put oneself out of favour with denominationalism; and many a child of God who says, `I do not see it', is really

making a confession of failure to acknowledge the revelation of truth connected with the ascended Lord.

We have already seen that hope and promise are necessarily linked together. We discovered that the promises

that were the basis of expectation during the Acts were the promises `made unto the fathers'. Now the fathers had no

promises made to them concerning heavenly places `where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God'. They knew

nothing of a church where Gentile believers would be on perfect equality with Jewish believers.

In Ephesians 1:12, where the A.V. reads `first trusted', the margin reads `hoped'; and as we cannot speak of `the

blessed trust' or `the trust of the second coming' it is best to keep to the translation `hope'. The actual word used is

proelpizo, to `fore-hope'. Of this prior hope the Holy Spirit is the seal, and as such is `the Holy Spirit of promise'.

What promise is in view? There is but one promise in the Prison Epistles. The Gentiles who formed the Church

of the One Body were by nature

` aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise' (Eph. 2:12),

but, through grace, they became

` fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the

gospel, whereof I (Paul) was made a minister' (Eph. 3:6-7).

This promise takes us back to the period of Ephesians 1:4, `before the foundation of the world' :

` According to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus ... according to His own purpose and grace, which was

given us in Christ Jesus before the world began' (before age-times) (2 Tim. 1:1,9).

It is this one unique promise that will be realized when the blessed hope before the Church of the One Body is

fulfilled. Its realization is described by the apostle in Colossians 3 :

` When Christ, Who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory' (Col. 3:4).

It is impossible to defer this `appearing' until after the Millennium, for the Church is waiting for `Christ their life'

and so awaiting `the promise of life', which is intimately connected with their hope.

The word `appearing' might be translated `manifestation' and will be familiar to most readers in the term

Believing as we do that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, we must be careful to distinguish between

the different words used by God when speaking of the hope of His people. We observe that the word parousia,

usually translated `coming', is found in such passages as the following :

`What shall be the sign of Thy COMING, and of the end of the world (age)?' (Matt. 24:3).

`The COMING of the Lord' (1 Thess. 4:15).

`The COMING of our Lord Jesus Christ' (2 Thess. 2:1).

`They that are Christ's, at His COMING' (1 Cor. 15:23).

`The COMING of the Lord draweth nigh' (Jas. 5:8).

`The promise of His COMING' (2 Pet. 3:4).

`Not be ashamed before Him at His COMING'

(1 John 2:28).

This word is used to describe the hope of the Church during the period of the Acts when `the hope of Israel' was

still in view, and we find it used in the Gospel of Matthew, by Peter, James, and John, ministers of the circumcision,

and by Paul in those epistles written before the dispensational change of Acts 28. It refers to His personal arrival on

the earth to set up His earthly kingdom.