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looked upon as a perfect Man (aner `husband'). The marriage of this perfect
`man' does not take place during this dispensation but awaits the day of the
Lord. Then another company called `The Bride' will be ready. Both the
Church which is the perfect husband, and the Church that is the perfect wife
will then fulfil the primeval type, but that is not in view in Ephesians 2.
In the church of the present calling, the `Jew' and the `Gentile' as such do
not exist, neither one nor the other is `head'; this church is `a joint body'
where perfect equality is seen for the first time. Every type will find its
anti -type, but like all the ways of God, the realization will be in its own
special season. To take an event that is future and attempt to place it on
the calendar of God centuries before its legitimate time is what so many have
done who were ignorant of the great principle of interpretation `rightly
dividing the word of truth' (2 Tim. 2:15). Under the heading Decrees1 will
be found a fuller exposition of Acts 15.
Milk v. Meat. One of the many arguments in favour of the Pauline authorship
of Hebrews, is the employment of certain figures such as the one before us.
We set out the seven items that are found in both 1 Corinthians and Hebrews
in connection with the figure of Milk v. Meat for babes and full grown.
1 Corinthians 2 and 3
Hebrew 5 and 6
(1)
Babes
3:1.
Babes
5:13.
(2)
Milk
3:2.
Milk
5:13.
(3)
Meat
3:2.
Meat
5:14.
(4)
Perfect
2:6.
Perfect
5:14.
(5)
Foundation
3:11.
Foundation
6:1,2.
(6)
Fire
3:13.
Fire
6:8.
(7)
Six things erected
3:12.
Six -fold elements
6:1,2.
In the presentation of Dispensational Truth we must remember, that to
give advanced truth to those who are spiritually immature may indicate zeal
that is not according to knowledge. Toward the close of the Lord's earthly
ministry He said:
`I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now'
(John 16:12).
There is such a thing as speaking a `word in season' (Isa. 50:4) and the
faithful and wise servant gives meat `in due season' (Matt. 24:45), knowing
that there is `a time to keep silence, and a time to speak' (Eccles. 3:7).
Although `The Mystery' was not entrusted to Paul before his
imprisonment, he was the steward of many mysteries (1 Cor. 4:1) and as such
he desired to be `faithful'. The R.V. reads `mystery', in place of the A.V.
reading `testimony' in 1 Corinthians 2:1, where the apostle said:
`And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of
speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony (mystery) of
God'.
Those who adopt the A.V. say that the word mystery is a gloss from verse 7,
while those who adopt the R.V. say that the word testimony is a gloss from
verse 6.