Schisma, the word translated "rent" in Matt. 9: 16 is from schizo which is used of the

veil of the Temple and of the rocks that were "rent" at the time of the Saviour's death and

Two words translated "new" have been mentioned.  One agnaphos refers to the

work of a "fuller", who smoothes a cloth by carding. The work of a fuller also includes

the washing and scouring process in which fuller's earth or fuller's sope (Mal. 3: 2;

Mark 9: 3) is employed. A piece of cloth thus treated loses its original harshness. The

whole process of the ages is set forth under the symbol of the work of a fuller, who by

beating and by bleaching at length produces a material which is the acme of human

attainment, for when the Scriptures would describe the excellent glory of the Lord, His

garments are said to have been "exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller on earth could

white them" (Mark 9: 3). So too the effect upon Israel of the Second Coming is likened

to "a refiner's fire and like fuller's sope". The other word translated "new" is kainos and

has the meaning of "fresh as opposed to old", "new, different from the former", and as a

compound, the meaning "to renew". It is this word that is used when speaking of the

New Covenant, the new creation, the new man, and the new heaven and earth. We shall

have to take this into account when we are developing the meaning and purpose of the

Fullness. Job 14: 12 reds "Till the heavens be no more" which in the Septuagint reads

"Till the heavens are unsewn". The bearing of this upon the argument of II Pet. 3:, the

present firmament and the fullness will appear more clearly as we proceed.

In the vision of Ezekiel, recorded in the opening chapters of his prophecy, the prophet

saw the living creature which he afterward identified with the cherubim (Ezek. 10: 20).

Those not only had the four faces, namely that of a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle

(Ezek. 1: 10) but were associated with dreadful rings and wheels, and among other things

it was noted "as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel" (Ezek. 1: 16). This element of

complication, one wheel within another, seems to be a reflection of the way in which

one dispensation encloses another, so that between the annunciation of the opening phase

of the purpose and the attainment of its purpose and goal, a great gap intervenes which is

filled by another and yet another succeeding dispensation until in the "fullness" of time

Christ came (Gal. 4: 4) born of a woman, with a view to the fullness of the seasons

(Eph. 1: 10), when He in Whom all the fullness dwells (Col. 1: 19) shall bring the purpose

of the ages to its blessed consummation. In harmony with the fact that this purpose is

redemptive in character, various companies of the redeemed during the ages have been

associated with the word "fullness", even the earth itself and its fullness, being linked

with the glory of the Lord (Isa. 6: 3 margin). The outrunning of the purpose of the ages

therefore can be represented (very crudely it is true) thus: