`Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when

the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear

shall live'.

This is what can take place in the hour that `now is'.

In the future

hour that is coming:

`All that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth;

they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that

have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation' (John 5:28,29).

Two aspects of resurrection are here.  The one `unto life', the other

unto `damnation' and `judgment'.  The expression `they that have done evil'

is peculiar and demands attention.  The word `done' is not the same as is

used in the phrase `they that have done good'; it is not poieo `to make' but

prasso `to practice'.  More important still is the choice of the word

translated `evil'.  This is not poneros, evil in its power to will and to

work mischief, or kakos, the natural antithesis of agathos or kalos `the

good', but phaulos.  Writing on the meaning of this word, Trench in his New

Testament Synonyms, says:

`There are words, I should suppose, in all languages, and phaulos is

one of them, which contemplate evil under another aspect, that namely

of its good -for -nothingness, the impossibility of good ever coming

forth from it'.

It is of extreme importance to realize that phaulos occurs but once

more in John's Gospel, and that in conjunction with `condemnation'.

`He that believeth on Him is not condemned (krino): but he that

believeth not is condemned (krino) already ... and this is the

condemnation (krisis), that light is come into the world, and men loved

darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For every

one that doeth evil (ho phaula prasson) hateth the light ...' (John

3:18 -20).

Here we have the two words found together in John 5:29.  There are one

or two problems in these two passages which we do not at the moment attempt

to solve.

John 5:24 places everlasting life over against condemnation.  John 5:29

places the resurrection of life, over against the resurrection of

condemnation (krisis).  Yet all that are in the graves `hear His voice' and

to hear His voice is the mark of `His sheep'.  The attempt to find a solution

to the problem which these comparisons raise, lies outside the intended scope

of these articles.  `Hearing' is most evidently a precious spiritual gift and

fraught with life both here and in the resurrection.

Most readers of The Berean Expositor know and endorse the teaching that

at Acts 28, a dispensational frontier is reached, and there, where the people

of Israel pass out into their lo -ammi condition, the Gentile received,

through the ministry of Paul the Prisoner of Jesus Christ, the body of truth

known as `The dispensation of the Mystery' (Eph. 3:9. R.V.).  All the wonders

of grace and glory that eradiate the epistle to the Ephesians are compressed