3
10:44-48).
great spiritual reality remains.
See also Colossians 2:16,17.
UP TO ACTS 28
AFTER ACTS 28
PRACTICE (cont.)
The New Covenant promised
Israel now lo ammi (not My
to Israel in Jeremiah 31:31-33 in
people), and the covenant
operation (2 Cor. 3:6).
connected with Israel as a
nation and with their land is
not mentioned (see Jer. 31:31-
40; 32:37-44). It is held in
abeyance until the nation of
Israel is taken up again by God
(see Rom. 11:26,27).
HOPE
Believers look to be
Believers looked to meet the
Lord in the air on His way to the
manifested in the glory of
earth. This is connected with the
heaven's holiest of all, where
Archangel Michael (1 Thess.
the Lord Jesus is now seated,
4:16; Dan. 12:1), and the last
and where they are seated with
trumpet (1 Cor. 15:52), and the
Him, by faith, hope being the
reigning of Christ over the
realization of this glorious
Gentiles, i.e., the millennium on
position. Their inheritance is
the earth (Rom. 15:12,13).
there `in the light' (Col. 1:12),
and they are exhorted to keep
their minds and affections
fixed there
(Col. 3:1-4).
The words used for this
The words used in relation to
this hope are `revelation'
hope are never apokalupsis or
(apokalupsis) and `coming'
parousia, but epiphaneia
(parousia). These are dated as
(epiphany, appearing, 2 Tim.
being after the Great Tribulation
4:1,8). No connection with
(Matt. 24:29).
prophetic times or seasons.
Concerning these things
Prayer for enlightenment is
believers
`knew
perfectly'
necessary that this new hope
(1 Thess. 4:16; 5:2).
may be understood (Eph. 1:18-
23).
These are some, at least, of the manifest differences between the Bride, the Lamb's wife, and the
church of the Mystery, and they relate to time, place, symbols used, constitution, practice, and hope,
although both have in common, and find their foundation in, the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
upon Calvary's Cross.
In addition, we should note that the church of the Mystery is not just a development of the Pentecostal
church, for the following reasons:
(1) The nation of Israel in covenant relationship with God is likened to an olive tree (Jer. 11:16). Gentile
believers during the Acts were grafted into the tree in the place of the unbelieving branches that had been
cut off, in order to provoke the nation to jealousy (Rom. 11:11). That these are individual believers and
not Gentile nations is clear from the fact that they stand `by faith' (Rom. 11:20), and are addressed as
`brethren' (Rom. 11:25).