of his will”, is it the thought that the saints of this [p. 215] dispensation should understand all that God is going to bring into effect?
JT Certainly, the mystery is to be understood by initiated persons. To the public it is not known at all. The leaders of the world do not understand the place in the mind of God of the saints now here in this world until the Lord comes. The mystery of God’s will requires that there will not be another king save Christ. All power in heaven and upon earth, all things, are to be headed up in Christ. It brings in the thought of wisdom being in Christ. His wisdom determines everything, and nothing in result will be out of keeping with the mind of God. The heading up of all things in heaven and earth in Christ is the administration of the fulness of times.
LES I was wondering if God’s thought of the nations did not go as far as their being subservient to Israel. Is that the widest possible thought?
JT It refers to Abraham, the fulness of the nations. Of course, there are the times of the gentiles; that is another thing; that means the four monarchies spoken of in Daniel. The nations go back to Genesis 10.
JD In Mark 16, the Lord said, “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”.
JT You have to understand what is meant. We do not preach to cows, but still they are not out of sight. In Nineveh there was much cattle.
RB How is that word in Mark put into effect at the present time?
JT Every time you preach the gospel it is put into effect. At that time the world was viewed as a system, and it meant suffering. Preaching to all creation means that you look at the men that you have to do with as God’s creatures, not as members of a system. That makes a great difference in preaching [p. 216] to them.
RRT While God is moving in relation to the fulness of time, there is also the fulness of evil. “The iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full”.
JT That is another side of the position, and that is going on now. The mystery of iniquity is working out today.
WGH The assembly is the present answer to God of what He purposed and promised to Israel.
JT Quite so. Fulness all enters into that, and the question is raised as to how it has been carried out.
Ques Why do we not send out missionaries?
JT It is a question of what is seemly in time. We are in a terribly low state of christendom, and it is not the time for that, it is a question of getting at christians in the systems and gathering them.
WMF You spoke of the energy of faith. What do you have in mind?
JT Energy is a simple word. Those who speak about faith just as a theory are not active. Faith ought to be active. If anyone wants to learn about energy of faith, read Philippians 3.