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2.
Peter, though an apostle, confesses that some of Paul's teaching is "hard to be
understood".
3.
The fact that the coming of the Lord had not taken place as had been expected must
not, says the apostle, be considered "slackness", but concerning a full and inspired
explanation of the purpose of God during this interval, one man only had received a
message, and that man was Paul.
Not one word has been added by either James or Peter that is not a legitimate
expansion of O.T. prophecy. The second coming of the Lord is rooted deep in the
scriptures of the old covenant.
#14. The N.T. fulfillment.
The witness of John.
pp. 147 - 150
We have already considered the testimony of James and Peter; and we have now to
deal with the testimony of the apostle John, who was also a minister of the circumcision.
His three epistles and the book of the Revelation will complete this phase of survey, as
Jude's witness has already received attention. The first reference to the Lord's coming is
I John 2: 28:--
"And now, little children, abide in Him; that, when He shall appear, we may have
confidence, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming."
While the general teaching of this passage is true for all the saints, there are some
features that hedge it about and limit its interpretation. The "abiding" here is, in a special
sense, connected with the "anointing":--
"But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that
any man teach you; but was the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth
and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him."
This anointing is a feature of the period when supernatural gifts obtained in the
church, and its character may be gathered from the statement that the anointed person
needed no one to teach him. By comparing II Cor. 1: 21, 22 with Eph. 1: 13, 14 we
observe an inspired omission that reveals plainly the distinctive difference between the
two dispensations:--
"Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God; Who
hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts" (II Cor. 1: 21, 22).
"Ye were sealed with the holy promissory Spirit, which is the earnest of our
inheritance' (Eph. 1: 13, 14).
It will be seen that the sealing and the earnest apply both before and after Acts 28:,
but that in II Cor. 1: there is the added thought of "stablishing" and also the "anointing".
The anointing in a special way taught the believer "to abide in Him", with the second
coming in view. That coming would be a time of judgment for the works of the