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No.8.
The Veil of "Undispensational" Truth.
pp. 37 - 40
The figure of the veil, as we have seen, is carried on into the conclusion of II Cor. 3:,
the words `open face' being literally `unveiled face'. We now turn our attention to the
sequel in chapter 4: 3, 4:
"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of
Christ . . . . . should shine unto them."
Let us consider this just as it stands. The `lost' evidently are unbelievers, to whom the
gospel is hid. So far we can travel with the A.V. without difficulty. When, however we
continue, and read "In whom" we must of necessity understand this of the unbelievers
who are lost, but when we continue our reading the difficulty of making sense of the
passage increases. "To them that are lost, IN whom . . . . . the minds of them which
believe not".
The word translated "lost" is apollumi, and is used not only in I Cor. 1: 18 and
II Cor. 2: 15 but in such passages as John 3: 16.
This same word apollumi is used of the passing away of the present creation, `they
shall perish' (Heb. 1: 11) which `waxes old'. This in its turn prefigures the passing away
of the Old Covenant, for similar language is used of both:
"In that He saith, a New Covenant, He hath made the first old. Now that which
decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away" (Heb. 8: 13).
So we see that the word `perish' can be used of a system as well as of persons under
that system. We will keep that thought in mind while we proceed. We have already said
that the two words `hid' in II Cor. 4: 3 are the translation of kalupto `to be veiled',
which translation we find in the R.V. Now a veil can be `over' a face, or `upon' a heart
(II Cor. 3: 13, 15), and it is in this same context that we read the words "But their minds
were blinded (or hardened)". This blinding or hardening of the mind is the effect
produced by the veil, and light will only drawn upon them when that veil is `done away'
(II Cor. 3: 14).
Katargeo, the word translated `done away' is used four times in this chapter, thus:
"But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that
the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his
countenance; WHICH GLORY WAS TO BE DONE AWAY . . . . .
For if not that which is DONE AWAY was glorious, . . . . .
And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not
stedfastly look to the end OF THAT WHICH IS ABOLISHED:
But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away
in the reading of the Old Covenant, which veil is DONE AWAY IN CHRIST"
(II Cor. 3: 7, 11, 13, 14).