objection can be lodged again in Heb. 1: 1, for the period called "these last days" was

over 1,900 years ago.

When Christ was born, Gal. 4: 4 declares that it was the fullness of time. We must

avoid the error of introducing truth that belongs to another dispensation to confuse the

teaching of earlier revelations. Paul's prison ministry is, so far as time is concerned, a

parenthesis. During the Acts period the coming of the Lord was expected to take place

during the lifetime of the believer then living. Peter had no difficulty when he joined

together the "blood and fire and pillars of smoke" that have not yet come with the

Pentecostal gifts that are long past. Moreover, the objection to the application of the

sunteleia of the ages to the time of the Offering of Christ robs the passage of another vital

connection, viz., the Day of Atonement.

The Day of Atonement, like the feast of sunteleia, took place in the seventh month,

after the interval that provides a typical anticipation of the parenthesis that has actually

come. Yet at the time of writing the apostle finds no difficulty in speaking of Christ's

Sacrifice in the terms of the Day of Atonement. The condition of things during the Acts

is likened to the time when the high priest had entered into the holiest of all, during which

time the people waited for his second appearing, when they were assured of forgiveness

and acceptance. The fact that this second appearing did not take place, that Israel's

forgiveness and acceptance is deferred, that it was all anticipated, deferment as well, in

the plan of the feasts of Lev. 23:, does not alter the teaching of Heb. 9: A somewhat

similar expression occurs in I Cor. 10: 11, "They are written for our admonition, unto

whom the ends of the ages have reached" (ta tele ton aionon).

The typical happenings to Israel in the wilderness foreshadowed the state of things

that would be true at the end, and the Corinthians were living at the time of the end, for

so the Scripture of their calling and dispensation declares. The Jews divided all time into

three great ages: (1) Before the law; (2) Under the law; (3) After the law. The age

after the law they naturally thought of as the Millennium, not knowing that the elective

period, when Gentiles were being called, must also be reckoned with.

What are we to understand by this expression? It is usually taken to mean just what

the A.V. says. The word "to put away" in the original is athetesis from atheteo. Let us

examine the usage of these words; we shall then have positive evidence, and moreover

the reader will be made independent of the opinions of others.